AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Ian James Robert Allinson was born 1 October 1957 in Hitchin and played over 100 games for Arsenal between 1983 and 1987. Of these he had 60 starts to league matches and came on 23 times as a sub in league games scoring 16 goals. Although he only played 60 league games for Arsenal he has …
Read More “Ian Allinson; hero of the league cup, and recipient of administrative cock-ups”
Here is just a selection of events relating to Tottenham in September, taken from the Anniversary archives. 1889 21 September 1889: Arsenal beat Tottenham 10-1 in a friendly 1922 23 September 1922: Tottenham 1 Arsenal 2, FA warn Tottenham about crowd violence 1931 10 September 1931: Jimmy Brain sold to Tottenham for £2,500 1949 13 …
By Tony Attwood Geoffrey Colin Barnett was born on 16 October 1946 in Northwich,Cheshire. He is rather unusual as a footballer in history in that although he played in a relatively recent era no one seems to know what he did in later life. What we do know is that Geoff Barnett started out with …
by Tony Attwood It sounds exceedingly odd I know but it is quite true. Arsenal once played Liverpool in Hornsey. The occasion was 25 February 1895, and the match was a friendly and it really as played on the ground of Crouch End FC in Hornsey. Better still the Crouch End club is still going …
Today we play Southampton in the league cup. Here’s a look back to some other events involving Arsenal and Southampton in the late summer of previous years. August 1947 11 August 1947: Dan Roper signs from Southampton (See background article here) 1992 21 August 1992: Perry Groves sold to Southampton for £750,000. 1997 23 August …
Read More “Arsenal and Southampton in late summer – a historical review”
I’ve done a review of 1926/7 as part of the series that looked at Chapman’s life and work at Arsenal year by year. But here’s a chance to focus on one moment in that season, thanks to the publication of a newspaper report on the excellent web site “Arsenal on this day”. Here’s a bit …
By Tony Attwood Arsenal won the league in 1953, securing the championship on the last game of the season. The previous season we’d been losing FA Cup Finalists, and since winning the league in 1948 in spectacular style, and the 1950 FA Cup, we’d always been considered one of the top teams, ready to do …
Read More “1958/9 Tottenham 1 Arsenal 4 and the championship is in sight”
by Tony Attwood In what is becoming a bit of a series, I’m selecting a few events involved this weekend’s opponents that took place in the early part of the season. It gives us a chance to remember the last of the 49, as much as anything else. The Prelude… 1952 23 August 1952: Arsenal …
By Tony Attwood Samson Haden, appears to have been known as Sammy (which is how both Charlie Buchan and Bernard Joy refer to him) although for some reason Wikipedia want to call him Sam – as does one of the Peterborough United web sites I’ve consulted. He was born in Royston, Barnsley on 17 July …
Read More “Sammy Haden: the winger who crossed for Buchan’s first goal”
George Wood was born 26 September 1952 in Douglas in Lanarkshire and played as a goal keeper for Arsenal between 1980 and 1983. The story is that at Lanark Grammar he was an outfield player but his PE teacher converted him to goalkeeping duties. He went on to play junior (ie non-league – the use of the …
The Prelims 2003 31 August 2003: The Times newspaper report of a league match between Arsenal and Man City says it contained “the worst 45 minutes [by Arsenal] that any of their fans could remember”. Man City 1 Arsenal 2. It was the 4th league match of the unbeaten season, but that’s the Times for you. …
Read More “Man City in September: the historical preview of this weekend’s game”
By Tony Attwood Andrew Young, generally known as Andy was born in Darlington on 17 September 1896 and died in 1964 (exact date unknown.) He is now largely ignored by Arsenal historians and doesn’t currently merit even a page on Wiki. He was a centre forward and half back and played originally for Blyth Spartans …
Read More “Andy Young, Bob Turnbull and the chaotic but amazing 1922/3 season”
Arthur Hutchins is one of the players for whom there is some information but not too much. This is the main time line I have, which at least seems to go a little further than anyone else has managed: 15 September 1890: Arthur Hutchins born 2 September 1916: Debut for Arthur Hutchins in wartime match …
Think of 1988/9 and you think of the last game of the season. (Arsenal won the title in the dying seconds at Liverpool, in case your memory is slipping!). It was the first time Arsenal won the league in 18 years, and the first time the League had not been won by Everton or Liverpool …
John Griffith Roberts was born 11 September 1946) and was one of the members of the first Double team in 1970/71 as well as gaining 22 caps for Wales. He died on 4 January 2016 John was born in Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taff and played initially for Abercynon Athletic while also working as a railway fireman. He moved to …
. James Bigden was born in the West Ham region of London in 1880 and played first for Gravesend United before joining West Ham in 1901 (sorry I don’t have the date), with whom he was celebrated as a key player, making 91 appearances and scoring 5 goals. West Ham at the time were a …
by Tony Attwood The further this history of Arsenal develops the more we come across players whose life is a mystery. Sometimes with players from the 19th century luck can lead one on to a newspaper cutting, a remembrance by a relative who happens to know more, or wsomething along those lines but more and …
