bluearmyfaction

The Sheffield goal was half the width because of the rouges, but they dropped them by 1868, and went to an 8 yd x 9 ft goal. Gaelic football was a conscious creation in the 1880s to form a distinctly Nationalist form of a football game and it was pretty much buried for a while. Rugby got to Ireland long before Association, which was brought to Dublin by the poshos from the public school, and to Belfast by Scots shipyard and distillery workers. So the divide with regard to 1921 in Association terms was not just geopolitical but also social. Shots over the bar never counted in Association - other than the technical point that for a brief period in the 1860s there WAS no bar. When the mark was dropped in Association is not clear. It was in the 1863 laws, but in 1865 replaced with a bland prohibition on carrying the ball, later extended to no knocking on, and in 1870 all handling abolished (which made things confusing for goalkeepers). It seems that in the late 1860s the only catching was in the Harrow code, but stopping the ball with the hand was generally OK in Association. What the abolition of that did though was make the passing game more important - until 1870, you couldn't pick the ball up out of someone dribbling, but anyone could punch out a cross, so what was the point in a passing game? Afterwards, however, the tactic of two working down the wing and "middling" it became a key technique.

There were loads of 4-a-side tournaments in the Victorian era between seasons and these were often decided by "points", I wonder if these were corners, or simply shots on goal. One FA Cup tie was decided by toss of a coin - Sheffield FC v Shropshire Wanderers, back in 1873. Probably to save the costs of a second replay.

The irony being that Moffat were quite close to the church - two vicars as vice-presidents, a Reformed Church reverend as club president, another vicar as the club's SFA rep, and the Churchill of the Churchill Cup was the vicar of Moffat. They did not however demonstrate much charity in the first Charity Cup, walking off in protest at "a committee, composed mainly of Dumfries gentlemen, appointed a Dumfries referee for a match between a Dumfries club and strangers". The most notorious side in the area however seems to have been Mid-Annandale (not the later League club), who had a habit of walking off en masse if one of their players was ordered off (which seems to have not been a rare occurrence). (Scottish Cup 2nd Round, 1890–91, from the 1 October Dumfries & Galloway Standard)

This QoS Wanderers was the one which was destroyed when the new chairman sued the club treasurer for embezzlement - and the club treasurer promptly disclosed the secret account books which the club was hiding from the SFA to record the illegal payments to players... There was however definitely something in the water in Dumfries & Galloway in that era, there are some astounding scorelines. The Nithsdale club from Dumfries kept getting shellacked in the cup competitions until they nearly got to Bon Accord levels when losing 27–1 to the 5th KRV's reserves. The 5th KRV and QotS Wanderers played out a 7–7 draw in the Scottish Cup. And how about this for a score (Herald, 17 March 1890)...

There were some others as well, my favourite being Alclutha, who later changed their name to Dunbritton, for having a decade of utter hopelessness. 11 Scottish Cup entries and they lost in the first round 10 times. Got through just the once with a replay win against Vale of Leven Wanderers. ^ interesting pre-Celtic sort-of-League table, from the 15 March 1887 Athletic News. Some familiar names, some less than. Note the Shire but no Falkirk. The Wanderers in this one is from Dundee (as is Harp). The Northern somehow ended up in the Scottish League despite never showing anything more than mediocre form, maybe to give a derby to Celtic and Cowlairs. It's a snapshot of whom the media considered to be the leading clubs at that time. The intriguing one here for me is Battlefield, they seem to have been a sort of posh boys take on Queen's Park; same colours, same locality, same amateurism. They survive for a long time but there's nothing written about them, and in this era the papers were not into colour pieces so damned if I can see the motivation for forming such a club. I've never seen a picture of them either. William Sellar was their star player, he is described in the 1891 census as a "callander man" (no idea, unless he was boasting of his birthplace, he seems to have been from the north, Callander had early football and it was Callander men who gave the association game some impetus in Glasgow in the 1870s, there was even a Callander F.C.). Interestingly (to me) he had a lodger, one John Smith, and I wonder if he was related to the Smith who was both on the Q.P. committee and secretary of the Battlefield, and who was slung off the Queen's Park committee for tapping players up for the Battlefield.

Satire? More a documentary. Point is that even 40 years ago there were arguments about whether to condemn Israel or abstain in UN votes, as part of the balancing exercise between supporting the US and getting cheap oil. Right now the US is wavering over Ukraine so the UK not letting the Septics be a lone voice may be valuable in that war. So much is intertwined these days I reckon politics is now an impossible game. At least for democracies. Dictatorships play by different rules. Putin is not answerable to anyone, he counts a win if he survives, even if 150m Russians die.

Baillie Denny proud that Dumbarton are not clowns... (Dumbarton Herald, 5 December 1888)

In the end they just swapped swapped Brechin in for Montrose and put the Gable Endies into the 3rd round draw. They didn't do the whole thing again. There have been two occasions (at least) when non-existent teams were drawn in the first round; Airdrie Bluebell in 1880–81 and Largs in 1881–82, confused with Plains Blue Bell and Largs Athletic respectively, who were also in each draw. There is also a mysterious tie from the 22 August 1888 Glasgow Evening Post... ...with Academicals changed to Wanderers, and Airdrieonians rendered as Andalusians...

Good selling point though for the SPFL? "Our coverage is so good, MPs will pay five figures for it."

It comes from a hadith. But the 2017 document is not much help either, given that in it Hamas rejects all international treaties.

To be fair to the Israeli side, it's difficult to find common ground with a group that has in its founding document that

I think they are two different Eastern Athletics. One from 1879-81 (struck from the Scottish FA roll in 1882) and one claiming a foundation date of 1884 (admitted to the SFA that August). But both played at Carntyne. The second Athletic moved to a ground it called Dalmarnock Park, but its first home match away from Carntyne was at a ground called Beechwood Park, against Rangers (of all clubs), in May 1885. Beechwood was the Thistle ground so I wonder if it is the same pitch, just with different names according to who was playing there. I can't find the names of many players at either side, but there are no names in common. Robert Connell at the second Athletic was a Pollokshields Athletic man. That whole area is deeply confusing for football in that era. The maps suggest there was enough land to carve out quite a few pitches and loads of clubs seem to have done so, giving them a fancy name. Cyrus for instance with Cyrus Park which was next to (or even in) Alexandra Park. To add to the confusion there is also an Eastern at that time (unrelated to the earlier Eastern, it seems, but there may have been an attempt to steal their history as the 'new' Eastern claimed a foundation date of 1875). They played at a ground on the Dalmarnock Road which they called Springfield Park. I do wonder if the second Eastern Athletic changed its name for Cup purposes to Cambridge. Or that they changed their name entirely - the media were often a bit lax as to name changes. That they could get Rangers to open their new ground suggests that they had some social clout, or some money, and if they were ex-Cambridge bods then they would have had both. Pollokshields Athletic were staunch amateurs... Incidentally, the first Eastern Athletic played Annfield in the Cup - and that's a real mystery, there's no other record of Annfield at all other than that one tie. Had they snuck in by mistake?

The rumour last month was that Tom Brady was bringing Rooney into Blues and Eustace was going to Rangers. Complete nonsense of course given Rooney had a job and Rangers had a manager. Eustace now 9-2 btw.

Niche subject but what the hey. Going through the SFA minutes and annuals, there is reference to Eastern Athletic (playing out of Carntyne Park) joining the SFA in 1884, but no record of them leaving; there is a record of Cambridge leaving the SFA in 1886, but no record of them joining. But Eastern Athletic did put in bumf for the SFA annuals for both of those seasons (showing they've moved to Dalmarnock). Yet only entered the Cup in 1884-85, Cambridge entering in 1885-86. Eastern Athletic enter the North-Eastern Cup in 1884-85, Cambridge in 1885-86. But...there is reference to Eastern Athletic playing in the 1885-86 season in friendlies. Are these actually the same club but with a temporary name change? Cos it's getting on my mammaries that there's eff all about "Cambridge" otherwise and a name like that is a b*****d to research. Also the whole thing is buggered up because a) some genius started a club called Eastern in 1884 and b) the genius who started up Eastern Athletic (an ex-Pollokshields Ath secretary, it seems) chose a name that had been used by another bloody club three years before.

A few other senior teams: -Smithstone Hibs (whose name seemed to be Hibs, not Hibernian) -St Peter's (the one Queen's Park beat 16–0 - started off as Partick Hibernians, shirt colours described as light blue but I'm guessing St Patrick's blue, like behind the harp on the royal coat of arms) -Dumbarton Rock (Irish teetotallers who worked on the ships) -almost certainly Shaughraun (played in green, changed name to Milton of Campsie, maybe to widen the support/player base, named after a play - am waiting for Mousetrap F.C.) -the original 1868-edition Airdrie (probably more coincidence than design, started off by Irish workers and they sort of ended up stuck with only Irish workers, with other teams like Excelsior and Benhar being founded around them) -Hamilton Hibernians (had the chance to take over South Haugh from a moribund Academical, turned it down, and the Accies decided to soldier on pro tem) -Hamilton Harp -Paisley Celtic -and the other Dundee Harp, who started off as the other Dundee Hibernians, briefly active in the 1890s Celtic is not necessarily an indicator of Irishness, at least in the pre-1888 era, given Celtic chose the name because it incorporated Scotland as well - the first Celtic club was a one-off side from about 1871.

Aye aye.

Late seventies and little bluearmyfaction is asking Kenny Burns for his autograph. He obliges, after asking me to hold his pint and cigarette.

Word of advice to Dumbarton. Next time you win the Scottish Cup, plan the victory parade route more carefully than last time. (Dundee Advertiser, 11 April 1883)

Women's football did not get off to the brightest of starts... (Glasgow Herald, 17 May 1881)

Something that's been bugging me doing some research on this... ...there is Paisley Academical (from the 1890s), and Paisley Grammar School Former Pupils (from 1911). But the school seems to have been the Paisley Grammar School And Academy. How come it ended up with TWO old boy teams? Or is one meant to be for teachers? Regardless, it's one of the most tilting-at-windmills things between the wars, the Academicals only got into the first round twice, and one of those was after getting three byes in the Qualifying.

They were still very coy about anything to do with religion. Even in the 1950s the BBC refused to play "Hold My Hand" by that rumbustious yahoo Don Cornell because it starts "so this is the kingdom of Heaven".

No, Phimister: (Dundee Courier, 14 September 1892; Strathmore had just lost to new bugs Strathmore Athletic in the Scottish Cup 1st prelim round)

I have found the dictionary definition of optimism... (Berwick Advertiser, 26 March 1953)

The irony seems to be that the Accies would have gone out of business had anyone been bothered enough to turn up to vote for their dissolution. Having already renewed their Scottish FA membership, and therefore having a Scottish Cup tie ready, they staggered on long enough for an upturn. Wonder if any of the Hamilton Hibs players went over because there's nothing more about them. (Glasgow Hibs certainly came a-poaching, maybe Celtic did too.)