Summary of the decade
In
comparison to the previous decade, when Liverpool claimed their first two top
flight titles and also endured relegation (see earlier blog: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/08/liverpool-fc-second-decade-1900-1910.html)
Liverpool’s third decade was mediocre and relatively uneventful, on the
football field at least. In football terms it was just half a decade, with
regular football suspended for four seasons of the decade (1915-1916, 1916-1917,
1917-1918 and 1918-1919) because of the outbreak of World War I.
In
the seasons from 1910-1915 leading up to that wartime suspension, Liverpool’s
final league positions bobbled up and down between a high of 12th
and a low of 17th, but all the while just about maintaining First
Division status. They fared no better in the FA Cup, apart from a first final
appearance in 1914 that ended in a 1-0 defeat to Burnley.
The Liverpool squad for the 1913-1914 season
Liverpool v Burnley in the 1914 FA Cup Final at Crystal Palace
Crucially, some key players
left the club at or just before the start of the decade, including their talismanic
captain Alex Raisbeck, their record goalscorer Sam Raybould and their goalkeeper,
‘Safe and Steady’ Sam Hardy: see earlier blog for more details on Raisbeck and
Raybould: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/08/liverpool-fc-second-decade-1900-1910.html
Sam Hardy (1882-1966) played 219 games for Liverpool from 1905-1912
War-time
football consisted of a Lancashire Principal Tournament and Lancashire
Subsidiary Tournaments, with Liverpool winning the former in 1916-1917 and the
latter in 1917-1918 and 1918-1919.
After Tom Watson's untimely death at 62 from pneumonia, contracted after attending the last match of the 1914-1915 season, Liverpool had no manager during the war until the managerial reins were taken over by David Ashworth for the first post-war regular football season in 1919-1920 (for more on Tom Watson, see earlier blog: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/08/liverpool-fc-second-decade-1900-1910.html).
David Ashworth (1867-1947) who managed Liverpool from 1919 to 1923
Further
details on captains, final league positions, FA Cup performances and top scorers
are provided at the end of the blog, where you will note (with the exception of
Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion) the absolute dominance of northern clubs
in both the First Division and FA Cup, and not a single London team in sight as
winners of anything. Also of note is the strong pre-war performance of Everton,
winning the First Division title just before the suspension of regular
football, something that would happen again in the 1938-1939 season on the eve
of World War II. Coincidentally, Liverpool would start both post-war periods
strongly.
By the end of Liverpool's third decade in 1919-1920, the roll of honour for FA Cup and league champions was also starting to take shape. For FA Cup wins, Aston Villa led the way on six. For First Division titles, Aston Villa also led the way, again on six wins, followed by Sunderland on five. A century later these two old giants have finished the 2019-2020 season just hanging on to top flight football (in the case of Aston Villa) and languishing in the depths of third tier football (in the case of poor old Sunderland).
Punch magazine, October 1914. Critical of the football season continuing after the outbreak of war, the older man is saying: 'No doubt you can make money in this field, my friend, but there's only one field today where you can get honour'.
Despite
being relatively uneventful in footballing terms, there are a few key events
worth reflecting on from Liverpool’s third decade.
1914 FA Cup Final
When Liverpool reached their first FA Cup Final in 1914 they were the only club to date to have won a First Division title and not won the FA Cup. Liverpool made tough going of the early rounds of the FA Cup, struggling to get past Barnsley, Gillingham, West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers before pulling off a shock to beat Aston Villa in the semi-final at White Hart Lane and make the final as slight favourites. It is estimated that over 20,000 Liverpool fans made the journey south for the final, the last of 19 finals to be played at Crystal Palace. The game’s only goal came from Burnley’s Bertram Freeman three minutes into the second half of what was described as a ‘largely dour struggle’. It would be over half a century later before Liverpool finally won their first FA Cup. In the link below you can find a few minutes of grainy soundless footage from the 1914 FA Cup Final:
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-cup-tie-final-liverpool-v-burnley-1914-1914-online
Looking
over the 1914 FA Cup Final programme leads me on to some further points of interest.
Firstly, the team formations seem very different to the modern set-up. In front
of the goalkeeper are two full-backs, then a line of three half-backs and then
a line of five forwards. Clearly a stark contrast to modern 4-4-2 or 3-5-2
formations, it’s hard to imagine a match played out with ten forwards. However,
based on that FA Cup Final at least, the apparently attacking formations did
not lead to a flood of goals.
Copy of the programme from the 1914 FA Cup Final - note the 'upside down' team formations in the top left of the image, with each team apparently fielding a line of 5 forwards
Four
players on that Liverpool team-sheet would go on to earn some infamy in 1915.
Jackie Sheldon, Tom Fairfoul, Tom Miller and Bob Pursell were to be handed life
bans for their parts in a betting related match fixing scandal. The match in
question was played against Manchester United on Good Friday 1915, with the
Liverpool players allowing United to win 2-0. Three of the United players also received
bans for their parts in the conspiracy. However, all but one of the players had
their sentences lifted after World War I in recognition of their military
service and one (Sandy Turnbull of Manchester United) was killed in the war.
Four
of the Burnley team in the 1914 FA Cup Final programme were England
internationals at the time of the match. While Ephraim Longworth, Liverpool’s left
back on the day, would later go on to become the club’s first representative to
captain England, Liverpool’s only current international on that FA Cup Final
team was Irish international Bill Lacey, from Enniscorthy in Co. Wexford.
Lacey would join Elisha Scott from Belfast in becoming the two most iconic and successful Irishmen to play for Liverpool FC in those early days.
But more on Lacey and Scott in a future blog, because their heydays were yet to come.
Liverpool FC: the third decade in
summary
Season 1910-1911
Manager:
Tom Watson
Captain:
Arthur Goddard
Top
scorer: Jack Parkinson (20)
League
position: First Division, 13th (Winners: Manchester United, their
second win)
FA
Cup: 2nd round (Winners: Bradford City, their first win)
1911-1912
Manager:
Tom Watson
Captain:
Arthur Goddard
Top
scorer: Jack Parkinson (13)
League
position: 17th (Winners: Blackburn Rovers, their first win)
FA
Cup: 2nd round (Winners: Barnsley, their first win)
1912-1913
Manager:
Tom Watson
Captain:
Ephraim Longworth
Top
scorer: Arthur Metcalf (18)
League
position: 12th (Winners: Sunderland, their 5th win)
FA
Cup: 3rd round (Winners: Aston Villa, their 5th win)
1913-1914
Manager:
Tom Watson
Captain:
Harry Lowe
Top
scorer: Tom Miller (20)
League
position: First Division, 16th (Winners: Blackburn Rovers, their
second win)
FA
Cup: Runners up (Winners: Burnley, their first win)
1914-1915
Manager:
Tom Watson
Captain:
Harry Lowe
Top
scorer: Fred Pagnam (26)
League
position: 13th (Winners: Everton, their second win)
FA
Cup: 2nd round (Winners: Sheffield United, their third win)
1915-1916, 1916-1917,
1917-1918, 1918-1919: War-time football with no regular manager
or regular captain. Liverpool won the Lancashire Principal Tournament in
1916-1917 and the Lancashire Subsidiary Tournament in 1917-1918 and 1918-1919.
1919-1920
Manager:
David Ashworth
Captain:
Ephraim Longworth and Don McKinlay
Top
scorer: Harry Chambers (15)
League
position: First Division, 4th (Winners: West Bromwich Albion, their
first win)
FA
Cup: 4th round (Winners: Aston Villa, their 6th win)
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