A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Our second post to celebrate our fourth anniversary comes from Richard Allinson and takes a look at one of his boyhood heroes who he might have only just worked out why he idolised. You’d like to think it was his commitment to the game which saw him admit he’d “kick (his) own brother if necessary... it's what being a professional footballer is all about.” Rich, however, might have other ideas. Growing up, I had two childhood heroes. In truth I had more than that but a post on Super Ted or the Ultimate Warrior wouldn’t fit within the scope of this blog. No, my childhood heroes were Dave Beasant and Steve McMahon. I’m nowt if not glamorous. My idolisation of Beasant I can pinpoint to the exact moment he saved a penalty in the 1988 FA Cup final. I have spent the thick end of four decades trying to work out why I held McMahon in such high esteem and haven’t got there previously. Let’s try again. He was part of the all-conquering Liverpool side of the late eighties, but I didn’t suppo

Just over four years ago the entire world was plunged into the harrowing Covid-19 pandemic. Tragically many lost their lives and all of us, in one way or another, had our lives irrevocably changed by the first of many lockdowns that put a stop to day to day life. Huge amounts of time in our houses forced us to do strange things from home haircuts, baking banana bread, donning a tinfoil hat or, in our case, deciding to start writing a load of nonsense about old football stickers. To celebrate our four-year anniversary we will be taking it in turns to reflect on some happier times with a look at our cult heroes. Thanks to anyone and everyone who has been involved in this frankly ridiculous journey over 350 posts. There’s plenty more in the locker and we’re always open to requests or guest spots . Early on in my nearly eighteen-year long relationship with my now wife we were having a chat about the happiest day of our lives. Common sense should have told me that the romantic thing to s

This post owes a lot to the excellent work of Greg Lansdowne and his commitment to the world of football nostalgia so, before diving into today’s subject, it’s time to say thank you. Greg’s ‘Stuck On You’, exploring the rise, fall and resurrection of Panini stickers, is a must read for any football fan and the subsequent ITV documentary is a fascinating watch. As today’s particular subject predated my birth by five years I’m very grateful for him bringing the Panini Football ’83 collection to my attention and especially for the visual gift below. Cheers Greg and thanks for the photo. Hope this an enjoyable read. Marking some recent Year 7 work on source reliability was an insight into the innocence of youth. When asked why a photograph of an air raid shelter during the Second World War was useful to an historian many of them plumped for the idea that a photo provided an accurate depiction of events from the time. They’re going to get a real shock when they learn about Stalin’s Russia