Publications
I’ve discovered another box of copies of the book “Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” in our store room, having previously said it was out of print. So both this book and “Making the Arsenal” are now available as printed books, and on Kindle. Please see here for more details.
Anniversary news
On 12 May 2000 Arsenal won the FA Youth Cup, this being the second of a two legged affair. But none of the Arsenal youngsters in either match ever played for the club’s first team. It shows just how tough that journey from youth to first team player can be.
Also on this day in 1978 there was a friendly against Tottenham in which the Arsenal goalscorer is listed as Fuccillo. We’ve taken a guess as to who he was, but it is only a guess. If you have any insight, it would be great if you could write in.
Here are the 12 May anniversaries….
12 May 1910: Woolwich Arsenal announced that talks with Fulham to rescue the club had come to nothing, and the directors of Woolwich Arsenal FC had opened discussions with Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, to see if their boards wanted to buy all or part of the club.
12 May 1912: Arsenal were engaged in their first overseas tour since 1907 and on this day played Vicktoria 89 Tempelhof of Berlin. The sides drew 2-2. Vicktoria survived until 2013 when it merged with Lichterfelder FC to form a new club, FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin.
12 May 1937: Arsenal had played in the Coronation Cup on 19 April, and there was great excitement on this day as not only was King George VI married to Queen Elizabeth, but the BBC made the event the subject of its first multi-site outside broadcast on TV.
12 May 1945: Alan Ball born. He played for Ashton, Blackpool and Everton before joining Arsenal as Mee sought to strengthen his Double winning team.
12 May 1978: Arsenal returned to Tottenham to round off the season with the John Pratt testimonial. Arsenal lost 5-3 with all three Arsenal goals coming from Fuccillo (presumably the Luton player on loan). McLintock also appeared for Arsenal.
12 May 1979 – Arsenal 3 Man United 2. Having been 2-0 up, Man U scored two late on, before Alan Sunderland scored the most dramatic of winners at the death. We win the cup against Man U. The game by game summary is here
12 May 2000: Having beaten Coventry 3-1 in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup final, Arsenal completed the job winning 2-0 at Highbury. Bothroyd and Sidwell scored, but not one of the players in either match went on to a first team career at Arsenal.
12 May 2001: Arsenal lost the cup final 2-1 to Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Ljungberg gave Arsenal the lead on 72 minutes: the first cup final goal scored outside England.
