Match Report Birmingham Daily Gazette, Monday, 11 March 1895

The team which met Ireland at Derby can hardly be called the strongest eleven which could be put in the field, but in some respects it could scarcely be improved upon, and certainly it was quite powerful enough to cope with the men who were sent to represent the Emerald Isle. At almost the last moment Devey, of the Aston Villa, and Reynolds of the same team, were said to be unfit to play, and Howell, of Sheffield [United], and Becton, of Preston North End, were called upon to take their places. On Saturday morning news was received that Haydock, of the Blackburn Rovers, had been taken ill, and at the last moment John Goodall was called upon to fill the position of centre forward, and Bloomer partnered Bassett. Before the match commenced rain fell in torrents, but this did not prevent a large crowd assembling on the ground. If only the weather had been fine the gate would have been a splendid one; as it was there must have been about 10,000 people present. The rain fell heavily all the afternoon, but the spectators stuck to their posts. There was not a great lot to gain by winning the toss, which Holmes did. The English forwards opened in good style, but the halves opposed to them were not very strong, though Burnett did exceedingly well. Pretty combination by the Englishmen took them straight to the Irish goal, where a corner was gained, and the ball was sent into the net. This early success brought forth loud applause, but two minutes later, from a nice centre by Bassett, Bloomer scored a second point, though T. Gordon might have saved had the ball not been so slippery. Ireland played up much better after this, but their right wing was rather weak, and did not give much help to Stanfield and Sherrard, who were working well. Crabtree and Holmes, however, were not to be beaten, and the attacks of the visitors were always repulsed. Morrison went down the line, but the final shot was weak, and Sutcliffe easily dealt with it. Bassett and Bloomer were doing grand work, but the next danger came from a centre by Schofield. This was cleared, but Bassett centring in fine style dropped the ball at the feet of Becton, who placed a third goal to the credit of the Englishmen. The home men still kept up the pressure, and every time the Irishmen broke away they were pulled up by Holmes and Crabtree, and Sutcliffe played the part of a spectator. Bassett and Bloomer put in some lovely runs, and at length the former sent in a grand shot which resulted in a fourth goal to the Englishmen. A minute later Howell sent in a beautiful shot, against which Gordon had no chance, and the fifth goal was thus notched for the home team. Crawshaw got hurt, but was soon at work again, and Bassett just sent over the bar with a fine attempt. Then Bloomer missed, and half-time arrived with the score:—England, 5; Ireland, 0. [After an interval of 10 minutes play was resumed]  Notwithstanding this good lead the Englishmen did not relax their efforts, but directly after resuming the Irishmen did a great deal better. They obtained a corner, but it was cleared, though by hard play on the part of Stanfield they gained another corner. This also came to nothing, and then the Englishmen once more started to attack. Crawshaw was winded, but he had chiefly himself to blame, and from a corner Goodall shot out. Sutcliffe was called upon to kick out from Sherrard, and gave a corner. After this the Englishmen again had matters much their own way. The Irish goalkeeper did some very smart work, keeping out several good shots, and Goodall missed a few nice chances. A fine try by Bassett was successfully dealt with, and then Goodall sent over from a grand centre by the Albion right-winger. Bloomer scored the sixth goal, and then from Schofield Becton scored a seventh. A long shot from Goodall was partly stopped by T. Gordon, but the ball was so slippery the goalkeeper failed to hold it, and an eighth point was gained. Then Bassett hit the crossbar after a fine run, and Goodall meeting the ball as it rebounded into play he scored the ninth goal. Towards the end the Irishmen did well, and had hard lines in not scoring, Morrison and Sherrard doing some good work in the home goal.            Match Report The Times, Monday, 11 March 1895 The powerful professional team representative of England at Derby on Saturday gained a brilliant victory. Their football was well appreciated by a large crowd of people, which had assembled in spite of bad weather. Both forward and behind the superiority of the Englishmen was very marked. John Goodall, the international player, played particularly well, and was strongly supported by the wings. After a well-made corner the opening goal was kicked by Bloomer in the first few minutes; the same player quickly added a second, and in less than a quarter of an hour a third came from Beckton. England still attacked strongly, and goals by Bassett and Howell enabled them to cross over with a lead of five. The character of the game did not subsequently vary, and a heavy score was run up. Goodall kicked two more goals and Beckton and Bloomer one each, the victory being with England by nine goals to none.          In Other News.... It was on 9 March 1895 that an inquest returned the verdict that 39-year-old, Frank Taylor, of Tooting had murdered his wife and six of his seven children by cutting their throats with a razor, two days earlier. He had then cut his own throat and died on the way to hospital. His eldest child, 15-year-old, Frank Junior, survived by fighting off his father's frenzied attack and then escaping from the house with blood pouring from a neck wound. Notes found in the house indicated that Frank Senior had been planning the murders for a few days after a period in which he had been struggling to find work to feed his family.   Scotland defeated England, 6-3, at Richmond, to win the rugby union triple crown and their third successive Calcutta Cup.

Domestic Football Results (9 March 1895)                                           Teams in a silver box denotes a player representing England    The Football League Division One:        Sheffield United 4 Sunderland 0    Bramall Lane, Sheffield (8,000) Docherty, Watson (2), Davies United were without Rabi Howell, but did start with Mick Whitham and Ernest Needham Small Heath vs. Wednesday    Coventry Road, Birmingham MATCH POSTPONED - WATERLOGGED PITCH Wednesday would have been without Tom Crawshaw but probably would have started with Fred Spiksley Stoke 1 West Bromwich Albion 2    Victoria Ground, Stoke (3,000) Hyslop~ Green, Hutchison MATCH ABANDONED AFTER 68 MINUTES - WATERLOGGED PITCH Stoke were without Joe Schofield and Jimmy Turner, but did have Tommy Clare starting. Albion were without Billy Bassett, however, Joe Reader and Charlie Perry did start. Although Sunderland suffered their heaviest defeat of the season, and they lost the FA Cup semi-final to Aston Villa, the following week, they won all of their remaining league games to regain the Championship for the third time in four years. Division One Table Team P ₧ Sunderland 26 39 Aston Villa 26 35 Everton 24 35 Sheffield United 28 30 Blackburn Rovers 26 28 Preston North End 26 28 Nottingham Forest 24 28 Burnley 23 26 Wednesday 23 25 Wolverhampton Wanderers 26 22 Small Heath 25 20 Liverpool 25 19 West Bromwich Albion 25 19 Bolton Wanderers 25 18 Derby County 24 15 Stoke 24 13              The Football League Division Two:       Burton Wanderers 4 Burslem Port Vale 0    Derby Turn, Burton (1,000) Rose (2), Arthur Capes, Garfield   Crewe Alexandra 2 Newcastle United 1    Alexandra Recreation Ground, Crewe (2,000) Barnett OG ~ Hedley   Darwen 4 Rotherham Town 3    Barley Bank, Darwen (2,000) Watson, Bailey, McKennie, McAvoy ~ nk, Coupar Rotherham had Tom Porteous in their starting line-up   Grimsby Town 7 Burton Swifts 1    Abbey Park, Grimsby (2,000) Eccleston, McCairns (2), Rose, Frost, Fletcher (2) ~ Birch   Manchester City 7 Notts County 1    Hyde Road, Ardwick (7,000) Rowan, Meredith, Finnerhan (2), McReddie, Sharples, Walker (pen) ~ Bruce County started with George Toone and Alf Shelton   Newton Heath 14 Walsall Town Swifts 0    Bank Street, Manchester (6,000) Donaldson, Smith (6), Cassidy (3), Peters, Clarke, nk   Woolwich Arsenal 3 Leicester Fosse 3    Lyttelton Ground, London (3,000) Mortimer, Sharpe, O'Brien ~ nk       Division Two Table Team P ₧ Bury 24 41 Notts County 25 32 Darwen 23 31 Newton Heath 22 30 Grimsby Town 23 30 Leicester Fosse 24 27 Woolwich Arsenal 25 27 Burton Wanderers 23 25 Manchester City 23 24 Newcastle United 24 23 Burton Swifts 24 21 Rotherham Town 26 20 Lincoln City 23 16 Walsall Town Swifts 21 12 Burslem Port Vale 25 10 Crewe Alexandra 23 9 Notts County's hopes of catching Bury at the top of the Second Division were all but extinguished by a ruthless Manchester City, who included a twenty-year-old Welshman called Billy Meredith in their list of scorers. Incredibly, he played his last match for City in the FA Cup semi-final, 29 years later, before retiring at the age of 49! Newton Heath's incredible victory was declared void when Walsall's protest about the state of the pitch was upheld. They returned to Manchester, the following month, and promptly lost 9-0.              Source Notes

TheFA England Football Factbook NIFG/Alan Gooden Rootschat/Ancestry.com Rothman's Yearbooks The Football Association Yearbooks Original Newspaper Reports

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