ON THIS DAY

The first day back at school after the long summer break is usually one of those well-remembered days. For schoolboy Luke Matheson that was certainly the case. At the end of that first day at school he made made the trip to Spotland for the Rochdale v Bury Checkatrade Trophy match. Not to watch but he was a sub for Rochdale. After 13 minutes on he came on as sub to become Rochdale's youngest-ever player in a competitive match, aged just 15 years 336 days. He helped Rochdale to a 2-1 victory.....and was named man of the match. Some day! Mind you he had another red-letter day a little over a year later, not long after finding out his GCSE results (he got 10). He scored his first senior goal in another local derby cup-tie. This one was a Carabao League Cup match at...Manchester United, with a 58,313 Old Trafford crowd witnessing his goal. He was back at school the next day - studying history, sociology and psychology A levels - with some great memories I guess.

The attendance at Craven Cottage for Second Division fixture between Fulham and Bristol Rovers was 21,127 which was well over double the number that were at their previous home League match. The reason - it was the debut of one George Best in the Fulham side. Also in the Fulham side that day were Bobby Moore and Rodney Marsh but it was Best who stole the show scoring the only goal of the match after just 71 seconds.

Chelsea played their first match at Stamford Bridge on this day in 1905. Chelsea's early history was a bit unusual. They were elected to the Football League without having kicked a football in anger and didn't play a match of any kind at home until after they had made their debut in the Football League. Their League debut was a 1-0 defeat at Stockport County on September 2nd 1905 and two days later Chelsea played their first match at Stamford Bridge, a 4-0 victory in a friendly against Liverpool. Almost exactly a century later the same two clubs were playing at the same venue in a Champions League semi-final watched live by millions worldwide on something called a television - who would have guessed that in 1905!