For February 28th I'm going back 6 years to 2015 and Notts County's League 1 game against Port Vale.
Having Denis over, my visitor from Canada, I was anxious to give him the full sports fan experience in the UK and chose to go to Notts County, at the time the Football League's oldest club (founded in 1862). Irrespective that Notts have subsequently fallen out of the Football League, they remain the oldest professional club in the UK. Notts are not the oldest club however. That honour goes to Sheffield FC, founded 5 years before Notts County, and recognised by FIFA as being the oldest club in the world still in existence. The age old question remains however: who did they play?
Ahead of kick-off we made a detour to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem for a pint. Continuing on the "oldest" theme, this pub claims to be the oldest in England, established in 1189, although there is no evidence to back this up. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? It certainly feels old when you get inside and is remarkable for having been built hard up against Castle Rock, on which Nottingham Castle is built, and incorporates some rooms formed from sandstone caves within the rock. The pub is older than Canada itself and Denis was suitably impressed!
One thing I've always wondered about is why are Notts County referred to as "Notts", whereas their City rivals Forest are "Nottingham" Forest and never Notts Forest (Forest fans hate that). Notts refers to the entire county of Nottinghamshire so one can only conclude that Notts wanted to reflect a wide hinterland. They did come first after all and there were no other professional clubs in Nottinghamshire when they began. Apparently Leeds United tend to refer to Forest as "Notts Forest" when printing tickets for home games but whether this is deliberately to annoy Forest fans is unknown (although we could guess). Oh and one other thing for your Nottinghamshire social etiquette: Notts County are either Notts or the Magpies and never just "County". Don't ask me why!
As already noted, Notts have been on a downwards trajectory in the last few seasons and this particular season proved to be an unhappy one for Notts. They finished 21st (out of 24) and were relegated along with Crawley, Leyton Orient and Yeovil Town. Port Vale finished 4 points higher than Notts in 18th place so, not that we knew it at the time, this game was a relegation "six pointer" with the losers being relegated. Port Vale were victorious thanks to one goal scored by Mark Marshall.
CRB Match No. 2026
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