ON THIS DAY

Back in the day when I heard that the club I supported were in the Anglo-Italian Cup the dream was watching them play Juventus or Inter-Milan. The reality was a tad different - the four matches they played in the two seasons they took part in the competition were all against English sides! Notts County were a little more fortunate. They did play Italian sides on the way to reaching the final of the competition in both 1993/94 and 1994/95 although they weren't the Serie A giants - they were Serie B clubs. In 1994/95 they visited Ascoli and Atalanta and hosted Lecce and Venezia in their qualifying group with less than 9,000 fans in total turning up for those four matches. Crowds picked up for the two legs of the English semi-final against Stoke and then it was on to a Wembley final. A year after County had been beaten 1-0 by Brescia in front of 17,185 fans at Wembley they were back at the national stadium on Sunday March 19th 1995 when 11,704 fans witnessed them play Ascoli again and record a 2-1 victory. So Notts County had tasted European glory at Wembley - and they then went on to be relegated to the third tier of the Football League at the end of the season. Such is life!

Stanley Matthews made his debut for Stoke City at Bury in a 2nd Division match. He played his last League matches 33 years later.