THE WONDERFUL WATNEY CUP
BY Vince Cooper CONTESTED between 1970 and 1973, the Watney Cup (full title Watney Mann Invitation Cup) is fondly remembered as a contest where...
BIG SWIFTY
THE FRANK SWIFT STORY BY Vince Cooper THERE is no doubt that the Munich air disaster of 1958 will forever be remembered as ‘The Day A Team Died’ (to...
‘IF ONLY’. THE TOMMY LAWTON STORY
IF ONLY. THE TOMMY LAWTON STORY BY Vince Cooper The history of football is littered with ‘if onlys’. ‘What if the Manchester United side hadn’t been...
WEBBY
BY Vince Cooper ‘PETER Osgood and Charlie Cooke have more football in their little fingers than I have in my whole body!’ So said David Webb during...
THE BUSBY BABES AT THEIR BEST
ARSENAL 4 MANCHESTER UNITED 5 BY Vince Cooper ON February 1 1958, Manchester United travelled to North London to take on Arsenal in a First Division...
DANCIN’ NOBBY
THE NOBBY STILES STORY BY Vince Cooper TO win a World Cup – so they say – you need a minimum of four world-class players. In 1966...
THE TIGERS TALE – THE HISTORY OF HULL CITY
BY Vince Cooper ATTEMPTS were made to start a football club in Hull for some time before Hull City were formed in 1904. The main delays were caused...
THE ROAR OF THUNDER
THE LUIGI RIVA STORY BY Vince Cooper RARELY has one man had such a huge effect on one team as Luigi Riva, who passed away recently, had on Cagliari....
Lev Yashin. The Shining Light
Lev Yashin never wanted to be a goalkeeper. In fact he never even wanted to be a footballer. But the young man who first tried boxing and then went...
THE 1967-68 EUROPEAN CUP
REDEMPTION – TEN YEARS LATER BY Vince Cooper THE 1965-66 season represented eight years since the disaster of Munich, when Manchester United...
THE CAT
The Cat BY Vince Cooper This is a chapter from the book ‘Blue Army’ The Worthing Catholic team which competed in the Sussex County League in the...
SIR BOBBY
BY Vince Cooper Bobby Charlton had a glittering football career although his own self-effacing attitude and the talents of those around him, often...
YOU NEED HANDS – Part One
YOU NEED HANDS – THE PAT JENNINGS STORY (Part One) BY Vince Cooper FEW players earn the accolades and affection of two sets of fans so much...
THE DUKE
BY Vince Cooper FOOTBALLERS from the Channel Islands making it to the top of the game have been few and far between. Amazingly, Guernsey’s Matt Le...
THE BATTLE OF HIGHBURY
BY Vince Cooper AFTER resigning from FIFA in 1919 in protest at Germany, Austria and Hungary being allowed to join, the Home Nations steadfastly...
THE PRINCE OF GOALKEEPERS
BY Vince Cooper ‘They never die who live in the hearts they leave behind’ The inscription on John Thomson’s gravestone. Whilst a sunny May 25th 1967...