Jonathan Wilson revisits a former footballing preoccupation and laments the loss of a once unique part of any ground
Reading fans’ accounts of their first visit to a stadium, it seems most are struck by two things: the pure greenness of the pitch (which seems odd given how ungrassy most pitches of two or more decades ago look by comparison with modern football) and the intensity of the noise.
For two clubs in north-east Italy relegation from Serie A was just the start of the problems. Gavin Willacy saw the trouble unfold
If Sheffield Wednesday, Reading or Ipswich get relegated from the Championship in May, their fans would be safe in assuming that the beleaguered club will kick off next season in League One. And if Southampton stay in the third division, you can at least expect them to be on the starting line again come August.
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Skip to 6 minutes, 48 seconds for Eddie Cavanagh of Huyton.
by Simon Hughes
Trinity Mirror, £14.99
Reviewed by John Williams
From WSC 275 January 2010
Bill Shankly once told his captain Tommy Smith: “Managing a football club is like drowning: sublimely peaceful and pleasant once the struggle is over.” Shanks always got a little melancholy as the summer months stretched ahead with no football action. He also said wisely that the most important quality a manager must have is “the natural ability to pick a player”. Many of today’s Liverpool supporters might question the current incumbent on this score.
Gary Howard looks back at the 1949-50 Division Two season
The long-term significance
The post-war boom in football attendances reached a peak in 1949-50. On December 27, 1949, a record aggregate of 1,272,155 spectators watched the 44 League games, an average of 28,193. Even a rail strike in London didn’t hamper fans’ enthusiasm – 100 Brentford fans hired aeroplanes to take them to Hull. Second Division Tottenham were the best-supported team in the country, a feat achieved only once since, by Manchester United in 1974-75. Spurs went on to win the League title the next season. They quickly declined after that, but were revived in the late 1950s under the management of Bill Nicholson who had been a wing-half in their back-to-back title winning teams of 1949-51.