At this year's Football History Conference in Belfast, I gave a talk on the Netflix Series The English Game, which came out five years ago. I was interested in exploring whether and how the series has influenced the study of football history.
   You can read my full illustrated talk by clicking on this link (which will open a pdf).
   Much of my involvement in the programme went back to my previous research on Fergie Suter and Jimmy Love, the Scottish protagonists of the story, and my biography of Arthur Kinnaird. You can read about them in my blog, or just look for 'Suter' or  'Kinnaird'  in the search box top right.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Do you think The English Game has been a force for good, and brought more people into football history, or has it simply muddied the waters, provoking needless arguments?
   More widely, is drama the best way to cover football history, or do you think it would be better to focus on factual, and accurate, documentary?
   And finally, what topics or stories are crying out to be covered by the big screen?
   Please leave any comments below.

I enjoyed taking part in the BBC Scotland documentary 'Bringing Football Home' which was presented by the actor Dougray Scott, who explained how Scotland's football pioneers laid the groundwork for the modern style of the game.
   The narrative follows the story over hundreds of years, starting with the oldest football in the world, through the Foot-Ball Club founded in 1824, the first international in 1872 and the 'Scotch Professors'. It then examined how Scottish football lost its way in the 20th century, while the passing game was exported around the world. 
   You can see the programme on BBC iPlayer and it is an entertaining hour.
   What made it different for me was discovering Dougray Scott's own personal link to football history, which he was unaware of despite being a lifelong football fan.
   He knew his father Allan had played for Queen's Park in the 1940s, although without making the first team. But what he did not know was that three members of the previous generation - his great uncles - were top referees, including one who holds a Scottish record to this day.
  He was given the name Dougray because it was his grandmother's maiden name. And the Dougray family, who hailed from the Barrhead area, had an amazing record as referees in the early years of the 20th century. Three brothers - James, Tom and John - all refereed at the highest level.

Of the three, Tom Dougray was outstanding. He was on the Scottish League list from 1908 to 1934, in which time he took charge of eight internationals, including four England v Scotland matches from 1920-26. Incredibly he refereed no less than 11 Scottish Cup finals, starting in 1910 with the Dundee v Clyde final and concluding in 1933 when Celtic beat Motherwell. In doing so, he set a record which will almost certainly never be broken.

There is a video of Tom Dougray in action on the Pathe News site. This still from the video shows him meeting the England and Scotland captains at Old Trafford in 1926, and then taking control of the game.
   Tom was following in the footsteps of his elder brother, James, who had just two years as a first division referee (1902-04) but left a lasting impression as one of the founders of Scotland's first Referee Association in 1903.

The third referee in the family was John, ten years younger than Tom, who made it onto the Scottish League list for four years in the 1920s. This created the unusual situation of having brothers appointed to referee matches on the same day.

And to finish with, I leave you with this anecdote about Tom Dougray being confronted by a razor-wielding fan in Edinburgh. The story was related in a local paper many years later so is hard to verify, but the writer claims to have witnessed the incident. The irony is that his assailant was a Hibs fan, as is Dougray Scott today!

The three refereeing brothers:
James Dougray (1877-1952)
Tom Dougray (1879-1964)
John Dougray (1889-1932)

Dougray Scott: Bringing Football Home is available to watch on BBC iPlayer at this link: ​www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wdny

A chance purchase of an old tankard on ebay led me to delve into the history of one of the classic football television shows, Quiz Ball. It ran from 1966 to 1972 on the BBC and can be considered a forerunner to A Question of Sport which opened in 1970.
   My pewter tankard is annoyingly lacking in detail, as it simply reads 'BBC TV Quiz Ball, Challenge Match 1972'. It turns out there were actually two challenge matches that year, and I cannot find any report of who won them and who might have been presented with the souvenir. But no matter, my research did reveal the fact that Scotland won Series 7 of Quiz Ball and then took part in a challenge match against the British Lions rugby team. Later that year, Northern Ireland met a team of Olympic medallists in another challenge.   

Among a few oddities: Terry Neill was a Quiz Ball stalwart who featured in the very first programme in 1966 for Arsenal and the very last one in 1972 for Northern Ireland; his team won both series. Rangers manager Scot Symon appeared in the show in 1967 but had been sacked by the time it was broadcast. Dr Who actor Jon Pertwee was roped in for Dunfermline Athletic as a last-minute substitute for Jimmy Logan in the 1971 final, and came away with a winner's medal.
   There are several online articles about the series, and perhaps the most comprehensive is by Vince Cooper at The League. There is also the story of Celtic's victory in 1970 on Celtic Wiki.
   Few videos of the show survive, although the very first edition in 1966 between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest is on YouTube. Recorded at Hornsea Town Hall, it is remarkable for all sorts of reasons, not least the pipe-smoking Forest team. As the show featured four 'own goals', it quickly led to a change of format so that goals were more likely to be scored by getting questions right rather than getting them wrong. 
   Quiz Ball was originally devised by Bill Wright, the show's producer, who was in charge of the BBC Quiz Unit and who also came up with the concept for Mastermind. That perhaps prompted another link, as Magnus Magnusson appeared twice on Quiz Ball as a guest supporter for Kilmarnock, despite later admitting that he had no connection with the team.

I have just published a new edition of my biography of Arthur Kinnaird, who was one of the most important figures in the history of association football. This coincides with the launch of the Netflix drama The English Game.
   Described as 'without exception, the best player of the day', Kinnaird played in nine FA Cup finals (still a record), represented Scotland and was President of the Football Association for 33 years. He was involved in the game all his life and was so highly regarded that he was presented with the FA Cup in gratitude.
   Kinnaird is now famous again thanks to the Netflix series, which sees him and the Old Etonians pitted against Fergus Suter's Darwen team. The teams met in a titanic FA Cup clash in 1879, and although the Etonians won that one, it gave the first indication that football was about to change for ever, thanks to the influx of players from Scotland, the 'Scotch professors', who introduced the passing game to England.
   I was asked to be a consultant Football Historian for The English Game, and was able to give advice on various aspects such as style of play. The series has been a long time in the making, and the first I knew about it was way back in 2007. Since then, I have published my Kinnaird biography, and have also written extensively on Fergie Suter and Jimmy Love, the two pioneers who moved from Partick to Darwen in 1878.
   This new revised edition of First Lord of Football has additional material which has come to light in the past decade, and a number of new images. It is on sale on Amazon for £8.99, and there is also a Kindle edition at £3.99. 
   I also have several pages on this website devoted to Kinnaird, which provide an introduction to this football legend, who 'did more to popularise soccer than any man who ever lived'.
   
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I'm often asked where my cover image comes from. It was on the front of one of the earliest football books ever published, by Routledge in 1867, and I am lucky enough to have one in my own collection. Although the prominent man on the cover is not identified, there is little doubt in my mind that it could be based on Arthur Kinnaird, complete with bushy beard and long white trousers, and of course in control of the ball.

My article remembering Dr Jimmy Paterson, of Rangers and Arsenal, is published in The Scotsman today [click on link], a fascinating tale of a fine football career interrupted by the First World War.
   What it doesn't reveal is the extraordinary coincidence that led me to write it, one which I am sure will resonate with all sports historians. It just happened that my parents, who live in Edinburgh, mentioned that their next door neighbour's father had played football. So I duly went next door and spoke to Jimmy Paterson's daughter Mhairi, now in her eighties, who brought out a file of cuttings and photos. 
   I was also able to find newsreel footage of Paterson playing (and scoring) for Arsenal in 1926 on the British Pathé website [click on link]. She had never seen film of her father playing football before.
   There was nothing for it but to write his story - especially when it became clear that no-one had done so before!

The full text of my Scotsman article on Jimmy Paterson, with his career statistics, can be downloaded here as a pdf or read it below.

THE GOOD DOCTOR OF RANGERS AND ARSENAL
 
By Andy Mitchell
 
'Are you not playing for the wrong side?' There are some things a Scottish footballer can never be prepared for, and one of them is playing for England.  Such was the fate of Dr Jimmy Paterson, who was born in London where his father, a Presbyterian minister, was preaching.
   In all other respects the talented winger was a Scot through and through, and one hundred years ago this month, Paterson won the first of his Scottish League titles with Rangers. He repeated the exploit after being decorated for bravery in the Great War, and would surely have won Scotland caps were it not for the accident of his birth.
   In fact, international recognition came instead in the white shirt of England: as his career seemed to be heading to a close, he had returned to the city of his birth and signed for Arsenal as an amateur. He did so well that he was selected to represent the English League against their Scottish counterparts.
   He was greeted by his former team mates with affection as well as a ribbing that he was not really English.  And, as if disoriented by wearing an England shirt, when Paterson was presented with a bunch of flowers by a young girl just before kick-off, he still had them in his hand as the referee's whistle blew. Too polite to throw them on the ground, he ran up and down the wing clutching them for several minutes until he found someone he could hand them to. It was a measure of the man, who had none of the failings proverbially attributed to the offspring of clergymen.
   Brought up in Glasgow, he was sports champion of Bellahouston Academy, and his performances in the team that won the Glasgow Secondary Schools League attracted the interest of Queen's Park. Soon rising to their reserve team, the Strollers, he then caught the eye of Rangers manager William Wilton and the youngster signed at Ibrox in September 1910. Although he made his debut that month because of an injury to the veteran Alec Smith, Rangers were content to let him develop in the reserves, as he embarked on his medical studies at Glasgow University.
   Paterson broke into the Rangers first team in November 1912, two months after his father's death, replacing Billy Hogg at outside right. He made an immediate impact and was widely heralded in the press, notably in a lyrical tribute from the legendary Walter Arnott. Rangers duly won the league by four points and Paterson made his first trip abroad on the club's tour of Denmark. The following season he switched to the left wing, where he developed a prolific partnership with Tommy Cairns that lasted until his graduation as a doctor in 1916.
   In the depth of war, there was a severe shortage of doctors, and he was immediately appointed Medical Officer to the 14th Battalion the London Regiment, the London Scottish. With the rank of Major, for the next two years he had a torrid time on the front line, where 'Doctor Pat' earned enormous respect from his fellow soldiers. One of them wrote in the Regimental Gazette: 'We loved him for the trouble he took. We loved that kindly word of encouragement that did us more good than all the 'number nines' ever issued ex-stores. If that little medico works as hard in the football field as he worked that night, heaven help the opposition!'
   There was formal recognition, too, and he was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in 1917: 'Under an intense hostile bombardment he hastened to the spot, dressed the wounded and cleared them from the road, personally seeing to their removal to the aid post. He then returned and cleared the dead from the road, setting a fine example of coolness and disregard of danger.'
   When hostilities ceased, after three years away from football, he made a surprise return to Glasgow. A journalist later recalled: 'One day in September 1919, I learned from Jimmy's younger brother Bobby that Jimmy had been posted to a Glasgow hospital. He added that, if I turned up at Ibrox Park the following evening, I might see Jimmy playing against Raith Rovers or, on the other hand, I might not. Jimmy had just arrived in Glasgow, untrained, and carrying too much weight, and was scared stiff at the idea of being thrown into action so soon. His homecoming had not been made public but, quickly recognised by the Ibrox clientele when he ran on to the field, he was given a reception that nearly took the lid off the south stand. Despite his extra 'tonnage' he was at his brilliant best that evening, including a bonny goal that earned him another deafening ovation.'
   Paterson's wing partnership with Cairns was restored and Rangers romped to the 1919-20 league title. However, he had a medical career to think of, and as early as December 1919 there was press speculation that Paterson intended retiring at the end of the season to join his brother-in-law, John Scott, in a London medical practice. Several city clubs were reported to be chasing his signature, among them Spurs and Chelsea, but the decision was effectively made for him as Scott was Arsenal’s club doctor. Before he left Glasgow, the Rangers brake club supporters showed their appreciation by presenting him with a solid silver coffee and tea service, valued at 100 guineas (equivalent to about £3,000 today).
   In the autumn of 1920 he signed as an amateur for Arsenal but continued to be rewarded by the club, although the form of reward was, well, different: he was presented with 'gifts' such as a baby grand piano from Harrods, a diamond-studded tie-pin, and a fine Venetian vase.
   Following a series of outstanding performances on the wing, in March 1921 he was selected for the Football League against the Scottish League, coincidentally played at his new home ground of Highbury. Before the match he came into the Scottish dressing room to shake hands with all the players, and was photographed with three of the Scots, but the sentiment ended there and his cross led to the game's only goal, headed in by Charles Buchan late in the second half.
   He clocked up over 70 appearances for Arsenal in four years although, as an amateur, he had to balance his football with work as a doctor. On one occasion he missed the team's train to Liverpool but Arsenal arranged for a later train to make an unscheduled stop at Edge Hill, where a car was waiting to whisk him to Anfield, arriving just in time for kick-off.
   Paterson retired from football in 1924 but had a curious swansong two years later. Arsenal had an injury crisis in February 1926 and signed Joe Hulme from Blackburn, but he was cup-tied so manager Herbert Chapman turned to Paterson for a surprise recall in the FA Cup. He showed he had lost none of his magic by scoring against Aston Villa, and newsreel film of that goal can be seen online.
   Not long afterwards he left London for good and moved to a country practice at Bramley in Surrey, staying there until he retired to Ayrshire in the 1950s. His daughter Mhairi, who now lives in Edinburgh and recently saw that newsreel footage of her father for the first time, recalls him watching wistfully as soldiers prepared for D-Day: although he said nothing about his own wartime experiences, he knew what horrors lay ahead for them.
   Dr Paterson died of a heart attack in 1959, aged just 68. Despite being considered one of the outstanding talents of his day he was never given the recognition he deserved with a Scotland cap, through no fault of his own. But in true amateur spirit he had no regrets and, despite playing for two of Britain’s most glamorous teams, recalled in an interview shortly before his death: 'My happiest football days were at Good Old Bella'.