When Ipswich Town lost 4-0 at Scunthorpe United’s Old Show Ground in August 1960, no man would have predicted their ascension to become Champions of England less than two years later. Contrary to impressions of the era, average gates at Portman Road were modest at an average of 15,095, and the club had only emerged from the Third Division South in 1957. You may have heard of the man in charge of course and even then, Alf Ramsey had an England playing spell on his CV. In managerial terms, however, the notorious vowel contortionist was still finding his footing, even…
All posts tagged History
20 Years of Fan Culture Part 2
One early Nineties issue of When Saturday Comes depicted a grinning Frank Rijkaard giving the thumbs up to Channel 4’s landing of Serie A coverage for a mere million pounds and comparing this favourably with the £304 million price BSkyB forked out for the right to bring us the newly formed Premier League. At the time, with Liverpool in the early stages of decline and George Graham’s unremarkable Arsenal side the reigning Champions, the sum did seem pretty ridiculous and as the fledgling broadcaster struggled to land subscriptions in its early months, the last laugh was certainly with the Italians.In…
Great Football League Teams 2: Manchester City 1988-9
Great? Probably not in the conventional sense of the term, but Manchester City’s promoted side of 1988-89 deserve the label for their sheer likeability. City trailed Champions Chelsea by 17 points at season end, and were roundly humiliated by the Blues in the run in, a match that saw the Graham Roberts inspired Londoners canter to a 3-0 lead before stepping off the gas at Maine Road. They had also started the season with a defeat at Hull and a 4-1 embarrassment at home to neighbours Oldham, been knocked out of the FA Cup at Brentford and lost 4-0 at…
20 Years of Fan Culture Part 1
In the first of a three part series charting the development of a different fan culture since the Eighties, I turn my attention to the early years of the fanzine movement.In a recent post covering Howard Wilkinson era Leeds United, I underlined how appalling the Eighties were for the whites, but in all truth, they were a pretty bad time for us all. The wider populace had to put up with Margaret Thatcher and Bruno Brookes, but football fans were extra noteworthy for their pariah status. In 1990, I worked for a small publisher in Reading with a staff of…
Great Football League Teams 1: Leeds United 1989-90
The 1980s could not have been more miserable for Leeds United. Unfortunate to suffer an eight year sojourn outside Division 1 at a time when football reached its lowest ebb and beset by hooliganism and low gates, it was a decade of despair matched only by their recent, financially driven decline. Lowlights included Paul Petts’ hat-trick in a 5-1 defeat at Gay Meadow in 1983 and a 5-0 tonking by Chelsea that saw the whites’ hated rivals promoted on the last day of that same campaign. Throughout the period, Leeds had obsessively relied on the heroes of yesteryear to kickstart…
P Squires: Interesting read, but '...which by train is comfortably further from L...
Lloyd: An enjoyable, snappy piece of writing Will.
Going through Worcester...
Frank Heaven: LR - yes, that's right, with Albion and Wolves being in Staffordshire....
Lanterne Rouge: Great piece Will. Of course country boundary changes do tend to confus...
Eoghan Darbyshire: Quality player, could see he was head and shoulders above the rest of...
