ON THIS DAY

and 2005 Over the years October 18th seems to have been a popular day for famous English goalscorers to lose some important scoring records. On October 18th 1992 Liverpool visited Old Trafford for the first time in the Premier League. Ian Rush started the match on 286 goals for Liverpool, which was a record for the club he held jointly with the England World Cup winner 'Sir' Roger Hunt. Liverpool drew 2-2 with Manchester United, Ian Rush scoring the second which made the record all his. The Welsh goal-machine had set the record just two days short of his 31st birthday and by the time he left Anfield in 1996 he had increased that record to 346 goals. Fast forward 13 years to 18th October 2005 when Arsenal also found themselves with a new record goalscorer. The Gunners started that day with Ian Wright being their top scorer in all competitions on 185 goals and Frenchman Thierry Henry one goal behind him. Arsenal visited Sparta Prague that evening in the Champions League, winning 2-0 with Henry scoring both to set a new record of 186 goals. By the time he moved on to Barcelona in 2007 he had increased the record to 228 goals.

Second Division strugglers Stoke City paid £3,500 to buy a 46 year old player to improve their fortunes. It worked - the last home League match before he arrived attracted 8,409 fans but in the first match after he arrived 35,974 were at the Victoria Ground. The player they had brought back from Blackpool was Stanley Matthews who made made his League debut for Stoke back in 1932 and who would go on playing until he was 50. Amazing or what?