In the mid-80s Sutton were beginning to shake off an unwanted reputation as non-league football’s nearly men. Having made it to three Wembley finals in the previous 25 years they lost the FA Amateur Cup Final twice and had also had a FA Trophy runners-up medal.

After being promoted to the Isthmian League in 1986 they were promoted to the Conference and gave the FA Cup a good go in 1988, reaching the third round after dispatching of Aldershot and Peterborough United before bowing out to Middlesbrough.

The next year however, they went one better, but not without the occasional early scare. Sutton took a replay to defeat Walton and Hersham in the fourth qualifying round before beating Dagenham 4-0 and beating Aylesbury United by a single goal.

Their reward for reaching the third round was a tie against Coventry City who had beaten Spurs 3-2 to win the whole darn thing at Wembley only two years earlier at Sutton’s Gander Green Lane.

The cold, blustery conditions that day would prove to be conducive to a ‘potential banana skin’ that we hear so much about at this time of year. Sutton took the game to Coventry right from the start and their rough and ready style was rewarded with the opening goal when captain Tony Rains was gifted with a free header just before half-time.

The Sky Blues’ manager John Sillett must have said something right at the break, as the Division One side drew level seven minutes into the second half thanks to a David Phillips strike.

Instead of succumbing to their top flight opponents Sutton struck back just before the hour mark as brick-layer Matthew Hanlon scored what proved to be the winning goal. Thirty minutes of classic cup-tie action followed and the non-leaguers held on, sparking a full-scale pitch invasion and scenes of jubilation as United joined the select band of non-league clubs that have defeated top flight opposition.

In the next round Sutton had another shot at the big boys, as they were drawn to face Norwich at Carrow Road, but their luck ran out spectacularly and they went down 8-0. Still, they’ll always have Coventry, so take a look at the highlights below and see what else was going on today here.

For years Italian football was the place to be for top international players who flocked to join Serie A clubs in numbers. The stars were glamorous, the football was top notch and there were skills to pay even the heftiest of bills all over the shop. And it all started on this very day in 1898 when the first organised, inter-club football match was played in Italy.

The whole thing would not have been possible without two men: an Englishman named James Richardson Spensley (sadly no relation to the bald former Football Italia host) and an Italian/Swiss named Edoardo Bosio.

The latter man was responsible for importing the beautiful game to Italy after he discovered football while working in London. When he got home he founded Italy’s first club dedicated purely to football, Internazionale Football Club Torino in 1891, which was formed from players drawn from his workplace.

Meanwhile Spensley was a doctor from Stoke Newington in London and had arrived in Italy in 1896 to give medical help to English sailors on the coal ships. Like any good Brit abroad it didn’t take him long to organise a kick about. He joined the Genoa Cricket and Athletics Club and by 1897 had set up the footballing section of the club. He became the first ever football manager in Italy when he held a football training session on April 10, 1897.

It could have all been a bit lonely but for Edoardo Bosio who had been doing similar things over in Turin. On this day in 1898 the Genoa club hosted a friendly match and took on a mixed team made up of players from Internazionale Torino and FBC Torinese. In true Italian style it was a low scoring affair and the visitors won 1-0, despite Spensley’s best efforts in goal as player/manager for Genoa.

By May of the same year an Italian championship was organised which Genoa won, with Spensley again keeping goal. It was all a far cry from Serie A though and was simply a four-team tournament held over the course of one day and watched by approximately 100 spectators.

By 1906 Spensley had retired from playing but he had already won six league titles with Genoa. He was killed in the First World War while trying to save another injured soldier during a battle.

We had this to say on this day last year, but we’ll leave you now with some footage from the commentators at the Milan derby. Eat your heart out Motty…

Simple as that indeed, but perhaps Dave would have been better advised to scoring the goals that would have kept his team in the Premier League.

Dave’s words split opinion at the time but most people could see an element of truth in it - after all, the Cup had been largely annexed by the top four sides for years with no one else getting a look in. Until last year that is, when the FA Cup had one of its best seasons for years with top teams knocked out all over the place and lower league sides progressing to the final stages. Of course in the end ‘Arry’s Portsmouth won it, but the other three teams in the last four were all from the Championship.

One of those teams was Barnsley who had the most memorable cup run of all, even if it did not eventually lead to the trophy. Their magnificent FA Cup season started on this day in 2008 when they took on Blackpool at Oakwell in front of just 8,276 fans.

Despite going a goal behind to a David Fox strike they Tykes battled back to win thanks to late goals from Stephen Foster and Michael Coulson. They were up and running, but no one could have predicted how the South Yorkshire side would light up the competition for neutrals everywhere over the coming months.

At the end of January Jamal Campbell-Ryce scored the only goal as the club beat Southend United away at Roots Hall, but it was February when things started to hot up. The Tykes were drawn away to Liverpool in what looked like a banker home win. Dirk Kuyt put Liverpool ahead on 33 minutes but the second goal would not come and on 57 minutes Stephen Foster equalised to stun the Anfield crowd into silence.

The Reds poured forward to try to get the winner but could not find a way past Luke Steele, the Barnsley goalkeeper who was making his debut in fine fashion. With the clock ticking down it looked like the Tykes had earned a creditable draw to set up a replay at Oakwell but then Barnsley skipper Brian Howard went down in the box under a challenge from Sami Hypia which Matt Le Tissier in the Sky Sports studio felt was a certain penalty. The referee did not give it but Howard won the ball back and as the Liverpool defenders looked on he shot low into the right hand corner of the net to win the game for the South Yorkshire side in dramatic fashion. See the goals here:

It was a famous giant killing: a penniless side struggling near the bottom end of the Championship under rookie manager Simon Davey had stunned the millionaires of Liverpool at Anfield. It was the proudest day for Barnsley since their promotion to the Premiership in 1996, but they weren’t finished yet.

Their prize for the win was to be drawn at home against Fa Cup holders Chelsea. Surely they couldn’t do it again, could they? Well, yes they could is the answer to that. Kayode Odejayi scored the winner in a 1-0 victory over (what was then) the richest club in the world. Oakwell erupted as the club and fans started to think they could go all the way and lift the Cup for the first time since 1912.

After beating two top level Premiership teams it would be a fellow Championship outfit that spoiled the dream when Cardiff City beat the Barnsley heroes in the semi final at Wembley to finally knock them out. Still, it had been one hell of a run.

Have a look at the win over Chelsea below, and have a look here to see which Geordie messiah was resigning in trademark fashion on this day.

When the two sides met at Shrewsbury’s old ground Gay Meadow they were separated by 80 league places, as Everton were riding high at fifth place in the Premiership with their opponents 18th in Division Three. The Shrews had lost their last two games 6-0 and 5-1 to Boston United and Rushden & Diamonds respectively, so the scene was set for the Salopians to either get a right hammering or pull off one of the biggest upsets in recent years.

They opted for the latter.

Everton fielded a side brimming with internationals such as Richard Wright, Lee Carsley, Tommy Gravesen and Tomasz Radzinski and also gave a run out to the their wunderkind Wayne Rooney. What ever became of him? The most recognisable name on the Shrewsbury teamsheet was Nigel Jemson, the former England under-21 striker, most famous for scoring the winning goal the winning goal for Nottingham Forest against Oldham in the 1990 League Cup final.

It was journeyman Jemson, playing for his 15th club, that inspired the Shrews. Shortly before the half-time interval he stuck with a superb free-kick that sailed into Wright’s top corner, after the stopper had already been called into action several times in the first half.

Substitute Niclas Alexandersson looked to have spoiled the party with his equaliser on the hour, but in textbook fairytale style, Jemson scored again in the 89th minute when he headed home Ian Woan’s free-kick.

This left the majority of the 7,800 fans in attendance to begin wild celebrations as their side had pulled off the biggest FA Cup third round shock since Sutton United beat Coventry City in 1989.

The mastermind behind the giantkilling was Shrewsbury manager Kevin Ratcliffe who captained the Toffees to two league titles, an FA Cup win and a Cup Winners’ Cup medal in the 1980s. The game left Ratcliffe scratching his head somewhat, as he said: “If we played like that every week, we wouldn’t only not be struggling at the wrong end of the third division, we wouldn’t even be playing in this division.”

Shrewsbury won’t be making an appearance in this year’s third round, as they were the victims of a cup shock at the hands of Conference North side Blyth Spartans in the first round. Have a gander at that match below and read all about another upset that happened today here. We’ll be back tomorrow to banish those Monday morning blues so don’t go changing.

Before this multimedia explosion the radio was the only place to hear all the day’s scores and today in 1948 the familiar “de dum, de dum, de dum” of BBC Sports Report was heard for the first time.

The show has gone on to become a national institution and has joined the pre-match chicken balti pie as an integral part of the match-day experience for anyone in the country.

The first edition was described as a “new Saturday feature for sportsmen” and was presented by Raymond Glendenning, with a feature about amateurism taking centre stage.

Sports Report became an instant hit, with staggering audience figures of 12 million in the pre-television world. The same formula has held up for over 60 years, with the focus being on delivering information quickly and efficiently. Since 1974 the result have been read out by the distinctive tones of James Alexander Gordon and the programme is also memorable for Stuart Hall’s poetic match descriptions.

Despite this continuity Sports Report has been having to shift the goalposts in recent years. With more games on TV, 5.15 kick-offs and local radio phone-ins eating into Sports Reports audience levels it has had to move with the times and alter their tried and tested formula, but we reckon the British public won’t let it die anytime soon.

Hear that familiar theme and see James Alexander Gordon talking about how he got the gig below and check out what else was going on in the barmy world of football today here.

After 89 goal-less minutes Jimmy Johnstone scored to give Celtic the lead. Some Rangers fans began heading for the exits believing the match was lost but then Ranger’s Colin Stein scored an equaliser in injury time.

The eruption of joy and relief inside the stadium was soon replaced by horror when it became apparent all was not well at one end of the ground where tragedy was unfolding. As hundreds of fans tried to leave the ground the ominously named stairway 13 collapsed, causing a massive pile-up of people with nowhere to go.

One survivor later recounted the event to the BBC. “I was making my way out of the stadium down the stairs when suddenly everything seemed to stop,” he said. “The lads at the back just kept coming forward down the stairs. I went down with the rest of the crowd, being pushed and pulled onto the ground.

“Everyone was struggling to get out, suffocating - it was essentially a fight for survival. After 10 or 15 minutes I was dragged out by a policeman and brought to hospital by ambulance.”

Sixty six people were killed with another 200 injured in the crush.

At first it was believed that Stein’s equaliser may have inadvertently caused the disaster when hundreds of fans rushing back up the stairs after it went in were met head on with those fans who were trying to leave. This theory was later discounted by a public inquiry which ruled that it was simply the large number of people trying to leave at the same time which caused the crush.

The disaster remains the worst in the history of Scottish football and is surpassed only by the Hillsborough tragedy in British football.

It was the second major disaster at Ibrox. The first, on April 5 1902 at a match between Scotland and England was marred when the newly constructed West Tribune Stand collapsed due to heavy rainfall the previous night. Twenty five people died and 517 were injured when they fell up to 40 feet.

See some news footage about the terrible tragedy below. Read about an altogether happier day in Scottish football here, and join us again tomorrow when we will be back with more.

While most people spend new year’s day pondering which ridiculously ambitious resolutions they are going to make (I will learn Mandarin Chinese/stop drinking/learn to play the guitar/etc and so on), others are on tenta hooks every Jan 1st to see if they have been honoured by Her Maj in the New Year’s Honours list.

Sadly, yet again there seems to have been some sort of clerical error and we have missed out (for services to vaguely interesting historical football trivia) but never mind, we’ll just have to hope we finally win the Man Booker prize for this instead. Ok so it’s not technically a “novel” but let’s not quibble over such things.

These days because football is so mainstream the sport’s protagonists are always making it on to the latest Honours Lists, even without achieving very much. How on earth David Beckham and Steven Gerrard can have an OBE and an MBE respectively when the 1966 England team have not all been knighted is a mystery. But it was not always so, and it took many years for football to get it’s collective foot in the Palacial door of Royal gongs.

Today in 1965 Stanley Matthews was celebrating when he became the first footballer to be knighted. He was 49 when he was given the honour but even then he was still playing, by now in his second spell with his hometown club Stoke City, where he had returned to save them from relegation and helped them win the Second Division Championship.

He is the only player to be awarded a knighthood while still playing, and he added it to the many other individual decorations he had been given over his long playing career, including the Ballon d’Or (he was the first ever winner in 1956) and two Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year awards.

He only ever won one playing medal though, the FA Cup in 1953 in the famous ‘Matthews final’. Despite not retiring until he was 50 years old, Matthews said afterwards that he retired “too early” and should have continued.

See an interview with the great man on receiving his knighthood here, and have a look at his legendary skills below. We’ll leave the last word about Sir Stan to another player you might have heard of. “The man who taught us the way football should be played,” - Pele.

Happy New Year all.

Obviously, it didn’t. The planet coped with the date ticking over from 1999 to 2000, but not before Argentine goalkeeper Carlos Roa had retreated to a mountain villa to sit out the end of the world.

Roa was most famous for tending the Argentina goal in the 1998 World Cup and was the ‘keeper that a young Michael Owen scored the wonder goal that announced his name on the world stage past. Back in Argentina though, he is more fondly remembered for saving David Batty’s decisive penalty in the shootout that ended that classic encounter.

After the ‘98 World Cup Roa had another storming season at Real Mallorca and was rumoured to be on his way to the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal. This wasn’t to be as he would take a year off to undergo charitable and religious work as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

When he returned to Spain he refused to discuss a new contract as he had one eye on the pending apocalypse. Maybe his old mate Michael Owen should try that avenue next time Mike Ashley and Joe Kinnear try to get him to sign on at Newcastle.

As the millennium approached Roa retired from the game, gave away all his possessions and retreated to a mountain villa, where he would ‘prepare for the end of the world, in a place where He will provide everything we need.’

Roa sheepishly returned to Spain once the world didn’t end and found himself on the fringes of the Mallorca team, so moved to Albacete Balompie. Tragedy then struck the Argentine as he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. After spending more than a year fighting the disease he received the all clear and joined Argentinean side Olimpo de Bahia Blanca before retiring in 2006.

See Roa in action below and see how the year was ending for Roa’s nemesis Owen here. Whether you’re off to prepare for the end of the world or out on the lash tonight, have a good night and a happy New Year.

Gazza had signed for Rangers earlier that year and was proving to be a hit at Ibrox, not least for his provocative celebrations in an early-season Old Firm clash.

When Rangers took on Hibs in their last game of the year they would romp to a 7-0 win, with Gordon Durie bagging four. As soon as Gazza had noticed that referee Smith had dropped his yellow card on the floor he had on one thing on his mind. With a flourish he booked Smith, much to the amusement of the 44,692 fans from both clubs.

Failing to see the funny side, Smith grabbed his card back and booked the Englishman for dissent. When questioned by Hibs midfielder Joe Tortolano Smith replied: “He might be able to take the f**king piss out of you, but he’s not taking the f**king piss out of me”.

Due to bookings from earlier in the season Gazza was given a two-match ban for his antics, despite the pleas of Gers manager Walter Smith to rescind the booking. Shame on you Dougie.

See the offending incident below and check out which on of Gazza’s England team-mates was putting on his best suit today here.

There are several clubs that have always erred gloriously on the side of unstability, shining like a beacon of chaos and disorder to the rest of the football world. One of these is obviously Newcastle United but another is Manchester City. Always trying to not simply be the other club in Manchester, City have lurched from glory to heroic levels of crisis throughout their history. Indeed it is very fitting that Kevin Keegan chose to manage the club, so closely are their football identities aligned.

Today in 1996 things were looking bad at Maine Road. The club had been relegated from the Premiership in farcical circumstances in 1996 when manager Alan Ball told his players to simply play for time in the last match of the season, wrongly believing a draw was enough to keep them up. It wasn’t and they went down. Former Crystal Palace manager Steve Coppell arrived but famously departed just 33 days later citing the stress of the job. Things were going from farcical to sublimely ridiculous as Phil ‘yes man’ Neal was put in caretaker charge. Soon he had also had enough so today in 1996, former Nottingham Forest manager Frank Clark was given the unenviable job of bringing some order to the never-boring world of Man City. With Asa Hartford having also had a short spell as caretaker boss, Clark became City’s fifth manager of the 1996 season, with half of it still left to run.

Frank did manage to steady the ship and guided the club into the safe waters of mid-table in his first season in charge. By February in the following season however, things had got even worse as the club teetered of the brink of relegation to the third tear. Frank was given the boot in February 1998 and Joe Royle was brought in to try to change things. Clark said: He said: “I feel disappointed for myself, my staff and the supporters for the way it has happened. The club has done what it sees fit. Doing it on the day of a match is not my problem now. But I don’t want to make any excuses. It has been a very difficult season.” One of City’s major shareholders David Makin said: “Everybody is looking at Frank and to be honest so am I. I think his tactics have left a lot to be desired.”

Despite Royle’s arrival yet another relegation followed, making City the first English European trophy winners to be relegated to the third flight.

These days life at City is no less exciting and despite being the richest club in the world, they are still conspiring to achieve failure and spent this Christmas in the bottom three. Only City. And possibly Newcastle.

Have a look at one of their better days below, complete with some Alan Partridge-esq commentary (”Pick that one out! Good night!”), and come back tomorrow when we will be here as usual. Here’s what we told you about on this day last year.

After the massive disappointment of losing out on the most famous title battle in years in 1996, Keegan decided to cheer himself and the Geordie nation up by buying their most famous son: Alan Shearer. A record £15m move in the summer led everyone to believe a major assault on the title would follow. By Christmas however, things were not looking so good. Newcastle were on a bad run having not won for seven league games and also having been knocked out of the League Cup by wannabe rivals Middlesbrough. They were sixth in the table, eight points behind the leaders Liverpool today in 1996 when they took on Tottenham at St James’ Park. The Toon supporters were probably fearing the worst when they turned up given their poor form, but as always with Newcastle and KK, expect the unexpected.

Spurs meanwhile were being characteristically inconsistent under Gerry Francis and sat ninth in the league as they laboured on towards yet another mid-table finish, although Gerry might have been thinking it was a good time to visit St James’ Park.

The first 20 minutes of the match were dire, with David Ginola missing for Newcastle and Chris Armstrong and Darren Anderton (surprise surprise) out for Spurs, the game struggled to get going and nothing happened to get the fans excited.

Typically it fell to Alan Shearer to rouse his team and the crowd. After one chance which flew over the bar, he made sure with his second when he fired in a stunning volley into the top corner under heavy pressure from the Spurs’ defence. They were up and running, and save for one chance for Sheringham moments later, Spurs chances of getting anything from the game were over.

Les Ferdinand soon added a second as the Tottenham defence showed worrying signs of fallibility. Newcastle went in two up at the break, but in typical KK style had no intention of sitting back on their lead.

Shearer could have got a third soon after the restart but his volley flashed wide, as did a header from the big man a few moments later. Spurs were all over the place and suddenly David Batty and Rob Lee had acres of space in the midfield to supply the front men. Ferdinand added a third before Lee decided to go himself and scored a low shot that put the home side 4-0 up.

Soon it was getting ridiculous and Newcastle centre half Phillipe Albert found himself totally unmarked on the left hand side of Spurs box. His shot was not the best but Ian Walker could not save it and the Magpies had a fifth.

Shearer and Rob Lee added the sixth and magnificent seventh goals to cpmplete a rout for the home side that was trademark Keegan. It would not be trademark KK without some dodgy defending and Spurs did manage a consolation goal when Nielsen pulled one back with just minutes left to play. There was still time for a missed chance for Shearer to claim his hat-trick before the referee put Tottenham out of their misery and blew the whistle.

The home fans were jubilant but their usually emotive manager refused to celebrate which was a clue to the mental state of the emotional KK. After just two more matches Keegan shocked Tyneside by resigning, and the KK dream was over. He never did win them any trophies but he was loved by the Toon fans precisely because of days like this.

Have a look at all the goals below and check this out to read about a genuine goal-fest from this day in football history.

In order to safeguard the bigger teams from the drop the Brazilian league had a year earlier introduced a system where teams were relegated on a two-season rolling basis, but Botafogo, most famous for being Garrincha’s former stomping ground, found themselves in danger of the drop.

The Rio club responded by heading to the courtroom, where they complained that Sao Paulo had fielded a player with a false birth certificate. They won their case, and sent down Vasco da Gama instead.

Vasco were next to call in the lawyers, having the decision overturned by the civil courts, but this resulted in a ban from Fifa, who refuse to recognise teams that appeal outside their legal jurisdiction. Confused? Thought so, this makes the Carlos Tevez affair look clear-cut.

This all left the Brazilian federation in a bit of a pickle. Wanting to keep everyone happy, they organised a one-off trophy to replace the 2000 league season. The Copa Joao Havelange was a complicated, lengthy tournament that was open to clubs from the top four divisions.

Sao Caetano had only been established 11 years earlier and after finishing as runner-up in the Second Division that season they made it through to the knock-out stage of the new national championship and eventually reached the final.

Their opponents were, fittingly, none other than the same Vasco da Gama side that had helped create the whole mess in the first place. Led by Brazilian talisman Romario, Vasca played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg today in 2000. The second leg had to be abandoned when a non-fatal crowd crush occurred and Vasco would go on to win the replayed match 3-1.

Sao Caetano had done enough to earn a place in the top flight for the next season and would supersede their 2000 achievements by reaching the final of the 2002 Copa Libertadores, where they would lose out to Paraguay’s Olimpia.

Tragedy struck the Azulao in 2004 when defender Serginho collapsed on the pitch in a game against Sao Paulo and died from a pre-existing heart condition. The club had known about the condition but played him anyway and as a result were docked 24 points and within two seasons they had been relegated back down to the Second Division.

See highlights of Sao Caetano’s Libertadores clash with Olimpia below and see who else was being robbed today here. We’ll be back with some more action tomorrow, so don’t go working too hard.

During the war women’s football had grown in popularity as the nation’s menfolk slugged it out in the trenches in Europe. With the Football League on hold the FA tolerated the game, but began to panic when it’s popularity appeared to be rivalling the men’s game when it got back up and running in 1919.

Dick, Kerr Ladies were the leading lights of the women’s game, led by the first female football superstar, 14-year-old Lily Parr. The club had been formed from a Preston-based munitions factory, when Grace Sibbery, one of the women at the factory, suggested that the females of the company could do better than the men.

A clerk at the factory, Alfred Frankland, agreed and helped form the side. Their first match was a 4-0 win against a team from Arundel Coulthard Foundary on Christmas Day 1917 and drew a crowd of 10,000, raising £200 for a local hospital. The level of skill on show raised many an eyebrow and the team went from strength-to-strength.

The Boxing Day 1920 clash against St Helens Ladies saw 53,000 turn up, with more than 14,000 locked out. Over £3,000 was raised during this charity match for “disabled and unemployed soldiers and sailors”. Dick, Kerr Ladies ran out 4-0 winners and sent the misogynists of the FA into panic.

The FA soon banned women’s football after throwing up some stories about medical danger for the poor dames and some guff about financial mishaps. A Guardian article at the time was equally condescending, claiming that sports such as cricket, lacrosse and hockey were “good enough” for the ladies, as “With these to go at, the most virile young woman might leave Association alone without any great feeling of deprivation.” And that was the view of the leftys!

Amazingly enough, the FA’s ban stood until 1971, as women players had to fight for their rights for more then 50 years. They would get there eventually though and you can see some footage of the planet’s best female footballer below and also check out what other Boxing Day action went on today here. Now get back to sitting on the sofa eating left-overs.

These days Christmas Day is football-less but it was not always so. There was a long tradition of professional football matches being played on the 25th stretching back to the latter part of the 19th century, and often clubs would play a match on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Frequently the fixtures were local derbies so they were regularly the best attended matches of the season with many fans seeing their only match of the year at Christmas a special treat.

By the 1950s however the times they were a-changing and the football fraternity began to get a little bit tired of having to run all over the country playing football instead of scoffing down turkey and Quality Streets and playing charades. The last time a full programme was played on Christmas Day was 1957, although there were matches in 1959 between Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool in Division One and Coventry City and Wrexham in Division Three – and, in the last match of all, Blackpool beat Blackburn 4-2 in a Division One fixture at Bloomfield Road in 1965.

Christmas Day in 1948 saw the first appearance of one of the innovations of the football experience that is still with us today. Fans who arrived at Stamford Bridge to watch the Chelsea match against Portsmouth were the first ever to be able to purchase a matchday programme. It was 16 pages long and cost sixpence (two and a half pence in today’s money) and was an instant hit, although the original creators had no idea it would one day be a vehicle for Ken Bates’ increasingly enraged and incoherent rantings.

The most famous Chrimbletide kick about was of course the unofficial truce between the German and British troops in 1914, which we told you about last year. While that event is one of the most remarkable and heart-warming in human history, spare a thought this Christmas for poor old Gary McAllister. Poor old Gary was born on Christmas Day, but will probably struggle to enjoy his combined birthday and Yuletide celebrations after jolly old Santa look-alike Ken Bates gave him the sack on the weekend. Ho ho ho Ken.

We’ll call it a day there so you can get back rooting around in drawers for batteries and struggling to construct whatever complicated presents were unwrapped this morning.

The club was the football version of magnolia or vanilla ice cream. The fans began to yearn for some excitement or at the very least for something to change. They say be careful what you wish for and never was the phrase more apt.

When Curbs packed up and left Iain Dowie came in to replace him but after more than £10m spent and just 12 disappointing games, Dowie was shown the door by the board. It was one of the shortest ever tenures of a Premiership manager, but his successor was about to beat it.

Dowie’s assistant Leswyn Reed was given the job, much to the chagrin of the fans. He was an unknown outside coaching circles and had an even more undistinguished playing career than Steve McClaren. When it came to coaching though he literally wrote the book on it, having penned The Official FA Guide to Basic Team Coaching . He had also formerly held the job of FA Technical Director following Howard Wilkinson, and had been part of Kevin Keegan’s England set up. What could go wrong?

Well, just about everything as it turned out. Proving there are just some things you cannot get from book learning, Reed was an unmitigated disaster in the top job and the fans and the board were getting anxious.

He even conspired to mastermind a defeat in the League Cup quarter final to League Two side Wycombe Wanderers at The Valley. After a mere 41 days and just one win to his name, Reed was sacked on Christmas Eve 2006 by Charlton chairman Richard ‘Ebeneezer Scrooge’ Murray. One can only presume it was a not such a merry Christmas in the Reed household that year.

His 41-day reign was the shortest ever in Premiership history for a permanent manager and the papers were typically savage as they got into the swing of the season of goodwill to all men when they labelled him “Les Misérables” and “Santa Clueless”.

Alan Pardew, sacked by West Ham just days earlier, was what the Charlton fans found under their Christmas trees as he was chosen to try and save the Addicks from the deadly drop. “We are very fortunate a manager of Alan Pardew’s calibre is available and we have moved very, very quickly to secure his services,” Murray said in a statement.

By now it was too late and the club was relegated at the end of the season, kicking off a downward spiral that so often engulfs clubs that fall out of the Premier League. Still, at least it was a bit of excitement eh Charlton fans?

That’s all from us folks, we’re off to put out a beer and a mince pie for Santa so we’ll leave you with the best Christmas song ever made, and we hope you get what you asked for. Merry Christmas and god bless us, every one.

In the early 1990s Serie A was undoubtedly the biggest league in the world. The planets biggest stars, such as Baggio, Matthaus, Rijkaard, Gullit, Van Basten, and Zola were joined by some of England’s best, such as Paul Gascoigne, David Platt and Paul Ince.

What really made the show tick was one of football’s best frontmen, James Richardson. Laconically sitting at various cafes on the piazza’s of Italy he would slurp on his cappuccino and take us through the Gazzetta dello Sport with a multi-storey ice cream to his side.

On the pitch the competitive nature of Serie A would put today’s Premiership to shame. The ’seven sisters’ of Milan, Inter, Roma, Lazio, Juventus, Parma and Fiorentina all had the resources to fight for the title, before the financial bubble burst, and several of these teams that were built on mountains of debt began to struggle.

The financial turmoil that greeted the new millennium in Italy also brought about a slide in viewing figures. Whereas the glory years so no less than three million viewers every Sunday afternoon, by the 2006/07 season Football Italia had been relegated down to satellite channel Bravo, where less than 20,000 would watch. Throw in the Calciopoli affair that summer and the TV suits decided enough was enough and pulled the plug.

A short-lived resurrection followed on Channel Five last year, but remarkably no station picked up the rights for this year’s fight for the Scudetto, which thanks to the arrival of Jose Mourinho and Ronaldinho among others, is shaping up to be one of the more exciting seasons in recent years. However, with a David Beckham-shaped arrival on the horizon this may well change.

See some classic Football Italia fare below, as James Richardson puns his way through some analysis with a typical leftfield guest in Elvis Costello and wonder why all football coverage can’t be this good. See what else was going on in the big bad world of football today here and we’ll be back for some night before Christmas action tomorrow.

Shaw, a livewire striker, made his Aston Villa debut in 1978 as a 17-year-old and was a key part of Villa’s First Division winning side in the 1980/81 season, when he was rewarded with the PFA Young Player of the Year award, following in the footsteps of Glenn Hoddle who had won it the year before.

A knee injury that would eventually end Brian Little’s career meant that Shaw was fast-tracked into the Villa first team, and next up for the youngster was a starring role in Villa’s European Cup winning team in the 1981/82 season, with Shaw as the only Birmingham-born player in the side.

Shaw’s eye for goal saw him receive a call-up for the preliminary England squad for the 1982 World Cup, although he failed to make the final 22. He did, however, win one of Europe’s more random awards - the Bravo Award, given out by Italian magazine Guerin’ Sportivo to the best young player participating in a European club competition. Past winners include Marco van Basten, Paolo Maldini, Roberto Baggio and Robert Prosinecki, so he’s in decent company there.

Soon after though, Shaw suffered a knee ligament injury in a match away to Nottingham Forest and, before the days of flying out to ligament-guru Dr Richard Steadman in Colorado, such injuries would often rob a player of their speed and technique.

Shaw stayed at Villa Park until 1987, but was never the same player. He wound his career down with spells at Blackpool, FC Copenhagen, Austrian side Klagenfurt, Walsall and Kilmarnock, before his swansong at Shrewsbury.

Proving that, despite the injuries, he still knew how to sniff out a goal, Shaw’s sub-five-minute hat-trick for Shrewsbury came in his last season before his knee finally gave in.

See some footage from Villa’s famous European Cup win below and check out what else was going on today here.

Huddersfield were managed by Bill Shankly and he was keen to keen to get his side promoted back to the top-flight from which they had recently been relegated. The team travelled down to the Valley to take on a Charlton side in a similar situation but no one involved predicted the amazing game that was to take place that afternoon.

Huddersfield right half Ken Taylor said Shanks’ pre-match team talk was pretty simple. “Bill just walked around the table, telling us how good we were,” he said. “ ‘Charlton? They’re not fit to be on the same park.’ He was a great motivator. That was his greatest quality.”

Shanks and his players were given a boost on 17 minutes when Charlton captain and centre-half Derek Ufton dislocated his shoulder and had to come off. In the days before substitutes the Addicks were forced to play the vast majority of the match with just ten men.

The numerical advantage began to show and by half time the away side were 2-0 up and looking good. As the half time whistle went some of the home fans, dispirited by the score line and perhaps thinking a come back looked unlikely given they were a man down, decided they had had enough of standing in the drizzle and went home. What a mistake.

As the Charlton players regrouped in the dressing room left winger Johnny Summers changed into a new pair of boots and was moved to play up front for the second period. It would prove to be a masterstroke and within three minutes of the restart he had halved the deficit when he scored from a miss-hit shot off his weaker right foot. Game on.

Town were obviously keen to kill the game off and on any other day they would have as they raced into a 5-1 lead to apparently crush any hopes of a Charlton come back. But the Addicks were not giving up just yet and immediately replied through Buck Ryan and another from Johnny Summers, again off his right foot and this time in off the post. 5-3. Ten minutes later, he completed his hat-trick, blasting a right-foot shot past the diving Huddersfield goalkeeper, Sandy Kennon. 5-4.

Only one thing was on Summers’ mind now and ten minutes later he scored the equaliser to make it 5-5 as the Charlton fans went bonkers in the stands. Still Summers wasn’t finished and in the 81st minute he hit yet another goal past the shellshocked Huddersfield defence to take the score to 6-5.

Huddersfield hit back on the 86th minute, scoring an equaliser on the muddy pitch to make it 6-6 as the fans of both clubs looked on in disbelief at what was unfolding in front of them, but incredibly it was not over yet.

With just seconds remaining the ball went across the field and the Huddersfield right back, Tony Conwell, moved through the mud to intercept it. “He had it all nicely covered,” Taylor said, “and he just slipped. He fell. Bang! And that was it.” Ryan met the ball perfectly and Charlton had won an absolutely astonishing match. There was pandemonium in the stands as the crowd hailed their heroes, in particular Johnny Summers who had scored five goals, and all on his weaker right foot. He told the press: “I’ll keep these boots for the rest of my life.” Sadly, that was not to be for long as he got leukaemia and he was dead within five years.

Ray Wilson, the Huddersfield left back and future World Cup winner said: “If you wrote a book about that match you’d get halfway through and you’d say, ‘What a load of b*****ks!’”

Huddersfield’s shocked manager tried to make sense of what he had witnessed: “Shankly was pacing up and down in the train,” Wilson said. “He was muttering to himself: ‘It’s just one of those things . . . It’s history . . .’ He was trying to sort it out in his mind, how it had happened.”

“He didn’t speak to anybody for days afterwards,” Ken Taylor said. “We had a good side. But when you played in muddy conditions like that, all sorts of things could happen. In many ways, football wasn’t as skilful a game as it is now, but it could be more exciting.”

But the day belonged to Charlton and the fans would not leave the ground, chanting for their heroes to reappear which they duly did to receive the applause and cheers that such a dramatic come back justified.

Phew, breathless stuff. There is obviously something in the stars that favours this date in terms of goals, as there was another high scoring match also on this day. More from us tomorrow folks, but have a look at another famous day in Charlton’s history below.

Still, no doubt their fans enjoyed the ride while it lasted. No terminally-boring-yet-scraping-through-thanks-to-a-75th-minute-Beckham-free-kick for the them; they played with an attacking freedom that caught World Champions Italy completely off guard, but then, that is typical of the Dutch national team.

In world football, the Netherlands have been punching well above their weight for decades. With a population of less than a third of that of England, the Dutch have invented total football, won Euro 88, reached two consecutive World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978, and their club sides have won the European Cup six times (only Italy Spain and England have provided more winners). All this despite the fact they were late starters, only forming a national league and embracing professionalism in the 1950s.

The country has also produced some of the best footballers in the world, with Dutch players having won the Ballon d’Or seven times - a joint record with Germany. It is one of those top players we are celebrating today as it was on this day in 1992 that Marco van Basten picked up the coveted award for the third time in five years. The feat equalled that of Dutch legend Johan Cruijff and Frenchman Michel Platini.

Hailing from Utrecht it didn’t take long for the academy of football AFC Ajax to snap him up and he quickly became a living legend and was the Dutch top scorer in 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987. After winning the Dutch League and Cup each three times, plus the European Cup Winners Cup, Marco’s eye began to wander and in those days there was only one destination of choice for the world’s best players: Italy.

Silvio Burlesconi brought him to AC Milan in 1987 where he linked up with fellow Dutchmen Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard who joined the following year. In his first season Milan won their first scudetto in eight years and he followed this up by being top-scorer at Euro 1988 as Holland won the tournament. 1988 was also the year he was first named European Footballer of the Year, and he retained the title in 1989.

While at Milan he won enough trophies to sink a low-lying country including three league titles, two European Cups and the Italian Super Cup three times. In 1992 when he picked up his third and final Ballon d’Or he was also named World Footballer of the Year.

Eventually injury forced him to retire from playing in 1995 but by then he had won literally everything possible apart from the World Cup. He then turned his attention to management which he is finding a tad more difficult than playing.

But to paraphrase the Bee Gees, these are only words, and words are all we have, so have a look at the clip below to appreciate van Basten’s genius on the ball.

We’ll be back tomorrow but have a look here to read about some classic managerial blundering from our favourite man named Bryan who was once a great player but then turned into a crap manager.

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Psycho had been at the City Ground since 1985, when Brian Clough took a punt on a player that had been playing non-league football two years earlier. Still unsure of his future in the game Pearce advertised his services as an electrician in the Forest programme, but he didn’t have to moonlight for too much longer.

Over the next ten years he became club captain and cemented his place as one of the all-time great Forest players, so when Frank Clark stepped down after three and a half years in charge the board looked at Pearce to fill the void.

Give or take the odd early selection problem, Pearce did an admirable job to start with. After guiding Forest out of the relegation zone he was awarded the January 1997 manager of the month award and had the honour of becoming the first club manager to play for his country when Glenn Hoddle persuaded him to come out of international retirement and enlist in England’s World Cup 98 qualifiers.

Forest meanwhile, were taken over by the Bridgford Consortium in February 1997 and Dave Bassett was brought in to help the rookie manager. This only succeeded in blurring the lines of power and Pearce would leave at the end of the season, after claiming the player’s did not know who was in charge.

Later, Pearce would admit that he had been too naïve in his first managerial job, as he went about getting his coaching badges before being given the top job at Manchester City in 2005, having retired as a Citizen three years earlier.

A rather mundane two season for the City faithful followed and Pearce can now be found learning his trade as an assistant to Fabio Capello and as the England u-21 boss.

We’ll leave you with everyone’s favourite Psycho moment below and you can see what we were writing about last year here. If, like us, you haven’t even considered doing any Christmas shopping yet, then grab yourself the OTFD book, available here.

Harry Redknapp took charge of his first game today in 1982 and after his Bournemouth side lost 9-0 to Lincoln City, even Harry himself might have been forgiven for thinking that he wasn’t suited for life as a football manager.

Redknapp was ushered into the dug-out as caretaker manager when Bournemouth sacked boss David Webb in order to halt a recent slide down the table.

Lincoln City provided a tough test for young ‘Arry, as the club was sitting near the top of the league. A competitive first half saw a decent performance from the Cherries, but a late own goal from defender Phil Brignull saw them go in two down.

Bournemouth then proceeded to fall apart in the second 45. The game was being played in icy conditions, with Lincoln having the common sense to wear AstroTurf boots, so unlike their opponents, they could still stand up.

Goal after goal came in the second half, until a club record nine had been conceded by Bournemouth. After the game Harry was asked if he was disappointed: “Yes, I thought the seventh goal was offside,” came his deadpan response.

The following week saw the supporters’ association clubbed together to buy the squad AstroTurf boots but Harry’s application to become full-time manager was turned down in favour of Don Megson. Harry remained with the club though, and at the end of 1983 he was given the top job after Megson was dismissed with Bournemouth near the foot of Division Three.

Harry began to make amends for the Lincoln debacle straight away, defeating FA Cup holders Mancehster United in the third round during his first season in charge and would win the Third Division title at a canter in the 1986/87 season.

He remained at Dean Court until 1992, where he learnt many of the wheeling and dealing tricks that he is so famous for today. We’ve used this clip of ‘Arry getting animated before, but it’s sheer genius, so have another gander. Check out what else was going on today here and you’ve still got time to order this year’s hottest Christmas gift, so head straight here for that!