Memory Lane - Notts Open Barcelona’s New Stadium

[60YearsAPie]

When Notts County played Juventus in September 2011, to mark the opening of the Italian club’s new stadium, it wasn’t the first time the Magpies had received such an invitation.

89 years earlier they were invited to play three matches in Spain to celebrate the opening of Barcelona’s new stadium. Barcelona originally played in the Camp de la Indústria, which had a capacity of 6,000. In 1922 they built the larger Camp de Les Corts, with could hold 20,000 spectators.



The poster on the left is advertising the official match to open Barcelona’s new stadium, between Notts County and St Mirren, which was played on 25th May 1922.

It refers to Notts as “the famous English Cup semi-finalists.” That season the Magpies had reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, losing 2-0 to Huddersfield, who went on to beat Preston NE in the final.

Notts also played two matches against Barcelona on 27th and 28th May. The poster on the right refers to the second of these two games.

St Mirren scored first but Notts got a late equaliser to take the match into extra time. Walker scored his second of the game during extra time, with almost the last kick of the match, to give St Mirren a 2-1 victory.



The Nottingham Journal quoted S.I.Godfrey, the treasurer of the Notts County Football Club, who accompanied the team to Barcelona: “We played our first match yesterday, 25 May, for a cup against St Mirren, They beat us 2-1 after extra time. It was a gruelling game. The men’s shirts were wet through at half-time. Widdowson went lame in the second half or we should have won. We all went to a bull fight. Mr.H.B.Halford and myself came away after the first bull was killed and most of the players left after the second. This sport does not appeal to the English; neither does it to a lot of the Barcelonians. They are going in strong for football. There were quite as many spectators at the football match as at the bullfight.”


(To be continued on this thread with the story of the infamous game against Barcelona.)

[keldsyke]

When Notts County played Juventus in September 2011, to mark the opening of the Italian club’s new stadium, it wasn’t the first time the Magpies had received such an invitation.

89 years earlier they were invited to play three matches in Spain to celebrate the opening of Barcelona’s new stadium. Barcelona originally played in the Camp de la Indústria, which had a capacity of 6,000. In 1922 they built the larger Camp de Les Corts, with could hold 20,000 spectators.



The poster on the left is advertising the official match to open Barcelona’s new stadium, between Notts County and St Mirren, which was played on 25th May 1922.

It refers to Notts as “the famous English Cup semi-finalists.” That season the Magpies had reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, losing 2-0 to Huddersfield, who went on to beat Preston NE in the final.

Notts also played two matches against Barcelona on 27th and 28th May. The poster on the right refers to the second of these two games.

St Mirren scored first but Notts got a late equaliser to take the match into extra time. Walker scored his second of the game during extra time, with almost the last kick of the match, to give St Mirren a 2-1 victory.



The Nottingham Journal quoted S.I.Godfrey, the treasurer of the Notts County Football Club, who accompanied the team to Barcelona: “We played our first match yesterday, 25 May, for a cup against St Mirren, They beat us 2-1 after extra time. It was a gruelling game. The men’s shirts were wet through at half-time. Widdowson went lame in the second half or we should have won. We all went to a bull fight. Mr.H.B.Halford and myself came away after the first bull was killed and most of the players left after the second. This sport does not appeal to the English; neither does it to a lot of the Barcelonians. They are going in strong for football. There were quite as many spectators at the football match as at the bullfight.”


(To be continued on this thread with the story of the infamous game against Barcelona.)

Best post for a while

[TheBlackHorse]

... Darrin Foss has written the book "Notts County FC and the Birth of Modern Football: The Early Years of the Oldest Professional Club in the World" in which, I think, he refers to Notts being the only English team remaining unbeaten by Barcelona. A 'must read' for Notts aficionados.

[frenchmagpie]

I love this historical stuff. Well done 60YearsAPie. How cool are those posters ! Would be great to be able to print and frame the Barcelona one.

[Frigiliana Pie 1]

Excellent research, 60 years, and I await the next instalment with interest.

There is a history of the Les Corts stadium, which is well worth reading, at

http://www.estadiosdeespana.com/post...-de-les-corts/

Unfortunately it doesn't mention the Notts matches and refers to the first match as being Catalan XI v St. Mirren a few days before Notts v St. Mirren.

[60YearsAPie]

Excellent research, 60 years, and I await the next instalment with interest.

There is a history of the Les Corts stadium, which is well worth reading, at

http://www.estadiosdeespana.com/post...-de-les-corts/

Unfortunately it doesn't mention the Notts matches and refers to the first match as being Catalan XI v St. Mirren a few days before Notts v St. Mirren.

That’s right Frigiliana.

To celebrate the opening of their new £75,000 stadium Barcelona arranged five matches.

20/05/1922 Barcelona v St Mirren
21/05/1922 Barcelona v St Mirren
25/05/1922 St Mirren v Notts Co
27/05/1922 Barcelona v Notts Co
28/05/1922 Barcelona v Notts Co

The Notts v St Mirren game was classed as the official match to open Barcelona's new stadium at Les Cortes. It wasn’t the first game played there, though.

[HAPPYMAGPIEHAPPY]

https://mobile.twitter.com/magpies_history?lang=en

[60YearsAPie]

Two days after the match against St Mirren, Notts County played Barcelona in the first of two games against the Spanish Champions on consecutive days.

The game was refereed by an Englishman named Lieutenant Edwards. Barcelona opened the scoring with a breakaway but were then continually caught offside. Notts equalised though centre-forward Cope.

The Nottingham Journal reported: “Then the spectators (who seemed to know little or nothing of the offside law) seemed to get the impression that the referee was in league with the English players, and showed very obvious resentment. The idea of sportsmanship, both with the Spanish players and the spectators, is extremely crude and amusing.”

The Barcelona goalkeeper then asked the referee to change the ball. When his request was refused, the goalkeeper sat down in his goal and refused to carry on playing. It took several minutes before his teammates persuaded him to continue. As the whistle went for half-time, the goalkeeper made a bee-line for the ball, ran to the edge of the pitch and booted it as hard as he could into some neighbouring gardens. A new ball was used for the second-half!



The Nottingham Journal again: “Then there was a series of regrettable incidents, for the Spanish players resorted to foul tactics, but the Notts men kept their tempers and did not retaliate. A penalty was given against Barcelona, and it was converted.”

As a result of the penalty success, the crowd became even more incensed and tried to get onto the pitch, with all kinds of missiles being thrown at the Notts players. The explanation given was that it was not usual in Spain to attempt to score from a penalty!

Notts ran out 4-2 winners in the end and the following day played Barcelona again.

This time there was a Spanish referee in charge. To avoid any similar crowd trouble, the Notts backs literally stood on the goal-line so that the Spanish forwards were not caught offside. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.

The Notts party left Barcelona on Monday, stayed two days in Paris and arrived back in England, at Dover, on Thursday 1st June 1922.

The Nottingham Journal reported the following day: “Looking happy and well, with the tan of the Mediterranean on their faces, the Notts County Football Club party, which has been paying a visit to Barcelona, arrived in Nottingham shortly after seven o’clock last evening. Players and officials were in fact all in the best of health, and announced they had a “top-hole” time. All who made the journey are convinced that the Spaniards do not understand sport, and while everyone had enjoyed himself, he is convinced that there is no place like home.”

One report in a newspaper of the time said: “We have heard some strange stories recently of the experiences of British teams on the Continent. From Spain and Austria come reports of bad treatment of players in teams who have gone out from these shores. Notts County and Glasgow Rangers appear to have been the greatest sufferers, and if stories we hear are true I think it is time the home authorities reconsider the advisability of allowing teams to go out and try to educate these foreigners. There is no pressing need for teaching them our national pastime and if, when our teams do go out, the clubs, officials, players and spectators cannot behave decently, they should not be given further opportunities of seeing our men.”

County went on to win the Division Two title in the 1922-23 season and were promoted to Division One. This was the second time during Albert Fisher’s spell as secretary/manager, the Magpies having won the Division Two title in the 1913-14 season.

[Old_pie]

Bloody right too, teaching Johnny foreigner our National sport. No good 'll come out of it I tell you.

[60YearsAPie]

Bloody right too, teaching Johnny foreigner our National sport. No good 'll come out of it I tell you.

Surely you don’t think Johnny foreigner will start beating us at our own game? That will never happen …. will it?