The final Christmas Day Football League fixture – 60 years on

The presents have been opened, the dinner cooked and eaten, now what? Fall asleep in front of the TV? Walk the dog? Or do you fancy popping out to watch your team on Christmas Day?

Up to 60 years ago this would have been an option before Blackpool and Blackburn Rovers played out what would be the final Football League game on 25 December.

Since the second league season in 1889-90, Christmas Day had been a major date on the footballing calendar. As one of the few public holidays it was a chance for teams to attract big crowds, which was made easier with public transport running.

«Christmas football was originally rooted in a wider tradition of communal entertainments,» Professor Martin Johnes of Swansea University told BBC Sport.

«While for the Victorian middle class Christmas was a festival of the home, for the workers, who lived in cramped, overcrowded housing, getting out was often more important.

«Football, pantomimes, informal gatherings, community rituals and traditions all provided people with opportunities to socialise and enjoy the day off work.»

Preston North End started the tradition as the reigning league champions hosted Aston Villa in 1889, winning 3-2 thanks to a Nick Ross hat-trick as the Lilywhites went on to retain their title.

Teams would normally play the return game on Boxing Day to ensure sides travelled similar distances – indeed the 1965 meeting between Blackpool and Blackburn was the third time they had played on Christmas Day, with the reverse fixture on the previous two occasions played the following afternoon.

As the league progressed, so Christmas Day football became more popular until 1957, which was the final time we saw a full fixture list.

«By the interwar period, people were noting how Christmas was becoming more private than public,» said Professor Johnes.

«This was evident in reduced transport services, cinema showings and the like. Football held out longer which was partly about men escaping domestic life for a few hours.

«But by the 1950s, games on Christmas Day seemed out of sorts with the wider festival – there were greater expectations of men at home and homes had also become more comfortable thanks to better furnishings, new housing stock, slum clearances and more affordable fuel.

«There was also more entertainment at home thanks to TV. Thus the idea of escaping family for a few hours was less desirable and football attendances in general were falling during the 1950s.»

The introduction of floodlights by many Football League clubs also led to more midweek games, meaning there was less of a need to pack the festive period with football.

In 1959 Coventry beat Wrexham 5-3 in Division Three while Blackburn saw off Blackpool 1-0 at Ewood Park in Division One, and they would be the last games to be played on 25 December until six years later, when the two Lancashire sides would meet for the final Christmas Day fixture.

«The real killer for Christmas Day football was transport,» added Professor Johnes.

«Falling demand for Christmas Day travel – thanks to the festival becoming more home based – and the desire of transport workers for a day off, meant rail and bus services were being curtailed.»

The two sides went into the game struggling at the wrong end of Division One, with Blackburn in 20th place and only outside the relegation zone on goal average, and Blackpool only one point and two places better off.

The home side had won just one of their previous eight league matches while Rovers’ form had improved with two wins from three before the trip to Bloomfield Road.

The Tangerines included future England World Cup winner Alan Ball in their side while Blackburn had Mike England, a Wales international defender who would go on to make almost 400 appearances for Tottenham and manage his country for eight years.

A crowd of 20,851 saw Neil Turner give Blackpool the lead only for George Jones to equalise before half-time.

The home side took control in the second period, with goals from Bobby Waddell and top scorer Ray Charnley, with Ball adding a fourth.

England then wrote himself into the history books by getting Blackburn’s second of the afternoon – and the final goal to be scored in the Football League in England on Christmas Day.

The two sides were once again due to play the return fixture at Ewood Park on Boxing Day but it was postponed because of a frozen pitch.

Blackpool eventually pulled themselves away from trouble to finish in 13th place but Rovers had a disastrous run in the new year, winning only three of their remaining 20 matches to drop to the bottom of the division and suffer relegation to the second tier.

That match in 1965 was the last we would hear of football on Christmas Day until 1983, when Brentford attempted to play their Third Division match with Wimbledon at 11am.

«I see it as a tremendous opportunity for the family to enjoy a fresh-air Christmas morning,» said Brentford chairman Martin Lange at the time.

Supporters did not agree and, with many complaining, the game was brought forward to Christmas Eve with promotion-bound Wimbledon winning 4-3.