The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal
February 1920: the press discuss Arsenal (and gets it totally wrong.) (Yes they really were just as inept in the 1920s as they are today).
Below is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society. We expect to add 1000 new anniversaries to our files this year. The headline is taken from 2003.
9 February 1883: Birth of Bob Benson, the man who tragically died while playing a wartime friendly for Arsenal in 1916. In all he played 52 league games for Arsenal between 1913 and 1915.
9 February 1889: Arsenal 3 Gravesend 3. Arsenal refused to play extra time because of the late starting of the game and were disqualified from Kent Senior Cup.
9 February 1895: Arsenal played their last game (against Rotherham Town) before the Manor Ground was shut for 6 weeks because of unruly behaviour by spectators. An identical episode at Wolverhampton Wanderers the following season led to their ground being closed for only 2 weeks.
9 February 1901: Arsenal’s first ever victory in FA Cup Competition Proper: 2-0 against Blackburn.
9 February 1903: The final Woolwich Arsenal friendly against Millwall Athletic. These games between the local rivals had been a major source of income and local interest since 12000 turned up to a game in 1892
9 February 1918: Arsenal continued their up and down wartime campaign by losing to Fulham at home 0-3 in the London Combination with a crowd of 8000 at Highbury. The following Wednesday margarine rationing was introduced.
9 February 1933: A non-football story: Amidst hunger marches and social unrest the members of the Oxford Union voted “That this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and country.”
9 February 1935: Even in the all-conquering 1930s there could be upsets. Birmingham were on a run of six defeats and three draws in the last ten and 19th in the League. But on this day beat Arsenal 3-0.
9 February 1957: Having taken over from Tom Whittaker in October, Jack Crayston suffered only his 4th defeat – Man U 6 Arsenal 2. In the previous game Arsenal beat Sheffield W 6-3.
9 February 1984 Paul Mariner signed by Don Howe for Arsenal from Ipswich for whom he had played 260 league games, for £150,000. He played 60 league games for Arsenal and scored 14 goals, before moving on to Portsmouth.
9 February 1961. Tommy Docherty transferred to Chelsea (to become player coach) from Arsenal. He had played 83 league games for Arsenal but only played four times for Chelsea in the league.
9 February 2003: Bobby Robson outrageously accused Bergkamp without the slightest piece of evidence of deliberately getting Laurent Robert sent off in 1-1 draw with Newcastle.
9 February 2007: Arsenal signed a deal with Colorado Rapids owned by Stan Kroenke; Arsenal’s first venture into the USA and the first meeting with the man who eventually bought the club.
9 February 2009: Joe Haverty died aged 72. (Also reported as 7 Feb). He played 114 games for Arsenal and scored 25 goals, before moving on to Millwall, Celtic and Bristol Rovers and Shelbourne, before moving to the USA in December 1966. He returned to Ireland in 1969, with Shamrock Rovers before moving on to Drogheda.
9 February 2010: Kyle Bartley loaned to Sheffield Utd. He then went on to Rangers before permanently signing for Swansea in 2012.
Yesterday’s anniversaries:
Player returns to Arsenal bench 350 days after his injury
What’s on the Arsenal History Society site
An index to the various series that contain over 1,800 articles on this site concerning the history of Arsenal appears on our home page. Our current series is “Henry Norris at the Arsenal”
“Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” and “Making the Arsenal” are both available on Kindle, and we have a small number of copies of the printed edition available at £10 each + £2.00 postage and packing for delivery in UK. Please see here for more details
