This week we have added 57,277 new pages to The Archive. We are excited to welcome specialist sporting title – the Football Post (Nottingham) – to our collection, with 1069 issues added so far. We now have thirteen specialist sporting newspapers available to search – you can find a comprehensive list of sporting newspapers here, as well as hints and tips for using The Archive for sporting research here.

We have also updated five of our existing titles, including three of our London titles – the Harrow Leader, the Ealing Leader and the Hayes & Harlington Gazette – as well as the Reading Evening Post and the Buckinghamshire Examiner.

This week’s new title, the Football Post (Nottingham), was a specialist football newspaper published weekly by the Nottingham Evening Post during the football season. It covered the city’s two local teams, Nottingham Forest and Notts County, as well as reporting on non-league local football, and other sports, including rugby union, cricket and ice hockey.

Football Post (Nottingham) | 2 May 1959

On 2 May 1959, Nottingham Forest faced Luton Town in the 1958-1959 season FA Cup Final at Wembley. The Football Post (Nottingham) gives a wonderful account of the local team’s participation (and eventual victory) in the final. With the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Gloucester in attendance at ‘sun drenched Wembley,’ ‘the Forest supporters in the crowd did the team proud. May be they were not able to match in head gear the Luton boaters, but they proudly vaunted their colours for the world to see and refused to be out-shouted by the exuberant demonstrations of the Luton supporters.’

Football Post (Nottingham) | 2 May 1959

Although there was ‘nothing to choose between the two [teams] in sartorial elegance,’  Nottingham Forest were the first to score, Stewart Imlach making a ‘first-class run’ and passing to Roy Dwight, ‘who in his best manner, shot it into the net.’ Roy Dwight has another claim to fame other than scoring at an FA Cup final, he was the cousin of Elton John.

Football Post (Nottingham) | 2 May 1959

A second goal followed for Nottingham Forest, in a ‘brilliantly conceived and executed’ moment. However, the rest of the match was not plain sailing – as ‘Wembey hoodoo struck again.’ The Wembley hoodoo was a phenomenon of the 1950s, which saw teams hampered by losing players to injury.

Football Post (Nottingham) | 2 May 1959

Football Post (Nottingham) | 2 May 1959

After an attack Dwight collapsed, writhing in agony. It was later discovered that he had broken his leg. However, Nottingham Forest were still 2-0 up going into the second half, but ‘Whare sunk to the ground clutching his right knee.’

It was agonising for Forest. Seldom did they get out their own half. At last, gallant and battered, they surrendered a goal and nobody could be blamed for it.

Despite Luton Town managing to score, Nottingham Forest hung on long enough to maintain their 2-1 lead, thus securing their second FA Cup victory (their first win occurring 61 years before in 1898). Indeed, it was the final time that Nottingham Forest won the FA Cup, being runners up to Tottenham Hotspur in the 1991 final.

Football Post (Nottingham) | 2 May 1959

New Titles

Updated Titles

This week we have updated five of our existing titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a FREE sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

Register now and explore the Archive

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.