Colin Frederick Hill as born on 12 November 1963 in Uxbridge. He played first for Hillingdon Borough before joining Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1977, becoming an apprentice in 1980, and then on 31 July 1981 Colin Hill signs professional terms. He made his debut for Arsenal’s first team on 20 April 1983 in the Norwich …
Read More “Colin Hill: one big season, and the stadium of kicking a ball in any direction”
By Tony Attwood Terry John Mancini was born 4 October 1942 as Terry Sealy) in Camden Town. He joined Watford in 1960 and as he said in an interview much later, “I played for 5 years in and mostly out of Watford’s first team.” Then after a serious injury he spent two seasons playing for …
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By Tony Attwood 8 April 2001 This was one of those games where all the talk in the press before the game about the class of their new manager seeping into the Tottenham side was shown up for what it was. A lot of twaddle about Hoddle. It was also a game where even the …
Read More “When Arsenal beat Tottenham in Manchester. The FA Cup semi-final of 2001”
By Tony Attwood To often as we trace players who have come through Arsenal’s youth system in recent years, but then not quite made it, we find them slipping away to lower league clubs, and never quite living up to the promise that we saw in their earlier days at Arsenal. But it looks like …
Read More “Whatever happened to Benik Afobe?”
By Tony Attwood Tommy Shanks is one of those Arsenal players who was incredibly important in the history of the club, but of whom we know precious little. Such as I have found I’ve put together below, but as always, if you know any more, please do get in touch. Here’s some of the …
Read More “Tommy Shanks: the mystery of the star of Arsenal’s promotion”
17 March brings us the usual stream of anniversaries, the full list of which is given below. But among them are two birthdays: Pat Rice and Lee Dixon, plus two significant matches in Double Seasons: 17 March 1998: WHU 1 Arsenal 1, FA Cup 6 Replay. Anelka scored in the game, and Arsenal won …
Read More “Doubles, birthdays, and our third semi final (plus Reading’s first)”
Roger Davidson was born in Islington on 27 October 1948 Roger played for England at schoolboy level in midfield and joined Arsenal in September 1964 aged 15. Roger became a pro in October 1965 and on 16 March 1968 in the game Arsenal 0 Wolverhampton 2 he made his first and last senior appearance. It was a tough …
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The following are extracts from the Arsenal Anniversary files. Most days we publish the anniversaries for the day on the home page of this site and Untold Arsenal. 1 March 1930: West Ham 0 Arsenal 3. FA Cup round 6 on the way to the cup final and Arsenal’s first ever major trophy. 2 March …
Read More “West Ham in March – how we’ve played them in the past”
By Tony Attwood Sometimes the media come out with some fairly obscure records and odd statistics, but rarely when Arsenal was involved. So it was no surprise to find that the record that fell on 9 March 2015 was ignored by all the media, as was the fact that a Arsenal held on to a …
Read More “Arsenal and Wenger secure the all-time semi-final records”
William George Marks was born 9 April 1915 in Wiltshire, playing at first for Salisbury Corinthians. He joined Arsenal on 16 March 1936 as an amateur, and was quickly moved onto Margate, the nursery club, where he stayed for two years before returning in the summer of 1938. He moved into Arsenal reserves for 1938/9 as …
Read More “George Marks: the Stadium Mystery keeper, and world record transfer.”
Arsenal’s move from Plumstead to Highbury was welcomed by most clubs – because it offered them two benefits. The first was financial. When clubs played each other in league matches at that time (1913) the clubs shared the gate money. Not equally, but still it was an important source of income for visiting clubs. Especially …
Read More “1 March: one of Arsenal’s greatest, but sadly often forgotten, anniversaries”