GOAL NETS

[LEATHERSTOCKING]

The 1st instance I`ve found for the use of nets was in a friendly game @ 1st Celtic Park on Ne`erday 1892 which Dumbarton won 8-0. Is this indeed their maiden use in Scotland and is this Celtic`s heaviest home defeat? Queen`s Park refused to have nets fixed to the goal frames for their two Cup Final meetings with Celtic three months later claiming it would intimidate their goalkeeper and make him feel cramped & cribbed!!! Perhaps thanks to him feeling quite exhilerated at the wide open spaces behind him, he lost 5 second half goals due, I suppose to the wide opens spaces his defence left in front of him. I think nets first Cup Final use was the following year. Can anyone confirm? They were first used in an English Cup Final in 1891.

[Shawfield Boy]

Thought I'd bring this back to the top to save starting a new topic!

Does anyone have any additional info as to the introduction of goal nets, such as clarification as to when they were introduced, and if they were compulsory for league and cup matches, or was it up to the home team (or both teams to agree) to decide whether they would provide them?

Cheers

[soccerhistory]

Nets were patented by JA Brodie in 1890, the patent application still exists - I've a feeling there's a copy in the Liverpool Record Office, amongst other places. They were first used in the Liverpool area and spread quite rapidly. If you search around on the internet you should be able to find more on the subject.

[Gordon Baird]

I'm fairly sure that the SFA had deemed nets compulsory by the time the Qualifying Cup started in 1895/96, although many provincial clubs chose to ignore it for as long as they could get away with it. If both teams agreed prior to kick-off, there could hardly be a protest afterwards.

[PJ]

There are some notes in the Hearts v Airdrie programme of Oct 1950 written by George Robertson suggesting that Tom Mackenzie, whose shop in Chapel Street was Hearts headquarters in their early years, thought nets would be a good idea. His wife made some and they were tried out at Tynecastle, though not approved, two years before they were legalised.
Seehttp://www.londonhearts.com/scores/imag ... 014_03.htm (thanks to London Hearts)