When Saturday Comes - When Saturday Comes: The Half Decent Football Book

Penguin Books

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First published 2005

Published in paperback 2006

Copyright When Saturday Comes, 2005

Illustrated letters copyright Tim Bradford

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding ot cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-192703-9

In compiling this book, we have tried to avoid a straightforwardly factual account of the games history, which has been covered in numerous other reference works. The book is not intended to be a source of up-to-date information about trophies won during the 200506 season; nor will you find any mention of, for example, the Greene King IPA Essex Intermediate League or the fact that the Rothmans Yearbook habitually gave Tottenham full back Chris Hughtons height as 5 7. Instead, the WSC Half Decent Football Book offers a personalized perspective on the games development as an important part of popular culture in the UK, in a way that we hope will be accessible to the general reader as well as the informed football fan. Hopefully the book will entertain as much as it provides a source of information, which is after all what its supposed to be all about.

We would like to thank our principal collaborators Matthew Brown, Cameron Carter, Ian Plenderleith and Mike Ticher and the following contributors: Richard Guy, Neil Forsyth, Roger Titford, Harry Pearson, Philip Cornwall, Huw Richards, Taylor Parkes, Ben Lyttleton, Joyce Woolridge, Adam Powley, Neil White, Gavin Willacy, Matt Barker, John Carter, Paul Hutton, Neil Hurden, Ian Farrell, Chris Bainbridge, Phil Ball, Al Needham, Nick House, Tom Davies, Phil Kyte, Chris Upton, Steve Westby, Dave Jennings, Steve Wilson, David Wangerin, Simon Tyers, James Medhurst, Andrew Turton, Jonathan Paxton, Csaba Abrahall, Steve Morgan, Tim Springett, Steve Menary, Glen Wilson, Piers Pennington, John Earls, David Harrison, Graham Lightfoot, Dave Espley, Paul Giess, Darren Fletcher, Paul Lewis, Martin Atherton, Jim Gwinnell, Joe Boyle, Craig Gurney, Steven Heath, Andrew Bennett, Helen Duff, Mark Herron, John Seeker, Andrew Frazier, Tom Ranee, Colin Dobell, Nigel Wheatley, Jon Matthias, Tony Morris, Ken Fox, Andrew Firmin, Robert Jeffery, Mark Griffiths, John Bourn, Rob Rushton, Maison Urwin, Chris Forth, Kevin Bartholemew, Steven Agnew and Duncan Young.

Andy Lyons and Barney Ronay

May 2006

The large majority of football matches are ended neatly with one of three possible results. Despite this there are scattered about the games history like forgotten, rusting hulks a select group of matches that were abandoned before a result could be reached.

The most common reason for abandoning a match is extremely bad weather. During his first brief spell with Manchester City in 1961, Denis Law scored six goals against Luton in heavy rain on a quagmire of a pitch, only for the match to be abandoned with half an hour to go. City lost the rearranged cup tie 31. At the other end of the scale, a match between Dundee United and Dunfermline in 1998 lasted precisely 90 seconds before it was called off because of high winds. Current procedure dictates that if a match is abandoned before kick-off, fans get free admission to the rearranged fixture. If it is called off after the game has started, this generosity wanes to half-price admission to the rearranged game. An expensive minute and a half of football, then, for the Dundee United and Dunfermline faithful.

In October 1996, Scotland won their World Cup qualifying match in Estonia with one small kick. The ball having been nudged off the centre spot at the first whistle, the referee blew again immediately for the end of the match, with no Estonian player in sight. FIFA had ordered the game to be rearranged from evening to afternoon because of the poor state of floodlighting at the Kadriorg Stadium and, as a protest against interference with international television coverage (and consequent loss of revenue), Estonia stayed at home. Unusually for a match not played out for its allotted time, the result stood.

West Brom had slightly more opposition from Sheffield United in March 2002. Their match was abandoned with only eight minutes remaining when Uniteds Robert Ullathome left the field injured, leaving United with only six players on the pitch, fewer than the minimum seven that constitutes a team. With West Brom leading 30, referee Eddie Wolstenholme had no choice but to call the whole thing off (though the final result stood). The official Sheffield roll of honour read: three sent off, two injured. West Broms manager, Gary Megson, was available for comment for a long, long time after the game.

Aberdeen is a city built on oil and a history of the citys football club displays the boombust characteristic of that industry, with the success of Alex Fergusons 1980s reign being unmatched before or after. Its status as the sole provider of top-class football in Scotlands third city has spared the club the worst ravages of the recent depressed financial status of Scottish football, yet Aberdeen are presently a pale memory of former glories.

A football club named Aberdeen was formed in 1881 but 1904 is seen as the year of the clubs true birth, when an amalgamation of local clubs entered the Scottish League under the one name and based at Pittodrie, formerly a dunghill for police horses. Aberdeen football club were soon displaying a willingness to provide historical footnotes, firstly in 1923 when Peterhead were sent packing 130 at Pittodrie. Then, eight years later, a less celebrated incident named the Great Mystery rocked the club and city to the core when an alleged betting scandal saw five players dropped.

The Second World War was to prove a time for muted celebration for the club as they swept up six wartime titles, finally finding a use for the Pittodrie trophy room, and this form was maintained after the ending of hostilities with 1947 seeing League Cup Final defeat and the capture of the Scottish Cup. Two further Scottish Cup finals were lost before the Scottish League title was won in 1955, with fortress Pittodrie witnessing only one defeat all season.