Winter Break? Don't Mess With Tradition

It's Only a Bit of Snow!

All Hands to the Deck

English Winters

In general, English winters are mild with wind and rain being the usual weather pattern for most of the country. Temperatures may fall, but snow is rarely such a problem to cause fixtures to be postponed. In the modern world, even open air stadia can be kept clear of the white stuff and the pitches playable by the use of covers, hot air blowers and undersoil heating. Most fans will also answer the call by their local team to help clear the playing surface and stadium of snow in order to get the game on. Occasionally, an English winter will be unseasonably inclement and fixtures are postponed due to pitches being unplayable, but this is an accepted aspect of football being the "Winter Game". The stoical nature of the British character has endured throughout the history of football and not playing just because the heavens have deposited a layer of snow on the pitch is an idea not contemplated by the majority of those involved in the game, whether player or spectator. So why has the "winter break" become an issue again?

Premier League

Moscow Winter

Ever since the top English clubs broke away from the Football League in 1992 and formed the elitist Premier League some of the players and managers have whinged about the need for a winter break, because kicking a bag of wind around for 90 minutes is oh so tiring! Not being satisfied with reducing the total number of games the teams have to play by restricting the membership of the top English league to an initial total of 22 (the old First Division consisted of 24 teams prior to the inception of the Premier League in 1992) and then 20 in 1995, managers and players have mooted the idea of taking a break from the football business during the winter months. For countries which suffer from particularly cold winters, when temperatures fall below freezing for weeks on end and snow on the ground is a perpetual feature of the season, then a winter break is a sensible option - unless, of course, the teams in the "frozen" countries' football league have covered stadia, in which case the need for a break is null and void. So, in Poland, Norway, Russia, etc., a winter break allows the harshest weather to pass and keeps the players safe from the injuries they may have sustained if forced to play on rock hard, frozen pitches. Is this really necessary in England?

Tradition

Louis van Gaal
Manchester United Manager

Many of the calls for an English football winter break have come from foreign managers and players who have come to ply their trade in the UK. Their home football associations may have traditionally had a two week break in its fixtures, but is that any reason for them to call for the same here? What has caused the recent call for a break is probably their first experience of the "Festive Programme" where as many as four games are played within a week. This is an English tradition and football fans of all clubs look forwards to these games, especially as they normally involve a derby clash with one of their club's local rivals. The fact that all teams have to face this hectic part of the year means that there is no real advantage to any particular club - having a strong squad and a manager/coaching team who can exploit their club's pool of talent is one particular quality which may set them above the rest of the teams in their league, but the pressure is the same for everyone.

Wayne Rooney

Louis van Gaal, the Manchester United Manager, has added his voice to the call for a change in the "Festive Programme" citing recovery times for the human body. Given that footballers are athletes in the prime of fitness, they should be able to recover quickly and within the 48 hour timeframe he quotes. If they don't, then the squad system should be utilised to rotate players through the team filling the spaces vacated by those players "exhausted" by their 90 minutes of hard work. And now, Wayne Rooney, the Manchester United Captain has come out in support of his manager. He has voiced concerns over the potential for injuries during this time, but the chance of coming to harm is the same whatever time of the year the match is played. Rooney is of working class stock and started his career playing for Everton FC, the team he supported as a child. Surely he understands the need to keep the "Festive Programme" of fixtures as part of the traditional English football calendar?

Supporters

Although the Premier League is steadily driving away the the working class fan away from actively supporting the game by the huge prices they are expected to pay for tickets, the "Festive Programme" is perhaps the one time many cash strapped supporters find the funds to go to a match. Families tend to attend matches together at Christmas and the New Year and the atmosphere is always special, with colourful Christmas jumpers, Santa hats and other fancy dress being present on the terraces, and in the stands. For those supporters who make Christmas happen by working long hours for minimal pay in the months leading up to December, the Boxing Day and New Year football matches are events to look forward to and help sustain them in their labours. For players, who are paid obscene amounts of money to kick a ball around for an hour and a half, to tell these fans that they are tired after a match and need two weeks off in winter to rest is insulting in the extreme. Perhaps if footballers worked a ten or twelve hour shift, six days a week for the unrelenting two months before Christmas, then they could claim to be "tired".

Change?

The world turns and change is inevitable. However, some things should remain for the sake of tradition and the "Festive Programme" should stay as it is. If professional athletes, fitter than any of those on the terraces and in the stands could ever hope to be, find that they cannot cope with the rigours of playing up to four games in a week at Christmas and the New Year, then why not have that break they so crave, but donate the wages the fans pay them to charity? After all, in any stadium up and down the country, there are thousands of supporters who would sell their granny just to have the chance to do for a few minutes what the likes of Wayne Rooney is paid handsomely to do for a living all year round.

The Most Exciting Title Race is...Not in the Premier League!

The world's attention may be focused on the two-horse race for the over-hyped, over-priced and under-English-represented Premier League, but a glance down the lower reaches of the English football pyramid will highlight the more exciting and competitive nature of football supported by the majority of fans in England. The race for the Championship title is bubbling along nicely, with the top five or six teams still in contention for automatic promotion. League 2 is more open still with seven or eight teams in with a shout of promotion halfway through the season. However, being a Swindon Town fan, I would like to focus on League 1 and assess the title race that sees, at Christmas, four clear contenders for the two automatic promotion places up for grabs at the end of the season.

The graph below shows the progress of the top four teams of League 1 since the start of the season - the dates denote the days when any particular match was played in the league and each of the four teams' position on that date after the matches were played.

Scrumpy the Robin (Bristol City)

Bristol City would appear to be the clear favourites, but with 45 points before the matches to be played on Sunday 28th December 2014, the club is only one point ahead of the three clubs below them in League 1. However, the Bristol "Robins" have held top spot since September and hung on to it tenaciously despite defeats to promotion rivals Swindon Town and Preston North End. 

Rockin' Robin (Swindon Town)

Sunday's games may well see a change at the top. with the leaders away to Gillingham, a team that has started to find a rich vein of form. Nothing short of a win will be good enough for City as MK Dons, who still have a game in hand to play, are at home to Walsall, who sit currently 15th in League 1 and who were beaten at home on Boxing Day 1 - 4 by Swindon Town. The Swindon "Robins" face Port Vale at home with the visitors to the County Ground 12th in the league. Preston North End go to Crewe to play a team who are the only other side to beat the leaders Bristol City (1 - 0 on 20.12.14) and who won on Boxing Day away to Oldham Athletic (1 - 2).

If the current top four teams are still in contention come the Easter fixtures, then Swindon Town's two games at that time (Good Friday and Easter Monday) could be pivotal to the decision on who finishes top of the league. On Friday 3rd April 2015, Swindon Town are home to MK Dons and on Monday 6th April, they face Bristol City at Ashton Gate. Those six points may prove crucial to the decision on which two teams are promoted automatically to the Championship and who lifts the trophy as League 1 Champions on the final day of the season proper on Sunday 3rd May 2015 

Charlie Austin for England

Now, I want to state quite clearly from the outset that I am not related to Charlie Austin. He once played for Swindon Town and I am a Swindon Town fan; that's as far or close as our relationship goes. However, prior to signing for Swindon Town, he used to score goals seemingly at will with an incredible 1.12 goal per game ratio (64 goals in 57 appearances) for Poole Town in the Premier Division of the Wessex League. He signed for Swindon Town, went on to play for Burnley FC and then made it to the Premier League with Queens Park Rangers. At the time of writing, his current all time goal average (including all competitions for his non-league, Football League and Premier League clubs) stands at 0.63 from 204 goals in 324 appearances. Again, at the time of writing, he is the highest English scorer in the Premier League with 5 goals (see Addendum below for a correction to this statement)


Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote  blogposts on his exploits when he was playing for Burnley FC (Sporting Life & Zlatan Ibrahimovic) and was the leading goalscorer in Europe. He broke the Lancashire club's record for being the quickest player to score 20 goals in a season and finished his time with the Clarets on a goal average of 0.50. He is now playing for Queens Park Rangers and his goal per game ratio with the R's currently stands at an all time 0.54 with a score of 0.56 for the season so far.

The point of my quoting the statistics above is to highlight the goalscoring prowess of Charlie Austin. His most recent goal for QPR (see video), a cheeky backheel into the net against Chelsea, is indicative of a natural born striker and now that he is plying his trade in the English Premier League, he must surely be in the running for an England call up. To back up this statement, I've taken the liberty of analysing the goal per game ratio statistics of the current strikers in the England senior squad (and Daniel Sturridge) versus that of Charlie Austin. All figures are taken from www.soccerbase.com and only includes the players' statistics for teams for which they have played in the Football League and Premier League. The results are detailed in the table below:

Goal per Game Ratio for England Strikers

The table shows that, of all the current and potential England Senior Squad Strikers, his goal to game ratio is by far the best for all games played in the Football League and Premier League. If England are to have any chance of progressing to a major final in forthcoming tournaments, starting with Euro 2016, a natural goalscorer playing in a striker's role for England is a must. The statistics above speak for themselves - Roy Hodgson, when are you going to give Charlie Austin the England call up he deserves?

Addendum

I have an apology to make to the West Bromwich Albion player, Saido Berahino. He is currently the top scoring Englishman in the Premier League with 7 goals from 10 games, not Charlie Austin. I have to confess, following the fortunes of the teams in the lower reaches of the English football pyramid, I didn't realise that Saido Berahino had represented England at different levels (U16 to U21) having assumed that he would have represented his native Burundi. I now realise my folly and, with a strike rate of 0.62 (8 goals and 13 appearances) so far this season for WBA, perhaps he could be the perfect partner for Charlie Austin up front for England? His overall strike rate for WBA is 0.35 (17 goals and 49 appearances) with an all time career strike rate of 0.37 (29 goals and 79 appearances), at the age of 21, he can only develop...for better or worse, only time will tell. 

The Second Amendment is an Ass!

“It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it," urged Mr. Bumble; first looking round, to ascertain that his partner had left the room.

Mr. Bumble

That is no excuse," returned Mr. Brownlow. "You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction."

If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass — a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”

- Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

The law in any civilised country is open to the interpretation of a competent barrister, who may, in the defence or prosecution of a case in a court of law, direct a jury to believe that the legislators meant one thing on drafting a statute, when the complete opposite is the case. There have been criminal proceedings in recent times (one in the USA springs to mind) where the evidence pointed to an obvious outcome only for the jury to be persuaded to arrive at a very different conclusion. Thankfully, many. but not all, miscarriages of justice are corrected at the appeal hearing, whereby an objective eye is cast over the merits of the case, and Law Lords (in the UK) pass sentence by defining what the law actually intended for society. However, occasionally, ancient laws, ones drafted in reaction to necessary changes in society at that time, are found to be irrelevant for contemporary civilisation.

In the UK, until 1960, when the Gambling Act - 1960 came into force, the law requiring all men under the age of 60 to have long bows and arrows with which to practice archery was still on the statute books. This antiquated law was enacted under the auspices of The Unlawful Games Act - 1541:

CAP. IX. An Act for the Maintenance of Artillery, and debarring unlawful Games. "RECITAL of Stats. 3 H.8.c.3. & 6 H.8.c.2. Several new devised Games the "Cause of the Decay of Archery. - All Men under the Age of sixty Years "shall have Bows and Arrows for shooting. Men-Children between Seven "Years and Seventeen shall have a Bow and 2 Shafts. Men about Seventeen "Years of Age shall keep a Bow and 4 Arrows - Penalty 6s.8d." (Extract)

English Bowman

From the above, the law required every Englishman between the ages of 17 and 60 (with various exemptions) to keep a longbow and regularly practice archery. Clearly, this was a necessity in the England of the later Middle Ages when there was no standing army with which to defend the realm and the king relied on the local noblemen to raise militia in times of war.  

So, in an ever-changing, dynamic society, laws need revisiting to ascertain whether they are still fit for purpose. This being true of the UK, it should be so for any of today's civilised world which has adopted the English style rule of law with which to govern that particular country. The English Bill of Rights - 1689 has within its provisions the right for Englishmen to bear arms:

"no royal interference in the freedom of the people to bear arms for their own defence as suitable to their class and as allowed by law"

This was a basic right designed to allow all Protestant Englishmen the ability to defend themselves from 

Child with a Gun!?

Papists until the introduction of The Firearms Act - 1920 over 200 years later. Subsequent Acts of Parliament have placed further restrictions on the rights of UK citizens to carry arms until now, unless you have a valid licence and a very good reason for needing that licence, if found in possession of a firearm, you will very quickly find yourself in custody. This makes for a much safer society than one where every man and his dog can carry a Kalashnikov with impunity.

The United States of America adopted the concept of the English Bill of Rights when amending The Constitution in the late eighteenth century. Ratified on 15th December 1791, the United States Bill of Rights included The Second Amendment to The Constitution which seems like it was taken straight from the English version with a variation on the wording:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"

In my previous post America's Obsession with the Gun, I argued the case that the draftees of The Second Amendment did so from the direct experience of the War of American Independence when there was no standing United States Army. In order to maintain a force capable of deterring a foreign power from interfering in the fledgling country's affairs, it was important that every able-bodied man in the new United States of America could help defend the country. Over 200 years later, this idea is an anachronism with the United States having the privilege of being the world's remaining superpower. Therefore, the need for "the People" to keep and bear arms is irrelevant. 

The tragic incident on 27th August 2014 at the Last Stop shooting range in White Hills Arizona, when an

UZI Submachine Gun

instructor was accidentally shot by a student, was alarming news when it was revealed that the student was a nine year old girl. What was equally alarming was the fact that she was learning to shoot an Uzi submachine gun, a close quarters weapon designed by the Israelis to help their soldiers eliminate their enemies when fighting in confined spaces. This incident beggars several questions from an incredulous Briton: 

1. At what point did her parents think that this was a good idea? 
2. At what point did the shooting range staff think this was a good idea?
3. Why didn't the shooting range staff question the logic of allowing a minor to shoot an automatic weapon which members of the armed forces would have to spend some time familiarising themselves with before being allowed to fire it on a controlled range? 

With the number of people killed by gunshot wounds (intentional and accidental) running at a rate of 10.30 per 100,000 population in 2011 in the USA, isn't it time for the country's legislators to revisit The Bill of Rights to determine whether it is still fit for purpose? With no need for a "well regulated Militia" in the United States of America, "the right of the People to keep and bear arms" is no longer a need. To quote Mr. Bumble, has not the USA "had his eye opened by experience"?

The Second Amendment is no longer relevant. The Second Amendment is an anachronism. The Second Amendment is an Ass!

Free Creative Writing Course

I decided to have a fresh look at my website, www.stuartrivers.com, and decided that it needed a revamp. This will be a focus over the next couple of days, but I've already added a feature that will hopefully prove interesting to aspiring writers a Free* Creative Writing Course (*If you find the Creative Writing Course helpful and it spurs you on to write your Magnum Opus, please feel free to purchase a copy of my novels from either Kindle or FeedaRead.com as a token of your esteem).


The course is a set of modules I wrote when I was a member of the Rain Publishing stable of writers. The proprietress wanted to host a series of seminars online to help prospective writers and some of her authors were invited to produce a seminar on their particular area of "expertise". I was asked to write and compère the seminar Writing for Children 12 Years and Older, but, due to Rain Publishing ceasing trading, the seminars never took place.

However, the modules for my seminar have remained on my USB memory stick since then gathering the metaphorical dust. Rather than delete them, I have decided to put them online on my website, www.stuartrivers.com (Free Creative Writing Course) and, hopefully, other aspiring writers may take time to read them and gain some inspiration to write a bestseller. 

Please feel free to have a look at these modules and use them for inspiration if you can.

The Football League Championship on Football Knowledge Website

The 2014 - 2015 Football season kicked off in England with Blackburn Rovers entertaining Cardiff City on Friday 8th August 2014. The score was a 1 - 1 draw with most of the possession going to Blackburn Rovers (65% according to BBC Sport). The first game of the season is always a cagey affair, so it's no surprise when most football matches in the first week of August end up as a draw or a narrow 1 - 0 win.

Nathan Thompson
Swindon Town Player of the Year 2013 & 2014

In League 1, Swindon Town take on Scunthorpe United at the County Ground and Robins fans can only hope for a season similar to the one just gone. Mark Cooper and Lee Power seem to have the know-how to get the best out of younger players and it's heartening to see Nathan Thompson, a product of the club's youth academy and still only 23, being given the Captain's armband for the coming season. With missing out on the play-offs in May a disappointment when, at the start of the 2013 - 2014 season, relegation fears were uppermost in most Swindon Town fans' minds, the story unfolding at the County Ground this coming football year will be equally as interesting as the one told between August 2013 and May 2014.

One thing that has kept my football interest going since the end of last season, the FIFA World Cup notwithstanding, is the ongoing development of my  Football Knowledge website. All the teams for The Premier League and The Football League Championship for this season now have an entry and their histories, notable players and other facts are now just one click of a button away. The idea has always been to give football fans a brief overview of, not only their own team, but the other clubs in the world of football - it is an ongoing project with the whole of the football world to map!

Fulham's Bedford Jezzard

Sheffield Wednesday's Redfern Froggatt

The Football League Championship, for me, is going to be a more fascinating league than the Premier League this season. It is such an eclectic mix of teams whose rich histories and past glories will see ex-European Champions rubbing shoulders with teams who last saw top drawer action in their formative years when the Football League was in its infancy. The names of players such as Fulham's Bedford Jezzard (3rd Top Goalscorer) and Sheffield Wednesday's Fedfern Froggatt (3rd Top Goalscorer) evoke images of Hobbits in Tolkein's Middle earth rather than the rain and mud of a mid-week football match in the depths of  an English winter.

One of the most notable of all the Football League's former players must be Steve Bloomer of Derby County (and Middlesbrough) fame. An England international, he was interned at the Ruhleben civilian detention camp at the onset of the First World War having gone to Germany to coach Britannia Berlin 92. His story is a fascinating one and is probably deserving of more than the traditional song, Steve Bloomer's Watching, played at Derby County. I would encourage all true football fans to research his story.

The next phase in the development of the Football Knowledge website will be League 1 - the chance to discover further stories of the teams that make up the Football League makes the journey a joy rather than a slog.

World Cup 2014

At the time of writing, the World Cup 2014 Semi Finals have yet to be played. The protagonists are Brazil v Germany and Netherlands v Argentina. With five wins, Brazil have the most auspicious World Cup record, followed by Germany with three wins and Argentina, who have won the cup twice. Netherlands have featured in the final three times, but have never won. Being British, I'm favouring the underdogs, which, in this case, must be the Dutch. It would be great to see them succeed and finally lift the trophy rather than being the plucky also-rans. However, there is one aspect of the Netherlands play that leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Suarez Bites Chiellini

As with most World Cup Finals, there have been those players whose antics, when fouled, have been worthy of an Oscar nomination. A tap on the shin can lead to theatrical dives and rolling around on the field of play as if the player in question has been poleaxed. It is an unfortunate aspect of the modern game and it is clear from some of the players' actions that it is a part of their game that they must practice - see this tongue-in-cheek video (Diving Practice). The bottom line of such deeds is that it is cheating, pure and simple. Once Suarez was taken out of the equation for his physical attack on the Italian player Giorgio Chiellini, the tournament seemed to take a turn for the better. However, waiting in the wings was Arjen Robben.

When Netherlands played Mexico on Sunday 29th June 2014, the knockout phase of the World Cup Finals was in full swing. With the score drawing at 1 - 1 and the game looking like it was heading into extra time, Arjen Robben entered the penalty area and dived spectacularly after minimal contact from Mexico's Marquez. The resultant penalty was converted and Netherlands went through to the Quarter Finals. By his own admission, this wasn't the only time he'd taken a dive during the match - although he didn't dive to get the penalty, honest!

Despite this, I want the Dutch to win as they are the only team in the semi finals not to have won the World Cup. If this win comes with a red card for Robben for diving, then that would be a scenario I could live with. 

"Football Knowledge" Update

Football Knowledge - England Honours Page

Most people who have looked at my "Football Knowledge" website have liked what they've seen so far. The England pages are complete as are the Premier League pages for next season's teams. I'm working through the Championship teams and would like to finish the English Football League system up to and including the Conference Premier League by the start of the new season. In between, there is the World Cup to contend with, so it would be a good idea to include the national teams on the website for those countries taking part in Brazil 2014...not a lot of work, then!

QPR - Notable Players Page

If you've previously taken the time to look at "Football Knowledge", thank you. I have tinkered with the format to a point where I'm happy with the formulaic layout of the site, but, as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. As mentioned in an earlier post (New "Football Knowledge" Website), the idea behind the website is to give all football fans an insight into the history of not only their club, but also the teams that their club may face. It is interesting, as I construct the site, to note how some of the so-called "bigger clubs" have not really had much success in their history, relative to their current position in the football league tier. Conversely, other "lower" clubs may have been seen as the team to beat early on in the life of the fledgling football leagues at the tail end of the nineteenth century.

Dropdown Menu

Club Buttons

Accessing the various team pages is an easy process. Finding your team in the dropdown menu is one way of getting access to the team's Home Page. The other way to access the same page is to click on the appropriate title in the navbar. So, for example, clicking on The Premier League will take you to the page for that league. At the bottom of the page are the team buttons which, when clicked, will take you to the team's Home Page.

Steve Bloomer
Derby County, Middlesbrough & England

Some of the "Notable Players" (Most Appearances Top 3 and Most Goals Top 3) have led fascinating lives inside and outside of the footballing world. One player who springs immediately to mind is Steve Bloomer who played for Derby County from 1892 - 1906 and 1910 - 1914. Number three in the Most Appearances Top 3 list with 525 appearances for the club, Steve Bloomer is also the club's all time top scorer with 332 Derby County goals to his credit. On retiring from playing the game in 1914, he left England to pursue a career in coaching/management in Germany for Britannia Berlin 92, a football club formed in 1892  and a founding member of the DFB (German Football Association) in 1900. Within three weeks of arriving, war was declared between Great Britain and Germany, and Steve Bloomer, along with thousands of

other British nationals, was interned in the Ruhleben civilian detention camp near Spandau in Germany. The camp was akin to a small town and the society adopted the British way of life with its own police force and postal service. Sport was an integral part of the camp life and the Ruhleben Football Association was one of the many social aspects of the internees. A league and cup competition was organised and many ex-professional players who also found themselves interned for the duration of the war helped with the organisation of the Ruhleben FA and also played for one of the member clubs. This is an interesting aspect of the First World War which has not been widely reported, at least not in my lifetime, and is a subject I intend to research...watch this space.

Argentina 0 Swindon Town 1

The 2013 - 2014 season is drawing to a close, with the play offs and final games of the Premier League season only to be played to decide the last promotion places and the champion of the top league in England. Players may already be off on their holidays or have to wait pending their team's success or not in the aforementioned games, but the managers, boards and chairmen of the clubs up and down the country are already deciding on playing budgets and pre-season friendlies. Whilst the poorer clubs in the football league set-up consider late summer games against near neighbours, the wealthier clubs in the football pyramid jet off to foreign destinations for more lucrative matches against the native clubs in countries where the sun shines longer and hotter than in dear old Blighty. 

The World Cup in Brazil is also on its way and this tournament may well bring back memories to players and fans alike of summer tours of years gone by. Here, for a fortnight or so, the dreary, rainy and windswept terracing of home was swapped for the blue skies and palm trees of an exotic corner of the world under which a relaxing cocktail is supped as your heroes build up their stamina playing the local select eleven. For teams like Swindon Town, such tours are not new, with recent pre-seasons spent in Portugal, Italy and Austria, but the club has ventured further afield. 

The Southern League in 1910 - 1911 saw new Division 1 Champions as Swindon Town beat

the likes of West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers  and New Brompton (now Gillingham FC) to win the title with 53 points; Northampton Town were runners-up with 48 points. The club also won the Southern Charity Cup, a knockout competition competed for by members of the Southern League. After a 0 - 0 stalemate, Swindon Town beat Brighton & Hove Albion 1 - 0 in the replay played at Craven Cottage, the home of Fulham FC. The team at that time featured Swindon's only player to be capped at senior level for England, Harold Fleming, although he and other first team regulars were left out of the side for the final. The club was on the up and the following season saw the team lose 8 - 4 to Manchester United in the Charity Shield in a match played at Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea FC. Swindon Town also had success in the FA Cup, reaching semi-final. After a match which also saw a replay, the opponents, Barnsley, ran out 1 - 0 winners at Meadow Lane, the home of Notts County FC. 

Preparation for season 1912 - 1913 included an ambitious pre-season tour of Uruguay and Argentina. Legendary manager, Sam Allen, took his team to South America in an age when the only mode of transport for such a journey was by sea. Six weeks after the Titanic disaster, the club embarked on the long voyage to the hotbed of Latin American football. 

Alexander Watson Hutton
The "Father" of Argentinian Football

The tour kicked off on 16th June with a drawn match (2 - 2) versus Combinado Norte, a representative team from sides from Northern Buenos Aires. The thing to note about many of the Argentinian teams of the time was that they were formed by British immigrants to the country and. at this time, all Argentinian teams were amateur with a professional league only being introduced in 1931. Indeed, the striker for the Combinado Norte team and for other teams that Swindon Town played against during the tour, including the representative Argentinian national side, Argentinos, was Arnold Watson Hutton, the son of Alexander Watson Hutton, a Scotsman who emigrated to Argentina in 1882. He was a teacher and, after the first tentative steps in forming a football league in Argentina failed after one season in 1891, on 21st February 1893, Alexander Watson Hutton restarted the Argentine Association Football League which was to be the first officially recognised league outside of the British Isles.

When the teamsheets of the opposing teams are analysed, the British connection with the birth of

Arnold Watson Hutton

football in South America is apparent. Surnames such as Brown, Wilson and Hayes highlight the British roots of those players contesting 90 minutes of football against Swindon Town at that time. Even so, the matches included in the tour was against representative sides from the cream of Uruguayan and Argentinian football and would have proved a stern test for the Southern League side. In all, Swindon Town played eight games during the tour, including against a representative side from Uruguay, representative sides from the various Argentinian leagues, Club Atlético Estudiantes the prestigious Argentinian football club of Buenos Aires, as well as a final game against the de facto Argentinian National side, Argentinos.

Argentinos - 1912

The final match was played in Buenos Aires on 9th July 1912 against Agentinos. The score at half time was 0 - 1 to Swindon Town, Bob Jefferson the scorer. The second half saw no more goals and the team from Wiltshire finished the tour with a win against the best team in Agentina. Unbeaten Swindon Town's record for the tour was:

Played 8, Won 6, Drawn 2, Lost 0

Goals: For 21 Against 6

Scorers: Bown 12, Burkinshaw 3, Jefferson 2, Lamb 2, Batty 1, McCulloch 1

Games Played:

16.06.1912 (Buenos Aires) Combinado Norte 2 Swindon Town 2

22.06.1912 (Buenos Aires) San Isidro 1 Swindon Town 4

23.06.1912 (Buenos Aires) Combinado Sud 0 Swindon Town 2

29.06.1912 (Rosario) Liga Rosarina 1 Swindon Town 3

30.06.1912 (Buenos Aires) Liga Argentina 2  Swindon Town 2

04.07.1912 (Montevideo) Liga Uruguaya 0 Swindon Town 3

09.07.1912 (Buenos Aires) Argentinos 0 Swindon Town 1

Swindon Town Squad 1912 - 1913

The tour was a huge success and it boded well for Swindon Town's future. There was another Southern League Division 1 championship winning season in 1913 - 1914 and, although there was a season played in 1914 - 1915, the First World War interrupted the club's momentum. There was no further success until the promotion winning side of 1962 - 1963 when Swindon Town achieved promotion from League Division 3.

New "Football Knowledge" Website

The "General Information" Page for Arsenal FC

There have been many times when I've wanted some information on a football club, e.g. trophies won, most goals scored by a player, directions to the ground, etc., and have had to scour the internet to gain the knowledge. With this in mind, I've embarked on a long term project to assemble the basic information on every professional football club under one website. It is currently here - http://football-knowledge.webs.com/.

When one considers that in the English Football League alone there are 92 teams, with more professional and semi-professional teams in the non-league system, then it is quite a mammoth undertaking. When the other Home Nations leagues are taken into account (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Eire) then, for the UK and Ireland alone, this project will take some time to finish. However, I hope to include every major league for all countries in the world which holds "The Beautiful Game" dear to its collective heart.

The point of the website is to give the reader an insight into the history of the club without

Club Records Included

bombarding the fan with too much information. Most fans would want to know who their club's all time top scorer is and who has made the most appearances for their team. However, I'm open to suggestions for what readers might want included on the site, so a Feeback Form is included on the "Contacts" page.


I aim to add a "Members" page with a forum for both national and international discussion on football matters. I for one am intrigued as to what the average A-League fan thinks about the Australian game or what a Sante Fe fan believes is the most important issue in the Colombian league.

What Trophies has your Club Won?

The "Honours" page is intended to highlight a club's Trophy Cabinet and show to the world the achievements of the team throughout its history. For instance, before embarking on this project, I for one had no idea that Aston Villa had won the Football League War Cup in 1944. This was a cup competition devised in England during the Second World War to keep the population entertained due to the cancellation of the Football League programme for the duration of the war. Air raids were a constant threat whilst these games were being played!

Watch the Glory Days Again

Notable Players

Penalty Shootout Misery - Again!

Swindon's Woe

Posh's Joy

On Monday 17th February, Swindon Town failed in their bid to get to the  Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final for 2014 when they lost 3 - 4 in a penalty shootout to Peterborough United at the County Ground. There is a myth in this part of the West Country that the club's record in this aspect of deciding the outcome of a match is that they always fail at that particular hurdle, but what is the truth?

Alternative Method?

The excellent website, Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk, is, for me, the definitive source for all statistics and information on Swindon Town - I would go so far as to say it is probably the best "unofficial" website on the internet for any football club as a source of facts and figures, but you be the judge. From the Stat Attack page of the website, a quick glance at the table for Swindon Town's penalty shootout record (Swindon Town Penalty Shootout Table) shows that the club has a success rate of 47.8% in all competitions when it comes to winning the match through this mode of deciding the outcome of a game. With nearly a 50% success rate, this would suggest that, to save the long-suffering Swindon Town fans the stress of having to sit through this "lottery" at the end of a drawn match, both teams may as well call heads or tails and decide the result by the referee tossing a coin.

Did We Win?

Chris Waddle - Italia '90

However, to expand this logic to the National team would prove beneficial to England when facing the prospect of the players having to make the long walk to the penalty spot to attempt to get the country nearer to the holy grail of winning a first major trophy since the World Cup success of 1966. Of the eight penalty shootouts in which England have been involved (England's Penalty Shootouts), only one, England V Spain, Euro '96, has resulted in an England victory. The success rate of 12.5% is woeful for a national side and is probably indicative of how unprepared the England team always is for this aspect of the game.

I appreciate the need for a definitive way of deciding the outcome of a football match and can understand the reason why the penalty shootout is seen as the fair way of arriving at a result. However, this is fine for a match played over one leg such as a knockout competition; if the scores are level after extra time what else is there to do? But, for a match played over two legs, I've always felt that the "away goals" rule was a better and fairer way to judge the best team of the two protagonists. After all, if one team is more attack-minded and scores away from home, then the just reward for their endeavours at the end of a drawn, two-legged match should be to go through to the next round. If this had been the case on Monday, Swindon Town would have been safely through to the final having scored twice at London Road during the first leg of the Area Final against Peterborough United. Perhaps the organisers of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy should consider this for next season.