David Herd: The Arsenal 1954-61
David Herd was the 458th player to appear for Arsenal. Highly thought of at Highbury, this Scottish International goal machine had to leave Highbury to gain well deserved winners medals elsewhere in the 1960s.
Mel Charles: the Arsenal 1959-62
Mel Charles was the 476th player to appear for Arsenal. A Welsh international captain, he was at home at centre forward, centre back or wing half. A free scoring versatile player his time at Arsenal was marred by injury.
James MacDonald: The Arsenal 1994-2000
James MacDonald was a Scottish schoolboy international defender whose promising Arsenal career was ended while still very young by cruciate ligament injuries.
Kevin Stead: The Arsenal 1977-1979
Kevin Stead was the 572nd player to appear for Arsenal.
John Roberts: The Arsenal 1969-72
John Roberts was the 532nd player to appear for Arsenal. A Welsh international he was a more than useful member of the first team squad filling in the role of no-nonsense centre-half. He won a League Championship winners medal for his appearances in the 1970-71 campaign, during the double winning season.
We all know the original clock was placed on the Laundry End in 1930 and after some shenanigans with the FA and Highbury redevelopment it was moved to the College End in 1935.
We wrote as much in a recent blog and article for the club magazine.
However, all may not be as we all had assumed as new detail has emerged which shows the clock most likely began its life on the West Terrace, within an information centre on the South-West corner of the ground before moving to the Laundry End a few years later.
At the start of the week Andy told me that the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News had been placed on the British Library website. This was exciting news for historians as the publication “did what it said on the tin” – it being a weekly paper that began in the Victorian period to provide the interested populace a multitude of drawings and photos of current sporting and artistic news and events. As such it provides insight that words can not convey.
He then said look at this beauty from the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News 1930:
The Original Clock in the Information Centre at Highbury – 20 September 1930*
On 16 March 1935 league leaders Arsenal travelled to Goodison Park, Everton for a First Division game. For one man it was to be a bitter sweet afternoon as, while he scored an unexpected goal, his football playing career was essentially ended on that day.
These block plans sat in a dusty file for over 100 years until put up for auction in a general sale of various aspects of a member of the pre WW1 Islington planning dept. Stamped as being received by the Islington Engineering and surveyor’s department on both 22 May and then 9 June 1913.
We rarely veer from the historical but for this blog we will regarding this weekend’s big win.
Now obviously from the title this is not about the football, as it was evident from Saturday’s win that, on the pitch, very little is right about the Wearsiders who showed why they are now favourites for the drop.
It is not about Brexit either, for while the Sunderland landslide “Leave” result at half past midnight showed the way the country was leaning we are a non-political concern.
Instead this is about a far sighted and imaginative scheme at Sunderland which caught our attention, in a sphere both Andy and myself have deep interests:
The Stadium of Light Sensory Room for those on the autistic spectrum.
The Villareal Yellow Submarine residing at the Arsenal Museum Archives