| Event | FA Charity Shield | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Date | 6 October 1926 | ||||||
| Venue | Maine Road,Manchester | ||||||
| Attendance | 1,500 | ||||||
←1925 1927 → | |||||||
The1926 FA Charity Shield was the thirteenth staging of theFA Charity Shield, an annualassociation football match arranged to raise funds for charitable causes supported bythe Football Association (the FA), the governing body offootball in England. For the fifth time, the match was contested by select teams of amateur and professional players.[1] It was played on 6 October 1926, atMaine Road, Manchester, and ended as a 6–3 win for the Amateurs. Wilfred Minter andFrank Macey each scored twice,Edgar Kail once, and anown goal byMichael Keeping completed the Amateurs' scoring;Bill Rawlings scored twice andFred Tunstall scored once for the Professionals.[2][3]
The match was to be played atMaine Road, the home ground ofManchester City F.C., alongside the exhibitions and other entertainments of the city ofManchester's Civic Week.[4] The composition of the teams was selected by the international selection committee ofthe Football Association. The professionals were chosen from among those who had taken part in the Football Association XI's tour ofCanada from May to July 1926.[5][6]
The teams lined up as originally selected, with two exceptions. Clifford Tarr replaced the injuredRichard Jenkins ofPolytechnic atoutside right,[7] and Corporal Cartlidge was a late replacement forNorthern Nomads's Dr Fairbrother atwing half.[8] The Amateurs included six of the men who had beaten the Professionals by six goals to one in the corresponding fixture in 1925;[2] the Professionals included five fullEngland internationals.[9]
The match began with a fine exhibition of passing by the Amateurs,[2] but six minutes into the gameDavid Jack fedBill Rawlings who scored from close range to give the Professionals the lead. The lead was doubled in a similar fashion after 24 minutes.[10] Rawlings had another two chances which he failed to take,[11] and the Professionals seemed to be in control of the game. With half an hour gone, the Amateurs "added dash and determination to their pattern-work passing", and the tenor of the game changed dramatically.[2] A neat pass fromFrank Macey was touched over the line byEdgar Kail,[10] and a couple of minutes later, Wilfred Minter hooked home after some "brilliant interpassing" between Macey and his left-wing partnerWalter Bellamy.[2] The score at the half-time interval remained 2–2.
Jack missed from close range just after half-time, after which the game became one-sided. Macey scored after a clever passing move, and doubled the Amateurs' lead when he volleyedTommy Gale's punched clearance straight back past him "with surprising pace" from 30 yards (27 m).[11] Macey had also scored twice in the1925 FA Charity Shield match, when the Amateurs beat the Professionals by six goals to one.[12][13] Minter collected a through ball and scored his second and his team's fifth off the inside of the post, and the last came when, under pressure from Macey,Michael Keeping overhit a back-pass to his goalkeeper.Fred Tunstall scored in the last minute for the Professionals, and the match ended 6–3.[2]
| Amateurs | 6–3 | Professionals |
|---|---|---|
| Kail Minter (2) Macey (2) Keeping (o.g.) | [2][3] | Rawlings (2) Tunstall |
| Amateurs[11] | Professionals[11] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | A.M. Russell | Cambridge University | Goalkeeper | Tommy Gale | Barnsley | |
| Full back | SgtFrank Twine | The Army | Full back | George Clifford | Portsmouth | |
| Full back | E.H. Gates | London Caledonians | Full back | Michael Keeping | Southampton | |
| Wing half | Cpl Cartlidge | The Army | Wing half | Tommy Magee | West Bromwich Albion | |
| Centre half | Billy Bryant | Millwall | Centre half | Jimmy Waugh | Sheffield United | |
| Wing half | F.H. Ewer | Corinthians | Wing half | George Harkus | Southampton | |
| Forward | Clifford Tarr | Mossley | Forward | Wally Harris | Birmingham | |
| Forward | Edgar Kail | Dulwich Hamlet | Forward | David Jack | Bolton Wanderers | |
| Forward | Wilfred Minter | St Albans City | Forward | Bill Rawlings | Southampton | |
| Forward | Frank Macey | Kingstonian | Forward | Joe Smith | Bolton Wanderers | |
| Forward | Walter Bellamy | Dulwich Hamlet | Forward | Fred Tunstall | Sheffield United | |
Medals were presented to both teams by theLord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Miles E. Mitchell.[11] TheManchester Guardian was disappointed with the Professionals, whose forwards could not finish, whose creative players were ineffective, and whose defensive players were not up to the standard of their Amateur counterparts and failed to communicate with their goalkeeper.[11] In contrast, Bellamy crossed well, and the "indefatigable"[8] Macey "set an example to every player on the field in the matter of shooting."[11] They were well supported by a "hard-working set of half-backs, who stood on no ceremony, and persisted in their tackling with the relish and vigour of terriers",[11] Bryant in particular, whose play both defensive and constructive impressed, "and [whose] ground passing was something of a model",[11] and by a confident pair of full backs in E.H. Gates andFrank Twine.[8] Bryant wrote some years later that Macey "gave the finest exposition of inside forward play I have ever seen, and quite overshadowed the more famousBolton Wanderers' inside forwards,David Jack andJoe Smith."[14] The result of the match was so unexpected that it found a place in a 1999 compilation of "football's strangest matches".[9]
The attendance was disappointing – "no more than 1,500", according to theTimes,[2] and theGuardian called it very poor[11] – and for the1927 fixture, the Football Association reverted to a match between two club teams.[1] The receipts from the match, of £181, were donated to theYpres Memorial Church building fund.[15]