International Football History and Statistics

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On this day in football history

1898 The first ever football match is played at Elland Road between Hunslet FC nd Harrogate.

1901 The first six-figure football crowd assembled at the Crystal Palace for the FA Cup Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United. The official attendance was 110,802. The match ended 2-2 but Spurs won the replay 3-1 at Bolton. This was the only occasion since the formation of the Football League that a club outside the league won the Cup; they were in the Southern League at the time.

1904 Celtic centre-forward Jimmy Quinn scored five of his side's six goals against Kilmarnock. One of the leading Scottish centre-forwards of his era he won six League Championship medals, five Scottish Cup winners medals and eleven Scotland caps. His career ran from 1902 to 1914.

1932 John Nicholson, secretary-manager of Sheffield United, was knocked down and killed in the Sheffield station yard while waving off the team for their match against Aston Villa. He had held the post for 32 years.

1938 The Football Association refused Alex James permission to play in a charity match because he was a director of a Pools firm at the time. The former Arsenal and Scotland player had retired from active football the previous season.

1948 The Footballer of the Year award was made for the first time and Stanley Matthews, then with Blackpool, was selected by the football writers.

1955 By beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 at Stamford Bridge Chelsea became League Champions for the first time in their Jubilee season. Their first competitive match was in September 1905 at Stockport in the Second Division.

1956 In the first time that an England schools side played a team from outside the British Isles England Schoolboys beat West Germany Schoolboys 5-1 at Portsmouth. Of the side that day only Barry Bridges went on to win full England honours.

1966 Chelsea and Manchester United were both beaten in the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the second successive year. On both occasions they were favourites to reach the Final. Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday beat Chelsea while United succumbed to Leeds United and Everton.

1975 Leeds United reach the European Cup Final after securing a 1-1 draw against Barcelona.

1977 Bryan Hamilton of Everton has a goal disallowed in the FA Cup semi final against Liverpool. Two years before when playing for Ipswich he had two goals disallowed in another FA Cup semi final against West Ham United. The referee in both cases was Clive Thomas.