Talk:Manor Ground, Plumstead

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[edit] Spion Kop, Which Ground First?

What verifiable evidence do we have for the claim that "this was the first stand in the country to be called the Kop"? I enquired about this some years ago, contacting the editor of an unofficial Arsenal website that featured limited history on the Manor Ground. He kindly informed me that, to the best of his knowledge, the old ground did not actually have individual terrace names as we have come to expect today, but that it is believed that some folk regarded one of the newly improved terraces there to be like that of Spion Kop. I note, however, that this story is repeated elsewhere [1] [2] with other people first perceiving a basic similarity before dubbing their own terraces accordingly. So an obvious question arises: What actual evidence is there that Arsenal supporters spotted the similarity first, and dubbed their stand first, as opposed to any of the other returned servicemen who thought the same around the same time? It is alleged elsewhere that "the one at Sheffield was named 'the Kop' first".[3]Let's sort this out and track down source material. I seems Arsenal 1886-1986, The Official Centenary History by Phil Soar and Martin Tyler is a good place to start, if someone here has a copy. Ste B 02:56, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

I observe that Arsenal's official club website does not reproduce this claim [4]. Source material is most important.