AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Arsenal FC, as you must be aware was the first ever South England football club to become a part of The Football League in the year 1893. They made their way into the First Division in 1904 and have scored the second-most number of points since then. The club has been relegated only on one …
By Tony Attwood Lines for Arsenal In the 1930s the notion of team rotation was not known, and indeed clubs could be fined for not fielding their strongest XI in a league game. Meanwhile there was no time off for FA Cup matches save for the third round when everyone was involved. The Cup games …
By Tony Attwood Each pre-season seems to have its own memories and special event. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes outrageous. But never more outrageous than the ravings of press and the Scottish FA against Eduardo, in the Champions League preliminary round tie against Celtic. Technically this wasn’t pre-season at all, as the league had …
Read More “2009 pre-season: The disgraceful exhibition of the media and Uefa against Eduardo”
By Tony Attwood In association with some colleagues and friends I am looking to gather together all the resources I can find about Arsenal in the 1970s. It would include things like A year by year analysis with brief report on each match, programme covers, league tables, player profiles, lots of photos of matches, newspaper …
Read More “Do you have a scrapbook or files or information about Arsenal in the 1970s”
By Tony Attwood There are players you can’t recall at all, players you half remember, players you rather like, and legends. Jack Kelsey is in the final group. He played for Arsenal’s first team from 1950 until 1962, winning just one medal – the league in 1953. And yet he is a name that anyone …
Read More “Star players don’t come to Arsenal, because Arsenal are straight.”
Arsenal History and Untold Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal by Tony Attwood In the last two articles in this series we have looked at the league campaign in 2002/3 – the frustration of being top of the league by five points and then slipping away, the awful defeat against Leeds, the wonder goal of Henry against …
Untold Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal By Tony Attwood We finished 2002 with two wins and two draws, and continued this short unbeaten run in the league until 15 March when we lost away 2-0 to Blackburn. The run itself, totalling 11 games, had given some hope, and we put together another short run after that …
Read More “The amazing start of the 49 games unbeaten. Season 2002/3 part 2”
By Tony Attwood After numerous delays and after months of being side-tracked by other issues I am finally finding the time to complete the book on Woolwich Arsenal. The book is called WOOLWICH ARSENAL: THE CLUB THAT CHANGED FOOTBALL, we have a publisher, and I am hopeful it will be published at the end of …
Read More “Are you related to a player, manager, official or supporter of Woolwich Arsenal FC?”
by Tony Attwood I have mentioned already that the start of the 21st century saw the start of serious doubts about referees where bizarre decisions started to cost us games – not least in the cup final of last season against Liverpool. 2001 continued the theme and again we looked at Liverpool as the team …
Read More “Wenger in 2001/2: the violence of Old Trafford and the start of the maiming era”
By Gf60 The memories flooded back after that 1-0 win against Stoke. The last 1-0 home win against them that I can remember happened nearly 40 years ago. And that was the start of something very special. Not that that week had started off well. A Monday night kick off and a train trip up …
Arsenal in the 70s By Ian Brookes I first stared to go regularly to Arsenal when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I don’t actually recall my very first game, it just seems to be that I have been watching Arsenal for so long and it’s what I do. Sadly the day it …
Read More “Arsenal in the 70s – my first footballing memories”
By Tony Attwood The Arsenal History site has so far started to record three areas of Arsenal History… 1. What happened to Arsenal 100 years ago 2. Supporters’ memories of their first ever time seeing Arsenal live. 3. Special topics (in which we have covered such issues as the rivalry with Tottenham, Arsenal in wartime, …
Read More “Arsenal History Project records your funniest, and worst, moments as an away supporter”
My First Arsenal match live Daniel Clark I remember my first Arsenal match- to use an old phrase- as if it were yesterday though mainly due to the build up of the actual game itself. It was 7 years ago when I was at the tender age of 9 and it was my dad and …
Read More “The train is evacuated, the taxi takes us to the wrong ground… its my first game.”
By Andy Barnett, Kent Both sides of the family were staunch Arsenal fans, eminating from the original Woolwich Arsenal days, so I was born a gooner. My first ever game was at Highbury on a freezing Saturday afternoon in October 1972. We played Man City, in what turned out to be a very dull 0 …
Read More “Man City; it’s freezing; 0-0; I loved every second”
MY FIRST TIME by Lucas On April 1st 1972 Arsenal were due to play Nottingham Forest at home. Forest had been a poor side for a few years, but this season they were particularly dire and bound for relegation. Now although Arsenal had been experiencing an up and down post-double season this was a real …
Read More “Arsenal v Forest 1972: my first time of seeing Arsenal live”
By Bernie Briffa, Essex It was August 23rd 1975 and an excited 10 year old hadn’t slept a wink the previous night. Why? Because this day, after many months of pleading was to be my first trip to watch my beloved Gunners live. My uncle who was visiting from Malta was to be my chaperone. …
Read More “We lose to Stoke, but we avoid relegation – my first season with Arsenal”
By Jack Staniforth I guess it must have been sometime in 1947 that I first visited Highbury although what the occasion was I can`t remember, sixty three years is a long time. My first memory however is still very vivid in my mind, April 3rd 1948 versus Sunderland (I think). The reason I remember the …
By Gfor60 At just under 5 years old, my first game came thanks to my grand-parents, family and aunts and uncles who had organized a knees up in Southend. Up to this point, my knowledge of football was confined to my gran’s “Up the Lillywhites…best football team in London.” (Interesting how Spuds don’t change?) But …
Read More ““That’s yer Christmas present, yer little Arsenal ****.””
Are you superstitious? by Frederick James McGregor I went to my first game at Highbury in 1998 vs West Ham, it was on a Boxing Day and Ian Wright had transferred to West Ham 6 months earlier. I was devastated, he was my favourite player. I was only 12 years old at that time and …
This site is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. By Walter Broeckx, Belgium. It was February 1979 when we came to London with our …
Read More “The refuse collectors were on strike, there was punk music in the air”
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————- Aged 16, I …
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————– The first time …
Read More “I’m cold, I’m six years old, and the warmth of a flask of stewed tea is long gone”
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————– My First and …
By Tony Attwood I asked yesterday if anyone could send me some memories of their first time watching Arsenal live. Thanks to everyone who did this – I will try and publish some shortly although I am about to go on holiday, so there might be a delay. I also said I would write up …
As part of the AISA Arsenal History Project I am starting to collect reminiscences about Arsenal. There will be quite a bit to the project over time (at least I hope there will – although it depends on people’s responses) – and this is just one of the early stages. What I want to collect …
Read More “Could you write a few lines about the first time you saw Arsenal live?”
