England Football Online
  Page Last Updated 13 October 2020

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59 vs. Ireland
60
61 vs. Scotland

 

Monday, 29 March 1897
Home International Championship 1896-97 (14th) Match

England 4 Wales 0 [2-0]
 

Match Summary
England Party
Wales Party
Team Records

Bramall Lane, Little Sheffield, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire
Attendance: 5,000; Kick-off 3.40pm GMT

England - Ernest Needham ('rebound after Trainer saved from Crawshaw' 23), Steve Bloomer ('from an Athersmith pass' 44), Alf Milward (62, 64)
Results 1891-1900

England won the toss, Wales kicked-off.

 

Match Summary

Officials

England

Type

Wa

les
Referee - Thomas Robertson
32 (1 December 1864), Torrance, Stirlingshire, Scotland Football Association

Linesmen - George Stuart Sherrington, 36 (20 August 1861 in Islington), Suffolk Football Association, England & unknown

  Goal Attempts  
  Attempts on Target  
  Hit Bar/Post  
  Corner Kicks Won  
  Offside Calls Against  
  Fouls Conceded  
  Possession  

England Team

 

Rank:

No official ranking system established;
ELO rating 1st
Colours: White jerseys and navy blue knickerbockers
Capt: Gilbert Smith, third, fourth or fifth captaincy Selectors:
In Charge: Mr Haigh
The seven-man FA International Selection Committee, on Monday, 15 March 1897, at Queen's Club, Kensington, following the trial match.
29th match, W 23 - D 4 - L 2 - F 122 - A 24.
England Lineup
  Foulke, William H. 22 12 April 1874 G Sheffield United FC 1 0 GA
  Oakley, William J. 23 27 April 1873 RB Corinthians FC 6 0
  Spencer, Howard 21 23 August 1875 LB Aston Villa FC 1 0
  Reynolds, John 28 21 February 1869 RH Aston Villa FC 7 2
  Crawshaw, Thomas H. 24 28 December 1872 CH Wednesday FC 6 0
Needham, Ernest 24 21 January 1873 LH Sheffield United FC 4 1
  Athersmith Harper, W. Charles 24 10 May 1872 OR Aston Villa FC 3 1
Bloomer, Stephen 23 20 January 1874 IR Derby County FC 6 12
  Smith, Gilbert O. injured off 45th min 24 25 November 1872 CF Old Carthusians AFC & Corinthians FC 9 4
  Becton, Francis 21 28 October 1873 IL Liverpool FC 2 2
Milward, Arthur 26 12 September 1870 OL Everton FC 3 3

reserves:

reserves not known

team notes:

Jimmy Crabtree (Aston Villa FC) was replaced by Jack Reynolds at right-half and Cunliffe Gosling (Old Etonians AFC & Corinthians FC) was replaced by Francis Becton at inside-left.
Gilbert Smith was hit in the face by the ball in the first half, and did not return for the second half.
Jack Reynolds had already played five times for the Irish team, scoring once (1890-91 (two appearances and one goal against England))
England's unbeaten 'Home' run is now extended to a record eleven matches, they have also gone 295 minutes without conceding a goal at Home, a new record. So is three Home clean sheets in a row.
 
2-3-5 Foulkes -
Oakley, Spencer -
Crabtree. Crawshaw, Needham -
Athersmith, Bloomer, Smith, Becton, Milward.

Averages:

Age 23.6 Appearances/Goals 4.4 1.9

 

Wales Team

 

Rank:

No official ranking system established;
ELO rating 5th
Colours: White and red halved shirts, black shorts, black socks
Capt: James Trainer Selectors: Team selection chosen by Committee, following a series of trial matches.
Wales Lineup
  Trainer, James 34 7 January 1863 G Preston North End FC, England 16 56 GA
  Matthias, John S. 19 summer 1878 RB Shrewsbury Town FC, England 4 0
  Edwards, James A. 22 summer 1875 LB Oswestry United FC 3 0
  Chapman, Thomas 26 early 1871 RH Grimsby Town FC, England 7 2
  Mates, John 27 winter 1875 CH Chirk AAA FC 3 0
  Jones, John L. 30/31 early 1866 LH Sheffield United FC, England 9 0
  Meredith, William H. 22 30 July 1874 OR Manchester City FC, England 7 4
  Davies, Joseph 30 summer 1866 IR Millwall Athletic FC, England 5 0
  Morris, A. Grenville 19 13 April 1877 CF Swindon Town FC, England 4 1
  Morris, Hugh 23/24 early 1872 IL Grimsby Town FC, England 3 2
  Lewis, William 32/33 1864 OL Manchester City FC, England 26 8

reserves:

reserves not known

team notes:

James Edwards was called up to replace Smart Arridge, and John Mates replaced Caesar Jenkyns.
 
2-3-5 Trainer -
Matthias, Edwards -
Chapman, Mates, Jones -
Meredith, Davies,
G.Morris, H.Morris, Lewis

Averages:

Age 25.8-26.1 Appearances/Goals 7.8 1.5

 

    Match Report

On the Bramall-lane ground, Sheffield, yesterday, England beat Wales by four goals to none, a victory that was completely merited as the game went, although the football never reached any wonderful degree of excellence. England was represented by a very fine side, both individually and collectively the superior of anything Wales could produce, and perhaps it was the knowledge of the fact that the last thing probable was a loss to them that made the Englishmen adopt something like a leisurely method of play. Without exerting themselves, therefore, the home side pursued an easy course to victory...

The English score was divided between the two periods of the game. Needham and Bloomer scored before the interval, and Milward obtained the two other goals...

There were some four or five thousand spectators, and the conditions for the football were fairly favourable. - The Times - Tuesday 30th March, 1897

    Football League

 

Football League Division Two
29 March 1897
Team P Pts
Notts County 27 41
Newton Heath 27 35
Grimsby Town 28 34
Newcastle United 26 31
Small Heath 26 30
Manchester City 26 28
Gainsborough Trinity 25 27
Leicester Fosse 25 27
Darwen 26 26
Blackpool 25 26
Woolwich Arsenal 24 24
Walsall 25 20
Burton Swifts 25 19
Loughborough 26 18
Burton Wanderers 25 17
Lincoln City 24 7

 

Division Two matches played on 29 March 1897:

BURTON WANDERERS 3-1 BLACKPOOL
King, Handley, Arkesden (Martin)
 3,000 (Derby Turn, Burton)

WOOLWICH ARSENAL 2-3 SMALL HEATH
Haywood, McAvoy (Hodgetts 2, Hare)
 3,000 (Manor Ground, London)

 

Small Heath won seven of their last eight games, but still finished two points short of the test matches and failed to win promotion straight back to the First Division.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 28 March 1897 that Josef 'Sepp' Herberger was born in Mannheim and went on to become the coach and mastermind behind West Germany's sensational 1954 World Cup win. Hungary were odds-on favourites, and unbeaten for over four years, including a crushing 8-3 victory against West Germany, two weeks earlier. Herberger had deliberately fielded a weaker team, however, and when Hungary surged into a two-goal lead in the first eight minutes of the final, they did not expect such an incisive response from their opponents, who ran out 3-2 winners.

Source Notes

Welsh Football Data Archive
HistoricalKits.co.uk/international/Wales
Original newspaper reports 
Rothmans Yearbooks
FA Yearbooks 1950-60
Ancestry.com
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CG