ON THIS DAY

Alan Shearer was one of the greats of the English game. His 206 Newcastle United goals and 260 Premier League goals were both records, he was a Footballer of the Year, PFA Player of the Year, one of his transfers was for a world record fee, he was a Premier League title winner and scored 30 times in 63 England appearances. He had planned to retire at the end of the 2005/06 season, his tenth at hometown club Newcastle United. But on Monday 17th April 2006 his playing career came to a slightly premature end when a knee injury saw him substituted in what proved to be his last match with three matches of the season remaining. Mind you it was a fitting finale with Newcastle winning 4-1 away to their local rivals Sunderland. Of course Alan Shearer scored one of those goals. A great player.

Hooliganism was an ever-present problem in the 70s with one particularly bad incident at Elland Road in April 1971. Leeds were involved in a tight battle with Arsenal for the League title and in a crucial match against WBA referee Ray Tinkler allowed a clearly off-side goal. The ref was jostled during a pitch invasion which followed. Leeds lost the match 1-2 and were pipped by a point by Arsenal for the title. Their punishment for the incident was a four-match banishment from Elland Road at the start of the 1971/72 season.

A European record attendance for a football match of 149,415 saw Scotland beat England 3-1 at Hampden Park in a Home Championship match.