September 20 – Interesting… VERY Interesting and Old Big ‘Ead Bows Out

An ode to Barry Davies and Brian Clough passes away in today’s dose of footballing history

2004 – Cloughy Bows Out
FOOTBALL is nothing without its characters, the people that bring the game alive for the fans, and they did not come much bigger than Brian Clough.

It was on this day in 2004 that Cloughie lost his battle with cancer and died, at the age of 69. Read more here.

1975 – Interesting…VERY Interesting!
ONE of the great shames of modern television coverage of football is the absence of, in our opinion, one of the best commentators English sport has ever had. Find out what the legendary Barry Davies was up to today in 1975 here.

Cloughy takes Motson to task. Bazza Davies wouldn’t have stood for this!

September 19 – BBC Go Looking for Bungs and Special One Out

The BBC go muckraking and the Special One is out of a job in today’s look into the football history vaults.

2006 – BBC Go Looking for Bungs
INVESTIGATIVE journalism was the order of the day in 2006, when the BBC transmitted their controversial Panorama programme that looked at the murky world of bungs in football. Read the fully story here.

2007 – Special One Out
Today in 2007, Jose Mourinho was leaving Stamford Bridge for the last time, having left the club ‘by mutual consent’. Chelsea’s most successful manager ever was out of a job after a little over three years in the job. Find out more here.

Better than those snide Sky Sports ads he’s been treating us to recently.

September 18 – Dodgy Keeper and Dodgy Gaffer

Bruce Grobbelaar and gets himself into trouble and Bryan Robson blags another job.

1998 – Dodgy Keeper
THEY say you have to be mad to be a goalkeeper. Whether it’s David James getting comedy haircuts or Rene Higuita scorpion-kicking his way out of trouble, goalies are always the eccentric ones. With his comedy moustache, wobbly knees and penchant for handstands Bruce Grobbelaar was one of football’s larger than life characters, but he was never far away from controversy, as was proved today in 1998 when he was charged by the FA over betting irregularities. Click here for the whole story.

2006 – How Does This Man Keep Getting Employed?
AS former England hot-shot and dog enthusiast Jimmy Greaves once said, it’s a funny old game. Football exists in a bubble where common sense and logic are notable by their absence. How else would you explain the fact that Bryan Robson has landed the managers job at so many high profile clubs? Click here for more.

Paddy Power getting their irony on.

September 17 – The Buddies Hit Europe and Derby’s Day

St Mirren hit the road and Derby peak far, far too early in today’s trip down memory lane.

1980 – The Buddies Hit Europe
WHEN you think of Scottish football in Europe, most people’s thoughts go straight to the Old Firm plugging away in the Champions League. Every few years though, you’ll get a fairytale story of a minnow making it onto Europe’s big stage. Back in 1980 it was the turn of St. Mirren, who were packing their bags for their longest ever away-day. Click here to find out where they went.

2007 – Derby’s Day
IT’S always bad news when your season peaks in the middle of September, and that’s exactly what happened to Derby County today in 2007. When the final whistle blew at the end of their match with Newcastle United, little did the Rams know that this would be their only three-point haul of the season. Read the whole sorry story here.

The poor fools. Little did they know what they were letting themselves in for.

September 16 – First Match and TV and Netbusters!

Football hits the small screen for the first time as the record for hardest ever shot gets shattered.

1937 – First Match on TV – Arsenal Can’t Lose!
ALREADY here at OTFD we have told you about the first showing of Match of the Day in 1964, and the launch of Sky Television’s coverage of the Premier League in 1992. But it was on this day way way back in 1937 that football had its first flirtation with TV that would eventually lead to the close marriage the beautiful game enjoys with the small screen today. Read the full story here.

1996 – Netbusters!
Although there is no official list of the hardest shots in football, the Guardian compiled an unofficial top ten last year which had some of the expected names on it. Beckham was on there twice with efforts clocked at 80.5mph and 97.9mph. Roberto Carlos, Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier were also there with their own netbusting shots.

Today in 1996 though one player eclipsed them all. Find out who here.

Contray to his nickname, Peter Lorimer doesn’t have the hardest shot.

September 15 – Derby’s Glorious Twelfth and Tinker Bridge

Derby go goal crazy in Europe and Ranieri arrives at Chelsea in today’s trip down memory lane.

1976 – Derby’s Glorious Twelfth
European football ain’t like it used to be. Back in the day there was no group stages, no endless pots of television money and no red-button for interactive coverage. And English teams didn’t need to produce outrageous comebacks in order to win trophies. Today in 1976 Derby were proving this as they became the first English side to bag 12 goals in a European game. Read more here.

2000 – Tinker Bridge
IN his short spell as manager at pre-Abramovich Chelsea, Gianluca Vialli led the club to five trophies including the FA and League Cups. Naturally, the response of then-chairman Ken Bates to Vialli being Chelsea’s most successful manager in decades was to sack him.

Bates turned to another Italian to replace him and on this day in 2000 Claudio Ranieri signed a three-year contract to become the new boss at Stamford Bridge. The former Fiorentina, Valencia and Atletico Madrid coach went all Cantona-like when he confirmed he had been contacted by Chelsea. “I was flattered by the call,” he said, adding: “If there are roses they will bloom.” Click here for more words of wisdom.

Goals, goals, goals at the Baseball Ground

September 14 – Paying the Penalty and George Best’s Debut

The first sightings of the penalty kick and George Best in today’s round up of footballing history.

1891 – Paying the Penalty
THE humble penalty kick: scourge of England, masterminded by Germany, invented by an Irishman and first seen today in 1891. Read all about it here.

1963 – Maradona good, Pele Better, George Best
IN 1961 Manchester United Manager Matt Busby received a telegram from Bob Bishop, one of his scouts in Northern Ireland. It read: “I think I’ve found you a genius.”

Two years later, on this very day in 1963, a 17-year-old George Best made his United debut in a 1-0 win over West Brom. The performer had found his stage and Bestie would grace Old Trafford for the next ten spell-binding years which would see him, and United at their peak. Click here for the full story.

Best knows his way around San Jose in this NASL game from 1981.

September 13 – A Wright Touch and Tanti Auguri Fabio

A tale of a striker and defender today, as Wrighty breaks records and Cannavaro celebrates his birthday.

1997 – A Wright Touch

WHEN a young Ian Wright was spending a week in the slammer after not paying his motoring fines you’d have got a decent price on him becoming the all-time leading goalscorer top for one of the world’s biggest clubs.

If there’s one thing sport delivers better than any other facet of life though, it’s a rags-to-riches story and that’s just what young Wrighty gave us today in 1997 when he broke Cliff Bastin’s 50-year-old Arsenal goalscoring record. Click here for the whole story.

1973 – Tanti Auguri Fabio

Today Fabio Cannavaro will be blowing out his candles, unwrapping his presents and listening intently to the radio in the hope someone has rung in and dedicated Joe Dulce’s classic hit Shaddupa Your Face for him as today he hits the big three-five. Read on here.

We figured you’d enjoy a clip where Wrighty’s feet do the talking rather than one of his incredibly annoying Gladiators/commentary box/Sun adverts.

September 12 – Fever Pitch and Do I Not Like That

Graham Taylor takes over the second-most mocked tenureship of the England job (sorry Schteve, you’re untouchable at number one) and Nick Hornby revolutionizes the world of football literature in today’s tales from the history books.

1990 – Do I Not Like That

Although Steve McLaren has been giving it a good go recently, the most mocked England manager of recent times is still probably Graham Taylor. It was on this day in 1990 that the Taylor era kicked-off, as his side faced Hungary at Wembley. See how he got on here.

1992 – Fever Pitch

ONCE upon a time football was a working class pursuit, watched by men in flat caps with flasks of bovril and stubby little fags huddled together on the terraces in black and white. These days it is glamorous, expensive, sparkly and in full technicolour. Where once it was seen as a grubby little sport for the great unwashed, now it is cool and watched by everyone from bin men to chief executives.

One man had a big impact on the changed perception of football from a loutish waste of time to a cerebral sport, and it wasn’t Rupert Murdoch. Arsenal fan Nick Hornby published his seminal football book Fever Pitch on this day in 1992 and football literature was changed forever. Read on here.

OK, so the film was a bit shit, but even Spurs fans can’t knock the book.

September 11 – FA Cup Stolen and the Long and Winding Road to Wembley

England’s most famous trophy is pinched and Australia gets involved with Wembley: delays ensue.

1895 – FA Cup Stolen

ANYONE who watched the 2001 FA Cup final will know that Michael Owen and Liverpool robbed Arsenal of victory in the competition that year, but even the Scousers went to the trouble of playing the match to get their hands on the trophy.

It seems that not everyone can be bothered with the whole rigmarole of actually winning the cup because it was on this day in 1895 that the FA Cup trophy itself was half-inched. Find out more here.

2000 – Tie Me Stadium Down Sport

ANYONE who has seen Wembley’s stunning giant arch spanning across north London cannot fail to be impressed by the sight. The finished stadium may be impressive, but the journey to get there was like trying to drive across Siberia in an old Lada that keeps breaking down, with bandits shooting at you, while chucking bundles of £50 notes out of the window the whole way. In short, the whole thing was a bloody nightmare with more delays than the Millennium Dome, and just as many set backs.

It all started on this day in 2000 when Australian firm Multiplex signed the deal to build the new stadium for a maximum cost of £326.5m, with the, in hindsight laughably ambitious target of the 2003 FA Cup final as the opening match. Read the full, long, long story here.

Match – the magazine we all grew up with – gives us a tour of the home of English football.