AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
As we build up to Tottenham v Arsenal in 2010, so 100 years ago fans were getting ready for the first ever Tottenham v Arsenal league game at Tottenham, played on 15 April 1910. The importance of the match could not be overplayed. A draw for Arsenal would see them more or less safe in …
Read More “What’s Woolwich like: thinking back to our origins”
Woolwich Arsenal 1, Aston Villa 0. Played early monday evening, in front of a crowd of just 8000. And certain sectors of the footballing establishment went beserk. If you have read the report of the game from two days before when Woolwich Arsenal drew with low-lying Bury, you’ll know that it left the table looking …
Read More “11th April 1910. The football world cries “cheat” as Arsenal beat the champions”
Woolwich Arsenal 0 Bury 0 changed the picture at the foot of the table. Bury……………………… Played 34 Points 29 Middlesbrough……… Played 34 Points 28 Woolwich Arsenal…….Played35 Points 28 Tottenham Hotspur…..Played 34 Points 27 Bristol City………………Played 34 Points 27 —————————————————————- Chelsea……………………Played 35 Points 27 Bolton Wanderers……..Played 35 Points 22 . Total number of games to be …
Read More “April 9th, 1910. Arsenal teetering on the edge 100 years ago”
100 years ago to the day, Arsenal revealed just how much money was needed to buy the club and pay off the debts in an honourable fashion (rather than go into administration and leave everyone out of pocket – in the style that Leeds did a few years back). Arsenal’s debt was clocked in at …
Tottenham Hotspur: the dark history How an underhand strategy and a desire to rewrite history has transformed how people think about football in London. To begin, somewhere near the start, and take you into an interesting world of politics and sport unlike anything you’d see today in football, poker online or any professional sport… In …
100 years ago we were desperate to get out of relegation trouble. The club had looked doomed in March 1910, but then a victory away at Chelsea on Bank Holiday Monday, and a draw at Bristol City (two other clubs near the bottom) made it possible for us to get out. Next up was Bury. …
Read More “As Woolwich Arsenal try to escape relegation we meet Bury”
. On 2nd April 2010 Woolwich Arsenal went to Bristol, to play City, and came back with a 1-0 victory. McGibbon, the hero of the previous weekend (which was Easter, 100 years back) was not playing, presumably with an injury picked up at Chelsea. The goal was scored by Lawrence, the inside left, playing number …
Read More “100 years ago we also won 1-0, but we were after something very different”
Bristol City away So having given ourselves a lifeline by beating Chelsea away, and with just a handful of games to go, Woolwich Arsenal had to take on Bristol City. As an away trip this was a rarity since leaving aside the two London clubs Arsenal’s away games were long distance affairs to the north. …
Charles Edward McGibbon was a sergeant with the Royal Engineers who played football for Royal Artillery, and then signed for Woolwich Arsenal. However he couldn’t get into the first team so went on loan to Eltham and then to New Brompton (now Gillingham) of the Southern League where he became their top scorer. McGibbon then …
Read More “Arsenal’s greatest forgotten hero: the man who saved our club”
28th March 1910. 100 years ago. On that day Woolwich Arsenal played Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. I don’t think anyone had invented the phrase “four pointer” at that time, but that is exactly what it was. Chelsea had had a good Easter programme and had pulled ahead of Woolwich Arsenal – whose dreadful run had …
Read More “The day the modern Arsenal was born – and the club doesn’t even know when it was!”
100 years ago London had three Division I clubs – Woolwich Arsenal (who were actually in a small town in Kent), Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. All three were having a tough time of it, and the only things that were keeping all three from being relegated were a) In those days, only two clubs went …
Read More “London football in crisis: but only two can go down. Chelsea v Arsenal 1910.”
. On Thursday March 24th 1910, Woolwich Arsenal players travelled 285 miles to Newcastle on Tyne. On Friday March 25th 1910 (Good Friday), they played Newcastle and drew 1-1 That same day they took a train back to London – another 285 miles. On Saturday March 26th 1910, the self same players (with just one …
Read More “285 miles and a match on friday; defeat on saturday”
. The Wednesday, whom Woolwich Arsenal played on Easter Saturday, 1910, came out of The Wednesday Cricket Club – a club which, as we can all guess, played cricket on a Wednesday. They turned to football to have something to do in the winter. They predated the Arsenal by 19 years – although they started …
. And guess what – we drew 1-1 in front of a crowd of 20,000. Wholly unexpected, but a point is a point, (especially in the days of only two points for a win) and it kept us out of the relegation zone. As I mentioned before, Woolwich Arsenal had to play on Good Friday …
Just about the longest journey that there was in football took place 100 years ago today, as Woolwich Arsenal set out from Kent, into London, across London, and then on the train to Newcastle. Arsenal v Newcastle in the FA Cup semi final 1906 Newcastle United started out in 1881, as a spin off of …
Easter 100 years ago ran from 25th March (Good Friday) through to 28th March (Easter Monday). Nothing spectacular there you might say, and I would thoroughly agree with you, save for the fact of the fixture list. For Woolwich Arsenal it read… 25th March – Newcastle United away 26th March – The Wednesday home 28th March …
Read More “Three matches in four days: what would today’s players say to that”
Today’s sponsor: ArsenalGifts.com is a one-stop shop for all things Arsenal related, from replica kits and retro shirts through to Emirates Stadium tours, memorabilia and novelty items. Visit http://www.arsenalgifts.com . The day Tottenham Hotspur tried to Buy Arsenal By the last 10 days of March 1910, the financial position of Woolwich Arsenal had reached breaking …
Oxfam have revealed that the most valuable shares ever left to the charity were shares in the originalArsenal Football Club. The original Woolwich Arsenal shares which were offered for sale to the people of Woolwich and Plumstead by Henry Norris in 1910 are still the shares that are traded now as Arsenal FC. When the …
Read More “Arsenal shares bring thousands of pounds to Oxfam”
Dire and desperate times, playing against an up and coming Bradford City team, in front of a crowd of 14,000. And we won 1-0. I have no idea how we did it, as I have no newspaper report, but we did it. After six games in which we won none and scored just two goals, …
Read More “Arsenal beat Bradford City, Tottenham slip into the relegation zone”
100 years ago Woolwich Arsenal were in desperate straits. One position from the foot of the table, and on the edge of administration. And today 100 years ago they went to Bradford City. Woolwich Arsenal had been formed in 1886 of course – a prime time for the creation of clubs. Bradford City were in …
. One of the amusing sidelines that emerged in researching 1910 in Arsenal’s history was just how far Henry Norris (who bought Woolwich Arsenal) would go to get his view in print. He wrote the programme notes, he wrote in various papers – but that was not enough. In July 1908 Norris was part …
Read More “Henry Norris and his eternal drive for publicity”
. . Arsenal 0 Manchester U 0, 12 March 1910 There’s no public records of this match that I can find – and quite possibly that is just as well. The crowd was a mere 5,000, and it took Woolwich Arsenal to five games without a win. The bottom of the table, after the match, …
Read More “Arsenal may have been bad but they were not as bad as Hull”
It would be wrong to think that large crowds in football are a modern phenomena. Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge was opened in 1905, and although the terraces started crumbling within a matter of weeks, it was proudly proclaimed as holding 80,000. Mind you it was built by Archie Leitch, who was always prone to such exaggeration. …
Arsenal’s darkest hour indeed. For in tracing the history of Arsenal FC 100 years ago we are now at the lowest point. Of course from this moment in history we know that Arsenal very much did survive, although not without a relegation first. But 100 years ago to the day, there was no certainty in …
Arsenal had no game this weekend because they had been knocked out of the cup. The match they should have played was moved to the monday (no hanging about for re-arranged fixture organisation or permission from the police 100 years back). Meanwhile Henry Norris had gone cool on the issue of Woolwich Arsenal, and predicted …
Read More “100 years ago it was cup weekend, and Arsenal had no game”
