Blackpool F.C. season 1918-19
Encyclopedia
| Season 1918-19 1918-19 in English football The 1918–19 season was the fourth and final season of special wartime football in England during World War I.-Overview:Between 1914 and 1919 competitive football was suspended in England. Many footballers signed up to fight in the war and as a result many teams were depleted, and fielded guest... |
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| League | Principal Competition — Football League, Lancashire Section Subsidiary Competition — Football League, Lancashire Section, Group A |
| Manager | Bill Norman Bill Norman (football manager) William "Bill" Norman was an English football manager.Between 1918 and 1923, he was in charge of Blackpool, who became one of a growing number of clubs to appoint a full-time manager. Before that point, the team selection had been the responsibility of a committee comprising directors, the captain,... |
| League position | 11th (Principal Competition) 1st (Subsidiary Competition) |
| Top goalscorer | Thomas Hunter (18) |
| FA Cup FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's... |
Competition suspended |
| Highest home attendance | 12,000 |
| Lowest home attendance | 2,000 |
| Previous season | ← 1917-18 Blackpool F.C. season 1917-18 The 1917-18 season was Blackpool F.C.s third season in special wartime football during World War I. They competed in two Football League competitions spread over the full season — the Lancashire Section, Northern Group Principal Competition, for thirty games, and then in the Lancashire Section,... |
| Next season | 1919-20 Blackpool F.C. season 1919-20 The 1919-20 season was Blackpool F.C.s nineteenth season in the Football League. They competed in the 22-team Division Two, then the second tier of English football, finishing fourth.... → |
The 1918-19
1918-19 in English football
The 1918–19 season was the fourth and final season of special wartime football in England during World War I.-Overview:Between 1914 and 1919 competitive football was suspended in England. Many footballers signed up to fight in the war and as a result many teams were depleted, and fielded guest...
season was Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
's fourth and final season in special wartime football during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. They competed in two Football League competitions spread over the full season — the Lancashire Section, Northern Group Principal Competition, for thirty games, and then in the Lancashire Section, Group A, Subsidiary Competition, for a further six games. The club finished in 11th place in the principal competition and first in the subsidiary competition, which led to their appearance in the Lancashire Senior Cup
Lancashire Senior Cup
The Lancashire County Football Association Cup , is a football knockout tournament involving teams from Lancashire, England and surrounding areas. It is a County Cup competition of the Lancashire County Football Association and involves Premier League clubs and Football League clubs...
. They lost to Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
at the semi-final (or first) stage by a single goal at Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000...
.
Bill Norman
Bill Norman (football manager)
William "Bill" Norman was an English football manager.Between 1918 and 1923, he was in charge of Blackpool, who became one of a growing number of clubs to appoint a full-time manager. Before that point, the team selection had been the responsibility of a committee comprising directors, the captain,...
became Blackpool's first full-time manager prior to the start of the season. Thomas Hunter was, for the second consecutive season, the club's top scorer, with eighteen goals (fourteen in the principal competition and four in the subsidiary), including four in the penultimate game of the Principal Competition, a 6-0 victory at home to Southport Vulcan.
The FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
was suspended for the duration of the war.
Background
As with the previous wartime seasons, Blackpool had to rely on a small nucleus of players supplemented by soldiers stationed in the town and the occasional league players as guests to make up the numbers. Again, they also had to rely on staff from the Royal Army Medical CorpsRoyal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
Depot (RAMC) based at Squires Gate. Three of the players who made their debuts for the club in the 1918-19 season — Jimmy Heathcote, Harry Mingay and Eugene O'Doherty — went on to sign professional terms with the club for the 1919-20 season, as did Edmund Berry and Horace Fairhurst
Horace Fairhurst
Horace Fairhurst was an English professional football player. He played as a defender.After playing for Darwen for a number of years, Fairhurst joined fellow Lancashire club Blackpool in May 1919 after previously playing for them during the 1916-17 and 1917-18 World War I wartime...
, who had made their debuts the previous season, as well as striker Thomas Hunter.
Lancashire Section, Northern Group Principal Competition
The Principal competition for the 1917–18 season consisted of sixteen teams:- Blackpool
- Blackburn RoversBlackburn Rovers F.C.Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team currently competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football....
- Bolton WanderersBolton Wanderers F.C.Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....
- BuryBury F.C.Bury Football Club is an association football team based in Bury, Greater Manchester. The team currently play in League One. The club's nickname is The Shakers which was bestowed upon them by club chairman JT Ingham, an industrialist and ironmonger of the late 1890s.-Formation of the club and the...
- BurnleyBurnley F.C.Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
- EvertonEverton F.C.Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
- LiverpoolLiverpool F.C.Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
- Manchester CityManchester City F.C.Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
- Manchester UnitedManchester United F.C.Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
- Oldham Athletic
- Port ValePort Vale F.C.Port Vale Football Club is an English football club currently playing in Football League Two. They are based in Burslem, Staffordshire — one of six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent. The club's traditional rivals in the city are Stoke City, and games between the two clubs are known as...
- Preston North EndPreston North End F.C.Preston North End Football Club is an English professional football club located in the Deepdale area of the city of Preston, Lancashire, currently playing in the third tier of English league football, League One...
- Rochdale
- Southport VulcanSouthport F.C.Southport Football Club are an English football club, based in Southport, Merseyside. They are currently in the Conference National, and play their home matches at Haig Avenue, which has a capacity of 6,008...
- Stockport CountyStockport County F.C.Stockport County Football Club is an English football club based in Stockport, Greater Manchester. The club formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, shortly afterwards merging with Heaton Norris F.C., and adopted the current name on 24 May 1890 on the creation of the County Borough of Stockport...
- Stoke CityStoke City F.C.Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...
Blackpool began the campaign on 7 September 1918, with a home match against Oldham Athletic, which they lost 4-1, and Bolton completed the double over the Seasiders in the following match with a 2-1 win at Burnden Park
Burnden Park
Burnden Park was the home of English FA Premier League football club Bolton Wanderers who played home games here between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting an FA Cup Final replay it was the scene of one of the greatest disasters in English football and the subject of an L. S...
on 14 September. As with previous wartime seasons, they found team selection a problem, and by the sixth game had used twenty different players. Against Port Vale on 28 September they had only ten players and had to borrow a player from the home side. They remained without a win in the first nine games (three draws and six losses), which saw them in last place, and it took until 9 November for their first victory, 3-1 at home to Oldham Athletic. They followed that up with a double over Blackburn Rovers, beating them at Ewood Park
Ewood Park
Ewood Park is a football stadium in the English town of Blackburn, Lancashire, and is the home of Blackburn Rovers Football Club — one of the founder members of the Football League and Premier League. Rovers have played there since they moved from Leamington Street in the summer of 1890. The...
3-0 on 16 November and then a week later at Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000...
, 2-0. However, they followed this up with three consecutive defeats, and after a 5-1 win over Rochdale on 21 December, by mid-February 1919 they had won only two further games. Jimmy Heathcote, who was at the time a soldier based at the RAMC Depot, made his debut for the club on 8 February in a 1-1 draw at home to Burnley, a game which also saw the return of Horace Fairhurst
Horace Fairhurst
Horace Fairhurst was an English professional football player. He played as a defender.After playing for Darwen for a number of years, Fairhurst joined fellow Lancashire club Blackpool in May 1919 after previously playing for them during the 1916-17 and 1917-18 World War I wartime...
. In the return fixture, another RAMC soldier, Harry Mingay, made his debut in goal in a 3-0 defeat. He was the club's goalkeeper for the final seven games of the season as they won five and lost two. Both he and Heathcote signed professional terms with the club at the end of the season. On 15 March Blackpool played Liverpool at Anfield
Anfield
Anfield is an association football stadium in the district of Anfield, Liverpool, England, with a seating capacity of 45,522. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892 and was originally the home of Everton F.C. from 1884 to 1892, before they moved to Goodison Park...
, and although the Seasiders lost 3-1, the game was notable for its being played in front of the largest wartime crowd: 24,000. With five wins in six games, Blackpool moved off the bottom of the table and the club's directors declared: "The appeal was made to them to favour us with three home victories has not been in vain, and they unselfishly threw in two away victories for make-weight. Truly they deserve our unstinting praise, which every Blackpool supporter will disperse individually and collectively." However, they ended the season with a 5-1 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford
Old Trafford
Old Trafford commonly refers to two sporting arenas:* Old Trafford, home of Manchester United F.C.* Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket ClubOld Trafford can also refer to:...
and finished the season in 11th place, with Everton crowned champions.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11th | Blackpool | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 45 | 61 | 25 |
Lancashire Section, Group A, Subsidiary Competition
For the Subsidiary Competition, the Lancashire League was again divided into four, with the games played amalgamated at the end of the season to give a composite table. The winners of each group then competed in the Lancashire Senior CupLancashire Senior Cup
The Lancashire County Football Association Cup , is a football knockout tournament involving teams from Lancashire, England and surrounding areas. It is a County Cup competition of the Lancashire County Football Association and involves Premier League clubs and Football League clubs...
, with the winner of that going on to meet the winner of the Football League, Midland Section subsidiary tournament in a Championship play-off match.
Blackpool were again placed in Group A which contained four teams:
- Blackburn Rovers
- Blackpool
- Burnley
- Preston North End
As with previous seasons, the first match in the Subsidiary Competition was held in the middle of the Principal Competition, with an away game at Burnley on Christmas Day, 1918, which they lost 5-1. It was to be their only defeat, and when the competition resumed in April 1919 they won three and drew two of the remaining five fixtures. On 5 April, they drew 1-1 with Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in front of a crowd of 12,000, which Rovers described as their best gate since 1914. In the matchday programme for the return fixture on 12 April was the message, "With pardonable pride we approach the Easter programme full of confidence and on the tip-toe of expectancy, for have we not three home games in a week? What a feast! 'The Rovers', 'Burnley' and 'North End' come to Bloomfield Road, gentlemen, so mark the occasion and line the ropes yards deep, after signifying your appreciation at the turnstiles. Then yell 'Blackpool' for all you're worth! And don't forget t'others!" A crowd of 8,000 saw them achieve their largest victory of the season, 6-1. They followed that up on Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
, 18 April, with a 1-1 draw against Burnley in front of their first five-figure crowd of the wartime seasons, 12,000. The following day they beat Preston North End at Bloomfield Road 3-0 in front of a crowd of 10,000, and ended the`season on 26 April with a 2-0 win at Deepdale
Deepdale
Deepdale is a stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England, the home of Preston North End F.C. and, up to 2010, England's National Football Museum. Preston North End are one of the founder members of the Football League.- History :...
. As winners of Group C, they qualified along with the other three group winners — Oldham Athletic (Group B), Manchester City (Group C) and Liverpool (Group D) — for the Lancashire Senior Cup semi-finals.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Blackpool | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 7 | 8 |
Lancashire Senior Cup
Blackpool met Liverpool in the semi-finals at Bloomfield Road on 24 May, with Liverpool winning 1-0. However, the game was overshadowed by controversy as many in the crowd of 7,000 felt that Blackpool had been "over-refereed", with claims that the official, Mr J. A. Alderston of Earlstown, distinctly favoured Liverpool, in particular when in the last few minutes of the game he denied what many thought was a clear penaltyPenalty kick
A penalty kick is a type of direct free kick in association football, taken from twelve yards out from goal and with only the goalkeeper of the defending team between the penalty taker and the goal.Penalty kicks are performed during normal play...
for Blackpool. At the final whistle, supporters demonstrated against the referee who had to be escorted off the pitch by police officers, as fans hurled sand and pieces of the turf at him. What was described as "a large number of people" stood outside the stand after the match and it took an appeal by the club's directors "to disperse in the interests of the club" before they left the ground. An official enquiry was launched, and the Lancashire County Football Association
Lancashire County Football Association
The Lancashire County Football Association, also known simply as the Lancashire FA, is the governing body of football within the historical county boundaries of Lancashire, England...
(LFA) appointed their president to chair it. The final hearing was held on 3 July when the referee, Mr Alderson was "lightly reprimanded" for not originally reporting the incident (he had not done so until instructed by members of the LFA who had been at the match); however, no action was taken against the club as the demonstration was deemed "not to be of so serious a nature," although club director Albert Hargreaves was cautioned for "making indscreet remarks" about the officials in the referee's dressing room after the game.
Summary
A mixed season saw Blackpool struggle in the Principal Competition, in which they only climbed off the foot of the table toward the end of the season to finish in 11th place. They won Group A of the Subsidiary Competition, however, and so qualified for the Lancashire Senior Cup semi-finals, in which the defeat to Liverpool, which caused controversy, saw the four-year period of wartime football draw to a close for the club.Harold Keenan
Harold Keenan
Harold Keenan was an English professional footballer. He spent his entire professional career with Blackpool in the early 1900s, making over 100 Football League appearances for the club. He played as a defender....
made the most appearances, with 34 (28 in the Principal Competition and six in the Subsidiary Competition). Thomas Hunter was next, with 33 league appearances (27 in the Principal Competition and six in the Subsidiary Competition), followed by Bobby Booth
Bobby Booth
Robert "Bobby" Booth was an English professional footballer who made nearly 200 appearances in the Football League playing for Blackpool, Birmingham, Southend United, Swansea Town, Merthyr Town and New Brighton. He played as a wing half.Booth was born in West Hartlepool, County Durham...
, with 29 (23 in the Principal Competition and six in the Subsidiary Competition) and Eugene O'Doherty, with 27 (21 in the Principal Competition and six in the Subsidiary Competition).
Over the four wartime seasons, Blackpool had used a total of 153 different players in the 145 official wartime games, plus at least another 21 in friendly games. Bobby Booth made the most appearances, playing in 88 official plus six other games. Jack Connor played in 76 official plus eight other games, Joe Bainbridge
Joe Bainbridge
Joe "Joseph" Bainbridge was an English professional footballer. He spent ten years at Blackpool in the 1900s, making over 100 Football League appearances for the club. He played as a centre-forward.-Blackpool:...
73 plus four and Jimmy Jones 68 plus four. Of the soldiers who appeared, Dunn played in the most games, 59 plus five. Seven of the soldiers who had played for Blackpool in the wartime seasons went on to sign professional terms with the club — Edmund Berry, Horace Fairhurst
Horace Fairhurst
Horace Fairhurst was an English professional football player. He played as a defender.After playing for Darwen for a number of years, Fairhurst joined fellow Lancashire club Blackpool in May 1919 after previously playing for them during the 1916-17 and 1917-18 World War I wartime...
, Jimmy Heathcote, Thomas Hunter, Henry Mingay, Albert Moorcroft and Eugene O'Doherty.