International Football History and Statistics

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On this day in football history

1925 Aston Villa 10 Burnley 0 - Division I This score was on the first day that the revised off-side law was in operation and until defences were able to adjust themselves to the change of two instead of three opponents between the player playing the ball and the goal, there were some strange, high scoring matches.

1928 Arsenal and Chelsea had numbered shirts for their matches against Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea Town respectively. This is the first record of numbers being used.

1951 John Hewie made his League debut for Charlton Athletic, against Portsmouth in the First Division. He was signed from Arcadia F.C. in the Transvall League in South Africa in 1949. Remained at the Valley until May 1966 when he retired from the game and, although primarily a fullback, turned out in almost every position on the field as the occasion demanded, even being selected as a goalkeeper. In all he played in 468 League matches for the club and scored 35 goals. Although born in Pretoria his father was born in Scotland and thus he had a qualification to play for that country and won 19 caps between 1956 and 1960.

1954 Chelsea transferred Bobby Campbell, their former Scottish international outside right, to Reading. Made his name with Falkirk during the War and moved to Stamford Bridge in 1947. At Reading he played at inside forward and towards the end of his career, at left back. In 1958 he gave up the playing side to become Reading coach. From the resumption of full time football in 1946, he appeared in 302 matches in the two Leagues and scored 54 goals. Won his three Scottish caps on their 1950 European Summer Tour.