Page 15 - Callan United 50th Anniversary Yearbook 2018/19

FOOTBALL FUNNIES

All Fogged Up

Arsenal played a friendly against Dynamo Moscow in heavy fog in 1945 at White Hart
Lane and despite the urging of players to suspend play due to the fog, the referee
decided that play should continue. The fog was so thick that the game turned into an
absolute farce, with both sides playing by their own set of rules and suffering their own
bad luck because of the inclement weather.

Moscow at one point made a substitution but didn't take a player off, with fans watching
the match believing that the Russian club had up to 15 players on the pitch at the one
time.Arsenal also made the best of the conditions, with one of their players—who had
earlier been sent off—sneaking back onto the pitch and playing the remainder of the
game. However, they did suffer some bad luck, with their goalkeeper knocking himself
out cold after running into the goalpost, which of course, he could not see due to the fog.
A spectator reportedly took his place in goals and the match continued.

Summer Soccer anyone?

Postponed matches in the English Premier League and FA Cup aren't that unusual, but
consider for a moment just how many times the match between Lincoln City and
Coventry City was postponed because of a bad winter in the season of 1962/63.

Due to play each other on January 5, 1963, the fixture between Lincoln and Coventry
was called off inclement weather and scheduled for a few days time.Then it was called off
again. And again. And again.The fixture was called off a total of 15 times before a match
was finally played—chalking up 66 days between the start of the "round" and the end of
the "round."Coventry City eventually beat Lincoln City 5-1 on March 6.

Not Keane on that

Roy Keane on the time he thought about signing Robbie Savage always cracks me up.
“I rang Mark Hughes. Robbie [Savage] wasn’t in the Blackburn team and I asked Mark
if we could try to arrange a deal. Sparky said: ‘Yeah, yeah, he’s lost his way here but
he could still do a job for you.’ Robbie’s legs were going a bit but I thought he might
come up to us [at Sunderland], with his long hair, and give us a lift – the way Yorkie
[Dwight Yorke] had, a big personality in the dressing room. Sparky gave me
permission to give him a call. So I got Robbie’s mobile number and rang him. It went to
his voicemail: ‘Hi, it’s Robbie – whazzup!’ like the Budweiser ad. I never called him
back. I thought: ‘I can’t be f***g signing that.’”