September '26 Drop: The Ones You Asked For
Let's deal with the elephant in the room before it sits on the bench and starts asking for minutes. Yes, this is the September drops post. Yes, it's November. I'm aware.
Won't happen again.
If you're new here, this is how fan requests works. You tell us a moment, a player or a bit of club folklore that means something to you, and if it stacks up, we put it on a shirt. These three came in during September.
I was just just very, very slow at writing about them.
Giving the V's to Luton
Requested via the Facebook comments.
This one came in as anonymous through a Facebook comment, so there's no name to credit. Whoever you are, you've got excellent taste, and this is my favourite of the month.
Robin Friday's Cardiff City career lasted barely a year and produced more stories than most players manage in fifteen. He joined from Reading on 30 December 1976 for £28,000 and got arrested at Cardiff Central before he'd even signed, for travelling on a platform ticket. Manager Jimmy Andrews had to bail him out and take him to Ninian Park. On New Year's Day he scored twice on his debut in a 3-0 win over Fulham, and somewhere in between had a very personal exchange with Bobby Moore that we'll leave you to Google.
Then came 16 April 1977. Luton Town at Ninian Park, with Cardiff trying to drag themselves clear of the Division Two relegation places. Friday and Luton keeper Milija Aleksic had been at each other all afternoon. The referee warned Friday for a high tackle on him, Friday offered an apology, and Aleksic wasn't having any of it. So Friday responded the only way he knew. He pinched the ball off a Luton defender as they took a free kick, went round Aleksic, scored, then jogged back past him with two fingers up. Cardiff won 4-2.
Somebody had a camera. Nearly 20 years later, Super Furry Animals put that photo on the sleeve of their 1996 single, and a whole new generation went looking for who on earth Robin Friday was.
He retired 8 months after that game, aged 25, with 6 league goals in 21 games for the Bluebirds. Reading fans named him their Player of the Millennium. Cardiff fans just remember the fingers. That's the shirt.
I love this one.
Have a look at the shirt here!
Lofthouse, Shoulder High
Requested by Dave, on Facebook
There's a photo from Wembley on 3 May 1958 that Bolton Wanderers fans of a certain age could just about draw from memory: Nat Lofthouse, the captain, hoisted onto his teammates' shoulders with the FA Cup in his hands. That's the one Dave asked for.
Bolton beat Manchester United 2-0 that afternoon and Lofthouse scored both. The first came in the 3rd minute, which is a very efficient way of settling cup final nerves. The second, in the 55th, is the one people still argue about. Lofthouse went in on Harry Gregg and bundled the United keeper, ball and all, over the line. Shoulder charges on goalkeepers were legal back then, so it stood, though Lofthouse later admitted it was a foul. Fair play, Nat. Not many strikers own up to anything, let alone a goal at Wembley.
The backdrop mattered too. United were three months on from the Munich air disaster and fielded just four survivors, Gregg among them, so most of the country outside Bolton wanted them to win.
And Lofthouse was Bolton to his bones. Born in the town, one club his whole career, 255 league goals in 452 games, 30 goals in 33 England caps, and the Lion of Vienna nickname thrown in for good measure.
Bolton haven't lifted the FA Cup since. That's why the photo still matters.
Wanderers fans also turned up in August's drops, so they're clearly not messing about.
Have a look at the shirt here!
Bully Was, and Still Is
Requested by Ryan.
Ryan more or less wrote the heading for us: a Third Division player scoring on his England debut against Scotland, and a Wolves hero then and now. Hard to improve on that, but we'll fill in the details.
On 27 May 1989, England went to Hampden Park for the Rous Cup. Steve Bull was on the bench as a Wolverhampton Wanderers player, in the Third Division, at a club that had been in the Fourth Division only a season earlier. John Fashanu picked up a knock, Bobby Robson sent Bull on, and the 3,000 or so Wolves fans who'd made the trip to Glasgow got precisely what they'd come for.
Chris Waddle had already headed England in front. Then, in the 82nd minute, Gary Stevens floated a ball over from right-back, it came off Bull's shoulder, and he leathered it into the bottom corner. Not the cleanest first touch you'll ever see, but about the most Steve Bull way imaginable to score for your country. He went down on his knees in front of the Scotland supporters, which at Hampden takes a fair bit of nerve. England won 2-0.
That season he scored 50 goals as Wolves won the Third Division title. Robson's instruction before the game was, more or less, do what you do on a Saturday. He did. A year later he was at Italia 90, and he's still the last England player capped from outside the top two divisions. The way the game works now, nobody's taking that off him.
Then there's the loyalty. He scored 306 goals for Wolves, a club record, and never went chasing the bigger move. Ryan's right. Was, and still is.
Bonus points to Wolves fans for their second appearance in these drops, after Leo's Tommy Doyle request in August. We'll leave you to argue about which one ages better.
Tell Us Yours!
October's drops are written up and following straight behind this one, so for once we're actually ahead of ourselves.
If there's a moment, a player or a bit of folklore your club deserves on a shirt, send it in through the Bespoke request form on the site rather than the comments. That way you get your name in the post, instead of going down in history as someone from Facebook.
