Colin Hill: one big season, and the stadium of kicking a ball in any direction

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 …

Terry Mancini: Arsenal occasional and thoroughly decent bloke

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 …

When Arsenal beat Tottenham in Manchester. The FA Cup semi-final of 2001

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 …

Tommy Shanks: the mystery of the star of Arsenal’s promotion

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 …

Doubles, birthdays, and our third semi final (plus Reading’s first)

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 …

West Ham in March – how we’ve played them in the past

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 …

Arsenal and Wenger secure the all-time semi-final records

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 …

George Marks: the Stadium Mystery keeper, and world record transfer.

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 …

1 March: one of Arsenal’s greatest, but sadly often forgotten, anniversaries

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 …