Backwards pass is a slick forward move
Date published: 10 July 2012
Photo: Pictures: DARREN ROBINSON
Glittering prizes: The new National Football Museum in Manchester.
Matthew Chambers checks out the newly-opened National Football Museum
“SORRY, we only have the old Division Three South trophy on display,” said Peter, one of the new National Football Museum’s bank of experts. “We have to balance what we show, for fairness.”
With that, the last hope of locating a trophy engraved with Oldham Athletic’s name vanished. The North version, won by the club in 1953, is currently in storage at the museum’s old home of Preston.
Peter, poring over his Rothman’s and examining Athletic’s list of honours won — insert your own bittersweet joke here — was disappointed not to be able to satisfy the desire to see the club’s name scratched out on a metal plate.
He needn’t have worried. Away from the polished silverware, there is plenty elsewhere in the ultra modern Urbis building in Manchester to satisfy fans.
On the first floor, for example, fans of each professional club can listen to three selected clips of glories past in a BBC installation.
Yes, Stuart Pyke’s famous commentary of Neil Redfearn’s life-changing penalty in 1991 is missing, as it was broadcast on a commercial station.
Instead, there is Roger Palmer’s satisfying extra-time equaliser against Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final of 1990.
“The cross (by Ian Marshall) was perfect . . . low and delivered at the right pace,” says an excited Alan Green. “Can he have scored a more important goal?”
Neil Pointon’s strike, which put Athletic ahead against the same opponents four years later also features — as does our own John Gilder’s awe-struck soundtrack to Joe Royle’s return to the helm three years ago.
The £8.5million that has been spent creating the new location for the museum, which it is hoped will quickly become one of the country’s top visitor attractions, has created plenty to gawk at in wonder.
Stepping up from the ground floor, the first exhibit that hits you is the original rules of the game which were penned by Ebenezer Cobb Morley in 1863, housed in a cabinet also containing a makeshift ball made from condoms by children in Malawi.
From Victorian gents to African children living in desperate poverty, this is a monument to a sport that has broken through every cultural barrier worldwide.
For all its superb range of memorabilia — there are around 140,000 items on display — the museum isn’t at all bogged down with arcane artifacts which are only of interest to the obsessive.
There is a strong emphasis on interaction, with large-display touch-screen quizzes offering refereeing conundrums and graphical representations of every stadium in the land.
And those who fancy a kickabout can try their luck in the penalty shoot-out arena. (I scored all three of my efforts against the virtual goalkeeper. Gigi Buffon he ain’t).
This costs money, but the pay-off is that kids and those old enough to know better get a code to plaster their results around social media.
There is far too much else to see in one visit: suffice to say it’s a good day out — not to mention an easily-accessible one via the Metrolink to Manchester Victoria.
Just don't spend too long looking for Athletic-related trophies: you might miss the last tram home....
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