The Football History Boys

The 1920’s are often seen as a great time in the world. People were experiencing new things, life was booming, and football was pretty much a staple of the working class. London was a happening place for the wealthy, and terrible for the working class. Ironically the same thing can be said for the city a century later. The FA Cup was a huge deal at the time, and sometimes a smaller club could pull off something big.



Brentford is a well supported club and back in the late 1920s, a former football referee Harry Curtis arrived at Griffin Park. What the supporters didn’t realize was the fun they were about to see with Curtis around. The Bee's had just been accepted into the Third Division as founding members after the First World War. They spent the ensuing years after the acceptance trying to avoid the re-election process. Their league form didn’t show immediate improvement, but a great cup run enthralled the fans.

The best player of this side was Patsy Hendron. Hendron had a history o…

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As part of a series of Scottish football history articles written for us by radio presenter Alex Horsburgh, today he relives the glory moments of Dunfermline Athletic, and explains why the east of Scotland team have a nickname that lends itself more to golf than football, or does it? 

Dunfermline Athletic FC celebrate their 135th birthday this month and the club from the old capital of Scotland, the resting place of King Robert The Bruce at Dunfermline Abbey, are getting ready to resume their battle to get back to the top division of the Scottish League when Scottish football resumes in August.



135 years of age this month and formed from a breakaway from a cricket club by football enthusiasts in 1885 [The former Dunfermline FC had existed in a soccer sense since 1874], Dunfermline Athletic (since 1885) have always been regarded as one of Scotland's biggest sides outside its three major cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen with potential for a big support.

The club from the anc…

A turbulent decade, the 1930s would see the very fabric of society torn apart by the emergence of ruthless dictatorships and repressive ideologies. It perhaps comes as a shock, therefore, that Germany, under the brutal fascist regime of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, was chosen to host the 1936 Summer Olympics. Centred in the eastern capital of Berlin, the games proved an opportunity to demonstrate Germany’s rebirth to the watching world.
The 1930s had seen football become increasingly less popular at the Olympics. The development of the World Cup at the start of the decade meant the Olympics were only open to amateur players. Even though there was a lack of recognisable faces, the absence of the game’s professionals would help the final tournament to be incredibly competitive, with the forthcoming Second World War’s key nations all taking part in Berlin. Sport in Nazi Germany had become heavily politicised in order to promote its leader’s ideology on the watching masses. The appearance of …

As part of a series of Scottish football history articles written for us by radio presenter Alex Horsburgh, today investigates attendance figures from 50 years ago, when Scotland enjoyed good footballing times...

It's not always recognised that Scotland (with a population of nearly 6 million) still have one of the biggest overall attendance figures per head of population for domestic football amongst smaller European nations. Even the Scottish nation itself sometimes forgets to celebrate the fact that a high percentage of the population still attend matches, too often looking south of the border for football comparisons, while at the same time unfairly criticising the quality of the Scottish domestic game. 



I discovered attendance figures from 50 years ago, when Celtic were reaching a European Cup final and Scottish players were still a mainstay of the game in England, and found a positive response from social media for a two division set up North of the border.

In this article I&#…

As part of a series of Scottish football history articles written for us by radio presenter Alex Horsburgh, today he considers some of the best kits in Scotland...

As Hibernian FC launch their NHS 'away' kit to follow on from their idea to carry a 'Thank You NHS' logo on their iconic green and white home shirt when Scottish football finally returns [£5 donation from every fan going to Lothians Health Foundation]. Our Lockdown writer Alex Horsburgh pens another piece as the tentative phase one of moving out of Lockdown begins north of the border.

Everyone will have their own favourite of course, but this time it's his top five iconic Scottish football strips, which are purely personal picks, compiled over 50 years of watching the UK game:

1. Scotland - 1976-82

Following on from England's deal with Admiral Sportswear in 1974, which saw Three Lions manager Don Revie bring in the first concept kit for one of the home nations, Scotland followed the trend with a more u…

David Collins looks back at his first visit to Ninian Park, former home of Cardiff City Football Club, and describes the pivotal role played in his own story by a true giant of Welsh football.
I have to say my personal memories of John Charles' glittering career are somewhat limited. I wasn't quite around when ‘Pele broke our hearts’ to send Wales out of the 1958 World Cup in Sweden and by the time I had settled into my regular spot on the Ninian Park terraces during the 1970s the great man's best days were behind him.
Despite this, he remains a surprisingly significant figure in my development as a football supporter. As we use these football free times to perhaps look back on our fond memories of times we spent at football grounds in the past, this is a good opportunity to explain why.
During season 1967/68, John Charles had been appointed player-manager of Hereford United. The big man held a two-fold ambition for his new club: to steer the Bulls into the Football League an…