Match Summary

Ireland Team

England Team

The English team won its second international match of the season under Association rules, beating Ireland at Belfast, on Saturday, by one goal to none. Under the conditions the team may be said to have played well. The ground handicapped the forwards, so that it is impossible to speak at all highly of the attack. With the ball constantly in their opponent's half the English forwards should certainly have scored more than once ; but, apart from the difficulty of controlling the ball, they had a splendid goalkeeper to beat, Reilly, of Portsmouth, who was at his best. The match was played on the ground of the North-East Agricultural Association. The turf, naturally coarse, was very uneven and soft after rain. Much of the play was excellent, and the game was so well contested all through that the 12,000 people present had plenty to interest them...

...Milne, however, failed to score from a penalty, George saving by falling on his knees...

...with Reilly's clever defence and erratic shooting it was not until five minutes of time that Settle scored the point which gave England the victory. Some smart passing by Hogg, Bloomer, and Calvey brought the ball across to Settle, and he shot low and hard just out of Reilly's reach...

In one respect the match was unsatisfactory. A great many free kicks were given, and many of these stoppages appeared unnecessary, as the game was always played in the best possible spirit. - The Times - Monday 24th March, 1902

 

Football League Division One 22 March 1902
Team	P	Pts
Sunderland	27	38
Everton	29	34
Newcastle United	28	32
Aston Villa	29	32
Blackburn Rovers	27	31
Nottingham Forest	28	30
Wolverhampton Wanderers	30	29
Sheffield United	28	28
Bury	27	27
Bolton Wanderers	26	27
Grimsby Town	29	27
Derby County	25	25
The Wednesday	27	25
Stoke	29	25
Liverpool	26	22
Small Heath	28	22
Notts County	27	22
Manchester City	28	22

 

Division One matches played on 22 March 1902:

DERBY COUNTY 1-0 STOKE
Balkwill
7,000 (Baseball Ground, Derby)

Derby were without Steve Bloomer, who was playing for England in Belfast.

LIVERPOOL 0-1 NEWCASTLE UNITED
(Orr)
12,000 (Anfield, Liverpool)

MANCHESTER CITY 4-0 SHEFFIELD UNITED
Gillespie 2, Meredith, Hosie
19,000 (Hyde Road, Manchester)

Sheffield United were without Peter Boyle, who was playing for Ireland against England in Belfast.

NOTTS COUNTY 2-1 BURY
Ross 2 (Lamberton)
8,000 (Trent Bridge, Nottingham)

SMALL HEATH 0-1 EVERTON
(Taylor)
16,000 (Coventry Road, Birmingham)

Everton were without Jimmy Settle, who scored the only goal of the game for England in Belfast.

SUNDERLAND 3-1 GRIMSBY TOWN
nk, McAllister, Craggs (Long)
10,000 (Roker Park, Sunderland)

Sunderland were without Billy Hogg, who was playing for England in Belfast.

THE WEDNESDAY 0-1 BLACKBURN ROVERS
(Morgan)
10,000 (Owlerton Stadium, Sheffield)

Blackburn were without Blackburn and Crompton, who were playing for England in Belfast.

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 0-2 ASTON VILLA
(McLuckie, Bache)
18,000 (Molineux, Wolverhampton)

Villa were without George and Wilkes, who were playing for England in Belfast.

Sunderland continued to set the pace and were in no mood to repeat their runners-up finish of the previous year.

Football League Division Two 22 March 1902
Team	P	Pts
West Bromwich Albion	29	49
Middlesbrough	27	40
Woolwich Arsenal	29	38
Bristol City	27	36
Preston North End	26	35
Lincoln City	26	31
Burnley	28	27
Burslem Port Vale	28	25
Doncaster Rovers	27	25
Glossop	27	24
Leicester Fosse	28	24
Barnsley	28	23
Burton United	26	22
Blackpool	27	22
Newton Heath	28	21
Chesterfield Town	27	19
Stockport County	27	17
Gainsborough Trinity	27	14

 

Division Two matches played on 22 March 1902:

BARNSLEY 3-2 NEWTON HEATH
Green, Carroll, Dartnell (Higson, Cartwright)
 2,500 (Oakwell, Barnsley)

BURNLEY 0-1 BRISTOL CITY
(Cookson)
1,000 (Turf Moor, Burnley)

Burnley were without Tommy Morrison, who was playing for Ireland against England in Belfast.

BURSLEM PORT VALE 1-1 MIDDLESBROUGH
Capes (Ramsey)
2,000 (Athletic Ground, Stoke)

CHESTERFIELD TOWN 2-0 GAINSBOROUGH TRINITY
Brown, Tomlinson
3,000 (Recreation Ground, Chesterfield)

LINCOLN CITY 0-0 BURTON UNITED
3,000 (Sincil Bank, Lincoln)

PRESTON NORTH END 1-1 BLACKPOOL
Wilcox (Boulton)
3,000 (Deepdale, Preston)

Preston were without Andy Gara, who was playing for Ireland against England in Belfast.

STOCKPORT COUNTY 2-0 LEICESTER FOSSE
Marshall, Davies
2,000 (Green Lane, Stockport)

WEST BROMWICH ALBION 2-2 DONCASTER ROVERS
A.Smith, Worton (Langham, Price)
6,103 (The Hawthorns, West Bromwich)

WOOLWICH ARSENAL 4-0 GLOSSOP
Gooing 2, Dick, Briercliffe
6,000 (Manor Ground, London)

Although West Brom were held at home in front of the biggest Second Division gate of the day, it would not prevent them from winning promotion back to the First Division at the first attempt.

IN OTHER NEWS...

The Universities' Boat Race was won by Cambridge, who beat Oxford by a comfortable five lengths.

It was on 22 March 1902 that 34 men were shot and killed by Russian soldiers during a riot in the Georgian city of Batumi following the arrest of striking workers from the Rothschild Petroleum Company.

Source Notes

Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats
Original Newspaper Reports
TheFA.com
Rothman's Yearbooks
FA Yearbooks 1950-60
Ancestry.com
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CG