On This Day: 10th February

Greensnet Editor
Wed 10 Feb 2021, 08:02

February moves into double figures and we’re able to look back on a day in which the club almost achieved double figures on a single day. Almost, but not quite.

Firstly 10th February 1912 saw a 1-0 defeat to Braby Ironworks in the London League after Jack Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes had shared an opening stand of 323 at the MCG earlier in the day before in 1923 STD (Acton) were beaten 3-1 on the road in the Middlesex Senior Cup.

Two goals each from Ronnie Rowe and Charlie Drinkwater saw Golders Green to a 4-1 win over Barnet in the Athenian League in 1934 and 6-years later in the wartime Herts & Middlesex County League Hertford Town found themselves on the wrong end of a Golders Green barrage. J Griffin, Fred Boston, Mac Cochrane and Harry Tomlinson grabbed two goals apiece and Les Fontana added another in a crushing 9-0 win.

And that was as good as it got for the next six and a half decades with just a single win in that time across ten matches which elicited just eight goals.

A visit to Grays Athletic in the Herts & Middlesex County League in 1945 ended 3-0 to the East Londoners before a 1951 Amateur Cup tie at home to Walthamstow Avenue ended goalless. 1962 saw a third goalless game in succession on 10th February as St Albans City comfortably knocked the Greens out of the Amateur Cup with a 3-0 win at Claremont Road, this on the day that Gary Powers, the pilot of a U-2 spy plane captured by the Russians, found himself part of a prisoner exchange with Rudolph Abel.

Another game against Walthamstow Avenue in 1968, this time in the Isthmian League, ended in a 3-1 defeat, Tony Harding on target for the Greens before a Peter Anderson goal in 1970 secured a 1-1 draw at Top Field against Hitchin Town in the London Senior Cup – that’s right, Hitchin Town, part of the London FA.

That solitary win came in 1973 in the Middlesex Senior Cup against Hampton who were beaten 3-2, Keith Searle, John Baker and Ian Denholm with the goals. More normal service was unfortunately resumed in 1979 as a John Steer goal was no more than a consolation against Enfield in the London Senior Cup.

A break throughout the entirety of the 1980s brought no better luck in 1990 as Bognor Regis Town won 1-0 at Claremont Road as F.W. de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela will be released from prison just two days later. 1996 saw Jimmy Bolton play the Garry Kasparov to Bishop’s Stortford’s Deep Blue as the Essex side won 3-1 at Rhodes Avenue on the same day that IBM’s computer defeated the Russian Grandmaster at chess, the first time a human had been defeated by a machine.

Just a year later and a visit to Dagenham & Redbridge produced a crucial 1-1 draw thanks to John Ugbah’s goal and 7-years later as Kanye West released his debut album goals from Dwayne Plummer and Eugene Ofori were enough to beat Billericay Town 2-1 in the league in 2004.

7-years later in 2011 Met Police were beaten 3-1 in the London Senior Cup with Aaron Morgan, Glenn Garner and Jamie Busby on target and we end in 2018 with a 0-0 draw against Dorking Wanderers in the Isthmian League.

Of 17 matches on 10th February 6 matches have been won, 4 drawn and 7 lost. 29 goals have been scored and 24 conceded.