Wath chippy owner’s football factory that fed the Wolves
Long before the roar of Molineux echoed with Premier League glory, the golden era of Wolverhampton Wanderers was being shaped on a modest, muddy Miners Welfare pitch almost a hundred miles away in South Yorkshire. On the sidelines was Mark Crook, a retired footballer and chip shop owner from Wath...
Aroundtown Meets Tony Stewart OBE
In the world of football, players and managers often steal the headlines. But behind every club’s rise, revival, or reinvention stands a figure whose influence is quieter, yet no less crucial: the chairman. Tony Stewart OBE has been the steady hand at the helm of Rotherham United since 2008, guiding...
South Yorkshire’s sporting heroes you’ve probably never heard of
South Yorkshire’s sporting history is filled with influential names like Gordon Banks, Seb Coe, Prince Naseem and Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill. But for all the Goughs, the Roots and the Brights, there are others whose names have withered into obscurity. Some you might not have heard of. Others you might have...
Return of the Rules Derby
The original football derby returns to Sheffield this January, 164 years since it first took place. Sheffield might have the Steel City Derby, contested by the Blades and the Owls. But it also lays claim to the world’s oldest derby: the Rules Derby played by the two oldest clubs, Sheffield...
The Steel City Derby Returns
After five years, the region’s most fiercely contested football derby is back. Forget the Manchester, Merseyside, North London or Second City derbies. It’s the Steel City derby that has South Yorkshire in a chokehold. It’s akin to tribal warfare. Over 130 years of bad blood. Cut you and you bleed...
Penistone’s forgotten founding fathers of football
Sheffield lays its claim as the home of football. But the outer lying town of Penistone can be credited with nurturing the beautiful game in its infancy thanks to the plights of three local men. On the field surrounding Penistone Grammar School, the fledgling game of football began to take...
Worksop’s Olympic champion turned career criminal
It’s the 2024 Olympics in Paris this summer. But did you know that it was in Paris 124 years ago that a 21-year-old Worksop man captained the first team to become Olympic football champions. Henry North Haslam was an amateur footballer who was selected to lead Upton Park FC, the...
A warrior in women’s football
They call her the Chief of the Warriors. And rightly so. Over the last three years, Megan Wylde has fought for a space in football for women like her. She’s become a community powerhouse, changing the landscape of football and fitness in her hometown of Rotherham. Her tribe of fellow...
Aroundtown Meets Brian Hirst
How many kids dream of being a footballer when they grow up? But how many would sacrifice their dreams for family? Brian Hirst did. When given the opportunity to break into the first team of his boyhood club, Rotherham United, he turned down the contract to put his family’s considerations...
50 years of the Barlow Salmons Shield
This year is the 50th anniversary of the Barlow Salmons Shield, a football competition for schools in the Don and Dearne area. It’s named after two footballers from Mexborough, Frank Barlow and Geoff Salmons, who had benefited from the representative team of the Don & Dearne Schools FA and wanted...
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