Match Summary

England Team

Wales Team

The English eleven easily beat Wales at Bristol yesterday by four goals to none. It might have been 12 or more had not the Welsh Association found in S. Jones, of the Druids, a keeper of such merit as to worthily fill the position usually occupied by Trainer, of Preston North End. The Welsh full backs, too, were very good. But for all this the match was disappointing, and if the pick of England's footballers are not going to strive their best against even moderate opponents, it would be well that the Football Association should revert to the old policy of making their matches with Ireland and Wales simply trials for the greater fixture with Scotland. The object of the Association in going away from the old régime was simply to bring combination into their side, for this can only properly be secured by an acquaintance by the men with each other's football. It must have been palpable to any one with only an elementary knowledge of the game that yesterday the English team, knowing their superiority in skill in every branch of the play, took periods for trifling with the Welshmen. Much of their footwork, their passing and dribbling, was excellent to watch, but their form as a whole was lacking in sting, and when Scotland come to be met in three weeks' time at Birmingham the Englishmen will have to play very differently if they wish to obtain success. While England were playing so often leisurely yesterday the Welshmen were throwing great energy and courage into a game that was almost hopeless for them before the kick-off. In Association football class, as in most games, will prevail...

Needham and Bloomer each got a goal late in the first half for England. The play that led up to Needham's arose from a penalty kick against the Welsh goalkeeper for running beyond the regulation distance when holding the ball, and G. O. Smith, taking the kick, made an opening for Needham, who lofted the ball, and it just dropped into the net. The second goal Bloomer scored from practically a scrimmage, and immediately after Jones had saved a long side shot by Athersmith, Fred Forman scored the third goal. Then came a long spell of dulness, but eventually England again renewed their energy, and Bloomer got the fourth goal...

The match was played on the Bedminster ground, the choice of which led to some little complaint from the county executive, who thought that the Association should have handed over to them the whole arrangements for the game. - The Times - Tuesday 21st March, 1899

Football League Division One 20 March 1899
Team	P	Pts
Aston Villa	26	35
Liverpool	27	35
Everton	28	34
Burnley	28	33
Blackburn Rovers	29	31
Notts County	28	31
Nottingham Forest	29	29
West Bromwich Albion	29	28
Sunderland	27	28
Bury	28	28
Derby County	27	27
Sheffield United	29	27
Wolverhampton Wanderers	28	25
Preston North End	29	25
Stoke	27	25
Newcastle United	28	24
The Wednesday	29	21
Bolton Wanderers	26	16

 Division One match played on 20 March 1899:

PRESTON NORTH END 2-0 NOTTS COUNTY
Brown, McIntyre
3,000 (Deepdale, Preston)

 Only eight points separated the top twelve teams in a very tight division. With only five or six games left for most, incredibly, Preston and the bottom two were the only teams that could not mathematically win the championship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 20 March 1899 that the city of New York was recovering from the fire that engulfed the 500-room, seven-storey luxury Windsor Hotel, three days earlier, during the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Around 86 people died after a guest tried to toss a lit match out of a second-floor window, the wind causing it to set alight a lace curtain. The president's brother was among those who escaped the fire which reduced the hotel to a pile of rubble in little more than an hour.

Source Notes

Bobby Atherton, the Welsh outside-left, later went on to captain Middlesbrough FC. He was lost at sea on 19 October 1917.  But there seems to be no trace of him after leaving Chelsea FC in 1906.  The 1911 Census Return states that the Bethesda-born player was in fact the Hotel Manager of the Market Hotel in Hartlepool (left).  The same place that English outside-left Fred Priest would also manage and later die in.

 

 
The ground of Bedminster FC was chosen at the same committee meeting at 61 Chancery Lane that was used to choose the English XI to face Ireland, on 1 February 1899.

Welsh Football Data Archive
Original newspaper reports 
Rothmans Yearbooks
FA Yearbooks 1950-60
Ancestry.com
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CG