ON THIS DAY

Paul Gascoigne was a great footballer but when he was appointed manager of Conference North side Kettering Town the general opinion was that it just wasn’t going to work. On December 5th 2005 that opinion was confirmed when he was sacked after just 6 League games (won 2, drawn 2 and lost 2) and 39 days in charge. The club owner accused Gazza of drinking too much while Gazza accused the owner of interfering with team affairs. And if you think the story of those 39 days might be worthy of a book – it was! 6 th December

Now this injury causes me pain and I'm only writing about it! W hen playing for Servette against Schaffhausen in a Swiss League match Paulo Diogo jumped on one of the boundary fences to celebrate a Servette goal. Not being aware that his wedding ring was caught on the fence he jumped down leaving behind the ring and much of his finger, the rest having to be amputated in hospital. And he was booked by ref Florian Etter for excessive celebration of the goal. Ouch!

The Football Association declared its opposition to women’s football. Officially it was because it considered women not physically capable of playing football but unofficially the growing popularity of the women’s game was causing men some concern. The FA couldn’t stop women playing football but they could – and did – ban any FA member club allowing their ground to be used for a women’s football match. The ban lasted until 1971.

Newcastle finished as League champions in 1908/09 but there was one match they would rather have forgotten – on this day in 1908 they lost 1-9 at home. It shares the record for the worst home defeat in the top flight and is the worst defeat by any club winning the League title – but worse still it was against their nearest neighbours, Sunderland, in front of their highest gate of the season at St James' Park, 56000. Ouch!