AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood After the successful run from the first preliminary round to the first round proper in 1893/4, Woolwich Arsenal, now established in the league and having secured a decent mid-table position in their first league season, were given a bye in 1894/5, and so entered in the first round proper. There were 32 …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup 2: 1894/5 to 1896/7”
By Tony Attwood I do this with great trepidation, knowing that I am going to be shown up to be quite wrong, on all sorts of details. But without writing it up, I will never know. I am starting with Woolwich Arsenal’s first season in the Cup, although Royal Arsenal played in the Cup from …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup: an attempted summary – 1893/4”
By Tony Attwood Woolwich Arsenal are often called London’s first professional team. Technically at the start they were Kent’s first pro-team, but people linked Woolwich Arsenal with London and they were the first professional team in the south. But after joining the Football League for the 1893/4 season, other teams decided to try and …
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal This article was amended (by one word!) on 5 December 2013) By Tony Attwood On Untold Arsenal today 22 November 2010, a very irate fan (following the defeat to Tottenham) posted a whole series of comments which basically said that he had been supporting Arsenal for a very long time and …
Read More “Arsenal doing well, or going downhill? Sometimes it is hard to decide”
ESPN up their anti-Arsenal propaganda By Tony Attwood ESPN’s distaste for Arsenal was chronicled on Untold Arsenal last year when the station got the rights to show Everton v Arsenal. They packed the studio and gantry with Everton supporters and then, as Arsenal sauntered to their 1-6 victory, spent much of the match showing pictures …
Read More “ESPN up their anti-Arsenal propaganda, but add a few more quotes”
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood This is a momentous season for Tottenham Hotspur and as we approach the home game with our nearest rivals, and as such it is only right that we should give space to the celebrations that will now follow. For this is a big …
Read More “Tottenham fans prepare to celebrate major anniversary at Arsenal this week”
By Tony Attwood Having completed my short analysis of Woolwich Arsenal’s league results in the last article, I began to wonder what Tottenham’s results were like over the same period. No particular reason – I just thought it would be interesting. In fact it turned out to be more than interesting. Here’s the chart. After …
Read More “Did Tottenham Hotspur bribe their way into the Football League?”
Woolwich Arsenal Year by Year – the record Notes: The year is the second year of the season, thus 1894 is 1893/4 The red figures in the position column reflect the best ever for the club. Points, 2 for a win, 1 for a draw. Woolwich Arsenal became The Arsenal towards the end of the …
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood The allegation that Arsenal is a franchised club is one that has been thrown around by our noisy neighbours ever since we moved to Highbury in 1913 – although to be fair I don’t think the word “franchise” was used until much later. …
Arsenal History on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader you will have got used to the fact that I write a piece about some aspect of Arsenal’s history, and then Andy comes up with the facts, which, if I am very lucky, suggest I am …
Read More “The decline, fall and re-birth of Woolwich Arsenal FC”
Arsenal History on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood Just how big a club was Woolwich Arsenal? As we know, Woolwich Arsenal did not win anything. The club got promotion from the first divsion by coming second, and got to two FA Cup semi-finals, but nothing more. So, was Woolwich Arsenal …
Read More “100 years ago Arsenal went bust. But it wasn’t because of small crowds.”
Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Arsenal History on Twitter @UntoldArsenal ————————– By Tony Attwood Donald Slade is the final member of the team that played the last ever game under the name Woolwich Arsenal FC. Slade is one of those few players whose lives at other clubs is well documented but whose time at Arsenal …
Read More “Arsenal’s Donald Slade: More questions than answers where Norris is involved!”
By Tony Attwood John Patrick “Pat” Flanagan was born in 1891 in Preston, Lancashire. In football Pat Flanagan is a man who has had his name besmirched by the placing on the internet of a wholly false story about him which suggests that in the relegation year of 1912/13 he scored only two goals and …
Read More “John “Pat” Flanagan: a name besmirched by a false story”
By Tony Attwood This is part of a series of articles about the players who played in the very last Woolwich Arsenal FC game in 1913 at Highbury. A full list of the team is at the end. Alex Graham was born in Hurlford, Ayrshire on 11 July 1890 and started playing for local his …
Read More “Alex Graham: a hero of the early years at Highbury”
By Tony Attwood Robert William Benson, known as “Bob” was born in Whitehaven in Cumbria on 9 February 1883. His first club is recorded as Shankhouse of the Northern Alliance, and then Shalwell (a district near Newcastle – but I can find no record of the club), and Wikipedia suggests that at the same time …
Read More “Bob Benson, Arsenal player with a great sense of humour, who died playing for the club.”
by Tony Attwood I am breaking off from the series of articles on the very last Woolwich Arsenal match because I have received really interesting information from the Norwich supporters site “Sing Up The River End!” run by Andrew Harrison. If you are an avid follower, you will know that we’ve determined that the name …
By Tony Attwood Joe Lievesley was born Staveley, (although which Staveley I am not sure) on 25 July 1883 and died on 18 October 1941. He played in goal for Poolsbrook United, Sheffield United, and Woolwich Arsenal One of the first records we have of him playing was in an FA Cup first round replay …
Read More “Joseph Lievesley: the keeper for the first season at Highbury”
By Tony Attwood I am in the process of writing a book on the early Arsenal, correcting the mistakes of earlier publications, filling in the gaps, and hopefully revealing much more than previous volumes about the daily lives of the players and the supporters of the club. In this venture I am being increasingly assisted …
By Tony Attwood The 1880s was an era of strikes – indeed it was an era that carried on all the way to the first world war. The TUC had been formed in 1868 and miners, girls who make matchboxes, gas workers, dock workers and many more trades saw strike action happening… The unskilled workers …
Read More “To know the origins of Arsenal you must know about life in 1886”
By Tony Attwood In the last article I tried to upset the applecart by investigating the details of Arsenal’s birth as Dial Square, and most particularly its first match on the Isle of Dogs. In doing that I ventured into a world that is rarely seen in football histories – a view of what the …
Read More “Arsenal was born in 1886. What sort of world did this fragile child of football enter?”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal were founded in 1886 and played their first match against Eastern Wanderers on the Isle of Dogs. You knew that, of course. But are you quite sure that is right? There has already been an article about the founding fathers on this site in the series on the first managers and …
Read More “Dial Square FC did not play its first match on the Isle of Dogs. The evidence.”
This article continues from the previous page, with the text of a newspaper column concerning the very last game Woolwich Arsenal played at Plumstead. Once the game was over, the kit was packed, and the club headed for Highbury. There’s a brief discussion as to why it was so necessary, at the end of the …
Read More “The last tango in Plumstead: Arsenal’s final game part 2”
This is a reprint of the newspaper report of the last ever match played by Woolwich Arsenal at Plumstead. I am deeply grateful to Andy Kelly for providing this. This is the first half of the report. The rest will follow shortly. Woolwich Arsenal – the index Untold Arsenal – Making the Arsenal – the …
Read More “Arsenal: the final farewell. Newspaper report on the last ever game at the Manor”
By Tony Attwood This is the final article in the series that traces the history of the 11 players who took part in the final Woolwich Arsenal game at Plumstead, against Middlesbrough on 26 April 1913. The game was a 1-1 draw in front of the worst crowd of the season – 3000. Details of …
Read More “George Burrell and the full team of the final match in Plumstead”
Looking at the record one might think that Archibald Devine was a player who could not settle! Archibald F Devine was born in Lochore, Fife, on 2 April 1887 and started out playing Scottish junior (ie non-league) football, before moving into the league. For him, changing clubs was what it was all about. He wasn’t …
Read More “Archibald Devine; 14 transfers; 11 clubs, 1 cap, 1 cup winner’s medal”
