AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here One of the factors that I have reported on many times while looking into the history of the Woolwich Arsenal players is how quickly many of the players moved on. As far as I can see only one of the players who started the very first …
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood, with enormous support and additional research from Andy Kelly There’s general agreement that the club that became Arsenal was formed in December 1886, 124 years ago. Most histories of the club give details of several men who played a leading role in the …
Read More “124 years on let’s celebrate Jack Humble: the founding father of Arsenal FC”
1911/12 1st round. Jan 13th. Bolton Wanderers Away. Lost 0-1 Crowd 24615 A disappointing result, having drawn with Bolton in the league earlier in the season, and beating them at home in the return match later. But Bolton had cup history, getting to the final in 1894 and in 1904. They also held the record …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup – the final years”
1910-11 1st round. Jan 14th. Clapton Orient. Away. Abandoned at 1-0 Why was the game abandoned on 45 minutes? The most likely cause in London 1911 was fog. I await confirmation from the usual sources! The crowd was not recorded in my normal source. It should be made clear from the start that this was …
1909/10 If you know your Arsenal history you’ll know this is the season when Arsenal went bust, and were ultimately rescued in the summer of 1910 by Henry Norris – the man instrumental in building the modern club. What I am trying to do here is show the context of the club-defining events from 1909/10 …
1908/09 1st round. Jan 16th. Croydon Common (away). Drew 1-1 Crowd 20,000 The Arsenal handbook that I am using as a guide to these matches has this game played at “Crystal Palace by arrangement,” which is a rather interesting comment. Where there is now the National Sports Centre there once was the home of the …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup: playing at the final stadium 1908/09”
Until the point we have covered so far in this FA Cup review, Woolwich Arsenal had been in a period of modest but steady growth. From a seemingly endless period of hardly being able to crawl out of the preliminary rounds through a period of messing around in the first round or two of the …
1st round. Jan 12th. Grimsby Town (away). Drew 1-1 Crowd 10,000 Grimsby Town was formed in 1878 – strange how the date of founding a club has no relevance to subsequent success. This was a typical story: members of the cricket club wanted to form a football club to occupy the empty winter. Here’s one …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the Cup 1906/7. Semis again!”
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here 1905/6 1st round. Jan 13th. West Ham United (home). Drew 1-1 Crowd 18,000 This was the first ever first team meeting with West Ham United. West Ham started as Thames Ironworks in 1895 which itself was formed out of Old Castle Swifts F.C. The Ironworks was …
Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Ticket available for Wednesday night’s Euro match – see below 1904/5 1st round. Feb 4. Bristol City (home). Drew 0-0 Crowd 25,000 Having played Bristol Rovers in the previous season, and having been now permanently excused the preliminary rounds, Woolwich Arsenal got Bristol City at home in the first round …
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here 1903/4 Final Supplementary round. Dec 12. Bristol Rovers (away). Drew 1-1 Crowd 14,000 By this season what I am calling the Final Supplementary Round was called in some quarters the sixth round. The teams entering at this stage were Manchester United, Bristol City, Preston North End, …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the cup 1903/4. Arsenal and Norris meet for the first time.”
1902/3 Final Supplementary round. Dec 13. Brentford (away). Drew 1-1 Crowd 7,000 Brentford Football Club was founded in 1889 as an offshoot of the local rowing club, although they took a while to work out if it was Association or Rugby football they were playing. They played the first association game on 23rd November 1889, …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the Cup 1902/3: one of the great shocks”
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here After finally getting into the second round proper of the FA Cup in 1901 Arsenal never again had to play in a game before the Final Supplementary Round, held normally in mid-December. They made heavy weather of that round, but did manage to progress each year, …
Read More “Were Luton a pro football team before Arsenal? Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup 1901/2”
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here 1898/9 1st round proper. Jan 28. Derby County (home). Lost 0-6 Crowd 20,000 Another attempt at breaking past the first round barrier without success. We were excused the preliminary rounds, presumably on the basis of sauntering through once again last year, but came down with a …
By Tony Attwood 1897/98 Having failed to make progress from the qualifying rounds in 1896/7 it is not surprising that Woolwich Arsenal were told to qualify again in 1897/8. This time the rounds avoided the “Final Supplementary Round” and Arsenal entered in the 3rd qualifying round, knowing that three victories would get them through. 3rd …
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”
