PUBLISHER’S INTRODUCTION

 

This book has been a long time in the making!  The original idea came from Allan Kristensen in Norway.  Allan found that the early history of the club was shrouded in mystery and set out to compile his own record of results and players.  When he approached me with the manuscript I was surprised to find that many gaps existed in the records.  I turned to Alan Shury, co-author of Breedon Books’ Complete Record of Manchester United.  After much diligent checking, we were able to get the ‘first class games’ sorted out and turned our attention to other fixtures.

      At that stage we were fortunate to meet Brian Landamore.  Brian’s contribution has made a big difference to the book, albeit at the cost of delaying the publication date by a year or so!  Brian has compiled a record of newspaper reports of all the games he could find, in local and national newspapers.  Armed with this archive, we were able to revisit the match-by-match records.  We were also able to include all the friendly games and many reserve team line-ups.

      The next piece of the jigsaw was to map this data onto what we knew of the players.  Early match reports, though ‘wordy’ tend not to provide the sharp personal details on the players that we are familiar with today.  We have combed the reports to give as much information as we can.

      Finally, we looked for photographs with which to illustrate the story.  Here we found major disappointment.  There are plenty of match reports that begin ‘the kick-off was delayed whilst the photographer took pictures of the teams’.  Very few of these photographs seem to have survived.  Those that we do have are often ‘copies of copies’.  Though the authors will be pleased to hear of more photographs, the museum at Old Trafford is the best place to contact.  I know they would appreciate a copy for future reference.

      The responsibility for the final edit of the book was mine.  If any errors remain they are down to me, not my fellow authors!

 

Tony Brown

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

A major undertaking like this requires the help of many individuals.  The authors would like to thank all those who made a contribution however large or small.  In particular, Leigh Edwards on player records, Michael Joyce for the use of his player database, and Mark Wylie of the Manchester United Museum at Old Trafford.

 

 

A NOTE ON THE ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER REPORTS

 

Please note that the spelling of the original newspaper reports has been retained.  There are many examples of minor changes to player names in the reports.  There are also occasional spelling mistakes!  References to the ‘Evening News’ and the ‘Courier’ are to Manchester papers of those names.  Other extracts are from the Athletic News unless stated.

 

 


NEWTON HEATH RECORDS PAGE

 

 

PLAYERS:

 

Most Appearances

Football League:

Fred Erentz, 1892/93 to 1901/02: 280

All known first team games:

Fred Erentz: 399

 

 

Most Goals

Football League:

Joe Cassidy, 1892/93 to 1900/01: 91 (152 games)

All known first team games:

Bob Donaldson, 122 (252 games)

 

 

Most League Goals in a Season

Henry Boyd, 20 (1897/98)

 

 

Most International Appearances

Jack Doughty, 7 (Wales)

 

 

 

 

THE CLUB:

 

 

 

Honours:

Lancashire Cup winners 1897/98

 

 

Manchester and District Cup winners 1885/86, 1887/88, 1888/89, 1889/90, 1892/93, 1901/02

 

 

Unofficial champions of the Conference, 1888/89

 

 

Best Football League Position

Last in Division One, 1892/93, 1893/94

 

Best F.A. Cup Performance

Round 3, 1896/97

 

Most Football League Points

44, Division Two 1899/1900 (34 games)

 

39, Division Two 1896/97 (30 games)

 

Most Football League Goals

78, 1894/95

 

Most League wins in a season

20, 1899/1900

 

Best League win

10-1 v. Lincoln City, November 21 1891

10-1 v. Wolverhampton Wan., October 15 1892

 

 

Best F.A. Cup win

7-0 v. West Manchester, December 12 1896

 

 

Best League run undefeated

12 games from March 19 1898


NEWTON HEATH FC 1878-1902

 


 


1878 to 1886

 

1878, the year of the formation of Newton Heath, was a pivotal year in the development of association football.  Before 1878, the game was characterised by ‘local rules’, meaning that the two clubs were at liberty to agree the rules that would be followed for a particular game.  For example, the game in Sheffield was characterised by having no off-side law, which led to players permanently positioned near the opponent’s goal.  Handling of the ball was a common feature of many rules, including those first formulated by the Football Association in London, in 1863.  The Turton rules of 1873 stated ‘the ball may be caught if has not touched the ground…whoever catches the ball is entitled to a free kick….with a preliminary run no longer than three yards’.  Turton adopted the F.A. rules in 1874, but it seems clear that Darwen were still allowing the use of hands in 1876.  The popularity of the Football Association’s Challenge Cup (from 1871 onwards) helped to establish a common set of laws; Sheffield came into line in 1877.  Thus, by 1878 we had a base from which today’s game has developed.  There were even rumours of players earning money by playing the game!

     The early players turned out in everyday clothes and nailed boots.  A coloured cap might be worn to distinguish one team from another.  Games between eleven of one club and fifteen or even twenty-two of another were common occurrences.  There was a tape between the posts, not a bar.  By early 1878, the players were attired in shorts and custom-made football boots were available.  

   There has been a long tradition of ‘works teams’ in England.  Until the development of the semi-professional game in the 1960s and 1970s it was still possible to meet teams from companies such as Boots and  Morris Motors in the F.A. Cup.  The workers at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway’s Carriage and Wagon Works would thus have had many precedents in 1878 when they decided to play football; in any case, their was a work’s cricket team playing during the summer.  The workers would be well aware of Lancashire’s role in the development of the game; teams from Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton were already gaining a national reputation.   The Lancashire F.A. was formed in 1878 with 28 clubs; the Lancashire  Cup attracted 40 entries in 1879. 

   For the first Lancashire Cup final in 1880, benches were borrowed from local schools, with some placed on the carts that had brought them to the ground, thus forming a primitive grandstand.  Darwen beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0.  The popularity of the game as a spectator sport was not lost on the founders of clubs like Newton Heath; an enclosed ground would allow an admission charge to be made. 

   This was a problem for the future; to begin with, a piece of unused ground leased to the railway on the edge of a former clay pit was selected for the pitch.  It was bounded on the south side by North Road (now Northampton Road).  The surface was not ideal; the idea of using a lawnmower to cut the grass was years in the future.  In any case, solid clay at one end gave way to ankle deep mud at the other!  There were no changing rooms at the ground; players walked half a mile to the local public house in the Oldham Road.

   There is no record of the first games played by the fledgling club; after all, you would not expect your local newspaper today to cover the exploits of a new works’ team.  It is reasonable to assume that the club members arranged matches between themselves, and probably challenged other departments of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to a game.  The first fixtures we know of came in the 1880/81 season, with five games against reserve teams of local clubs.  As a point of comparison, Blackburn Rovers had more than 30 games in their fixture list for 1880/81, against clubs such as Sheffield Wednesday, Notts County and Aston Villa.  The earliest Newton Heath match report is to be found in the Bolton Daily Chronicle of January 25, 1881: 

Bolton Wanderers (a Team) v Newton Heath, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

The return match of the above clubs was played on the ground of the latter on Saturday last, and, as in the previous game, ended in victory for the former by six goals to nil. The ball was started at 3.30, and soon the visitors began to press their opponents, but, although having the benefit of the ground, they were unable to notch above one goal in the first half. On ends being changed, the Wanderers had all their own way, scoring five more goals before the call of time, a very pleasant and agreeable game ending in victory for the Wanderers.

Incidentally, the description of a team that was not the club’s  ‘first XI’ as ‘a team’ is probably the origin of the term ‘A Team’ in today’s game. 

   Newton Heath’s first recorded players are Messrs Minchley and Cramphorn, who scored the goals in a 2-0 victory over Bootle reserves in February 1881.  John Cramphorn had travelled up from Shalford in Essex to find work, and was living in digs in Ten Acres Road, Newton, with a friend from the same village.  This is what the Ashton under Lyne Reporter had to say about the game Newton Heath played against Hurst at North Road later that month:

The above teams met for the first time this season on Saturday last on the ground of the latter. The visitors arrived in due time, but were kept waiting on the field a considerable time ere