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Charles Edward McGibbon was a sergeant with the Royal Engineers who played football for Royal Artillery, and then signed for Woolwich Arsenal. However he couldn’t get into the first team so went on loan to Eltham and then to New Brompton (now Gillingham) of the Southern League where he became their top scorer. McGibbon then moved to [...] 28th March 1910. 100 years ago. On that day Woolwich Arsenal played Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. I don’t think anyone had invented the phrase “four pointer” at that time, but that is exactly what it was. Chelsea had had a good Easter programme and had pulled ahead of Woolwich Arsenal – whose dreadful run had left them [...] 100 years ago London had three Division I clubs – Woolwich Arsenal (who were actually in a small town in Kent), Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. All three were having a tough time of it, and the only things that were keeping all three from being relegated were a) In those days, only two clubs went down b) Bad as [...] . On Thursday March 24th 1910, Woolwich Arsenal players travelled 285 miles to Newcastle on Tyne. On Friday March 25th 1910 (Good Friday), they played Newcastle and drew 1-1 That same day they took a train back to London – another 285 miles. On Saturday March 26th 1910, the self same players (with just one change to the [...] . The Wednesday, whom Woolwich Arsenal played on Easter Saturday, 1910, came out of The Wednesday Cricket Club – a club which, as we can all guess, played cricket on a Wednesday. They turned to football to have something to do in the winter. They predated the Arsenal by 19 years – although they started out by playing [...] . And guess what – we drew 1-1 in front of a crowd of 20,000. Wholly unexpected, but a point is a point, (especially in the days of only two points for a win) and it kept us out of the relegation zone. As I mentioned before, Woolwich Arsenal had to play on Good Friday (25 March), the [...] Just about the longest journey that there was in football took place 100 years ago today, as Woolwich Arsenal set out from Kent, into London, across London, and then on the train to Newcastle. Arsenal v Newcastle in the FA Cup semi final 1906 Newcastle United started out in 1881, as a spin off of a local cricket [...] Easter 100 years ago ran from 25th March (Good Friday) through to 28th March (Easter Monday). Nothing spectacular there you might say, and I would thoroughly agree with you, save for the fact of the fixture list. For Woolwich Arsenal it read… 25th March – Newcastle United away Three games in four [...] Today’s sponsor: ArsenalGifts.com is a one-stop shop for all things Arsenal related, from replica kits and retro shirts through to Emirates Stadium tours, memorabilia and novelty items. Visit http://www.arsenalgifts.com . The day Tottenham Hotspur tried to Buy Arsenal By the last 10 days of March 1910, the financial position of Woolwich Arsenal had reached breaking point. Dr John [...] Oxfam have revealed that the most valuable shares ever left to the charity were shares in the originalArsenal Football Club. The original Woolwich Arsenal shares which were offered for sale to the people of Woolwich and Plumstead by Henry Norris in 1910 are still the shares that are traded now as Arsenal FC. When the club moved [...] Dire and desperate times, playing against an up and coming Bradford City team, in front of a crowd of 14,000. And we won 1-0. I have no idea how we did it, as I have no newspaper report, but we did it. After six games in which we won none and scored just two goals, we got a [...] 100 years ago Woolwich Arsenal were in desperate straits. One position from the foot of the table, and on the edge of administration. And today 100 years ago they went to Bradford City. Woolwich Arsenal had been formed in 1886 of course – a prime time for the creation of clubs. Bradford City were in the next [...] . One of the amusing sidelines that emerged in researching 1910 in Arsenal’s history was just how far Henry Norris (who bought Woolwich Arsenal) would go to get his view in print. He wrote the programme notes, he wrote in various papers – but that was not enough. In July 1908 Norris was part of a consortium [...] . . Arsenal 0 Manchester U 0, 12 March 1910 There’s no public records of this match that I can find – and quite possibly that is just as well. The crowd was a mere 5,000, and it took Woolwich Arsenal to five games without a win. The bottom of the table, after the match, read Chelsea 30 played, 23 points It would be wrong to think that large crowds in football are a modern phenomena. Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge was opened in 1905, and although the terraces started crumbling within a matter of weeks, it was proudly proclaimed as holding 80,000. Mind you it was built by Archie Leitch, who was always prone to such exaggeration. Manchester United’s Old [...] Arsenal’s darkest hour indeed. For in tracing the history of Arsenal FC 100 years ago we are now at the lowest point. Of course from this moment in history we know that Arsenal very much did survive, although not without a relegation first. But 100 years ago to the day, there was no certainty in that. In fact [...] Arsenal had no game this weekend because they had been knocked out of the cup. The match they should have played was moved to the monday (no hanging about for re-arranged fixture organisation or permission from the police 100 years back). Meanwhile Henry Norris had gone cool on the issue of Woolwich Arsenal, and predicted in the [...] Quite how mid-week games were organised 100 years ago has always been beyond me. March 2nd 1910 was a Wednesday and Woolwich Arsenal were away at Forest. This being long before the era of floodlighting the match kicked off in the afternoon – probably 2.30pm although I can find no formal record of that. Forest were 13th in [...] Towards the end of February 100 years ago the word began to go around that despite all their problems Woolwich Arsenal did indeed have at least one terrific young player. He was 17 years old and playing in the reserves. There is a report of a match between the Reserves and Croydon Common in the London League [...] |
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