Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: Football

Anton Rippon is a journalist, author and publisher. He has spent almost all his working life in the newspaper and publishing industry. He is the author of 30 books including an autobiographical memoir A Derby Boy. His work has appeared in a wide range of national newspapers and magazines and he has written radio documentaries for the BBC. In 1982, he founded Breedon Books, the sports and history publisher. He is also a member of the Sports Journalists' Association, the International Society of Olympic Historians and the Football Writers' Association. Anton lives in Derby.

Contents to include:
Ashbourne vs Ashbourne: late result
Who invented football?
`I’m going to play soccer’
The man who championed the
amateur game
First FA Cup goal
A fixity of fixtures’
The formation of the leagues
Invincible Preston
Paid to play football? You must be
joking...
Amateurism vs professionalism
England’s first professional
Penalty, ref!
Gentleman prefer to miss
Penalty extremes
Fifth time lucky
The cricket club that turned up by
mistake
36–0 – and they think it’s all an over
A game of three halves
Four months to complete a
match: Roll on floodlights...
No goals please: Burnley and Stoke cheat the system
Poxy Boro stage a secret semi-final: Plenty of sea air the solution
The only Romany to play for England?: Rabbi Howell’s career overshadowed
by controversy
The enigmatic Nettie Honeyball: Just don’t call her `ornamental and useless’
Women’s football’s long march: From factory to football field
First Ibrox Park disaster: `This football maddened crowd’
Chelsea and the Aberdeen Terrier: Canine ankle-biter creates a new club
Heatwave at Hyde Road: Manchester City’s players find it all too much
The election campaign scandal: Chairman wants seat in Parliament as well as director’s box
Il Padre di Calcio Italiano: Unsung in his own country but a legend abroad
`Unpatriotic and unproductive’?: Football stands accused of hindering the war effort
Bombs away!
Footballers come under the hammer: The great Leeds City auction
Facing the music
All at sea: The Scottish club that found themselves foundering
Smoke me a kipper...
A different kind of shot on target: Murdered by an angry neighbour
One ground, one day, two matches – twice: Cuckoos in the nest
Bill’s busy week
It’s raining goals: One-word change to the laws brings defensive chaos
The day the goalies would like to forget
Dixie Dean – Goal Machine: The origins of the prolific scorer’s nickname
Keeping it in the family
Ten-goal Joe Payne: It’s always the quiet ones
Derek Dooley: from ecstasy to agony
Stoley and the Argonauts’ fruitless quest: Club that never played a game
What’s in a name?
`Back to square one’: Arsenal – in the vanguard of new media
BBC Match of the Day
The Football League’s sabotage plan: But censoring fixture lists failed to drain the pools
Pea-souper Sam
Thinking outside the box entirely: Football’s unconventional managers
Missionary adopts a principled position: Betting on yourself is not always a good idea
Brotherly love – but no cap
Passions run high at Hitler’s Olympics: Peruvians pack their bags and head home
in a huff
`Heil Hitler!’: England told to salute the Nazi bigwig but Aston Villa refuse to obey
The penalties of war: When football waited for the all-clear
Doubling up
Blades still blitzed years later
Vic’s Italian job: Living at the stadium with enemy POWs
What do you get if you cross a
palm with silver?: The end of a barren run of 62 years, that’s what
Those mysterious Russkis: Incorruptible workers against corrupt capitalists?
Thirteen goals – unlucky for some: Record score achieved three times
Flying Doctor, Irish style: The double international who made sporting history
The Burnden Park disaster: Safety lessons go unheeded for decades
The oldest player in the Football League: Emergency goalie sets record at the age of 51
Forced out of existence by sectarian violence: The tragedy of Belfast Celtic
For the want of a boot: Remembering Indian football’s barefoot generation
The goal that echoed around the world: The biggest shock in World Cup history – thanks to a Haitian immigrant
Posh attendance
Injured goalkeeper locked out: Heroics in a 6-5 thriller
Gone in 20 seconds
In off the ref: Baily’s goal should not have stood
Footballer – and civil rights activist
Deadly strikes of the lightning variety: Footballers killed playing the game they loved
Drowned while searching for ball
The cruellest way to be KO’d in the Cup?: Blindfolded Roman boy controls football fates
A LINESMAN BY ANY
OTHER NAME
Six old boys hit six: Rejects return to shock former club
The lights are on but is anyone at home?
Cycling in the dark: How England stars used to fall foul of the law
The child star whose career was on hold for seven years: Manchester United wanted him – before he broke his leg
`Cashley’ Cole – needs time to pay
The greatest comeback?: 5-1 down and yet they still win
Undersoil heating worked too well
`Is he the type to captain
England?’: The corridors of moral power
Wage-capping
Lincoln City’s mighty reprieve: The Imps win six in a row to avoid relegation
Nothing to smile about
Double hat-tricks – not good enough: The highest scoring losers in FA Cup history
Christmas goal-fest
No train, but one plane and several automobiles: One long journey for one very short career
Pulled muscle or playing badly? Bring on the sub!: But injury-faking footballers prompt a rule change
The football war: When El Salvador and Honduras went into battle for real
Don’t mention the World Cup ball: Tracked down after 30 years
Not yet over the Jimmy Hill
True double sportsman: First-class football and cricket on the same day
Grounds of appeal: Football and cricket generally good neighbours
Fastest own-goal in League history
Whistle down the win: Fulham’s missing 78 seconds
From zero but not to heroes
Hang on while we look for a bomb: The IRA not keen on football
From salad cream to stray dogs: Football’s freak injuries
Fred wasn’t dead after all
`Bambi on ice’: How the wool was pulled over Graeme Souness’s eyes
Not his finest hour
People in football grounds shouldn’t throw celery
The Gold Chain Derby: It’s a good thing Mr T doesn’t play football
Teams that wanted to score against themselves: Crazy rule that saw football become farce
When team-mates came to blows: Charlton’s pair of strikers took it literally
Flying chicken wings: Italian love affair ruined by a plate of food
No petrol money, no players: The team that went on strike over travelling expenses
Three goals, three different goalkeepers
Only one team in Tallinn – and they’re Scottish: Long way to go for three seconds
The green parrot given a red card: Me-Tu’s touchline ban
Referees who red card themselves: When match officials lose it
Like father, like son
A few of football’s marked men: Naughty boys who played with electronic tags
Going to the Match – it’s expensive these days: Lowry’s painting finds a home
Ooops! The transfer scoop that wasn’t
When Socrates played for Garforth: The Brazilian superstar who lit up (in) a small Yorkshire town
Long hair and earrings – banned!: They like their football strictly manly in Argentina and Nigeria
The great hijab debate: Olympic dreams shattered by head-covering ban
Banned from watching football – even on TV
Why you should never leave before the end: Parents miss their son’s moment of history
Club Chairman sees a UFO: But fails to spot the false messiah trying to take over his club
The Battle of Bramall Lane: Injuries, red cards and accusations fly
The FA Cup tie that wouldn’t die: Chesterfield and Droylsden just couldn’t bear to say bye
One long Scilly season...
Manager just for ten minutes: Manages to see the funny side
`One of the craziest goals in history’: Liverpool beaten by a beach ball
A woman running the line?: Whatever next?
Not to be sniffed at
Cold comfort for Oldham supporters: Sub-zero wait for tickets rewarded only by heavy defeat
What a difference 25 years make
Handcuffed to a goalpost: The Liverpool fan with an axe to grind