Yes. I also hadn't realised how lions could squeak like mice. Sad in some ways, fun in another. (After all, we're still laughing at Yeovil Town in 1949!) Not sure about the first one, mate. Substitutes were just being talked about in UK around that time. What the rule was in Euro games, I'm not sure. Celtic have traditionally worn their numbers (often coloured red) on their shorts. It's only changed in fairly recent years because of a FIFA or UEFA ruling that it must now be on shirts. (Interfering tw*ts).
Yeovil 1949. 2-1 for non league against 1st division safc. There reward was a 5th round tie away to Man City and an 8-0 humping. Bloody hell there was 80,000 at Maine rd. Yes i am a google cheat and looked it up.
Ive just re-read your post.ref celtic and subs. So no subs were allowed in english/scottish football. Until? This is not something i knew. So teams often finished with 9 or 10 men?
I'm not quite sure when subs were introduced in UK, though Scotland was traditionally one season before England when it came to rule changes. Certainly, it would be late-1960s or even '70s. Three of the 1950s FA Cup finals were ruined by teams playing with 10 men (1952, 1957, and 1959 [the latter being probably the finest purist final in post-war years]).
That 59 final sounds interesting. The game was notable for an unusually large number of stoppages due to injury, particularly to Nottingham Forest players, which was put down to the lush nature of the Wembley turf. The most notable of these stoppages occurred when goalscorer Roy Dwight was carried off the pitch after breaking his leg in a tackle with Brendan McNallyafter 33 minutes. This also proved a turning point in the game as Forest had been the more dominant team to that point, leading by two goals at the time. Luton gradually took control of the match from this point on, scoring midway through the second half. Forest were reduced to nine fit men with ten minutes remaining when Bill Wharewas crippled with cramp, being forced to play wide on the wing where he was little more than a spectator. ............... the final whistle the Forest managerBilly Walker entered the field to congratulate his team and was chased by a steward who tried to marshall him back off. The steward mistook Walker to be a pitch invader..
Envelope for Rodgers Analysis Liam McLeod, BBC Scotland commentator "Celtic's reputation has taken a battering. One of their worst results ever? I would say it's the worst result ever. This has probably superseded anything that has gone before. It is that bad for the club, it's that bad for this team and I think Brendan Rodgers realises the size of the task he now has here. "It's inexplicable to think that Celtic are having to come back from a deficit in the second leg of a Champions League qualifier against a side from the overseas British territory of Gibraltar. It's quite incredible." please log in to view this image
Yes - and Roy Dwight was either Elton John's elder brother or cousin (Elton's real name is Reg Dwight). When Elton later bought Watford - and took them to a final - it wasn't for any pretentious 'pop star' reasons - he really was/is a football fanatic. One other oddity about that final. Joe McDonald (ex-Sunderland left-back, now Forest) marked Billy Bingham (ex-Sunderland right winger, now Luton). They'd played together in the same team for about four years! Both of them left Sunderland within a year of Alan Brown taking over here, as did all but two of the Bank of England team
The Celtic team that won the 67 final. Out of the 15 man squad, 14 were born within 10 miles of celtic park. The other a whopping 30 miles away. Now that was a homegrown team.
One further poinr, Commachio. That Wembley turf was notorious for cramp. It was pure Cumberland turf, never anything else. And it had so much 'give' in it, it was hell on the calves. Cramp was commonplace. It'll never be replaced. To me, it was the finest of all title wins.
You know loads about jock footy. Would you like to see the big two in the english leagues? At what starting point i have no idea.
I was weened on jock footy mate. Thing is, there was no European club competition until 1956. So, if Sunderland wanted an attractive 'novelty' game in mid-week before that, we played friendlies with Scottish clubs. It was an easy coach ride for some of them - they could be back home by midnight with a nice 'gate' share in their pocket. They weren't easy games in those days - East Fife beat us on our own ground once. They had such a good team in the early '50s, we bought two of them - George Aitken and Charlie Fleming. I also saw Celtic, Airdrieonians, and - the real 'glamour' team of that time - Hibernian. And I swear to God if the European Cup had started three years ealier than it did, Hibs would have won it! (Santiago Beurnabau was still building his famous Real Madrid at that time, and nowhere near Hibs' standard in, say, 1952 or '53). Hibs had the forward line from hell - all five of them were Scottish internationals and could have walked into any English side. Funnily enough, since that game at Roker in 1954, Hibs are still my 'second team' Unforgetable. PS : No, I wouldn't want the big two in England. I want them to stay in Scotland and help their own clubs survive. I hope one day jock footy can revive. Its been a great footballing nation, and with patience, it might be again. I doubt it. Scottish kids - or should I say British kids? - aren't as devoted to football as they were. I think, without foreign imports, UK football is pretty much f**ked. But then, look at Wales this year. Who knows?
apparently a journalist was on the way to the match and he hailed a cab driver down, he asked the cabbie if he was going to the game. The cabbie only replied and said that he was playing and allegedly he was the one who scored the goal? Could be bollocks but thought the story was funny like the result.
Could well be. England played a team of part-timers at Wembley in 1953. One of them - Jozsef Bozsik - was even a serving Member of Parliament (the first ever to play in an international game at Wembley)! And they absolutely murdered us. Hungary were the first foreign side ever to win at Wembley - and he'd played centre-half 45 times for them already.
