Plus: an archive special featuring Boxing Day 1963, a football ground-turned ice rink in Yorkshire and a Yuletide sacking
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU
“Who was the first player to score on Christmas Day?” asks Sarah Tomlinson.
For a long time, matches on Christmas Day were a regular part of the English Football League calendar. The first was played on 25 December 1889, when the defending champions Preston beat Aston Villa 3-2 in an, ahem, ding-dong match. The opening goal was scored after six minutes by Preston’s Scottish striker Nick Ross, which makes him the first man to score in the Football League on Christmas Day.
Blackpool 1-5 Chelsea
Burnley 6-1 Man Utd
Fulham 10-1 Ipswich
Leicester 2-0 Everton
Liverpool 6-1 Stoke
Nottm Forest 3-3 Sheffield Utd
West Brom 4-4 Tottenham
Sheff Wed 3-0 Bolton
Wolves 3-3 Aston Villa
West Ham 2-8 Blackburn
Troops relieved a farm on Dartmoor which had been cut off by 20ft snow drifts for 66 days. With only 14 Football League matches postponed, soccer had its best day for 11 weeks. There was still no football at Halifax, but the local club opened its ground as a public ice rink and hundreds skated on it.”
About Author
More Stories
Roof falls in on Cowboys as Houston Texans extend Dallas’s slump
The ‘mistake’ that is Fifa’s Club World Cup looms large. But will it even happen? | Philippe Auclair
With a World Cup the aim, will Tuchel stick with England’s Carsley Kids? | David Hytner