In an earlier blog I focussed on some of the key events in the first decade of Liverpool F.C., from its formation in 1892 up to the 1898-1899 season. Here is the link to that blog:
https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/aston-villa-5-liverpool-0-1899-and-2019.html
During that first decade, Liverpool F.C. was formed following a dispute between then Everton F.C. President and the landlord of Anfield, John Houlding, and Everton F.C.themselves, who were the original tenants of the ground. Everton F.C. walked out of Anfield and Houlding was left with a stadium but with no team. However, with the help of Irish duo John McKenna and William Barclay he went on to rapidly assemble the Scot laden ‘Team of the Macs' and so Liverpool Football Club came into existence. Liverpool had a roller-coaster ride during that first decade, winning the Lancashire League in 1892-1893 and then winning election to the Football League Second Division in 1893-1894. Liverpool won the Second Division at the first attempt and were thus promoted to the First Division for the 1894-1895 season. This was followed by immediate relegation and then promotion again for the 1896-1897 season. Despite this topsy turvy start to life in the Football League, Liverpool came desperately close to winning the First Division in 1898-1899, losing out on the last day of the season to the then kingpins of English football, Aston Villa.
The sine wave of successes and failures was even more dramatic for Liverpool’s second decade. Liverpool's maiden First Division title was clinched in 1900-1901, making Liverpool F.C. as a club the youngest ever champions.
Liverpool F.C. with their maiden First Division trophy
Being crowned league champions for the first time, with the Liver bird (mythical creature and symbol of the city of Liverpool) proudly watching on
The 1900-1901 triumph was then followed by relegation to the Second Division a few years later in 1903-1904, immediate promotion in 1904-1905 and another First Division title in 1905-1906, making Liverpool the first team to win Second and First Division titles in successive seasons.
Liverpool in 1905-1906 - their second top flight winning squad
Back row: John Carlin, Alf West, Charlie Wilson, Sam Hardy, Ned Doig, Billy Dunlop, David Murray, Joe Hewitt.
2nd row: William Connell (Trainer), James Hughes, George Lathom, John Hughes, Maurice Parry, Alex Raisbeck, George Fleming, Tom Charlton, Tom Watson (Manager)
3rd row: Robbie Robinson, Jack Parkinson, Sam Raybould.
Front: G. Robinson, James Gorman, Arthur Goddard, Jack Cox, James Garside.
Also, winners of the (gigantic) 1906 Sheriff of London Charity Shield
Another key highlight of Liverpool’s second decade was the development (under the supervision of John McKenna) at Anfield of the spectator embankment that was initially known as the Spion Kop, called after a famous battle site between British and Boer forces in the second Boer War. Now known simply as 'The Kop', it is perhaps the world's most famous football stadium stand.
Incidentally, the Boer Wars also had an impact on sporting matters in Ireland in the early 20th century, with a number of GAA clubs in Tipperary and one in Galway being called after Boer leader Christiaan de Wett, in nationalistic support of the enemy of Ireland’s enemy.
Some hardy looking South African Boers in front of the Spion Kop, site of a famous battle against the British in 1900 during the Second Boer War
The heart of Liverpool Football Club - The Kop, Anfield
Christiaan de Wet (1854-1922) Boer leader and inspiration for Irish nationalists
Some more hardy looking men: Lahorna de Wets, Tipperary senior hurling champions for 1902, named in honour of an enemy of Ireland's enemy
On a somewhat tangential note, another link between South Africa and Ireland's Midwest region (Limerick City in particular) is the use of the word 'takkie' or 'tackie' to describe running shoes. Legend has it that an Irish priest working in South Africa in the 1970s or 1980s brought the word home to Limerick with him where it has become incorporated into Limerick-ese. Special thanks for this sporting-linguistic gem goes to my good friend Alex Anagnostaras.
To continue with the wordplay, the word 'takkie' when used in South Africa usually refers to something with a thick rubber component, such as the sole of a running shoe or a tyre. And in a neat linguistic coincidence, Limerick's own Rubberbandits have something to say about takkies:
Runners, trainers or (if you're in South Africa or Limerick), tackies/takkies
The middle of this second decade in the club's history also saw Liverpool F.C. and Everton making Liverpool the most successful football city in England, with Liverpool’s 1905-1906 First Division success added to by Everton’s FA Cup success (Everton knocked Liverpool out in the semi-final).
1905-1906: Alex Raisbeck with Liverpool's First Division title and Jock Taylor with Everton's first FA Cup win, giving footballing supremacy to the city of Liverpool.
Meanwhile, eight decades later it was Gary Lineker versus Ian Rush, with the two clubs again battling each other for the top two domestic trophies. This time Liverpool came out on top in both competitions, winning the first and to date only League and FA Cup double in the history of the club. This is also covered in an earlier blog: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/may-10th-1986.html
There were numerous key individuals involved in Liverpool’s rise to the top of English football in only its second decade in existence, but based simply on the raw data detailed below, the two key individuals were manager Tom Watson and captain Alex Raisbeck. Honourable mention should also go to Sam Raybould, who was Liverpool’s top scorer for four seasons of that decade.
Tom Watson (1859-1915), still Liverpool's longest serving manager (1896-1915).
Along with assembling 'The Team of the Macs' and overseeing the first construction of The Kop, John McKenna can also take credit for bringing Tom Watson to manage Liverpool. Watson had already managed Sunderland to three First Division titles so getting his services for Liverpool was a huge coup. And Watson duly delivered, leading Liverpool to their two first top flight titles (1900-1901 and 1905-1906), their first FA Cup Final (a 1-0 defeat to Burnley in 1914) and he remains Liverpool's longest serving manager, dying from pneumonia at the age of 56 while still in his post.
Watson was the first of as yet only four managers to lead more than one club to top flight success in England, the others being Herbert Chapman, Brian Clough and Kenny Dalglish. And, as referred to in an earlier blog, here is a nice contemporary quotation that demonstrates a certain 'Klopp-ness' about Watson, from 'Olympian' of Sketch magazine: 'Superficial followers of the game would not think that the success of a team would be affected by secretaryship (i.e. management), but I make so bold as to say that the various triumphs of the Sunderland Club have been not a little influenced by Mr. Watson's personality. Mr. Watson had a good eye for football talent. Big names did not move him so much as real abiliity...'
Alex Raisbeck (1878-1949) played with Liverpool from 1898-1909, captaining the team from the centre-half position for nine of the ten seasons of Liverpool’s second decade and leading the club to its first two First Division titles. He is rightly described by Jonathan Wilson and Scott Murray in 'The Anatomy of Liverpool, A History in Ten Matches' as the first of five era defining players for the club, followed on by Elisha Scott, Billy Liddell, Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard.
Like so many of Liverpool’s earliest star players, Raisbeck was a Scot. He had played for Larkhall Thistle and Hibernian before moving south of the border to Stoke in 1898, from where he signed for Liverpool for 350 pounds.
Just as his purchase price is impossible to fathom in the context of today's figures (a player of Raisbeck's quality would probably attract a fee several hundred thousand times higher than his 1898 purchase price), Raisbeck's loyalty to his club was something that is now rarely seen in the modern game. He stuck with Liverpool during the 1903-1904 relegation season and after, saying that 'I simply could not leave my club in its day of disaster'. After 312 games for Liverpool he started to develop a succession of injuries and returned to Scotland to end his playing career with Partick Thistle before going on to manage Hamilton Academical, Bristol City, Halifax Town, Chester and Bath City.
In the clip below featuring a November 1901 match between Liverpool (then First Division champions for the first time) and Newcastle United played at St. James' Park, you get to see the only available (as far as I'm aware) video footage of Raisbeck on the field of play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhjTX39xKB4
Sam Raybould (1875-1949) is probably the third key individual in Liverpool’s second decade, being top scorer in four of those seasons. He scored a remarkable 120 goals for Liverpool in 211 games between 1900 and 1907. He scored 31 league goals (and one in the FA Cup) in the 1902-1903 season, a Liverpool club record that would only be surpassed by South African Gordon Hodgson in 1931.
Raybould reached the 50 goal mark for Liverpool after only 80 matches and, to put this in perspective, it took Luis Suarez 86 matches to reach the 50 goal mark. In fact Raybould’s record would stand for over a century until Fernando Torres scored 50 goals after 72 matches in 2009, with Mo Salah reaching the 50 goal mark in just 69 matches in 2019. Raybould's 67 goals in his first 100 matches also stood as a club record for well over a century until he was again overtaken by Mo Salah just this year.
Raybould's value during Liverpool's second decade is also evident from the fact that his injury hit 1903-1904 season was a relegation season. After leaving Liverpool in 1907 he played with Sunderland and Woolwich Arsenal (now known simply as Arsenal) before dropping into non-league football.
The second decade of Liverpool F.C., in summary
Major titles won during the decade:
First Division champions for 1900-1901 and 1905-1906
Sheriff of London Charity Shield Trophy 1906
1900-1901
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Sam Raybould (18)
First Division: Champions
FA Cup: 1st round
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1901-1902
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Sam Raybould (16)
First Division: 11th
FA Cup: 2nd round
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1902-1903
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Sam Raybould (32)
First Division: 5th
FA Cup: 1st round
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1903-1904
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Jack Cox (9)
First Division: 17th (relegated)
FA Cup: 1st round
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1904-1905
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Robbie Robinson (24)
Second Division: Champions and promoted again to First Division
FA Cup: 1st round
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1905-1906
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Joe Hewitt (25)
First Division: Champions
FA Cup: Semi-finalists
Sheriff of London Charity Shield
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1906-1907
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Sam Raybould (17)
First Division: 15th
FA Cup: 4th round
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1907-1908
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Joe Hewitt (21)
First Division: 8th
FA Cup: 3rd round
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1908-1909
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Alex Raisbeck
Top scorer: Ronald Orr (23)
First Division: 16th
FA Cup: 2nd round
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1909-1910
Manager: Tom Watson
Captain: Arthur Goddard
Top scorer: Jack Parkinson (30)
First Division: 2nd
FA Cup: 1st round
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