A fan
As a keen football fan and player for decades, Mark Metcalf contributed many articles to the fanzine movement that took off in the wake of the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies of the 1980s.
He also wrote pieces for the Kick it Out anti-racism magazine that began in the mid-90s.
Early campaigning
In the late 80s and 90s, Mark was the football spokesperson for Anti-Fascist Action and helped to organise leafleting of many grounds where racism and fascism was a problem that clubs were largely unwilling to tackle.
He also contributed articles to the many fanzines of individual clubs. Mark set up Sunderland Fans Against Racism and there were leaflets distributed at a number of away games and the occasional home game. Sunderland Association Football Club (SAFC) responded by linking up with the group but later let down supporters by appointing as its manager a fascist in Paulo Di Canio.
Plaques and films
Between 2017 and 2021, Mark organised on behalf of the Professional Footballers’ Association the unveiling of plaques to legends of the game in Kenny Davenport, Stan Cullis, Joe Mercer, Frank Swift Bert Whalley, John Aston junior and Jimmy Armfield.
My heritage work with the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) 2016 – 2020
My work on behalf of the PFA to erect a plaque honouring John Aston Junior
Blackwell Colliery Plaques
In April 2024, Mark Metcalf organised the unveiling of three plaques in Blackwell Colliery to two famous footballers – Willie Layton, great grandfather of Michael Knighton, and Billy Fatty Foulke – and seven miners who lost their lives in a tragedy at the local colliery in November 1895.
Watch the coverage here
The event has helped inspire the writing of a small book in Italian about the players and which is set for release in late 2026. An English version will follow.
You can also find out more about Layton and Foulke by watching the films below that were made by Mark Metcalf with the assistance of Dave Hackney of Digital Cortex:
Mark has also made other short YouTube films. These include the formation of SAFC, the only club to be formed by a trade union, and Sheffield Wednesday legend Ambrose Langley which helped with the raising of £5,000 to erect a headstone to the first captain of Hillsborough.
Roy Massey
The first league scorer 1888 : Kenny Davenport
On 22 November 2016 I was delighted to help unveil in Bolton a plaque to commemorate Kenny Davenport’s achievement in scoring the first ever League goal in 1888.
Watch Mark on Granada News speaking about the first ever league goal by Kenny Davenport
In 2025 an ambition to see unveiled a plaque in Halifax to the first black international footballer Andrew Watson was achieved at the Crossley Heath Grammar School where he attended as a pupil.
The guest of honour was England’s first black international footballer Viv Anderson who was well received by a large crowd. There was coverage on TV and radio and in the press.
Writing
Mark has written many articles on football and sport in general. Many of these appeared in the Big Issue in the North magazine from 2006 till the magazine closed down in 2024.
Moving the Goalposts
Football has changed vastly since medieval times when games featured hundreds of players on fields spanning miles – but not everywhere. Mark Metcalf provides a history lesson from Ashbourne in Derbyshire where shopkeepers are boarding up their windows and doors when they should be selling pancake mix
[Article from The Big Issue, March 2017]
All-Weather Pitch health risks
Articles in the Backpass retro magazine included an interview with Micky Horswill. Others included Frank Worthington, Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson and George Mulhall.
Work ongoing as of May 2026
- Out in July 2026 – England’s Scotch Professor – John Goodall, £25 hard back + postage £20 softback 400 pages
- The Little General – the authorised biography of Bobby Kerr
- 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 Newcastle 1 Sunderland 9 in 1908 – out in late 2026 / Spring 2027
- Ernie Taylor – the little midfield genius who loved the FA Cup
- Revised Frank Swift book – 6 February 2007
- Sandy Turnbull biography
- The ten pre-WWI matches that mattered most
- SAFC 1880-1890 : the first ten years
Books
Mark has written numerous books but has a particular passion for the history of the game.
The 2016 co-authored book Flying Over an Olive Grove – The Remarkable Life of Fred Spiksley, a flawed footballer was a tremendous success with fans of all clubs buying the book and, in turn, helping turn the previously hardly known Victorian era player and successful international manager into a well-known name.
Two versions of the hardback book sold out. Funds were raised to make a film but COVID-19 prevented it being completed … to date !
The 2008 authorised biography book on Sunderland, Millwall and Ireland legend is the biggest selling book on a Black Cats player. It was republished in 2024, but readers on here are welcome to download the original version by clicking here.
Mark later helped co-write Stan Anderson’s Captain of the North book on the Sunderland, Newcastle and Middlesbrough captain. Other books on Sunderland are on 1912-13 and 1935-37 teams and were co-authored with Paul Days, author of the official club history.
Other books include Roy Massey – Coach to the Stars, (include link), Everton 1890-91 (which has sold remarkably well and can also be read for free by clicking below:-
Stan Anderson – Captain of the North
Read Stan Anderson – Captain of the North here
Plus :-
- Manchester United 1907-11 – The First Halcyon Years
- Frank Swift – Manchester City and England Legend
- The Origins of the Football League – the First Season
- The Striking Viking – Erling Haaland, co-authored with Simon Mullock
- The Mighty Shakers – Bury FC 1900-1903
- The 1960 FA Cup – Fifty Years On
- The Golden Boot – Football’s Top Scorers
- Lifting the FA Cup – The Story of Battling Barnsley 1910-12
Sunderland : formed 25/09/1880
The Sunderland Echo of 27 September 1880 announces that teachers have formed a football club two days earlier on 25 September 1880. The teachers’ association was a trade union and this makes Sunderland the only senior football club to have been formed by a trade union. When the teachers were unable to get sufficient teachers to play the game they widened out their search and formed Sunderland Association Football Club on 16 October 1880.
Read more here
In 2020 after Clive Nicholson and myself completed our 1861 or 1905? document we invited football historians to complete a survey, indicating whether there were two separate Crystal Palace clubs or just a single club. They were asked to summarise their credentials by stating the number of books they had published, the subject matter and also to indicate the number of years they had been researching football history.
Forty responses were obtained. Thirty-seven agreed that the two clubs are not connected.
The survey results were submitted to the Football Association, amongst other documents, for an independent review undertaken in conjunction with the National Football Museum. They concluded that the two clubs were not connected. In April 2022 the FA confirmed their conclusion to The Times :
“Amongst those historians, the broad consensus is that there is not a clear, substantial and continuous link from the Crystal Palace club founded in 1861 to that founded in 1905. Therefore, we will continue to recognise both the 1861 and 1905 foundation dates of the clubs named Crystal Palace.”
We are pleased with the engagement we have had with our document which proves that Crystal Palace FC were established in 1905 as a new club and that they are not connected to the original 1861 club.
Read the only booklets published on disabled fans :-
My work with disabled fans at Manchester United
Millwall fans and the Bradley Lowery Foundation
