September 8 – Football League Kicks Off and Black and Whites in the Red

Two of the oldest footballing institutions go under the microscope today: Notts County and the Football League itself.

1888 – First Football League Matches Played

I won’t beat around the bush. In 1888 the game of football was a shambles, a total hotchpotch. The professional game had been legalised three years earlier but the clubs were now getting their collective knickers in a twist over their fixture lists. See what happened here.

2003 – Black and Whites in the Red

Notts County is the world’s oldest professional football club but today in 2003 the Magpies came within a whisker of extinction after 141 years of existence. Read the full story here.

Things have picked up at the Lane in recent months.