| 1888–89 season | ||
|---|---|---|
| Honorary President | CanonBasil Wilberforce | |
| Secretary | F. A. Delamotte | |
| Ground | Southampton Common | |
| Hampshire Junior Cup | Winners | |
| Top goalscorer | League: N/A All:Frank Bromley / F. A. Delamotte (4) | |
| Highest home attendance | Reported as 5,000 – 7,000 (Hampshire Junior Cup semi-final at theCounty Ground | |
1888–89 was the fourth season for St. Mary's Football Club (St. Mary's F.C.) based inSouthampton in southern England. The club retained the Hampshire Junior Cup for the second consecutive year.
The highlight of the season was the Hampshire Junior Cup and, in particular, the semi-final match which required four matches to get pastCowes. This match generated so much interest in the town that the crowds at theCounty Ground reached "unprecedented" levels, with some reports claiming up to 7,000 present for the fourth match.[1]
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.[2]
At the start of the season, the St. Mary's captain,Ned Bromley had moved to London to studydentistry; his role as captain was taken over byGeorge Carter, although Bromley remained with the club, and continued to play in important matches, travelling from London by train.[3]
George Muir was on teacher-training atWinchester so relinquished the role of club secretary which was taken over by new recruit,F. A. Delamotte.[4]
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.[5]
At the start of the season, St. Mary's were still based onSouthampton Common, although they hired theCounty Ground or theAntelope 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.[6] The published match reports frequently omitted any mention of where the match was played or of the names of the players.[6]
The players continued to wear white shorts, black knee-length socks and "white tunics" with a red sash worn diagonally,[7] although, unlike in earlier years, the sash was worn consistently on the left shoulder.[8]
The defence of the Hampshire Junior Cup started with a home match againstHavant played at theCounty Ground on 24 November 1888. WithNed Bromley andGeorge Muir being unavailable as they were both away studying, the Saints' team had a rather makeshift appearance withA. A. Fry playing at full-back in place of Muir, alongsideGeorge Carter,Frank Bromley replacing his brother as a forward and four players (Stride, Mate,Delamotte andFarwell) making their competitive debut. The match was won easily 5–0, with Frank Bromley scoring four goals.[4]
St. Mary's received a bye in the next round seeing them through to a home tie againstFordingbridge Turks, the oldest team in Hampshire having been founded in 1868.[6] The match was scheduled to be played on 12 January which coincided with aHampshire F.A. match against Berks & Bucks F.A. for which four St. Mary's players (Ruffell,Carter,Stride andNed 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.[4] 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 inWoolston "kindly allowed them to play at theAntelope".[6] 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 theSouthampton Times) "by three goals and one disputed goal to two".[6]
The semi-final draw set up a match againstCowes on theIsle 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 wasWilliam Pickford, a journalist who was the driving force behind theHampshire F.A. and the spread of football throughout the county; Pickford was later to become the president of theFootball Association.[1] At half-time, Cowes were leading by the only goal, scored on 20 minutes,[4] after the ball rebounded into the goal off Whiteley, a Cowes forward, from an attempted clearance by Carter.[1] Cowes's main protagonist was Staite, an infantry private stationed atParkhurst Barracks, whose "beautiful dribbling" was causing difficulties for the St. Mary's defence requiring the combined attentions of Carter andVerney (at left-half) to contain him. With only two minutes of the match remaining, St. Mary's equalised from a "screw shot" fromFarwell. 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 theferry back to Southampton.[1]
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, throughFry. 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.[9] As with the first match, the home side requested extra time, but this was declined by the Cowes captain.[10]
With a crowd estimated at 2,000 having attended the first replay, theHampshire County Cricket Club offered to host the second replay at the County Ground and pay the travelling expenses for the Cowes players.[6][10] 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.[10]
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.[6] Cowes took an early lead through their centre-forward, Trask, beforeBromley 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. TheHampshire Independent reported that, following the dispute, "the excitement ... increased both inside and outside the ropes" although there was no further score.[10] It seemed, therefore, that St. Mary's were through to the final until Cowes lodged a written protest.[10] 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.[10]
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".[6] The players were also "fired up" for the rematch and Lieverman was kept busy in the Cowes goal untilFry eventually scrambled the ball home from aVerney 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 fromDelamotte. 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.[10]
The final was held atBar End, in Winchester againstChristchurch 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, thatRuffell 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 fromDelamotte,N. Bromley andWarn.[6] 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 atSouthampton Docks (station) can be better imagined than described, but jubilation is not precisely the word for it".[2]
At the end of the season, theBournemouth Guardian, edited byWilliam 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".[2]
| Date | Round | Opponents | H / A | Result F – A | Scorers | Attendance (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 |
| Win | Draw | Loss |
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.[11]
The results of the friendly matches that are known were as follows:[11]
| Date | Opponents | H / A | Result F – A | Scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
The players who appeared in the Hampshire Junior Cup were as follows.[4] This list does not include appearances or goals in friendly matches.
| Position | Name | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| FB | J. T. Arter | 5 | 1 |
| FW | Ned Bromley | 6 | 3 |
| FW | Frank Bromley | 1 | 4 |
| FB | George Carter | 7 | 0 |
| HB | F. J. Crossley | 1 | 0 |
| HB | Charles Deacon | 7 | 1 |
| FW | F. A. Delamotte | 7 | 4 |
| FW | Arthur Farwell | 7 | 1 |
| FW | A. A. Fry | 7 | 2 |
| FW | Ernest Mate | 1 | 0 |
| FB | George Muir | 1 | 0 |
| GK | Ralph Ruffell | 7 | 0 |
| HB | William Stride | 6 | 0 |
| HB | George Verney | 6 | 1 |
| FW | M. Warn | 7 | 3 |
| HB | G. Williams | 1 | 0 |
The players who made their first appearance for the club in 1888–89 include the following:
