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  • The Victorian Football Miscellany

    The Victorian Football Miscellany

    The Victorian Football Miscellany is a quirky and fascinating collection of trivia, facts and anecdotes from football’s earliest years. Delve into an absorbing world of ox-bladder balls, baggy-kneed knickerbockers, and outstanding moustaches, and read remarkable tales Continue reading →

  • Goal-Post: Victorian Football

    Goal-Post: Victorian Football

    Goal-Post is a new collection of Victorian football writing, containing first-hand accounts of the birth and development of the world’s greatest game, written by those who were there to witness it. The book highlights some of the players, officials, clubs and matches Continue reading →

Victorian Premier League

Victorian Premier League

What would the English Premier League look like today if its football clubs had retained their original Victorian names and colours? The league title would have been won by a works’ team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Newton Heath would be joined in the Champions League by Continue reading →

The Fight for the Association Cup

The Fight for the Association Cup

The West-End streets of London wore quite a holiday look on Saturday morning. There was the crowd of sprucely-dressed gentlemen from the universities, attired in the tallest of collars, the glossiest of hats, and the shiniest of patent leathers, who were up for the boat Continue reading →

Blackguardly and Disgraceful

Blackguardly and Disgraceful

In 1887, the Northern Echo printed an alarming yet undeniably amusing letter from Cleveland referee John Reed Jnr describing a match between Yarm and North Skelton that had resulted in ‘the most blackguardly and disgraceful scenes ever witnessed on a football Continue reading →

Penalty! Victorian Football’s Spot-Kick

Penalty! Victorian Football’s Spot-Kick

The penalty kick was introduced to football in 1891, and was the brainchild of Irishman William McCrum. A goalkeeper for Mitford FC and a member of the Irish FA, McCrum proposed the penalty as a solution to reduce the number of deliberate fouls being committed to Continue reading →

How Upton Park Won Olympic Gold

How Upton Park Won Olympic Gold

Football was included as an exhibition sport at the second modern Olympic Games in Paris in September 1900. Great Britain was represented by a now-defunct club side, and no medals were ever awarded. Nevertheless, Britain has been retrospectively recorded as Continue reading →

The Longest Match

The Longest Match

In 1898-99, a league match between the Wednesday (now Sheffield Wednesday) and Aston Villa took more than 15 weeks to complete. The first 79 and a half minutes were played on 26 November. Papers reported that the match had ‘created a great amount of interest in Continue reading →

Football’s First Referees

Football’s First Referees

In 1841, one of the first recorded club matches took place between the Body-Guards Club from Rochdale and their local rivals the Fear-Noughts Club, with a cash prize and a barrel of gin up for grabs. Understandably, with so much at stake, the teams had to ensure a fair Continue reading →

Brodie’s Goal Nets

Brodie’s Goal Nets

The goal net was invented by Everton fan and civil engineer John Alexander Brodie. He was prompted into action by a wrongly-disallowed goal that robbed his team of a victory against Accrington in 1889. Before goal nets, it was often difficult for officials to tell Continue reading →