Abingdon Town Blackburn and Burnley

[Paul Waine]

Rod Liddle in today's Sunday Times Sport:

The strange story of Abingdon Town, who gave up at 8-0 down in their local derby

We know the story, Abingdon Town were 8-0 down at half-time in the local derby v Abingdon United and the team decided to go home rather than come out for the 2nd half.

Was anyone on here at this game, that Liddle also includes in his article:

"This is not the first time a local derby has been abandoned. On a snowy December day in 1891, only seven Blackburn Rovers players came out for the second half against Burnley, who were 3-0 up, because they said it was too cold. Big jessies. A fight early in the second half led to a man from each side being sent off, and after Burnley scored again the Blackburn goalkeeper’s appeal for offside was upheld and the referee abandoned the game."

When did the rule come in about needing a minimum of 7 players on a team? Rovers would have been down to 6 after one of the 7 was sent off?

I'm assuming an abandoned game doesn't count as one of our victories over Blackburn.

UTC

[dpinsussex]

Rod Liddle in today's Sunday Times Sport:

The strange story of Abingdon Town, who gave up at 8-0 down in their local derby

Was anyone on here at this game,

Wasnt at the game but my mate was the match referee

[claretblue]

see link to match report on ClaretsMad!

[dsr]

The full match report in the Burnley Express is here. I don't know if you get a few free pages on British Newspaper Archive.

The weather was foul, with a gale force wind and a snowstorm, and Burnley played with the wind at their back in the first half and led 3-0. For the second half, Blackburn didn't want to play and only 7 players were on the field when the game restarted; the rest came out shortly afterwards. It was still 3-0 when a player was sent off from each side, whereupon 9 other Blackburn players left the field as well. They said they were too cold and were happy for Burnley to have the points. The goalkeeper played on alone, appealed for offside as stated, and the ref abandoned the match.

I'm not sure what the offside rule was then, but I would have thought that then as now, you couldn't be offside if you were behind the ball. Anyone got an old copy of the laws?

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co. ... 6/027/0004

[elwaclaret]

The full match report in the Burnley Express is here. I don't know if you get a few free pages on British Newspaper Archive.

The weather was foul, with a gale force wind and a snowstorm, and Burnley played with the wind at their back in the first half and led 3-0. For the second half, Blackburn didn't want to play and only 7 players were on the field when the game restarted; the rest came out shortly afterwards. It was still 3-0 when a player was sent off from each side, whereupon 9 other Blackburn players left the field as well. They said they were too cold and were happy for Burnley to have the points. The goalkeeper played on alone, appealed for offside as stated, and the ref abandoned the match.

I'm not sure what the offside rule was then, but I would have thought that then as now, you couldn't be offside if you were behind the ball. Anyone got an old copy of the laws?

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co. ... 6/027/0004

Fairly recent edition to the offside rule. I was brought up 2 players from the other team or you are off. If the defending team touched it last you cannot be offside, even if it is only deflected by a defender. You cannot be offside from a dead ball.... none of which are played now. Behind the ball I think came in late 90’s early 2000’s.

[dsr]

Fairly recent edition to the offside rule. I was brought up 2 players from the other team or you are off. If the defending team touched it last you cannot be offside, even if it is only deflected by a defender. You cannot be offside from a dead ball.... none of which are played now. Behind the ball I think came in late 90’s early 2000’s.

"Behind the ball" was certainly all my time, back to the seventies. It used to be the first line of the offside rule "A player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than the ball, unless..." and then it goes on about the two defenders. That was in 1990, the oldest edition of the laws that I have, but that's how the law was written long before then.

You've always been able to be offside from a free kick.

[turfytopper]

Rod Liddle in today's Sunday Times Sport:

When did the rule come in about needing a minimum of 7 players on a team? Rovers would have been down to 6 after one of the 7 was sent off?

The minimum has always been 7 which must include a goalkeeper.

The referee would abandon a game where a team only had 6 players. I can think of a game played by Sheffield United when managed by Warnock where this happened.

[Paul Waine]

The minimum has always been 7 which must include a goalkeeper.

The referee would abandon a game where a team only had 6 players. I can think of a game played by Sheffield United when managed by Warnock where this happened.

Based on the Burnley Express report - posted above - the Rovers team had 11 players when the sending off occurred, so were never in the situation of only having 6 players on the field. Makes more sense.

[dsr]

Based on the Burnley Express report - posted above - the Rovers team had 11 players when the sending off occurred, so were never in the situation of only having 6 players on the field. Makes more sense.

But they were in a position where they only had 1 on the field, and the ref allowed play to continue for a short while. According to wikipedia, it wasn't until 1897 that the Laws of the Game specified 11 players per side; so I doubt they specified a minimum number.

[elwaclaret]

"Behind the ball" was certainly all my time, back to the seventies. It used to be the first line of the offside rule "A player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than the ball, unless..." and then it goes on about the two defenders. That was in 1990, the oldest edition of the laws that I have, but that's how the law was written long before then.

You've always been able to be offside from a free kick.

You couldn’t for a while, and the likes of Van Nistelroy took the mick, so it was dropped. But being offside for a direct free kick only mattered if you attempted to play the ball, everything else dodgy was covered by the booking for ungentlemanly conduct clause... when refs got to make decisions.