Hello - sorry to bump this up but I've been doing some research on football club foundations, mainly because some clubs (Stoke/Palace) are trying to claim a much older history than is warranted.

It got me looking into County's foundation, and I found something interesting.  The 28 November 1862 newspaper article mentioned on the club's website is not about Notts at all.  It's about a Sheffield club, Milton, formed out of a cricket club.  There's no chance of a typo - the Sheffield Daily Telegraph carries an advert about the match the previous Saturday.

The confusion seems to be that it was held at Cremorne Gardens, but not the road in Nottingham as the Nottm Guardian claims; it was an area later called the Orphanage and Milton played there through the 1860s.  Sheff Weds also played there in 1867.

I'm guessing that someone saw the claimed 1862 date, looked back in the newspapers for that year, found that football match, and assumed it involved County.  But the minutes from 7 December 1864 (as reported in 1925) state definitively that the Notts Foot Ball Club is being formed then and there, and it did not exist in 1862.

No idea where the 1862 date comes from other than there are claims for 1860, 1862, 1863, and 1864 in the various yearbooks...

At least the 1864 date does not affect the oldest professional club record (Stoke's claim is rubbish and Palace's does not even get THAT high) but it does add a slight twist.

So does anyone have any better evidence for there being a club - rather than occasional kickabouts - for the players who would eventually form the Notts club?

Hi @R H and welcome.

Quoted from the Notts County website.

"Notts County Football Club, now universally recognised as the world's oldest Football League club, was formed in 1862.

Official formation followed two years later as the 'Notts. Foot Ball Club'

".

Hi, Robbie, and thanks.  The concern I have is that some of this might be retconning because the 1862 date was accepted but the club's own papers said 1864, so there was an attempt to reconcile the two by saying the club existed unofficially before its proper formation.  But the more likely thing is that it was ACTUALLY formed in 1864 and that 1862 is an oft-repeated mistake.

Hence I wonder if there is something from before December 1864.  If there was anything beforehand they would have been playing between themselves, the nearest opponents would have been in Sheffield or Lincoln.  And newspaper reports were mostly drawn up by club secretaries who would send them in.  So the odd kickabout would not be something anyone would formally report.

But footballs were expensive.  The equivalent today of £50.  That's a lot to lay out for a kickabout - plus they would not be available locally.  That would be quite a commitment.

Maybe any memoirs?  Someone saying they had been playing for a couple of years before finding out there were like-minded souls up the road and deciding to form a club?

I can't see the 777 takeover going ahead. There's something not sitting right with the whole thing. I feel like the inevitable will happen and Everton will enter administration.

You'd have thought that a club like Everton would have a queue of buyers lining up to take them out of this mess. 

On 03/05/2024 at 20:18, DangerousSausage said:

The mismanagement must be pretty epic to be threatened with administration despite all the money PL clubs get. If they really are delaying going into administration to avoid a points penalty, isn't that a bit problematic? Delaying insolvency proceedings is a criminal offence in some countries.

All the same, if they do go into admin, they'll certainly get bought by someone. They're a huge club with a brand new stadium ready to move into. Perfect for a glorious new era.

Timing of this scenario is a real issue to me. A further points deduction this season could see them relegated but delaying it to next season, they then just hope to remain in the PL and make up the lost points

Doncaster winning at Crewe 1:0 at half time in the first leg of the league 2 semi final.

Doncaster are well in control of this playoff semi final after the first leg.

Crewe made a remarkable comeback tonight and they won 2:0 on the night to make it 2:2 after normal time 

The match went to extra time but it remained 2:2 after the extra time.

So we had the drama of the penalty shootout and Crewe won it 4:3 to book themselves a trip to Wembley where they will play Crawley of MK Dons.

Fascinating stuff, a Premiership pitch, all we need now is the players to match, we’ll done to the owners for investing in our club.

Very interesting clip. The new pitch must be a big investment.

He’d be a great signing for them.

Interesting Stats from the transfer markt website 

They have Macaulay's value at £400K. I think that figure is grossly undervalued.

Another interesting statistic is that he had scored 19 goals in all competitions up to 31 December 2023 and 10 goals scored from 1st January 2024

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/macaulay-langstaff/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/526347/wettbewerb/GB4/saison/2023

Macaulay is top of the pile in the top five tiers for the last two seasons.

I suspect there may be a few clubs in for him during the summer. Heard a few rumours floating round during the season and they're doing the rounds again. 

My site manager at work, who's a Birmingham fan, said that Langstaff's name was shouted and mentioned a lot to the board of Birmingham City.

Hopefully we can retain him and he carried on banging the goals in. His scoring tally is something to be admired and I still believe there's more to come.

The Bradford home game, first half, was great too. I’ll go for the Morecambe 5-0 win at home, completely dominated them.

And it's mad that we did the double over Doncaster and they looked like the poorest team in the division. Yet now they are one game away from Wembley. And it might sound it, but I’m genuinely not being bitter here, but I think both them and Crawley (assuming they don’t fall apart in the second leg) will struggle in L1. But good luck to ‘em!

@ARLukomski I'm coming for that title next season ????. After being 11th for most of the season 

Thank you for the kind words. It's been a pleasure and it'd be great to see you all again in August! I'll post a thread nearer the time.

I've got to disappoint you @Megan_Elizax, I've decided I'm going to win next season, and I count the points. But maybe second place is up for grabs if you throw @ARLukomski's laptop in a river or something?

I've got something for the stattos / sad anoraks among you. I counted the points separately for the second half of the season and this was the result. Apart from our two new entrants, @william1984 was the only player to get more points in the second half of the season than in the first. @Harry Buckley only actually played 18 rounds - over 23 rounds he'd have got about 95 points, putting him in the top four.

Thanks for all your hard work mate. 

We've seen some great matches at Meadow Lane, we've seen drama as well as the big ups & the big downs, but for excitement & drama, I think it just about tops the lot. And that celebration from Jodi is one for the ages.

Lost count of the amount of times I've watched this. Unbelievable.

2nd goal for Marine. It looks all over for Macclesfield.

Goal to Macclesfield. Score 1:2

Marine win 2:1 and are promoted to National League North.

Let's hear from the Manager.

Notts are currently standing third from the bottom on 16 points and are now waiting on the last match between 3rd placed Peterborough and bottom placed Leek who are on 14 points, to decide whether Notts could get relegated or not.

Leek have to win at Peterborough to send Notts down.

There is a massive gulf between the bottom four and the rest so hopefully Notts will be safe.

Notts County LFC https://g.co/kgs/4Nt1TDU

Congratulations Bromley.

Talking of Centre Backs on other threads, Webster was always impressive against Notts