1888–89 St. Mary's F.C. season

English football club season March 2015 March 2015 St. Mary's F.C. 1888–89 F. A. Delamotte Secretary Canon Basil Wilberforce Honorary President Ground Southampton Common Hampshire Junior Cup Winners N/A Frank Bromley / F. A. Delamotte (4) Reported as 5,000 – 7,000(Hampshire Junior Cup semi-finalat the County Ground _redrightsash FFFFFF FFFFFF FFFFFF FFFFFF 000000 1887–88 1889–90 1888–89 was the fourth season for St. Mary's Football Club (St. Mary's F.C.) based in Southampton in southern England. The club retained the Hampshire Junior Cup for the second consecutive year. Summary of the season The highlight of the season was the Hampshire Junior Cup and, in particular, the semi-final match which required four matches to get past Cowes. This match generated so much interest in the town that the crowds at the County Ground reached "unprecedented" levels, with some reports claiming up to 7,000 present for the fourth match.Bull Brunskell 2000 6 By the end of the season, the Saints' main local rivals, Woolston Works had disbanded leaving St. Mary's as Southampton's most prominent and well-supported football club.Juson Bull 2001 26 Personnel At the start of the season, the St. Mary's captain, Ned Bromley had moved to London to study dentistry; his role as captain was taken over by George Carter, although Bromley remained with the club, and continued to play in important matches, travelling from London by train.Chalk Holley 1987 10 George Muir was on teacher-training at Winchester so relinquished the role of club secretary which was taken over by new recruit, F. A. Delamotte.Chalk Holley 1987 11 Ned Bromley's career came to an end shortly after the 1889 final of the Hampshire Junior Cup, when he was seriously injured in a six-a-side tournament.Chalk Holley 1987 12 Home ground At the start of the season, St. Mary's were still based on Southampton Common, although they hired the County Ground or the Antelope Ground for more popular friendly matches, as well as for Hampshire Junior Cup matches, for which the common was unsuitable as the pitch was not enclosed and thus no entrance fee could be charged.Juson Bull 2001 25 The published match reports frequently omitted any mention of where the match was played or of the names of the players.Juson Bull 2001 25 Strip The players continued to wear white shorts, black knee-length socks and "white tunics" with a red sash worn diagonally,Southampton Kit History http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Southampton/Southampton.htm www.historicalkits.co.uk 5 January 2013 although, unlike in earlier years, the sash was worn consistently on the left shoulder.Holley 2012 4–5 Hampshire Junior Cup The defence of the Hampshire Junior Cup started with a home match against Havant played at the County Ground on 24 November 1888. With Ned Bromley and George Muir being unavailable as they were both away studying, the Saints' team had a rather makeshift appearance with A. A. Fry playing at full-back in place of Muir, alongside George Carter, Frank Bromley replacing his brother as a forward and four players (Stride, Mate, Delamotte and Farwell) making their competitive debut. The match was won easily 5–0, with Frank Bromley scoring four goals.Chalk Holley 1987 11 St. Mary's received a bye in the next round seeing them through to a home tie against Fordingbridge Turks, the oldest team in Hampshire having been founded in 1868.Juson Bull 2001 25 The match was scheduled to be played on 12 January which coincided with a Hampshire F.A. match against Berks & Bucks F.A. for which four St. Mary's players (Ruffell, Carter, Stride and Ned Bromley) had been selected. St. Mary's tried to have the cup match postponed but Fordingbridge refused so the St. Mary's players were withdrawn from the Hampshire F.A. squad.Chalk Holley 1987 11 As a result of the doubt over the date of the match, no ground had been organised; on the Saturday morning, Mr. Oswald, the owner of the Oswald, Mordaunt & Co. shipyard in Woolston "kindly allowed them to play at the Antelope".Juson Bull 2001 25 The shipyard's football team, Woolston Works were now tenants of the Antelope Ground, which stood near the top of St. Mary's Road. The match was a close-fought encounter which St. Mary's won (as reported in the Southampton Times) "by three goals and one disputed goal to two".Juson Bull 2001 25 The semi-final draw set up a match against Cowes on the Isle of Wight to be played on 24 February. The Cowes team included five who had previously played for the Hampshire F.A. compared to the four St. Mary's players and were the favourites to go through to the final. The referee for the match was William Pickford, a journalist who was the driving force behind the Hampshire F.A. and the spread of football throughout the county; Pickford was later to become the president of the Football Association.Bull Brunskell 2000 6 At half-time, Cowes were leading by the only goal, scored on 20 minutes,Chalk Holley 1987 11 after the ball rebounded into the goal off Whiteley, a Cowes forward, from an attempted clearance by Carter.Bull Brunskell 2000 6 Cowes's main protagonist was Staite, an infantry private stationed at Parkhurst Barracks, whose "beautiful dribbling" was causing difficulties for the St. Mary's defence requiring the combined attentions of Carter and Verney (at left-half) to contain him. With only two minutes of the match remaining, St. Mary's equalised from a "screw shot" from Farwell. The home side requested that an extra half-hour should be played, but Carter, the St. Mary's captain, declined as the players and fans had to catch the ferry back to Southampton.Bull Brunskell 2000 6 The replay was set for a fortnight later at the County Ground for which special boats were chartered to bring the Cowes supporters over to the mainland. this time it was St. Mary's who took the lead, through Fry. Staite was again at the centre of the Cowes attacks, hitting the bar with "a brilliant shot" before "scientific play" on the Cowes wings led to their equaliser from Ballard, with a few minutes left to play.Bull Brunskell 2000 6–7 As with the first match, the home side requested extra time, but this was declined by the Cowes captain.Bull Brunskell 2000 7 With a crowd estimated at 2,000 having attended the first replay, the Hampshire County Cricket Club offered to host the second replay at the County Ground and pay the travelling expenses for the Cowes players.Juson Bull 2001 25Bull Brunskell 2000 7 Despite this proposal, and suggestions that the match should be played at a more neutral venue in Winchester or Portsmouth, the Hampshire F.A. decided that the venue should be determined by the toss of a coin. St. Mary's won the toss so the second replay was arranged for the County Ground on Wednesday 13 March. As the final was scheduled to be played the following Saturday, the Hampshire F.A. instructed that the match must produce a finalist.Bull Brunskell 2000 7 By now, the contest between the two clubs had produced great excitement amongst the public, and the crowd at the County Ground on the Wednesday afternoon was considerably larger than that on the previous Saturday.Juson Bull 2001 25 Cowes took an early lead through their centre-forward, Trask, before Bromley equalised. Warn then scored what appeared to be the winning goal for St. Mary's. The ball appeared to be "half a yard" behind the line before it was caught and thrown out by Lieverman, the Cowes goalkeeper. The home players claimed the goal, which was contested by Cowes. The referee consulted the linesman and awarded the goal. The Hampshire Independent reported that, following the dispute, "the excitement ... increased both inside and outside the ropes" although there was no further score.Bull Brunskell 2000 7 It seemed, therefore, that St. Mary's were through to the final until Cowes lodged a written protest.Bull Brunskell 2000 7 Cowes's initial protest, on the grounds that the linesman had not raised his flag until after the St. Mary's players appealed, was rejected by the Hampshire F.A. Cowes then lodged a further protest, that, before the referee had actually awarded the goal, the linesman had stopped the ball with his flag even though the ball was technically still in play. Despite St. Mary's challenge to the admissibility of new evidence, the protest was heard and accepted, so the two sides had to meet again to decide the tie.Bull Brunskell 2000 7 St. Mary's again won the toss and the rematch was played at the County Ground on the following Saturday, 16 March, with the final being postponed. With excitement in both Southampton and Cowes mounting further, over 800 supporters crossed from the Isle of Wight with the total crowd being estimated variously at 5,000 and 7,000, including "over 1,000 ladies".Juson Bull 2001 25 The players were also "fired up" for the rematch and Lieverman was kept busy in the Cowes goal until Fry eventually scrambled the ball home from a Verney corner kick. St. Mary's lead was soon doubled when Verney shot as a team-mate charged the goalkeeper, allowing the ball to slip into the net. In the second half, Cowes came back strongly with Staite scoring after a "dazzling run". The St. Mary's defence prevented any further goals from Cowes, before two late goals from Delamotte. The first came after a shot from Fry hit the crossbar and dropped onto Delamotte's head, while the second came from a "vigorous" shot.Bull Brunskell 2000 7 The final was held at Bar End, in Winchester against Christchurch on 6 April. After the excitement of the semi-final round, the final was an anti-climax. Most of the game was played deep in the Christchurch half; so much so, that Ruffell in the St. Mary's goal "was enabled to get through a cigarette or two to pass away the tedious moments he had in goal". St. Mary's won 3–0, with the goals coming from Delamotte, N. Bromley and Warn.Juson Bull 2001 25 No estimate of the crowd was included in any match report, although it was reckoned that two-thirds of the crowd came from Southampton. "What happened on arrival at Southampton Docks (station) can be better imagined than described, but jubilation is not precisely the word for it".Juson Bull 2001 26 At the end of the season, the Bournemouth Guardian, edited by William Pickford, concluded that St. Mary's cup progress had "aroused the widest enthusiasm in the county and resulted in such large gates that the County Association certainly owes a debt of gratitude to either them or Cowes or both for raising them from a hand-to-mouth state of existence to that of having a satisfactory balance in the bank".Juson Bull 2001 26 Results Chalk Holley 1987 11 DateRoundOpponentsH / AResultF – AScorersAttendance(estimated) 24 November 1888 1st Havant H 5 – 0 Delamotte, F. Bromley (4) 12 January 1889 3rd Fordingbridge Turks H 4 – 2 Arter, Deacon, N. Bromley, Warn 24 February 1889 Semi-final Cowes A 1 – 1 Farwell 9 March 1889 Semi-final replay Cowes H 1 – 1 Fry 2,000 13 March 1889 Semi-final second replay Cowes N 2 – 1 N. Bromley, Warn 16 March 1889 Semi-final rematch Cowes N 4 – 1 Fry, Verney, Delamotte (2) 5,000 – 7,000 6 April 1889 Final Christchurch N 3 – 0 Delamotte, N. Bromley, Warn Legend WinDrawLoss Friendly matches St. Mary's continued to play friendly matches throughout the season, although reports are not available for many of these. Despite their domination in the Hampshire Junior Cup matches, the team lost four friendlies and only managed two victories.Chalk Holley 1987 210 Results The results of the friendly matches that are known were as follows:Chalk Holley 1987 210 Date OpponentsH / AResultF – AScorers 6 October 1888 Woolston Works H 1 – 2 Delamotte 3 November 1888 Winchester Rovers A 1 – 2 Varley 1 December 1888 Christchurch H 2 – 2 N. Bromley, Farwell 29 December 1888 Freemantle A 1 – 1 Warn 2 February 1889 Cowes A 0 – 1 9 February 1889 Bannister Court A 2 – 1 Warn, Delamotte 16 February 1889 Freemantle H 2 – 3 Deacon, F. Bromley 19 February 1889 Winchester H 1 – 0 Fry Player statistics The players who appeared in the Hampshire Junior Cup were as follows.Chalk Holley 1987 11 This list does not include appearances or goals in friendly matches. Position Name AppsGoals2 FB J. T. Arter514 FW Ned Bromley634 FW Frank Bromley142 FB George Carter George Carter (footballer born 1867)703 HB F. J. Crossley 1 103 HB Charles Deacon 714 FW F. A. Delamotte744 FW Arthur Farwell Arthur Farwell (footballer) 71 4 FW A. A. Fry 724 FW Ernest Mate 102 FB George Muir George Harvey Muir101 GK Ralph Ruffell703 HB William Stride 603 HB George Verney 614 FW M. Warn 733 HB G. Williams 1 10 Key GK — Goalkeeper FB — Full back HB — Half-back FW — Forward Players The players who made their first appearance for the club in 1888–89 include the following: John Thomas Arter (1866–1937) played in five of the Hampshire Junior Cup matches alongside George Carter; thus St. Mary's had Arter and Carter at full-back.Chalk Holley 1987 10–11 Freeman Alexander Delamotte (1870–1933) was a surveyor by profession. He joined St. Mary's in 1888 and replaced George Muir as secretary. As a forward, he had a reputation for charging the opposition goalkeeper and the supporters would cry out: "Go for him, Delly". He remained with the club until 1893.Holley Chalk 1992 100 Arthur George Farwell (1872–1940) was another forward, described as "full of tricks". He was employed in the drapery department of the Edwin Jones store, thus making him unavailable for Saturday afternoon matches. He remained with the club until 1893.Holley Chalk 1992 120 William John Stride (1865–1942) (known as "Banquo") had played against St. Mary's for Southampton Harriers in the final of the Hampshire Junior Cup in the previous season. He played as a half-back. described as “a hard as nails robust, tall half- back”, he remained with St. Mary's until 1894. He was subsequently employed by the Southampton Borough Engineers department.Holley Chalk 1992 325 William George Verney (1871–1950) played as a half-back. Described as "a tenacious half-back" who persisted "in his efforts to challenge for every loose ball", he linked up well with William Stride. He remained with St. Mary's until 1896.Holley Chalk 1992 343 References Bibliography Match of the Millennium Bull David Brunskell, Bob Hagiology Publishing 2000 0-9534474-1-3 Bull Brunskell 2000 Saints – A complete record Chalk Gary Holley, Duncan Breedon Books 1987 0-907969-22-4 Chalk Holley 1987 Holley Duncan Suited and Booted 2012 Hagiology Publishing Bristol 0-9534474-9-9 The Alphabet of the Saints Holley Duncan Chalk, Gary ACL & Polar Publishing 1992 0-9514862-3-3 Holley Chalk 1992 Full-Time at The Dell Juson Dave Bull, David Hagiology Publishing 2001 0-9534474-2-1 Juson Bull 2001 registration https://archive.org/details/fulltimeatdellfr0000juso Category:Southampton F.C. seasons Southampton