February 18 – Irish Eyes Aren’t Smiling

BACK in the late 19th century the international scene was a club manager’s dream. There were barely any international teams in existence and certainly no big international tournaments to rob players away from their clubs where they will at worst end up injured and out for a year or at best just, heaven forbid, have to play a whole match and end up a little weary.

In the ten years after England’s first official international in 1872 the Three Lions team played only two teams: Scotland ten times and Wales three times.

All this must have been getting a tad boring so it was a good job Ireland decided to start their own national team and add to the burgeoning international scene.

Today in 1882 Ireland played their first ever international match against England at Bloomfield Park in Belfast, becoming only the fourth national team to take to the football field.

Lining up for the home team was Samuel Johnston (nothing to do with dictionaries) who at just 15 years and 154 days became the youngest ever international footballer. Not much of an achievement at the time given that international football was only ten years old and only had four teams, but it is a record which still stands to this day.

The visitors had some great Victorian-sounding gents in their line up including Horace Hutton Barnet, Doctor Greenwood (Doctor being his first name rather than a medical title) and Charlie Bambridge.

It was to be a baptism of fire for the Irish as they were crushed by the England team a whopping 13-0. Howard Vaughton opened the scoring on three minutes and bagged another four after that as he scored five in the one match. Arthur Brown bagged four while the other goals came from Jimmy Brown (2), Charlie Bambridge and Harry Cursham.

The match remains Ireland’s heaviest defeat and England’s record win.

Ireland’s next match was a held a week later against Wales at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham. Samuel Johnston scored Ireland’s first ever goal in that game to equalise but the Welsh went on to win 7-1.

In a run of form that would have embarassed even Derby circa 2007/08 the Ireland team lost 14 and drew one of their first 15 games and had to wait five long years for their first win which eventually came against Wales who they beat 4-1 in Belfast in 1887.

More than half a century later Ireland became the first foreign team to beat England on home soil in 1949 with a 2-0 win at Goodison Park. Have a look at a Pathe news reel from the day below, and come back tomorrow for more from us.

Also on this day Man City were adding to their chaotic history with a bit of managerial musical chairs. Watch out Sparky!

February 17 – Arsenal hit the Silver Screen

IT’S off to the movies on OTFD today, as Ealing Studio big-wigs first had the idea of putting the beautiful game on the big screen when they released The Arsenal Stadium Mystery today in 1940.

Murder mysteries were all the rage at that time, so using the dominant team in English football as a key plot device was always going to keep the masses happy.

The stadium in question was Arsenal’s old Highbury ground, and the mystery was the death of one of Arsenal’s opponents, the fictitious Trojans team who had fallen victim to a poisoning (rumours of a sequel centring on the Spurs lasagne-gate incident that saw the Gooners pip them to a Champions League place in 2006 are unfounded).

But whodunit? Was it one of the unfortunate Trojan stars’ team-mates? His former mistress? Arsenal stars Cliff Bastin or Eddie Hapgood? Surely it wasn’t Arsenal manager George Allison who bagged himself a speaking part in the film?

We wouldn’t dream of ruining the plot for you so you’ll have to go and find out for yourself. The film features match action from Arsenal’s final game of the 1939 season, with their opponent that day Brentford wearing a special striped kit in what would be Arsenal’s last match before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Since then the film industry has given us football ditties such as Escape to Victory and Bend It Like Beckham, but as far as sports films go, there’s not been a football film to touch the likes of Raging Bull or Rocky.

The upcoming adaptation of David Peace’s excellent book The Damned United, staring impressionist extraordinaire Michael Sheen as Ol’ Big ‘Ead will have us rushing out to get the popcorn, but until then have a look at our reviews of a few recent football movies staring the likes of Maradona, Zizou and Pele that might have escaped under your radar here.

We’ll be back tomorrow for more musings tomorrow, but until then see what else was going on today here and have a look at a tribute reel to the Gooner’s former ground below.

February 16 – Walk Like an Egyptian

WHEREAS in England the African Cup of Nations is viewed by most managers with contempt, as the Premier League’s growing number of African stars miss out on a month’s worth of domestic fixtures, the tournament has gone from strength-to-strength in recent years.

Today in 1957 the first edition was coming to climax as Egypt romped home to the inaugural title.

The tournament was first proposed a year earlier when the Confederation of African Football was created at a Fifa congress in Lisbon and the new organisation wasted no time in getting the contest organised.

Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa, the four founding nations of CAF, were invited, but the Bafana Bafana refused to send a multi-racial squad to the competition and were thusly kicked out, giving Ethiopia a bye to the final.

This meant that only two matches were played in the tournament, with Egypt beating Sudan 2-1 to book their place in the final. This proved to be a more one-sided affair as the Pharaohs romped to a 4-0 win, with striker Mohamed Diab El-Attar bagging all four goals.

Egypt had come into the tournament with a sopt of pedigree, having been the first African country to have competed in a World Cup, after their appearance in Italy in 1934 where they were dumped out by Hungary and had also picked up an Olympic bronze in 1928.

The competition grew steadily during the 1960s, with eight teams battling it out for the crown in what was usually a very open tournament, proved by the fact that 13 different nations have picked up the prize.

With six wins Egypt have won the title the most times, including victories in the last two tournaments. The 2008 contest was a cracking display of entertaining, powerful football only let down by some substandard goalkeeping.

As the tournament grows in popularity across the globe, Sepp Blatter has been quick to poke his beak in, as the power-brokers at Europe’s top clubs have been calling for the competition to be moved into the summer to fit into the international calendar and keep the continent’s European-based players at their clubs.

This would prevent several countries in central Africa from hosting the tournament as it would clash with their wet seasons, but knowing where the real power lies in football these days we can guess who will eventually win this argument.

Next year’s ACN will be held in Angola as the organisers seek to give some of the continent’s newer nations a chance to host the tournament. If you can’t wait that long for some CAN action, check out some action from Egypt’s 2008 success below and see what else went on in this crazy game we call football today here.

February 15 – The English Disease

AFTER yesterday’s faith affirming story about the more magnanimous side of football, today we are looking at the other side of the coin.

Hooliganism – football’s dark side was once again making the headlines today in 1995 when a friendly match at Lansdowne Road between the Republic of Ireland and England had to be abandoned after a section of English ‘supporters’ rioted.

The match was part of England’s preparations for Euro 96 – one of a series of friendlies organised for El Tel’s team who did not have to qualify as the home nation.

According to eye witnesses there was a bad feeling from the beginning in the stadium that night as the national anthems were booed more loudly than usual and even Irish President Mary Robinson was booed when she came out to inspect the teams.

When the match kicked off England started brightly but Ireland soon began to assert themselves and after 22 minutes played David Kelly scored past David Seaman to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.

That was the signal for the group of England fans in the West Stand to begin rioting. They began ripping up seats and throwing missiles down on to the fans below them and the pitch.

When the trouble began to escalate the referee Dick Jol, brother of former Spurs boss Martin, had no choice but to abandon the match and remove all the players from the pitch.

Shameful scenes followed as rioters and Irish police clashed as the authorities tried to restore order. Television cameras picked up fighting and bloodied faces, as well as images of children watching the violence unfold incredulously.

Jack Charlton was disgusted and began shouting “Go home!” to the rioters as he was led off the pitch.

It later emerged the riot was premeditated and organised and involved members of the extreme right wing group Combat 18.

Both national managers were shocked after the incident. Terry Venables said: “There’s no words to describe what I feel about people like that. I’m really upset about it.”

When asked about how it would affect the England team’s development Venables replied: “I can’t even think about the football at the moment, it’s just so sickening.”

Jack Charlton was similarly horrified. “It’s a disaster, I hate this,” he said. “When I played for England I never experienced anything like this. I’ve seen a lot in football but I’ve never seen anything like that.”

In the aftermath doubts were cast on whether Uefa would allow England to host Euro 96 but Jimmy Hill’s argument that England would be better prepared to handle hooliganism than other countries given their experience of dealing with it was as sad as it was true.

The game is only the second England match to ever be abandoned, the other was a friendly against Argentina in 1953 that was called off after a torrential downpour made playing impossible.

As well as the clip above, see this and this for reaction to one of the most shameful incidents in recent football history.

More from us tomorrow but until then have a look at the latest scrape one of England’s finest talents was getting into on this day.

February 14 – Moore’s Century

APPARENTLY some chap named Beckham has been causing something of a stir this week by winning his 108th England cap in Wednesday’s friendly mauling by Spain to equal Bobby Moore’s record for an English outfield player.

Cue endless debate ridiculous and pointless debate about whether Beckham can be compared to Moore, often involving people who never saw England’s only World Cup winning captain play.

Not that it really matters, Becks has been a good servant to his country and has worked hard to win back his place in the squad which, judging by his contribution against Spain, is entirely merited. He’s a good player and has had his moments for England, but he’s no Moore.

Today in 1973 Moore reached a milestone of his own when he pulled on the England shirt for the 100th time, becoming only the third player to achieve the feat after former captain Billy Wright and Bobby Charlton.

Fittingly for an important game personally for Moore, it was also an important one for England as they faced the auld enemy Scotland at Hampden Park in a fixture that is never really friendly despite the official designation of the match.

Joining Moore in the England team were Martin Peters and Alan Ball – the three of them were the only survivors from the 1966 team but they were overshadowed by some of the newer members of the squad as the Scots were swept aside 5-0 – one of the easiest days Moore would have marshaling the Three Lions defence.

Allan Clarke (2), Mick Channon, Martin Chivers and a Peter Lorimer own goal provided the goals for England in a crushing home defeat for a Scotland team that included the big guns of Billy Bremner, Kenny Dalglish and George Graham.

Despite the clean sheet Moore was nearing the end of his reign as England’s untouchable choice. Things came to a head three months later in a World Cup qualifier away to Poland when Moore was at fault for the two goals in a 2-0 loss.

Ramsey dropped him for the return leg at Wembley which England had to win to qualify for the finals. They could only draw 1-1 and it marked the beginning of the end for both Ramsey and Moore. Sir Alf was sacked six months later while Moore made his final England appearance in the next match – a friendly against Italy at Wembley. Again England lost, this time 1-0 to a goal scored by the man who has just ensured Beckham has equalled Moore’s record: Fabio Capello.

When he retired from the international game he held the all-time England cap record with 108 appearances (he has since been overtaken by Peter Shilton on 125), and he equalled Billy Wright’s record of captaining England 90 times.

Two months later he played his last game for West Ham and then left for Fulham where he began to wind down his career before, just as Beckham would 30 years later, he moved to the USA to play for San Antonio Thunder and Seattle Sounders. Moore was also on Beckham’s wavelength when it came to commercial opportunities although the advert featuring Bobby and Tina Moore ‘Looking in at the Local’ is not quite posing for Armani.

That’s all from us today but we’ll we back tomorrow with more. Until then, you can satisfy your need for banal historical football trivia by seeing what else happened on this day here.

February 13 – Wenger Ensures Football is the Winner

WHEN Emmanuel Eboue was red carded in last weekend’s north London derby, the usual headlines about the number of red cards during Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal tenure came out. Today in 1999 the mercurial Frenchman proved that he’s not all bad, as he offered to replay Arsenal’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Sheffield United after the Gunners had scored their winner in controversial circumstances.

A 2-1 win over their First Division opponents was the sort of result that expect Arsenal to canter to, but as Motty will tell you until the cows come home, that doesn’t legislate for the magic of the cup.

The offending incident occurred with 15 minutes left in a deadlocked encounter when a foul on United’s Lee Morris went unpunished but left him injured in the Arsneal area. David Seaman attempted to get the referee’s attention but failed and play went on.

When the ball fell to Blades’ goalie Alan Kelly, he kicked it out of play, expecting the usual unwritten ‘fair play’ rule to be used and the ball returned. Arsneal’s new signing from Internazionale, Kanu wasn’t reading from the same hymnsheet however, intercepting Ray Parlour’s throw-in and slotting home.

The Yorkshire side were not impressed, standing bewildered for a minute before taking their case up with the ref, who had to consult his linesman before giving the goal, as he had no reason not to.

For a while it looked like Steve Bruce was ready to take his team off the pitch in protest. After the game he complained: “The one thing I can’t understand is that maybe after all the hoo-hah, when the Arsenal players don’t want the goal and are all apologising, why the referee didn’t use a little bit of common sense and rule it out for ungentlemanly conduct. Common sense has got to prevail.”

Common sense in football? Good luck with that Brucey. His counterpart in the Arsenal dugout showed his charitable side though, as Wenger immediately offered a replay, saying: “It wasn’t right to win that way – it wasn’t Arsenal. We want to win all our games but nobody cheated on purpose.”

The FA agreed to the replay and Arsenal ground out a legitimate 2-1 win as they would make their ways to the semi-finals where a rather famous Ryan Giggs goal dumped them out of the cup.

If you’re not too busy buying over-priced bunches of roses tomorrow and fancy your daily fix of football history make sure you’re back here for more of the same, but until then see what one of our favourite football personalities was up to today here. Otherwise, see what happened last time these two sides met, as Wenger’s youngsters put on a much better show that the old-timers have managed for a fair few weeks.

February 12 – Holy Goalie Folly

IN terms of football rivalries, it doesn’t get anymore intense than Rangers versus Celtic. With hundreds of years worth of sectarianism behind it, the Old Firm clash is more than just a game for both sets of supporters, so any controversial behaviour during the game is always met with one heck of a reaction.

Today in 2006 Celtic’s Polish goalkeeper Artur Boruc made a series of gestures in front of the Rangers fans and found himself in the middle of a storm of controversy.

Before Celtic’s 1-0 win at Ibrox, Boruc was alledged to have made three hand gestures to the Rangers fans. No television camera’s picked up the incident (although clips, like the one below, have turned up on Youtube), but police reports and witness statements claimed Boruc’s handiwork involved a couple of obscene hand actions followed by a blessing as he laughed at the Rangers fans.

Said Rangers fans were not impressed and many of them complained to Strathcylde Police, leading to Boruc being cautioned for a breach of the peace in August 2006.

This ruling rippled through Scottish society, as the Roman Catholic Church condemned the actions of the Police, leading for the Crown Office to claim that they had only taken ‘very limited’ action against the man who was now being nicknamed ‘the Holy Goalie’.

After being cautioned by the police, one would have thought that Boruc would take it easy next time he took on Rangers, but that’s not how he rolls, as he again crossed himself in front of the Rangers fans, causing more outrage. Celtic were quick to defend him claiming that: “the police have said they have no problem with Artur Boruc in this regard and neither does Celtic Football Club.”

These days the Pole remains enemy number one amongst Rangers fans and even among some of his own team-mates if this week’s rumours of a bust-up are to be believed.

See what else was going down in the football world today here and come back tomorrow for some more controversial goings-on.

February 11 – JFK

SO after a summer of promise the season has started badly, results are poor, morale amongst the supporters is low, and a once great club is on its knees.

Desperate for a man to turn things around the unpopular owner turns to Joe ‘Effing’ Kinnear to be the new boss in a bid to arrest the slide. The story is familiar to all Newcastle United fans but today in 2004 exactly the same scenario unfolded at Nottingham Forest.

After a good 2002/03 season in which Forest had made the play-offs under Paul Hart, the following term was going badly and chairman Nigel Doughty, fearing another relegation, sacked Hart.

Within days former Wimbledon boss Joe Kinnear was unveiled as the new boss at the County Ground, his first job since being sacked by Luton Town in 2003.

His first match was a home game against Walsall. With 45 minutes gone Forest were 3-1 down but after a half time team talk in which Joe encouraged his players “to show some bollocks” they fought back to draw 3-3.

After the game Joe showed his penchant for expletive laden diatribes at the press, previous managers and just about anyone else who happened to be wandering into shot is nothing new.

“It’s a hard club to come to for players because from the moment you walk into the place you get the history rammed down your throat day in day out,” he said by way of an opening salvo.

“It’s a pain in the arse but you have to live with it. You can’t break wind without names like Clough and Birtles being mentioned.

“I know all the crap about winning the European Cup but the people who hang around the club pontificating haven’t had the guts to become managers or, if they have, they’ve failed. People criticise me, say I’m a route-one manager, but it’s always the same- if Robert Pires threads a 20- or 30-yard ball inside the full-back for Thierry Henry to run on to and score it’s a brilliant pass but, when my teams do it, it’s a boot down the middle. We’re a good passing side and no one’s going to take that away, irrespective of what’s been said, but I want to see a result.”

Despite his fevered rantings Joe did manage to arrest the slide and kept Forest in the Championship that season, but by December 2004 his second term in charge was not going well and he resigned.

It would be his last job in football until Mike Ashley stunned the football world by bringing him back as Newcastle boss in September 2008 (here at OTFD we are still convinced Ashley must have been reading a ten-year-old newspaper article about the best British managers having first brought back Keegan, then gone for Venables and finally ended up with Kinnear – he seemed so out of touch it’s a wonder he didn’t enquire about Herbert Chapman or Walter Winterbottom).

Of course it was when appointed Newcastle boss he pulled out his best ever rant at the press and his perceived rough treatment from journalists.

We’ll leave you with that particular piece of genius (for the easily offended this is a sanitized bleeped version – we don’t think swearing is funny or big or clever). God knows what the club’s top players like Michael Owen made of it all but back in 1998 young Mickey was making his England debut. Have a look at that here and come back tomorrow for more from us.

February 10 – Viva Espana!

TODAY in 1929 one of Europe’s biggest domestic leagues was kicking off for the first time. England had been first to get their championship underway in 1888 but it took the other major countries in Europe some time to catch on the idea.

Today it was the turn of Spain to join the party when they played the opening matches in the first ever season of La Liga.

The man behind the plan was Jose Maria Acha, a director at Arenas Club de Getxo (these days somewhat less exalted than they were and now propping up the fourth tier of Spanish football) and in 1927 he suggested the biggest clubs should get together and form a national league for Spain.

The immediate problem was deciding who was to be at the top table but eventually, after a lot of debate, the Spanish football federation named ten teams that would contest the inaugural Primera División. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Arenas Club de Getxo and Real Unión were all selected as previous winners of the Copa del Rey, while Athletic Madrid, RCD Español and CE Europa qualified as Copa del Rey runners-up and Racing Santander qualified through a knockout competition.

Real Madrid set an early tone for how they would come to dominate Spanish football by smashing five past CD Europa in a crushing 5-0 win. In their second match a week later Real beat Barcelona 2-1 away from home, but it was the Catalans who had the last laugh that year when they win the first ever Primera División title, finishing two points ahead of rivals Real Madrid.

Of the ten teams that competed that first season, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao have never been relegated from the top flight while Arenas de Guecho, Real Unión and CE Europa now ply their trade in the lower leagues.

Since those heady early days La Liga has run every year, save for a three year break between 1936/39 when the civil war was raging, and been won a massive 31 times by Real Madrid with Barca lagging behind on a comparatively puny 18.

It has also been host to some of the best players the world has ever seen from Ferenc Puskas and Alfredo di Stefano to Johan Cruyff, Maradona, Ronaldinho and now Leo Messi.

Have a look here to see what else happened on this day, and we’ll leave you with some footage of probably La Liga’s finest ever player. More from us tomorrow but for now have a look at the skills Alfredo di Stefano used to pay the bills.

February 9 – Sparky Takes The Reigns

FOLLOWING a doomed dual-manager set-up with the walrus of goalkeeping Neville Southall, Mark Hughes was given the keys to the Welsh national side job, picking his first squad today in 2000.

Sparky enjoyed his first taste of solo management by calling up Ryan Giggs for his first friendly call-up in nine years as the Dragons packed their sandals and sunglasses for a trip to the desert to face Qatar.

Prior to Hughes’ arrival Wales had been struggling under Bobby Gould and the former Manchester United and Chelsea frontman took over a side ranked 100th in the Fifa rankings.

Qatar were hardly the most ferocious opponents, but combine a team low on confidence with the old ‘there’s no easy games in international football’ cliche, and you had a tricky first game.

Taking place at the Al Arabi Stadium in Doha, the clash saw Hughes get all experimental on our asses, opting for a 3-6-1 formation as he obviously fancied himself as a Valeriy Lobanovskyi-esque figure of experimentation.

With Giggs having predictably dropped out between being announced in the squad and the match taking place, it was up to the likes of Gary Speed, John Robinson and Leeds United’s debutant Matthew Jones to offer support from a packed midfield to lone striker Nathan Blake.

It was Charlton Athletic midfielder Robinson that broke the deadlock, scoring with a half-volley after ten minutes. Wales held the anaemic Qatar attack at bay for the rest of the game, jetting out with a 1-0 win under their belts and Sparky’s rebuilding project was underway.

A rebuild he did, as Wales began to move up the rankings at a rapid pace and by the time that the Euro 2004 qualification was in full swing Welshmen across the valleys dared to dream that they might be appearing in their first major tournament since the days of John Charles, when Brazil ditched them out of the 1958 World Cup.

A victory over Italy in that qualification campaign proved to be the zenith of Hughes’ reign, but they would ultimately lose out to Russia in a controversial play-off, as the Russian’s went unpunished after Yegor Titov tested positive for a banned substance following the first leg.

Since then Hughes went on to cement his reputation as one of British football’s leading young managers with a four-year spell at Blackburn Rovers, before denting said reputation by looking increasingly out of his depth at Manchester City, a club that seems to be operating outside the usual parameters of common sense.

Just how long will Sparky keep the Eastlands hotseat? We’re afraid we can’t tell you that, but we can tell you what else was going on today here and show you one of Hughes’ best moments on the pitch for his country.