When did Arsenal play two games at once, and who scored seven in one league game?

This is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day  files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.

Our headline is taken from this day in 1889 and 1935

Here are the stories from this day in history…

 


 

14 December 1889: Arsenal played teams in two separate cup matches in one day, following the refusal of both cup organisers to allow a postponement.  The results were Gravesend 2 Arsenal 7, (Kent Senior Cup) and Arsenal 6 St Martin’s Athletic 0, (London Senior Cup)

14 December 1895: Centre half Jimmy Boyle became the 4th goalkeeper to be used thus far in the season, but Arsenal remained 5th despite a 1-4 away defeat to Burton.  Boyd scored the Arsenal goal.

14 December 1922 Don Roper born.  He was spotted as a schoolboy by Southampton, playing for Bitterne Nomads, in the Hampshire League and turned professional with Southampton in 1939, (and not 1949 as Brian Glanville claimed in the Guardian) and started playing for the club during the second world war.

14 December 1935: Ted Drake scored seven in the 7-1 away win against Aston Villa. An 8th goal by Drake was controversially disallowed by the ref.  With manager Allison ill and unable to attend, Tom Whittaker had the job of phoning the result to the boss who asked who scored the goals Whittaker reported that he simply said, ‘Drake’.”  For the full story see here.

14 December 1937: John Milne sold to Middlesbrough.  He had made 54 appearances for Arsenal scoring 19 goals, and retired from football following the outbreak of war.

14 December 1946: Ronnie Rooke took over from the injured Reg Lewis and scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Charlton. Rooke went on to score 21 league goals in 24 games from this point on.

14 December 1985: Full debut for Niall Quinn in a 2-0 home win over Liverpool, in which Quinn also scored.  Charlie Nicholas got the other.  It was the end of a sequence of one win in five during which Arsenal had conceded 10 and scored just three.

14 December 2003: Arsenal 1 Blackburn 0.  The 16th league match of the unbeaten season.  Bergkamp scored the only goal in a match which was the only win in four successive league games.

14 December 2011: Under three years since his wild anti-Arsenal allegations as manager of Hull City (then of the Premier League) following on-the-pitch altercations manager Phil Brown lost his job at Preston

14 December 2013: Man City 6 Arsenal 3.  A reversal in this match and a conversion of two draws into wins, would have given Arsenal the league.

The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal

Norris at the Arsenal. 1-10 December 1918; allegations of corruption heard in court.

Yesterday’s anniversaries: 

Ian Wright warned by police about his abusive behaviour towards a group of Arsenal fans.

Special feature: 

Highbury: from start to end with previously unseen pictures of the end of the stadium.

What’s on the Arsenal History Society site

An index to the various series that contain over 1,700 articles on this site concerning the history of Arsenal appears on our home page.

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