January 26 – Pick’n'Mix
THE great Bob Dylan once told us in verse that the times they are a-changing. Indeed they are Bob. We now find ourselves in a world where the economy is shot to bits, Man City is now the richest club in the world yet no one is taking them seriously enough to actually sign for them, and now we find out that someone even richer than Roman Abramovich is trying to beat him at his own game by launching a takeover of Chelsea. Has the world gone mad? Have we all taken leave of our senses?!
To cap it all the world even looks different, especially down the high street where well-known retailers that have been part of the landscape for decades are starting to drop like flies. Even Woolworths has gone for crying out loud. No longer can you pop in for some sweets or one of those tiny cans of coke or whatever else it was they sold.
Today here at OTFD we offer you our, admittedly belated, tribute to the passing of Woolies with a pick’n'mix of stories from football’s past that occurred on this day – a smörgasbord of trivia based nostalgia if you will.
We start way back in 1926 when John Logie Baird, the inventor of television gave the world’s first public demonstration of a working television system on this day at his laboratory in London in front of members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times. Nobody present knew it at the time of course, but television was to transform football. It was just 11 years after Baird’s demonstration that the first televised football match was aired – a specially arranged game between Arsenal and Arsenal reserves.
Next we move on to 1957. Last year there were no draws in the FA Cup fourth round, and therefore no need for any replays. The last time such a thing happened was more than half a century earlier, way back in 1957. Indeed most ties came nowhere near drawing with several very high scoring games: Blackpool did Fulham to the tune of 6-2, Burnley walloped New Brighton 9-0, and Birmingham knocked Southend for six, winning 6-1 away. The closest any matches came to drawing was Barnsley’s 1-0 win at Cardiff and Bournemouth’s win at Wolves by the same scoreline. Villa also won by the odd goal, beating Middlesbrough 3-2 at Ayresome Park, on their way to the final where they beat Manchester United.
Two of the game’s great managers were born on this day, the first, in 1919, is Bill Nicholson. The Yorkshireman arrived at Tottenham when he was just 16 and save for a break for World War Two, he would serve the club as a player, coach and most famously, manager, for nearly 40 years. He oversaw Spurs winning a hatful of trophies including the League and Cup double in 1961 – the first double of the twentieth century, as well as European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963, making Spurs the first British winners of a European trophy.
That same year on this day a future European trophy winner was born in Portugal. José Mourinho was famously Sir Bobby Robson’s translator at Barcelona before really making his name at Porto where he won the European Cup. He went to Chelsea with a brief to deliver the same trophy but despite winning their first League title for 50 years could not succeed in Europe with the club.
Today is also significant for two Liverpool strikers. Today in 1982 Ian Rush scored his first hat-trick for Liverpool, two years after signing from Chester. The mustachioed hit man netted three times in the second half as the Reds beat Notts County 4-0 at Meadow Lane after Ronnie Whelan had opened the scoring in the first half. Liverpool went on to win the league that season while Rush went on to score a remarkable 16 hat-tricks for the club.
In 1990 Israeli striker Ronny Rosenthal was on trial at Luton Town when he was spotted by Liverpool. Manager Kenny Dalglish signed him on loan and it proved to be a masterstroke as Rocket Ronny scored seven goals in the Reds final eight games of the season to help them to the League title once again. He was soon signed on a permanent deal with the club but never made the same impact as when he first arrived, and is largely remembered for a shocking miss against Aston Villa in 1992 (see clip below), which he says he doesn’t regret. He told the Guardian in 2007: “If you asked me if I’d want to do it again I’d say yes, because it put me on the map. I laugh.” Good man. Today in 1994 his Liverpool adventure came to an end when he was sold to Spurs for £250,000.
Well there we are, we hope you found something you liked in our buffet of football history but if not, never mind, you can always read what we were on about last year, or come back tomorrow.
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February 22 - Take Your Pick | On This Football Day on February 22nd, 2009
[...] to popular demand and after being inundated by literally one request to reprise the Pic ‘n’ Mix selection we offered you back in January, we’ve decided to revisit the format and offer you a [...]