4 February 1937 - Stanley And Steele Strike For Stoke

On 4 February 1937, Stoke City recorded their record victory, beating West Brom by the score of 10-3. It is also West Brom's record loss.

The teams met at Stoke's Victoria Ground separated by six spots in the table, with Stoke in fourteenth and West Brom sitting in twenty-first, only one place above the bottom. Their previous match ended as a 2-2 draw, so few people expected what happened next.

Powered by their star forward Stanley Matthews (pictured, left), Stoke took the lead in the 10th minute (scored by Freddie Steele (pictured, right) from a Matthews cross), but West Brom equalized one minute later. They scored again in the 20th minute and never looked back. Steele converted a 32nd-minute penalty to extend the lead to 3-1, then scored again to push the lead to 4-1 by the break.

In the second half, Stoke continued to surge and were up 5-1 before West Brom got their second goal. But Steele continued to torment the Baggies, scoring twice more to push the score to 7-2 en route to the final score of 10-3.

Steele went on to score a club record 33 league goals that season, part of his career total of 140 in 224 league appearances.

2 May 1953 - They Could Have Just Called It The Stanley Final

On 2 May 1953, Blackpool rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat Bolton 4-3 in the FA Cup Final. Although Blackpool forward Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick, the match is nicknamed "the Matthews Final" after his teammate, winger Stanley Matthews, who inspired the comeback.

The two teams had split their meetings in the league that season, with both teams winning at home to set up the decider in the Final. It was Blackpool's third trip to the Final after losing their first two, while Bolton had already won it three times.

Playing before a crowd of 100,000 at Wembley, Bolton's Nat Lofthouse put his team ahead in only the second minute with a speculative shot from outside the box that bounced through the arms of keeper George Farm. Mortensen equalized in the 35th minute, but goals from Bobby Langton (40') and Eric Bell (55') made it look like Bolton's cup to lose.

But thirteen minutes later, the 38-year old Matthews blew through the Bolton back line and cross the ball in for a Mortensen header. In the 89th minute, Mortensen equalized with a free kick to complete his hat-trick. Blackpool controlled the ball for the remaining time, with Matthews befuddling the defense with clever dribbling and speed (though it certainly helped that two Bolton players were playing injured for the last 20 minutes). In the second minute of stoppage time, he provided another cross in from the right that was headed in by left winger Bill Perry for the win.

It was Blackpool's first major silverware and the only major club trophy won by Matthews in over 30 years of playing.

6 February 1965 - He Brought A Lot Of Experience To The Team

On 6 February 1965, Sir Stanley Matthews made the last of his 704 English league appearances. He was 50 years old.

A talented outside right forward known equally for his sportsmanship and dedication to fitness, Matthews played in England for an incredible 30 seasons. He spent the first 11 of them with Stoke City, joining the Potters in 1931 when they were in the Second Division and helping lead them to promotion in 1933. In 1947, at the age of 32, he moved to Blackpool for a fee of £11,500.

There, partnered with center forward Stan Mortensen, he advanced to the 1948 FA Cup Final, but lost. After finishing as runners-up again in 1951, they finally claimed the Cup in 1953 with a dramatic 4-3 win over Bolton in a match that has been dubbed "the Matthews Final" (even though Mortensen scored three of Blackpool's goals).

In 1961, the then-46 year old Matthews returned to Stoke, who had fallen back into the Second Division in his absence. He again helped them earn promotion in 1963, making 31 appearances that year. But age began to take its toll at last and he was reduced to 9 appearances in 1963-64 and had not played at all in the 1964-65 season until called upon for the match against Fulham on 6 February.

He took the field at 50 years old--the oldest player to appear in the English top flight--and lifted Stoke to a 3-1 victory. It was his only appearance of the season, after which he became the manager of Maltese side Hibernians.

26 October 1938 - England Conquers Europe

On 26 October 1938, Europe put together their first continental XI to challenge England. They lost 3-0.

England had split from FIFA ten years earlier over a dispute about payments for amateur players, but continued to play other nations in a series of friendlies, including a win over World Cup champions Italy in 1934 and a 6-3 pounding of Germany in Berlin during a May 1938 European tour. It is not clear what prompted the formation of that first European XI, but the match coincided with the 75th anniversary of the founding of England's Football Association.

45,000 people turned out to watch the teams at London's Highbury Stadium. England were led by captain Eddie Hapgood (pictured) and his Arsenal teammate Wilf Copping, but the side also included up-and-coming stars like Stoke's Stanley Matthews, who had scored a hat-trick against Czechoslovakia the previous year. Europe, meanwhile were led by Italian national Silvio Piola, who had scored twice in the Azzurri's 4-2 win over Hungary in the 1938 World Cup Final. The side included three other Italians, as well as players from Belgium, France, Norway, and Hungary.

England went up 2-0 by halftime, with goals from George Hall (20') and Thomas Lawton (39'), before Len Goulden finished the day's scoring in the 73rd minute to end the match at 3-0.

14 May 1938 - Hapgood Had The Right Idea

On 14 May 1938, England opened their European tour by defeating Germany 6-3 at Berlin's Olympic Stadium before a crowd of 110,000, including several high-ranking Nazi officials. But the match is best remembered for the political statement made by the English players, all of whom gave the infamous Nazi salute at the start of the match.

The salute was an effect of Britain's appeasement policy at the time, intended to show the Germans that England respected their sovereignty. To the players' credit, when first asked to give the salute, they refused. The request came from a Football Association official who entered the dressing room as the players were preparing for the match and asked them to give the salute during the playing of the German national anthem. According to inside-right Stanley Matthews "The dressing room erupted. There was bedlam. All the England players were livid and totally opposed to this, myself included. Everyone was shouting at once. Eddie Hapgood, normally a respected and devoted captain, wagged his finger at the official and told him what he could do with his Nazi salute, which involved putting it where the sun doesn't shine."

The official left the dressing room, but returned with a direct order from the British Ambassador to Germany, Sir Neville Henderson, who instructed the players to give the salute. Henderson informed them that the political relationship between England and Germany at the time was so sensitive that failure to show deference could be the "spark to set Europe alight."

Faced with the apparent choice between giving the salute and starting World War II, the English players (pictured above, in the white shirts) raised their arms. Less than sixteen months later, England and Germany were at war. The act drew fierce criticism from the British press and still does. The BBC recently called it "one of England's darkest moments in the sport."

29 June 1950 - The Miracle On Grass

On 29 June 1950, the United States pulled off one of the most improbable upsets in football, defeating England 1-0 in a World Cup group stage match before a crowd of over 10,000 at the Estádio Raimundo Sampaio in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

England had dominated international football after World War II, winning 23 matches, drawing three and losing only four. They also had forward Stanley Matthews, considered by many to be the best footballer of the era. The 1950 tournament was England's first World Cup, as they had not entered the previous tournaments, and expectations were high. Oddsmakers pegged England as 3-1 favorites to win the title.

The United States, by contrast, had lost their last seven matches (a series stretching back to the 1934 World Cup) by the combined score of 45-2, including a 3-1 loss to Spain four days prior. Eight of the US starting 11 were US-born citizens, while the other three - forward Joe Gaetjens, defender Joe Maca, and the US captain, midfielder Ed McIlvenny - were citizens of Haiti, Belgium, and Scotland, respectively, who qualified under the rules at the time by declaring their intent to apply for US citizenship (though, of the three, only Maca eventually became a US citizen).

Matthews had missed England's first match, a 2-0 win against Chile, and was left on the bench against the US, as England's selection committee, over the manager's objection, opted not to change a winning side. The decision was heavily scrutinized after the match; however, even without Matthews, England appeared to be in control, dominating possession and taking 20 shots to the US's one.

It was the one that mattered, though. In the 38th minute, American defender Walter Bahr sent a high, arcing ball into the England penalty area. As English keeper Bert Williams rushed to collect it, Gaetjens ducked, sending the ball off the back of his head and into the net. England applied frantic pressure in an attempt to equalize, but were denied by a combination of the woodwork and the sensational play of American keeper Frank Borghi.

Although the US were eliminated from the tournament after their next match, a 5-2 loss to Chile, and did not qualify for another World Cup until 1990, the 1-0 victory over England is considered a pivotal moment for the US national team.