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.)