More Than Mind Games | James Hamilton on Sport History and Psychology

Brian Clough, Featured

We’ve done it, at last, haven’t we: taken the silent and unanimous decision that Brian Clough matters. He’s made the step up: Brian Clough’s cultural now, gone from the close, sweaty barracks of football because he stands for England like Elgar and Dickens. The news about Clough isn’t in the tabloids anymore. It’s strictly broadsheet, [...]

1850-1919, 1920-1945, Featured, John Cameron

(WARNING: this is quite long) I’d been casting about for months for an image that might effectively sum up the history of English football. A face, a stadium, perhaps a team lineup or training session. Perhaps a German airport, snowbound. It was a search for a picture that would say the most in the least [...]

1850-1919, 1920-1945, 1946-1985, Featured

What British football had become by 1905, the world game reflects now. League systems, knock-out cups, international matches, the basic rules, professionalism, the nature of the football club, football administration – they’re all British inventions dating from a hectic 42 year period beginning in 1863 with the formation of the Football Association. But in the [...]

1920-1945, 1946-1985, FA Cup, World Cup

Presenting the Trophy: 1929, 1954 and 1958

Posted on 11 August 2010

Commenter Will contrasts aspects of the 1929 FA Cup Final crowd (see here) with modern football audience behaviour: They are all there early. If you imagine the FA Cup final now there would be people drifting in right up to the kick off. But the stands are full at least 10 minutes before kick off. [...] Continue Reading

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Aston Villa, Martin O'Neill

In the wake of Martin O’Neill’s resignation..

Posted on 09 August 2010

..this, from the programme of Villa’s 1897 FA Cup Final, might be the best they can do. Better than nothing, now the nights are drawing in. Continue Reading

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1946-1985, England, Manchester United

England Before and After the Munich Disaster

Posted on 09 August 2010

In his analysis of eleven turning points in English football history, Rob Marrs has this to say about the Munich Disaster: Like 1966, I won’t write too much here. That terrible day robbed football (not just English football) of great players like Duncan Edwards. It is a point of conjecture to wonder what England would [...] Continue Reading

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1920-1945, Charles Foweraker, FA Cup, Jack Tinn, Portsmouth

The 1929 FA Cup Final – with sound

Posted on 07 August 2010

In 1929, pioneering firm British Talking Pictures Ltd went to Wembley and made a – talking picture! of the FA Cup Final. It was what Mitchell and Kenyon would have done, but by 1929 new tech chose other, newer vehicles. Considering its subject, this film is astonishingly early. You can watch, and listen, to the [...] Continue Reading

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1920-1945, 1946-1985, 1986+

11 Key Moments in Football History

Posted on 03 August 2010

The National Football Museum is putting together its Eleven Key Moments in Football History for their new location and is interested to hear yours. Here are mine: 1864-8: Quintin Hogg, assisted by right-hand man Lord Kinnaird (who’d go on to be President of the Football Association and create the tradition of a royal presence at [...] Continue Reading

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Personal

Good News

Posted on 31 July 2010

We arrived home in Edinburgh tonight to find the letter from the Home Office on the mat. My wife’s application for British citizenship has been accepted. Continue Reading

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Brian Clough, Featured

Brian Clough: who he really was, and what he really achieved