Football facts and history for days of the year

Ask most people who won the first World Cup and they will tell you Uruguay. However, ask people in County Durham and they will tell you something different entirely. 

The fact that most of the rest of the world has never heard of West Auckland FC does not stop its fans claiming the team are the real winners of the first World Cup, as the provincial side won the first ever Sir Tomas Lipton Trophy today in 1909. The small north-eastern club, made up of miners and traders, was invited to take part in the prestigious international tournament in Italy, and ended up thrashing Juventus 6-1 in the final.

Try to imagine that you are a 14th-century peasant. Given that your life consists mainly of simply being downtrodden by virtually everyone, one of your only pleasures in life is a quick game of football on your only day off from the never-ending drudgery that is your work.

Well, now you can’t even do that because it was today in 1314 that King Edward II issued a proclamation banning football in England.

He would have loved it if they’d beaten them, loved it. Yes, this day in 1996 witnessed surely the best moment Sky Sports ever broadcast when Kevin Keegan went bonkers live on TV after his Newcastle team had just beaten Leeds.

“He’s got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and... and I tell you honestly, I will love it if we beat them—love it,” went the outburst that has gone down in football mind-game history, as Sir Alex Ferguson watched his Manchester United side pull back a 12-point deficit to pip an imploding Toon to the title that season.

This day in 1999 saw a Hollywood end to the season for a club fighting for their league survival. Needing a win to avoid relegation to the Conference, Carlisle United were drawing 1-1 with Plymouth five minutes into injury time when on-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass came up for a corner. Glass scored to save the club and send Brunton Park wild.

Commentator Derek Lacey exclaimed: “Jimmy Glass! Jimmy Glass! Jimmy Glass, the goalkeeper, has scored a goal for Carlisle United! There’s a pitch invasion! There is a pitch invasion! The referee has been swamped—they’re bouncing on the crossbar!”

Two of football’s most famous goals were scored in a five-minute spell today in 1986 as Diego Maradona showed the world both sides of his personality in the World Cup quarter-final in Mexico City.

Whereas Maradona claimed his first goal was helped by “the hand of God”, the English press saw it as “the hand of the Devil”, as post-Falklands War relations were a tad gritty. Just to rub it in, Maradona then went and skipped past five England players en route to scoring one of the greatest goals ever seen to knock England out.

It was a match that had everything: two fierce rival teams, plenty of goals, controversy, extra time and a pitch invasion. Oh, and it was the World Cup final at Wembley. It was on this day that the Three Lions roared their loudest and England reached the pinnacle of their footballing achievement by winning the World Cup in 1966.

With a late equaliser from West Germany forcing extra time, England boss Sir Alf Ramsey told his troops: “You’ve won it once. Now you’ll have to go out there and win it again.” Geoff Hurst’s controversial goal was given by the so-called Russian linesman Tofik Bakhramov (although he was actually from Azerbaijan), before Hurst made sure with a last-minute effort prompting commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme’s famous words, “There’s some people on the pitch, they think it’s all over.” Hurst then smacked the ball into the top corner to take the score to 4-2 and England to victory. “It is now!” Wolstenholme added with brilliant timing.

Brothers Paul and Oliver Collyer have got a lot to answer for. Exams have been failed, relationships have ended and social lives ruined thanks to them. On this day in 1992 they unleashed the first edition of Championship Manager, the annoyingly addictive football simulation computer game.

You tell yourself you’ll only play for half an hour but suddenly you notice you haven’t left your desk for nine hours as you find yourself on the cusp of promotion to the Premier League, with that Norwegian left-back you’ve been tracking about to sign and you simply can’t tear yourself away.

Perhaps the greatest scam ever was pulled off on this day in 1996 when Ali Dia, easily the worst player to have ever graced the Premier League, made his first, last and only top-flight appearance for Southampton.

Legend has it Saints boss Graeme Souness had been called by Dia’s agent, who pretended to be George Weah and recommended Dia, who he claimed was his cousin. Souness snapped him up and without seeing him play brought him on to replace Matt Le Tissier in Saints’ match with Leeds. After 20 minutes it was clear Dia was hopelessly out of his depth and a red-faced Souness had to haul him off.

Never has the phrase “football was the winner” been more apt than when the guns fell silent in the trenches of the First World War in 1914 and British and German soldiers met in no man’s land for a kick-about.

After the Germans started singing carols, both sides put down their guns and met in the middle to exchange gifts and eventually a game of football broke out. The Germans are said to have won the match 3-2 (obviously), but for once it really was the taking part that counted.

Football On This Day is available now through Pitch Publishing.