ON THIS DAY

Hartlepool United beat Notts County with goals from Peter Hartley and James Poole. So that’s Hartley and Poole score for Hartlepool….

Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, the only League defeat suffered by the Gunners on their way to the 1990/91 Premier League title. Arsenal were without captain Tony Adams who was in prison serving a sentence for a drink driving offence.

On this day in 1946 Arsenal's Kevin O'Flanagan played for Northern Ireland against Scotland in Belfast. Seven days before that he had played for Ireland against France in Dublin....at rugby! And he was pretty good at athletics as well! A doctor, he was one of the last amateurs to play first-team football for Arsenal - he needed to remain an amateur sportsman to continue playing rugby union. The 'Flying Doc' made 14 League and 2 FA Cup appearances for Arsenal in 1946, scoring twice.

At 38 years and 2 days of age Andy Cunningham of Newcastle United became the oldest player ever to make his debut in the Football League, against Leicester City at St James' Park. The former Rangers player and Scottish international later became player-manager of the Magpies.

It's not unknown for goalkeepers to score from penalties - Alex Stepney scored a couple in the League for Manchester United - but its a tad unusual. Back on 2nd February 1929 Newport County 'keeper Jimmy Maidment hit the headlines when he took two penalties for Newport in a Third Division (South) match. He scored one but missed the other in the 4-1 victory over Torquay United. In his career total of 219 League outings for Newport he scored 3 goals, all from the penalty spot.