80 years on: The day football restarted after WW II

Love it or loathe it . . . it is, of course, transfer deadline week in English football.

Something that, like laptops and social media, simply did not exist 80 years ago.

Back on 31 August 1946, the only rings made on the nation's calendars were to mark the day professional football returned - after a seven year absence.

World War Two had ended the previous year - on 8 May in Europe (VE Day) before Japan surrendered on 15 August.

And, although there still had been wartime football in this country throughout the conflict, as some of the nation's best known players made guest appearances for teams positioned closest to their army, air or naval bases, it was nothing compared to having the majority of them back safe and sound.

The excitement of having them all back that Saturday caused crowds the like of which have never been seen - before or since.

It is estimated that almost a million people clicked through the turnstiles around the country that day.

And, although there is obviously no TV footage, the highlights have been rounded up and faithfully recaptured in a splendid book written by sports journalist Brian Halford.

Brian's book 'Kicking Off Again' is a game-by-game account of all 43 Football League matches on that day - one was postponed.

Yet it is so much more than a succession of match reports (plus six more equally entertaining accounts from assorted places in Scotland, where football had already resumed three weeks earlier).

It recaptures the social history of the time - and how each club had survived the war, with a lot of quirky asides on the journey.

Perhaps the only way a modern audience can remotely comprehend how exciting and dramatic that day must have seemed is to go back five years to 7 August 2021, to the first day of the campaign in that first full season after the Covid pandemic.

The 1946-47 football season will be a familiar story on Merseyside for fans from the 1980s who remember the league title being batted back and forth across Stanley Park four years running between Everton (champions in 1985 and 1987) and Liverpool (champions in 1986 and 1988).

Everton were the defending champions from the last season before the war. And it was another earlier case of 'Hand it over' when the first post-war season was finally decided on 31 May 1947 - and Liverpool were crowned league champions for only the fifth time.

They won it by a point from Manchester United and Wolves, who blew their chance on a dramatic final day when they hosted Liverpool at Molineux, needing just to avoid defeat to win the title, but lost 2-1.

It was certainly not as happy an occasion as Molineux must have been on the first day of the season for the 50,845 fans who saw Billy Wright's Wolves beat Arsenal 6-1.

There were goals for England internationals everywhere.

Wilf Mannion's second-half strike was enough for Middlesbrough to win the two points at Villa Park.

Tommy Lawton and Nat Lofthouse both netted twice each as Chelsea beat Bolton Wanderers in front of 61,464, the day's highest gate, at Stamford Bridge.

Tom Finney scored, playing alongside another football legend Bill Shankly at Deepdale, in Preston North End's home win over Leeds United, who ended up being relegated that season.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Matt Busby's Manchester United, at home to Grimsby Town, were still playing their home games at Man City's ground, Maine Road, because of wartime bomb damage to Old Trafford.

In Division Two, 'Wor' Jackie Milburn scored one of the four Newcastle United goals in a thumping win over Millwall at Cold Blow Lane, while future Chile international George Robledo - later a Magpies hero in their great FA Cup winning team of the 1950s - was the day's only hat-trick hero, for Barnsley in their 3-2 win at home to Nottingham Forest.

It was also at second tier level that the day saw its only postponement - Newport v Southampton at Somerton Park - because of a waterlogged pitch.

Also in Division Two, Bury were the day's biggest winners, 7-2 at home to Fulham, while Bradford Park Avenue drew at Chesterfield.

Among other clubs who later lost their league status, Chester drew 4-4 at York City, Torquay United earned a derby draw at Exeter, and New Brighton lost 3-2 at the back then far-from-fashionable Wrexham.

Darlington, Southport, Halifax Town and Gateshead were all in Division Three North and Leicester City were also a third-tier club then just as they are now.

AFC Bournemouth were still called Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, Swansea City were still only Swansea Town, Leyton Orient were back then known as Clapton Orient - and it was also Hartlepools United, with the additional s.

It is also fascinating to notice just how many current members of 'The 92' were not among the 86 league clubs who kicked off 80 years ago - the majority of them southern clubs, to illustrate just how much English football in the lower tiers has tilted towards the south since the end of the war.

The list includes Shrewsbury Town, who were not to enter the Football League for a further four years, Cambridge United (1970), Wimbledon (1977), Wycombe Wanderers (1993) Cheltenham Town (1999), Milton Keynes Dons (2004), Burton Albion (2009), Barnet (now in their fourth era as a league club after originally going up in 1991), Stevenage (2010), Crawley Town (2011) and Bromley (2026) - and just three Northern clubs, Wigan Athletic (1978), Fleetwood Town (2012) and Salford City (2019).

"It's such a fascinating era," the author, Brian Halford, told BBC Radio Lancashire's Scott Read. "And so little has been written about it before.

"There was still rationing. There was still loads of hardship.

"You had Matt Busby preparing for his first game in charge of Manchester United appealing to fans in the week before the opening game to provide clothing coupons so that the players could have some kit to wear. I don't think we'd see that in the modern era.

"So many volunteers round the country had to get bomb-damaged grounds ready to host league football again.

"A time that had obviously tested the resilience of the British people.

"Each club and each community has its own good stories. And football was one of the catalysts to bring that out."

Division One:

Aston Villa 0-1 Middlesbrough

Chelsea 4-3 Bolton Wanderers

Everton 0-2 Brentford

Huddersfield Town 1-1 Blackpool

Manchester United 2-1 Grimsby Town

Portsmouth 3-1 Blackburn Rovers

Preston North End 3-2 Leeds United

Sheffield United 0-1 Liverpool

Stoke City 2-2 Charlton Athletic

Sunderland 3-2 Derby County

Wolves 6-1 Arsenal

Division Two:

Barnsley 3-2 Nottingham Forest

Burnley 1-1 Coventry City

Bury 7-2 Fulham

Chesterfield 1-1 Bradford Park Avenue

Leicester City 0-3 Manchester City

Luton Town 4-1 Sheffield Wednesday

Millwall 1-4 Newcastle United

Newport County P-P Southampton

Plymouth Argyle 2-1 West Ham United

Swindon Town 2-3 West Bromwich Albion

Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Birmingham City

Division Three South:

Aldershot 4-3 Bristol City

Brighton 0-0 Port Vale

Bristol Rovers 2-2 Reading

Clapton Orient 2-2 Ipswich Town

Exeter City 1-1 Torquay United

Mansfield Town 3-1 Crystal Palace

Northampton Town 4-1 Swindon Town

Norwich City 2-1 Cardiff City

Notts County 1-0 Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic

Queens Park Rangers 2-1 Watford

Southend United 3-1 Walsall

Division Three North:

Bradford City 3-1 Accrington Stanley

Darlington 4-2 Southport

Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Rochdale

Gateshead 2-1 Crewe Alexandra

Hartlepools United 1-1 Barrow

Hull City 0-0 Lincoln City

Oldham Athletic 0-2 Carlisle United

Stockport County 4-1 Halifax Town

Tranmere Rovers 1-4 Rotherham United

Wrexham 3-2 New Brighton

York City 4-4 Chester

Kicking Off Again (Pitch Publishing) is available on Amazon and in all the top book shops.

Hear Brian Halford on BBC CWR in Monday's sports f