A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

In 1879 schoolmaster James Allan decided to gather his colleagues together for a kickabout and, by October 1880, Sunderland AFC had come into existence. Based on personal experience of teachers’ kickabouts I can only assume there were some ultra-competitive members of the PE department, some surprisingly decent elder statesmen and one member of the Senior Leadership Team who everyone was worried about tackling. Unlike the various Friday misuses of sports halls I have taken part in Sunderland joined the Football League in 1890 and had won the whole thing three times in their first five seasons. Long before Chelsea were given something shiny for a couple of minutes by Donald Trump the Black Cats had also been crowned ‘Football World Champions’ on three occasions by virtue of victories over Scottish champions Celtic, Queen’s Park and Heart of Midlothian. When the First World War brought a temporary pause to league football in 1915 Sunderland had won five league championships, finished a...

Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones heads north of the border to have a look back at the good old days when footballers had proper mullets and could do a job up front and at centre half . This post’s subject earned the nickname Braveheart partly due to his fearless performances for club and country but, more realistically, because he happened to be at his peak around the same time the film came out and had an excellent haircut. Over to Emlyn. For plenty of people, myself included, their love of football is formed in childhood, and the modern iteration doesn't hold quite the same charm as their first exposure to the beautiful game. I'm sure this was true for people from every era, with innovations from goalie gloves to coloured boots all being surefire signs that 'the game's gone'. For me, early memories of Eric Cantona bamboozling opponents, or the cultured play of Dennis Bergkamp or David Ginola coming up against the grit of Julian Dicks and Neil Ruddock , will always hold...