Fascinating football facts
Curiosities of Midlands football, with Tony Matthews
• Wolves winger Jimmy Mullen was the first substitute ever used by England in a full international. He came on for Newcastle United’s Jackie Milburn against Belgium in Brussels in May 1950.
• The total amount of gate money taken by Aston Villa for home games during season 1945-46 amounted to £101,692 – the most by any club in the entire country.
• Between 1927 and 1947, Eric Houghton made 724 appearances for Aston Villa at first-team level, including friendlies and tour games. He scored 345 goals, 72 coming off the penalty spot and another 32 from outside-thebox free-kicks. Ten years after retiring he led Villa to FA Cup glory at Wembley.
• Wolves sacked their goalkeeper Billy Rose in July 1894 after a letter was circulated indicating that he was forming a players’ union – the forerunner to the current PFA.
• Gordon Nisbet played in goal and at right-back in Football League games for Albion in the 1970s, while Con Martin kept goal and played centre-half for Aston Villa in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
• Wolves had two Reverends on their books in 191213 … the Rev Kenneth Hunt and the Rev Willie Jordan.
• Lew Chatterley (Aston Villa) made a small piece of football history in December 1966 when he was booked for foul play in a 2-1 victory over Manchester United, but the ‘offence’ was expunged from the records by the FA Disciplinary Committee – the first time such action had been taken.
Attendance
• Wolves’ best seasonal average League attendance is 46,295 – set in 1949-50. The club’s lowest is just 3,710 in 1985-86. The average crowd for home games in the firstever League season of 188889 was 4,000.
• In season 1947-48, a total of 122,776 spectators attended the two Christmas League games between Aston Villa and Wolves; 103,409 watched the two derbies in 1948-49 and 119,508 were present at the two showdowns in 1949-50 … making it a combined total of 345,693 fans at six matches over three seasons.
• Following crowd trouble at Molineux, Wolves were made to play two home League matches on a neutral ground in November/ December 1919.
Both were staged at The Hawthorns when they lost 4-2 against Barnsley and drew 2-2 with Stockport County.