Midlands miscellany 1951-52 (Part two)

Posted by Tony Hutton

SATURDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER, 1951                 Attendance 26,000

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO AT ST ANDREWS, BIRMINGHAM

BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 (Briggs) SOUTHAMPTON 1 (Dudley)

Merrick; Hall, Martin; Boyd (capt), Badham, Warhurst;
Stewart, Purdon, Briggs, Ferris, Wardle;

Stansbridge; Ellerington, Sillett; Horton, Wilkins, Mallett;
Jones, Day, Dudley, Purves, Edwards;

The Blues were without two regular defenders Green and Atkins. Badham moved to centre half in place of Atkins and the two youngsters Hall and Martin were at full back. Tommy Briggs, the former Grimsby goalscorer, was making his first home appearance. After a spell of pressure by Birmingham in which Horton headed out a shot by Purdon from under the bar, Southampton began to get on top.

Merrick had difficulty in saving a forty yard free kick from young left back Peter Sillett and then punched a shot from Day over the bar. After twenty seven minutes Frank Dudley the fair haired former Leeds United centre forward, scored with a fine shot following a left wing centre. 

From this point up to the interval it was all Birmingham. With the right winger pair of Stewart and the South African Purdon prominent, many scoring efforts were saved or blocked by defenders, notably a full length save by Stansbridge from Briggs.
Half-time 0-1.

Birmingham again dominated the play in the second half and Purdon missed two great chances to equalise early on. Spurred on by Warhurst, who had a great attacking game at wing half, Birmingham forced corner after corner and despite many hectic goalmouth scrambles just could not get the ball into the net. Finally just ten minutes from time Boyd sent the ball down the right wing to Purdon, who beating Sillett as he slipped, back-heeled the ball to Briggs who scored with a fierce shot.

The remaining ten minutes consisted of a fierce Southampton goal bombardment in search of the two points they deserved on the run of play but the home defence held out despite several near misses by this good looking Southampton side. 


SATURDAY 6TH OCTOBER 1951               Attendance 28,000

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO AT ST ANDREWS, BIRMINGHAM

BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 (Higgins) SWANSEA CITY 1 (Turnbull)

Merrick; Hall, Martin; Boyd (capt), Atkins, Warhurst;
Stewart, Higgins, Briggs, Rowley, Wardle;

King; Symons, Beech (G); Lucas, Weston (capt), Williams;
O'Driscoll, Thomas, Turnbull, Allchurch (I), Bellis;

Birmingham changed their inside forwards as Ferris was playing for Ireland, former Wolves player Ken Rowley deputised, and another Irishman Jimmy Higgins returned to the exclusion of Purdon. The early stages were marked by good saves from both goalkeepers, Birmingham's Merrick and Swansea's 17 year old schoolboy international
Johnny King.

Birmingham went ahead after twenty one minutes play following a throw in. The ball went to Rowley, who in turn passed to Briggs for the centre forward to pull it back to Higgins who scored with a fine shot from the edge of the area. This goal inspired the home side and King was forced to make a brilliant save to prevent Rowley adding a second goal.

Little had been seen of the Swansea attack mainly because Boyd had been marking the golden boy of Welsh football, Ivor Allchurch, very closely. Their best scoring chance came from left winger Bellis, who shot just wide after being put through by Thomas. The Swansea defence was not having things all their own way either, perhaps the penalty of their full back playing too square.

The two former Grimsby colleagues Briggs and Wardle were combining well, and following the winger's favourite back heel trick which rarely succeeds, Briggs missed a good chance by not anticipating the move. However when Wardle got over a grand centre, the centre forward got in an equally good header only for King to make yet another splendid save and tip the ball round the post.

Very surprisingly Swansea immediately broke away to equalise. A centre from Bellis was beautifully headed past Merrick by centre forward Turnbull. This goal seemed to spur on the Welsh side and Merrick saved another good header, this time from Allchurch who was now showing some of his obvious skill. Birmingham were the superior side during the first half and just on the interval Briggs found his way through the centre only for his great drive to be pushed round the post again by the brilliant young Swansea keeper. Half time 1-1.

Birmingham's young right back Jeff Hall, was injured on three separate occasions during the second half and spent much of his time on the right wing, although he was far from being a useless cripple and caused King to make two more outstanding saves from fierce right foot drives.

Despite this handicap Birmingham continued to dominate the play and but for the good work of King would undoubtedly have won by a handsome margin. As it was Swansea nearly surprised them when Allchurch beat Stewart, who had taken Hall's place at right back and had only Merrick to beat, but the goalkeeper positioned himself well and saved with ease.


SATURDAY 13TH OCTOBER, 1951                 Attendance 35,000

LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT MOLINEUX, WOLVERHAMPTON

WOLVES 5 (Pye 3, Hancocks, Dunn) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Lofthouse)

Williams; Short, Gibbons; Deeley, Shorthouse, Wright (capt);
Hancocks, Dunn, Wilshaw, Pye, Mullen;

Hanson; Ball, Higgins; Wheeler, Barrass, Edwards;
Codd, Moir (capt), Lofthouse, R. Parry, Langton;

All the headlines today were about fifteen year old Raymond Parry, Bolton's schoolboy international who became one of the youngest ever players in league football history.

Despite a bright start the youngster could not really contribute much as his team were never really in the game dominated by the Wolves two outstanding wingers, Hancocks and Mullen. They laid on most of the goals for Jesse Pye, who helped himself to a hat trick.

Wolves had two youngsters in the line up with left back Len Gibbons and wing half Norman Deeley both fitting in well. Lofthouse scored a consolation goal for Bolton who were a well beaten side at the end.

SATURDAY 20TH OCTOBER, 1951                  Attendance 6,309

LEAGUE DIVISION THREE SOUTH AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL

WALSALL 1  (Hughes) BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 1 (SIRRELL)

Lewis; Holding, Green; Walters (capt), Russon, Devlin;
Bowen, Hughes, Winter, Evans, Allison;

Baldwin; Mansell, Tennant; Willard, McCoy, Wilson;
Reed, McNichol, Bennett, Sirrell, Keene;

With 29 goals from 13 games so far this season the visitors were the highest scorers in the division and were lying fourth in the table just three points behind leaders Norwich City. Walsall on the other hand were fourth from bottom.

Walsall's fortunes look set to improve, they led for much of last week's match at Milwall before losing 2-1. Today's game saw them hold the powerful Brighton attack, apart from one goal from former Bradford Park Avenue player Jimmy Sirrell, and earned themselves a welcome point.

SATURDAY 3RD NOVEMBER, 1951               Attendance 20,000

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO AT ST ANDREWS BIRMINGHAM

BIRMINGHAM CITY 2 (Stewart, Briggs) BARNSLEY 1 (McCormack)

Merrick; Badham, Martin; Boyd (capt), Atkins, Warhurst;
Stewaret, Higgins, Briggs, Rowley, Wardle;

Hough; Lindsay, Hudson; Jarman, Glover, Baxter;
Smith, McMorran, McCormack, Taylor, Jones;

Barnsley, who had Tommy Taylor on leave from the Army, fielded no less than three centre forwards and its was Cecil McCormack, the blond former Middlesborough player, the club's leading scorer, who proved the plan worked when he scored after only four minutes. A bad back pass from centre half Atkins resulted in Smith nipping in to give McCormack the goal on a plate.

Birmingham nearly equalised at once when Stewart cut in from the wing and crashed a shot past Hough only for it to hit the crossbar. After a period of constant pressure, Birmingham equalised after seventeen minutes. Warhurst put the ball through the middle to Tommy Briggs who beat Lindsay and shot. Hough made a brilliant diving save, but could only push the ball out and Stewart raced in to crash the ball home.

Hough distinguished himself with several really fine saves and it was mainly due to him that Birmingham did not go into the lead before half time. Barnsley were handicapped by an injury to their centre half, Glover, which necessitated him moving onto the wing. Half-time 1-1.

Barnsley started the second half with Jones the former Sheffield United winger at right back, Lindsay at centre half and the injured Glover on the left wing. It was therefore not surprising that Birmingham kept up the pressure on the visitors' goal, although it was obviously going to be difficult to beat Hough who was in splendid form. However, he was beaten eight minutes after the re-start when Briggs scored with a fierce ground shot from Stewart's pass.

So it continued until the end with Barnsley's patched up side on the defensive throughout, but Birmingham failed to add another goal, partly because of poor finishing, but mainly because of Hough's goalkeeping. Praise must also be given to Jones who did remarkably well as an emergency right back.


SATURDAY 27TH OCTOBER, 1951                Attendance 35,000

LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT MOLINEUX, WOLVERHAMPTON

WOLVES 0 MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (Pearson, Rowley)

Williams; Short, Pritchard; Crook, Chatham, Wright (capt);
Hancocks, Dunn, Wilshaw, Pye, Mullen;

Allen; Carey (capt), Redman; Gibson, Chilton, Cockburn;
McShane, Pearson, Rowley, Birch, Bond;

An almost full strength Wolves side, missing only centre half Shorthouse were no
match for the more youthful United side with Redman, Gibson and the teenage left wing pair of Birch and Bond all doing the bit alongside the more experienced players.

It was the two English international forwards, Stan Pearson and Jack Rowley who scored the goals, but the performance of the youngsters bodes well for United's future.


SATURDAY 10TH NOVEMBER, 1951                Attendance 35,000

LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT MOLINEUX, WOLVERHAMPTON

WOLVES 1 (Mullen) PRESTON NORTH END 4 (Wayman 2, Horton 2)

Sims; Pritchard, Gibbons; Crook, Shorthouse, Wright (capt);
Smith, Dunn, Wilshaw, Pye, Mullen;

Gooch; Cunningham, Scott; Docherty, Marston, Forbes;
Finney, Horton, Wayman, Beattie, Morrision;

A below strength Wolves side without England's goalkeeper Bert Williams, with a shoulder injury, as well as outside right Johnny Hancocks were no match for a talented Preston side prompted by Tom Finney. Suffering their second successive home defeat Wolves were never really in the game with centre forward Charlie Wayman showing that you do not have to be tall to score goals from centre forward.

Inside right Ken Horton scored the other two in a good all round performance by North End. The Scotsman Tommy Docherty was always in the thick of things in midfield and Australian Joe Marston was a tower of strength at centre half. However it was the talented forward line that took the eye and for a side only promoted last season, Preston should have no difficulty in holding their own in the top division.