December 11 – Dial Square FC Are Born

DIAL Square FC may sound like a random non-league side who should be playing the likes Vauxhall Motors or Harrogate Railway, but they’re far from it. It was today in 1886 that a Scotsman in North London called David Danskin got together with ten friends and colleagues to play the first game for a side that would eventually become Arsenal FC.

Dial Square was the Gooners’ first guise, as they would later become known as the Royal Arsenal, then Woolwich Arsenal before deciding to stick with plain ol’ Arsenal in 1914, the year after they moved into Highbury. Their first game saw Danskin and his boys line up against Eastern Wanderers and romp home 6-0 winners.

Arsenal’s early history has always been romanticised, with the marble halls and art deco stylings of Highbury playing host to Herbert Chapman’s revolutionary tactics and training as they dominated English football in the 1930s. What isn’t as well known is the underhand tactics that they used to build these foundations on.

Henry Norris had taken over the club in 1910 when they were in the financial mire and used his commercial nous to build their new stadium next to a tube station to ensure they got the biggest attendances in Division Two. When the league restructured follow the First World War and expanded the top flight, Norris wanted a piece of it and managed to talk Arsenal’s way in at the expense of Spurs, Wolves and Barnsley who had all finished above them. Many accused Norris of bribery or Freemason skulduggery, but without this the last ninety years would’ve played out awfully differently. Just ask Barnsley, who didn’t get their stab at the top flight until 1997.

Since then though it’s been trophies galore as Arsenal fans have seen thirteen titles and ten FA Cups come their way thanks to the likes of Cliff Bastin, Ted Drake, Charlie George, Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp among others. They even managed to win with Gus Caesar in the side, much to the chagrin of Nick Hornby. Take a look at some of some of the best football we’ve seen in years below and head over here tomorrow for Peru’s most famous export since Paddington Bear.

December 10 – Lucien Lords Over The World Cup

TODAY at OTFD we’re giving you a spot of pub quiz ammunition. Do you know who scored the first ever World Cup goal? Well you do now. Frenchmen Lucien Laurent, who was born today in 1907, ensured his name would go down in footballing folklore when he struck against Mexico.

The inaugural World Cup in 1930 wasn’t the all-singing, all-dancing affair that it is these days and only 1,000 fans were on hand to see Mexico take on the French in Montevideo. When the semi-professional Peugeot employee Laurent received a pass from Ernest Liberati just outside the Mexican area, he rifled a volley into Oscar Bonfiglio’s net and the world’s biggest sporting event was underway in earnest.

Laurent said that his goal wasn’t “anything special…back then I couldn’t have imagined the significance the goal would have. We didn’t even know the World Cup would last. I remember when I got home, there was just a tiny mention in one of the papers. [Football] was in its infancy.”

Unfortunately this was to be as good as it got in Uruguay for the man nicknamed “Petit Lulu, ” as he was took a knock in France’s second game against Argentina and had to soldier on in this pre-substitute world. That game ended in defeat, as did their next against Chile so France had to get back on their boat and sail home meaning Laurent and his team mates went back to their day jobs.

When the 1934 World Cup came around poor old Lucien again found himself injured, but worse was to come as he was taken prisoner by the Germans for three years in World War II. After the war he became a youth coach and also played up to the ex-footballer tradition and ran a bar. Laurent was the last surviving member of France’s 1930 team and only one to see Les Blues win the 1998 World Cup on home soil. He died in 2005, but his place in history is secure forever.

Here’s a quaint little film from 1930 for you and find out what became of a north London side called Dial Square FC tomorrow.

December 9 – Ho’way The Toon

EVER wondered what Geordies got up to on Saturday afternoons before they could head over to St. James’ to whinge about their manager and show off their freshly tattooed bellies? No, neither do we, but it began today in 1892 when Newcastle East End became Newcastle United and one of the England’s biggest clubs was born.

Newcastle East End showed the kind of ambition that still exists at the club today when they sought to establish themselves, taking over their rivals West End and badgering the Football League to let them into the First Division. By 1893 they had managed to get themselves into the Second Division and by 1909 they had bagged three league titles.

Don’t tell the Mackems, but until 1904 Newcastle sported some familiar sounding red and white stripes, before the famous barcode shirts came into play. This was to become the shirt that legends such as ‘Wor’ Jackie Milburn, Bobby ‘Dazzler’ Mitchell, Jimmy Lawrence, Albert Stubbins and more recently Alan Shearer would grace over the years.

For all their history, it’s fair to say that the St James’ trophy cabinet isn’t bulging at the seams at the moment. Although they can boast four pre-war championships and six FA Cups there’s been little to shout about since they picked up the Inter-City Fairs Cup in 1969. It wasn’t just Thatcherism that the Geordies had to put up with in the ’80s as they saw their team slump into the depths of the second division before they were revitalised by a certain Kevin Keegan who bought the good times back, but as much as he’d have loved it, they weren’t able to wrestle the title away from Old Trafford in 1996.

These days it’s up to Big Sam to bring back the glory days but as ever, it’s not proving to be that straight forward. In the meantime Newcastle fans can take solace by watching some of the greats below and we’re going all continental on you tomorrow so head over this way for that.

December 8 – Lothar’s The Best In The World

BACK in 1991 it wasn’t a bad time to be a German. The Berlin Wall was down, Maradona and the Argentineans had been seen off in the World Cup final the previous year and today in ’91 the captain of that side, Lothar Matthaus was picking up the first ever FIFA World Player of the Year award.

The point of the award isn’t too clear, as the Ballon d’or was, and still is, considered the most prestigious gong for a player to pick up, but we’ll hazard a guess that the suits at FIFA fancied an excuse for another annual piss-up. For the last sixteen years Sepp Blatter and his cronies have put their glad rags on and had a quasi-Christmas party every December when a panel of national team coaches and captains vote for their favourite player.

You’d think that this global celebration of football would see players from all over the globe nominated, but the reality is if you don’t play your club football in Europe, you’re not going to win. Juan Roman Riquelme was in the running for this year’s prize following his loan spell at Boca Juniors, but that’s as close as anyone’s got. For the record, this year’s list was a bit of a farce, with the list of 50 nominees not including the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Villa, Cesc Fabregas and Europe’s Golden Boot winner Francesco Totti.

Back in 1991 though, the German skipper was a worthy winner, with the award being just the latest stop in a career that saw him pick up more silverware than you can shake a stick at, winning domestic titles in Germany and Italy and getting his mitts on the World Cup with the national side.

See Lothar in his pomp below and come back tomorrow to see find out which set of stripped fans are celebrating their birthday.

December 7 – 10st of Barbed Wire

WHEN you first get to Elland Road you’re greeted with a statue of their greatest ever player, arms aloft and fists clenched. Billy Bremner, who captained the all-conquering Leeds United side of the 60s and 70s, leading by example with his combative and ultra-competitive style, died today in 1997.

Back in 1959 Don Revie took a punt on a seventeen year-old lad from Stirling who Arsenal and Chelsea had turned down for being too small. This proved to be a hell of a gaff from the Londoners, as the diminutive hardman proved that you didn’t have to be a six foot brawler to get stuck in. This is why the Sunday Times once proclaimed the wee Scotsman to be ’10st of barbed wire’.

In seventeen years at Elland Road Bremner pulled on the shirt 772 times winning a plethora of trophies as the club enjoyed the most successful period in their history. A box-to-box midfielder, Bremner would always put his body on the line for his side, with his personal motto being ‘side before self’. His name is synonymous with the hard-tackling and physical nature of Revie’s Leeds side, but the boy could play a fair bit too, scoring over 100 goals during his career. Bremner’s appitite for the big game saw him bag the winner in no less than four major semi-finals.

Two years after his mentor Revie left Leeds to take over the reigns of the English national side, Bremner moved onto Hull City before seeing out his playing career at Doncaster. In 1985 he found himself back at Elland Road, this time in the manager seat as he tried to get Leeds out of the second division. A play-off final and FA Cup semi-final in 1987 was as good as it got before he was sacked in 1988.

Bremner died from a heart attack two days before his 55th birthday, sparking citywide mourning across Leeds. Appreciate the genius of the little fella here, and come back tomorrow for more tales from the depths of footballing history.

December 6 – Scouse Pie All Over His Face

SCOUSE footballing lesson 101: Don’t score an own goal in the Merseyside derby. This has to be the golden rule for any football plying their trade in the City of Culture, but like not being able to think of a good name for your teddy bear, these things happen. Sami Hyypia found the top corner of Pepe Reina’s net a couple of months ago, but that was nothing compared to Everton defender Sandy Brown’s diving header that helped Liverpool onto a 3-0 derby win today in 1969.

Since 1893 the so-called ‘friendly derby’ has been the high point of the Liverpudlian football calendar, making heroes and defining the careers of a fair few Red and Blues. Ask any scouser of a certain age about Sandy Brown and they probably won’t tell you the story of a hard-man Scot whose versatility saw him play every single position on the pitch during his eight year career at Goodison. Instead, he’ll always be remembered for one of the best own goals ever scored.

When a harmless cross drifted into the Everton box there looked to be little danger. That is of course, for everyone but Brown, who sprinted to the ball and planted a peach of a full-stretched diving header into his empty net. It was a great effort to merely reach the ball, but his top corner finish made him toast of the wrong side of Merseyside for years to come.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Brown that year though. The 3-0 reverse at Goodison proved to be their only home loss of the year, as they powered to the title, with a 2-0 win at Anfield playing a big part. See some smug ex-Koppites reminiscing about the goal below and head over this way for the story of an era-defining Scotsman that didn’t score wonder own-goals.

December 5 – Ebenezer’s Good

IT was Bill Shankley that once said “Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.” And he’s right, it’s not rocket science and for this we have to thank good old Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who today in 1863 published the first set of rules for the beautiful game.

Back in the day, all the cool kids read a publication called ‘Bell’s Life,’ which wasn’t the serialized diary of that bloke who was busy inventing telephone, but one of London’s oldest newspapers. Morley had played a key role in the formation of the FA earlier in the year and decided that ‘Bell’s Life’ was the place tell the world about their new game, publishing his list of thirteen rules so they could be approved at the FA’s next meeting three days later.

Eyebrows were raised by some of Morley’s rules as they didn’t let you pick up the ball and forbade “tripping and hacking,” although as we all know, rules are for breaking, so Michael Brown hasn’t had to seek other employment.

In the 144 years that have passed there hasn’t been many radical changes in the laws of the game. Sure, Ebenezer and his cohorts were real men who would scoff at the thought of using substitutes or not being allowed on the field with blood on your shirt, but the fundamentals have been kept and have ensured that what was once the past-time of a few old college boys became the social, economical and cultural force that it is today.

So we can all sit back and thank Ebenezer and his mates for giving employment to the likes of Graham Poll and Jeff Winter. In the meantime, don’t go flicking, as we’ll be back here tomorrow with more football history.

December 4 – Ruel Foxes United

AS Sir Alex Ferguson prepares to start his latest touchline ban we thought it’s time to look at a long-standing officiating myth that hangs around Old Trafford like Wayne Rooney at your local old folks home. Is it true that referees never give penalties against Manchester United at Old Trafford? Well, today in 1993 Norwich’s Ruel Fox scored from the spot and it was to be last scored against United there for twelve years, so we’ll let you be the judge of that.

It was the early days of the Premiership and the high-flying Canaries were busy beating the likes of Bayern Munich and setting the pace in Rupert Murdoch’s new plaything. When Ruel Fox tucked the ball past Peter Schmeichel he secured a 2-2 draw as Norwich were trying to build on their success from the previous season when they finished in third place. The draw provided United with another point that as they sought to defend their first league title in 26 years.

Almost twelve years of tackles, dives, penalty shouts and refs bottling decisions under the duress of Roy Keane and friends came and went before Danny Murphy stepped up and blasted the winner from 12 yards in Liverpool’s 1-0 win in April 2004. In between Fox and Murphy four spot kicks were awarded, but John Sheridan, Juninho, Muzzy Izzet and David Dunn all felt the pressure of the Old Trafford crowd and went all Gareth Southgate on us.

United however, have never really had problems winning penalties in front of the Stretford End, but they don’t always end happily, as Martin Keown will be only too happy to tell you. See the most famous miss at Old Trafford since Beckham started dating Posh Spice below and there’s more officiating action tomorrow as we go way, way back in time for your daily dose of football history.

December 3 – ‘Arry’s Return

Harry Redknapp’s arrest last week is not the first time the wheeler-dealer has been in the news. A few years ago ‘Arry risked the ire of two sets of rival fans as he swapped from one club to the other and back again with reckless abandon.

The friction between South coast neighbours Southampton and Portsmouth is as intense as any, as any of the chants you will hear at the home ground of either team will tell you.

Very few players, and even fewer managers have ever crossed the divide and played for both clubs. Alan Ball took charge of both teams with varying success but it was on this day in 2005 that Harry Redknapp quit as manager of Southampton paving the way for his return to Pompey.

Redknapp’s return to Portsmouth was the final bizarre twist in the most unlikely story of managerial musical chairs.

The crafty cockney (not the darts one obviously) had been in charge at Pompey for two years between 2002 and 2004 in which he got them promoted to the Premiership for the first time in their history, and kept them there the following season.

Meanwhile up the M27 Saints were going through a period of instability after the hugely successful reign of Gordon Strachan came to an abrupt end. Since the wee man left Saints had overlooked chairman Rupert Lowe’s choice of Glenn Hoddle in favour of Plymouth manager Paul Sturrock. ‘Luggy’ as he was known did not settle at St Mary’s and against a back-drop of bad relations with the players Saints’ form suffered.

Sturrock made way for reserve team coach Steve Wigley after only two games into the 2004 season. The Wigley experiment proved to be disastrous and after only one win in 14 games Rupert Lowe had to act, but what he did next stunned the world of football.

Back to Portsmouth, and despite ‘Arry’s success with the team he had begun to fall out with club owner Milan Madaric who wanted to appoint a director of football. Redknapp wasn’t having it and walked out of Fratton Park saying: “I’ll never go down the road. No chance,” when asked if he might take charge at Saints.

He was unveiled as Southampton boss just days later.

Harry couldn’t save the Saints from the dreaded drop however and they were relegated after 27 years in the top flight. Harry stayed on with a view to taking the club straight back the following season but by December the Saints were only in mid-table.

Over at Pompey life post-Harry hadn’t gone to plan for Mandaric after Alain Perrin’s tenure as manager was not successful and they were casting around looking for a new boss.

Once Harry knew Pompey were in the market for a new manager he quit his job at Saints, and after a compensation package was agreed he was back in charge at Fratton Park.

Not only that, he managed to save an almost doomed team from relegation on the last day of the season, exactly what he hadn’t managed to do with Saints.

Just to rub salt into Saints’ wounds Harry would later reveal he had never been happy at St Mary’s. He told the Sunday Mirror: “The last year has been the worst of my life and that is no exaggeration.

“I made a monumental mistake walking out of Fratton Park and a day hasn’t passed since I left the ground for the last time that I didn’t regret my decision.

“Events this season have simply increased my desire to get away (from Southampton) and once Portsmouth asked permission to speak to me this week I knew I had to go back.”

Here’s Harry giving some stick to one of his reserve players which is quite funny whoever you support and come back tomorrow to find out what is rarer that rocking horse fertiliser at Old Trafford.

December 2 – The (Long and Winding) Road to Wembley

BACK in the day when the words ‘Road to Wembley’ were ushered we’d grab our jumpers for goalposts and head outside to have a kickaround and celebrate like Tardelli scoring in the 1982 World Cup final. These days the phrase is synonymous with bumbling bureaucrats, spiraling costs and textbook FA incompetence.

Today in 1999 saw Wembley gaff number 1,056 as then-Culture Secretary Chris Smith ordered a redesign of the project that would enable the Olympics to be held there, kicking the cost up to £475m. If only.

Lots of stadiums are built around the world every year, but the home of English football proved to be more hard work than most. Then again with a roll-call featuring the likes of the FA, Ken Bates and a series of hapless government ministers it was never going to be smooth sailing.

When the curtain closed on the Twin Towers following Dietmar Hamann’s strike in 1999 the English team were about to embark on almost 8 years of a hobo-like existence, touring the nation’s grounds and watching the cost and timeframe for their spiritual home rise higher than a lazy Amy Winehouse metaphor.

Chris Smith’s plan to encompass an athletics track to host the Olympics and was abandoned after twenty days, meaning that London had to give up on hosting the 2005 World Athletics championships and The Sun moaned lots.

When they keys were finally handed over in March 2007 the total cost was estimated to be around £798m, making it the most expensive stadium in the world. Originally the project was due to be finished in 2003 at a cost of £326.5m, but hey, what’s four years and £450m between friends? For the record, the stadium’s not too shabby. Whilst buying a pre-match pie and a pint might be a fiscal and logistic ordeal you can’t argue that Sir Norman Foster’s arch certainly looks the part.

Check out some footage of the England’s first game back at the home of football and head over here again tomorrow for stories of a dodgy dealer who’s finding it hard to stay out of the ‘eadlines at the moment.