ON THIS DAY

This one might make you a tad more enthusiastic the next time you find yourself at a jumble sale! On 6th September 2022 Graham Budd Auctions in London auctioned off the boyhood bible of an England great, Bobby Charlton. The inside front cover had on it what might have been the first autograph of the future World Cup winner as well as details of his class and teacher. Inside the back cover was printed his childhood address in Ashington. The owner had bought this unique bit of memorabilia at at jumble sale back in the 1980's but in the auction room it sold for £2200. At the same auction Alan Sunderland's 1979 FA Cup winners' medal and his two FA Cup runners-up medals - all gained while an Arsenal player - went for a total of £30,000. Those were definitely not jumble sale material! 7 th September

The annual Non League Day has seen some bizarre and ingenious ideas to promote the non-league game and increase its attendances. On Non League Day in 2013 Anglian Combination side Bungay Town saw its attendance increase by nearly 70% when they paid their fans 5p to watch them play. A year later, on 6th September 2014, they made the headlines with another novel idea - they gave each supporter a punnet of mushrooms! It doubled their normal attendance although I doubt whether the idea will be taken up by many clubs in the Football League!

England played out a 0-0 draw with Colombia in a friendly international at Wembley. Easily forgotten – well it would have been had it not been for the extrovert Colombian goalkeeper René Higuita introducing us to the scorpion kick. How on earth did he do it.....

The day that Terry Butcher became a blood donor in the England cause. England needed a good result against closest group rivals Sweden in Stockholm to keep on course to qualify for the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy. Central defender Terry Butcher suffered a deep gash on his forehead early in the game which was stitched and bandaged up. But the Rangers defender continued to head the ball which opened up the wound and left him seriously blooded as shown in that iconic picture. But helped by his heroics England drew 0-0 - they didn't concede a goal in any if their six qualifiers - and were close to booking their place in the World Cup finals.

Following their move from the Manor Ground in Plumstead, Arsenal – still Woolwich Arsenal at the time - played their first match at Highbury against Leicester Fosse in the Second Division. A 20,000 crowd saw Leicester’s Tommy Benfield score the first Highbury goal, George Jobey equalising for Arsenal with Arichibald Devine scoring the Arsenal winner from the penalty spot.