{"id":734,"date":"2020-04-17T09:48:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T08:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=734"},"modified":"2020-04-26T09:06:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T08:06:04","slug":"falling-in-love-with-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=734","title":{"rendered":"Falling in love with Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I\u2019ve found myself becoming increasingly nostalgic over\nthe past few weeks. I imagine many of us have as we face this unprecedented and\nsurreal situation. It has given us plenty of time to reflect. In such a\npreviously busy world it seems strange that life has come seemingly to a full\nstop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the areas I have reflected on is football.\nWhile we\u2019d all agree that in the greater scheme of things football is not a\nmatter of supreme importance, the long stretches of ennui in our daily lives\nbring home to us how much it enriches our daily experience and how much we miss\nthe excitement of matches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought I would share with you the early days of my\nArsenal supporting life and one game which still today is etched in my memory\nas one of the most memorable I\u2019ve ever seen. As many of you know I come from a\nline of Gooners although when the line began the term \u2018Gooner\u2019 was not remotely\nrecognised . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My grandfather started following Arsenal as a teenager\nat Woolwich in the early years of the century. He was a soldier before the\nFirst World War began and when he left the Army and started a family he was\nvery keen to take his young son (my father) from their home in Hoxton to the\nnew ground at Highbury. He didn\u2019t wait long! \nMy father recalled that his first visit to Highbury was in 1924 , at\nfour years of age , and he remembers travelling from Hoxton to Highbury carried\non his father\u2019s shoulders .He told me that as they got closer to Highbury there\nwas a crocodile of Dads and their sons \nsnaking down towards the ground . Arriving at the ground he like all the\nmany small boys was passed down to the front where he watched the games through\nthe railings although Dad remembers his father taking a box for him to stand on\nas he started to grow! He watched the team who lest we forget had never won a\nmajor trophy when he started watching them, gradually improve through the\nCharlie Buchan era and then he enjoyed fabulous entertainment in the thirties\nwith Chapman\u2019s highly successful  team\nhighlighted by the individual brilliance of Hapgood, Bastin , Drake and my\nfather\u2019s favourite player Alex James. James, one of Arsenal\u2019s favourite sons\nowned a tobacconist shop by the stadium for many years, an indication of how\nmodest were the financial pickings for the superstars of the day in the\nnineteen thirties, forties and fifties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father had his own, very active, war to fight and\nreturning from the conflict after six years , resumed his support for the\nGunners. Financially, like many family men in the post-war period he struggled,\nbut it remained a keen ambition to take his young son (me) to see his beloved\nArsenal. I can remember starting to take an interest in the game and asked Dad\nto show me the positions on the pitch when I was about six years of age. I can\nstill remember the delight with which Dad wrote out the 2-3-5 formation for me\non a photo board with a mixture of elation and a relief only matched a few\nyears later when he realised that I was developing a healthy interest in the\nopposite sex. I retain both of these interests to the present day! I remember\nhim telling me \u2018our club is the Arsenal\u2018. There was no room for argument! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began properly supporting Arsenal at the start of\nthe 1958\/9 season but Dad did not consider me old enough to go to an Arsenal match\nuntil April 1961 when he took me to see Arsenal beat Blackpool 1-0 at Highbury\n, the last time that Sir Stanley Matthews played for Blackpool in London. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching Arsenal at that time and for many years\nafterwards, I am reminded of the different feel that Highbury had to other grounds.\nWe of course had the Metropolitan Police Band with Constable Alex Morgan\ncharming us with some wonderful vocals. They would sit at the front of the East\nEnclosure near the Clock End and each programme would show the musical menu for\nthe day .  The band would march on the\npitch for large parts of the season with the leader of the band throwing up his\nbaton in front of the North Bank who all tried to make him drop it by raucously\nheckling him! On occasions he did but it was rare! We had the halftime updates\nwhich came on number boards which were put in place early in the second half.\nLater on fans would bring transistor radios to keep abreast of the results of\nour rivals. The mobile phone has seen that habit die out. We had the peanut sellers,\nwe recalled recently in the drinks, and rudimentary bars. I enjoyed my first\ntaste of rum and blackcurrant in the old rickety bar that lay behind the North\nBank. I remember the huge and dangerous scrums as spectators tried to squeeze\nout of the North Bank on their way to Arsenal, or in our case, Finsbury Park,\ntube. Football could be a hazardous afternoon out especially when we moved into\nthe hooligan era. Attendances varied enormously. The first game I saw had an\nattendance of 36,301 many of whom were there to see Stanley Matthews but crowds\ncould be 60,000 for Manchester United and Spurs and not much over 20,000 for\nthe less attractive games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many years after my first visit I took a girlfriend to\nHighbury for a night match. She asked where the ladies loos were and I had to\nconfess I had no idea! We asked a steward who had to ask another steward before\nwe identified the one area where they were housed!  Football was an almost exclusively male\npreserve and I remember the ambivalence of the supporters around me who were\ninterested in the presence of a pretty girl next to them but a bit mystified\nabout why you\u2019d take a woman to a football match! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that \nBlackpool match we stood at the front of the West Enclosure , very close\nto the place where thirty years later I would have my first season ticket , and\nfive minutes into the second half , Armfield block- tackling Alan Skirton,  knocked my father\u2019s glasses off as the ball\nrebounded into the crowd.  Ever the\ngentleman Armfield enquired after my father\u2019s welfare. My father was more\nconcerned that Skirton had no clue how to get past the then England captain and\nright-back who had the Arsenal winger in his pocket. Arsenal won the game 1-0\nwith a fierce drive from David Herd that I didn\u2019t see rip past the Blackpool\nkeeper and Jack Kelsey ensured we held on to bag the two points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is a game that took place a couple of years\nlater that I remember particularly. Arsenal, under Billy Wright, were serial\nunderachievers. From the conversations in the crowd at matches you sensed this\nwas a group of supporters who were brought up on success and were less than\nimpressed with the struggles that a side who did attract some very fine\nplayers, endured for many years in the sixties. I think the term \u2018sleeping\ngiants\u2018 would sum Arsenal up very well at that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early September 1963 we found ourselves bottom of\nthe league after four matches despite having invested a club record fee in the\nScottish international centre half Ian Ure from Dundee. Our two previous games\n(both away) had seen us lose 7-2 to Leicester (after our goalie was taken off\nwith a broken arm) and 4-0 to West Bromwich Albion. We welcomed Bolton\nWanderers who sat, I believe, in mid-table. I remember Dad and I taking a place\nhigh on the North Bank in a modest crowd of just over 26,000 and watching\naghast as Bolton took an early lead. They doubled it soon after in front of a\nhorrified North Bank as Arsenal\u2019s central defence of Neill and Laurie Brown (Ure\nplayed further forward that day) leaked like a colander. My father had\nsomething of a down on Skirton who he thought was far too lacking in guile for\nan Arsenal winger but he pulled a goal back only for Freddie Hill, the Bolton\nschemer (as playmakers were then known) to restore their two goal lead before\nhalf-time. 3-1 to Bolton at half-time and the pre-match gloom had deepened into\na crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can still incredibly remember the despairing conversation\nbetween my father and a fellow supporter as we agonised about the very real\nthreat of relegation. Overreacting after five games wasn\u2019t confined to the\nmodern game! Our new friend despaired of the defence but still held out hope\nfor us in the match because of the potency of the Arsenal attack with the\nbrilliant Joe Baker prompted by the creative George Eastham, he of the spindly\nlegs and sinuous control. The second half was only a matter of minutes old when\nBaker thumped an incredibly powerful volley past Eddie Hopkinson the Bolton (and\nEngland) keeper to bring us back into the game. Cue wave after wave of Arsenal\npressure, thrilling in its power and intensity but we were still unable to\nunlock the Bolton defence. Then with about seven minutes left Eastham whipped a\nfree kick to the far post and a blond Arsenal head- that of Ure- sent it into\nthe Bolton net. I remember huge waves of relief which were followed by a mini\npitch- invasion. We had rescued a point…or had we?  Bolton switched the ball to the Clock End and\nHill was brought down. That moment when you realise you\u2019ve committed a clear\nfoul and it was within the area is always an excruciating one and is even more\nexcruciating when you\u2019ve worked so hard to get back into the game. So Bolton\nhad a penalty. Arsenal\u2019s keeper was a Scotsman called Ian Mckechnie, later that\nseason dropped for being overweight, and playing in one of his very first\ngames. Hill stepped up ready to notch his hat-trick and duly drove the ball\nunerringly to the top left-hand corner but Mckechnie dived full-length to his\nright to turn the ball around the post. I can still remember the elation now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the game moving into injury time, that very\nmoveable feast in those days which was never scrutinised , Arsenal broke\nincisively through the middle. The ball moved from Mcleod to Baker to Geoff\nStrong and he hit a bullet that Hopkinson saved brilliantly …but he only\nmanaged to parry it into the path of Skirton who turned it triumphantly home.\nYou wouldn\u2019t have thought 26,000 people could raise the roof on the North Bank\nbut it felt like they did that day. 4-3 to the Arsenal and the start of an\nimportant winning run for what was a talented but defensively flawed team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve personally seen Arsenal win ten  FA Cups, clinch six titles , play in  and nearly win the Champions League Final and win the Fairs Cup at Highbury and they were all very, very  special  moments but nothing is seared in my memory like that extraordinary match in September 1963. Very little beats the adrenalin rush of your team winning a thrilling victory with you actually there in the ground. That was the moment in that wonderfully evocative stadium , next to my ecstatic father when I really fell in love with my team. I knew from that moment on that whatever I did in life, wherever I went, this club would always have a huge place in my heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago I alluded to the game on Goonerholic and I believe Clive was there too and was similarly entranced. I\u2019ve been hugely lucky to see live around 1500 Arsenal matches in my life (many of which I have forgotten) but that was an indelible memory. In the later years of my Dad\u2019s life that glorious Arsenal side was a massive part of his world. He never made it to the Emirates as he was too frail to take on the journey but never was a Sky subscription used so avidly. After matches I would always phone him to discuss the match, take him the programme to read and discuss the players we had. He was enthralled by the flair of Henry, Bergkamp and Pires, amazed by the drive and power of Vieira and Petit, stirred by the stoicism and leadership of Adams and hugely grateful to Wenger for producing teams that illuminated the later years of his life with such stunning football. We calculated after his death that he had supported Arsenal for eighty-six years with no time off for good behaviour.  A tile, similar to the one we bought for Gooner Terry, commemorating his support, can be found as you walk down from the Ken Friar Bridge not far from the Tony Adams statue. The picture above shows his two great grandsons sitting by it on a visit to watch the Emirates Cup. One of them is continuing the Arsenal tradition in our family which stretches to well over a hundred years. Every so often as we discussed \u2018the Arsenal\u2018 as he always called them, Dad would say to me, Do you remember that game we went to see when the Arsenal came back to beat Bolton 4-3?. That was a wonderful game wasn\u2019t it?..Remember it….. that is a game I will never forget as long as I live. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve found myself becoming increasingly nostalgic over the past few weeks. I imagine many of us have as we face this unprecedented and surreal situation. It has given us plenty of time to reflect. In such a previously busy world it seems strange that life has come seemingly to a full stop. One of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=734"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":741,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}