The start of this new season coincided with the start of my working career at the age of seventeen.
I obtained a junior clerical position with a large insurance company in Birmingham, due mainly to the fact that they had one of the best sports grounds in the City, with excellent facilities for soccer, cricket, tennis and bowls not to mention snooker tables and table tennis in the large recreational areas within the Head Office building.
By November I had managed to get a regular place in the company soccer team, which meant my Saturdays were now taken up in playing in the Birmingham Amateur Football Association, rather than watching. However I still managed to see a good deal of midweek football and just the occasional Saturday game.
I got my reward at the end of the season as at that time each amateur football club received two F.A.Cup Final tickets. My team had a draw for these, one to a present player and anothe to a past player. My name came out of the hat and off I went for my first ever visit to Wembley. More of that later.
SEASON 1954-55
SATURDAY 14TH AUGUST, 1954 AT THE HAWTHORNS, WEST BROMWICH
WEST BROMWICH ALBION PRACTICE MATCH - STRIPES 1 (Evans) REDS 2 (Nicholls 2)
Sanders; Rickaby, Millard (capt); Rawlings, Dugdale, Barlow
Cutler, Carter, Evans, Hodgkisson, Crowshaw;
Davies; Haddington, Williams; Dudley, Kennedy, Brookes;
Griffin, Ryan, Allen, Nicholls, Lee;
At half time Summers (right half). Kevan (centre forward) and J. Whitehouse (inside left) came into the Stripes team and Wright (right back) into the Reds team. After 20 minutes of the second half Barnsley took the place of Sanders in goal for the Stripes.
Stripes did all the early attacking and Reg Davies was soon in action taking a fierce chest high shot from Carter. Then Evans diving forward, headed just wide. A good move after six minutes ended with Hodgkisson pushing the all through to Evans, who crashed the ball home.
Allen did not seem to be exerting himself over much and the two wingers provided the Reds main threat. Several chances were missed by the first team forward line, Nicholls shooting over with the easiest of chances and Allen crashing the ball over is if test the power of his shooting rather than the accuracy. Just before half time Nicholls onto the ball and smashed it from fully 25 yards. It looked a goal all the way, but the ball hit the bar, bounced down and was cleared. Half-time 1-0.
Whitehouse, the young fair haired inside left soon pleased the crowd with his clever ball play. After missing one opportunity to shoot, he worked his way past three defenders before having his final effort blocked. Nicholls missed several easy chances and then after sixty two minutes equalised with a splendid shot from the edge of the area. Then the ball ran loose across goal from Lee's cross, Nicholls missed it completely and Sanders had a good laugh.
Soon it was Nicholls turn to laugh when he cracked the ball in from ten yards when Allen swung it across from the left. Another shot beat Sanders but rebounded to him from the cross bar. Davies made many fine saves at the other end, most of them from Carter and Barnsley after a shaky start soon settled down to some fine catching and throwing.
The most pleasing aspect of this game was the form shown by the reserve players who kept the ball on the ground in the true Albion style. Rawlings and Summers the two right halves, both did well, as did all the Stripes forwards except Crowshaw, a notable misfit, and Kevan, who saw little of the ball. Carter and Evans were the two best reserve forwards, Evans leading the line well.
Rickaby showed that he has recovered from the injury which kept him out of last season's Cup Final and Kennedy showed a welcome return to form and an urge to attack which may mean that he will displace Dugdale. The main need seems to be for reserve wing men. However the Cup winners must be confident of another good seasin with so many talented players available.
SATURDAY 21ST AUGUST, 1954 Attendance 44,753
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT MOLINEUX, WOLVERHAMPTON
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 4 (Swinbourne 2, Mullen, Wilshaw)
Williams; Stuart, Pritchard; Slater, Shorthouse, Wright (capt);
Hancocks, Broadbent, Swinbourne, Wilshaw, Mullen;
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2 ( Finney, Curtis pen)
McIntosh; Kenny, Curtis; Gannon, O'Donnell, Davies;
Finney, Quixall, Shaw, Sewell, Woodhead;
Referee:- F. Cowen, Manchester
The League Champions opened the new season in a set of really bright gold shirts and they were soon on the attack. A good move between the right wing triangle and Wilshaw ended with McIntosh going full length to save from Swinbourne. Then Quixall, strangely nick-named Flamborough (apparently something to do with the size of his head), slipped the ball out to the speedy Dennis Woodhead who beat Stuart and centred.
Quixall went up for it with goalkeeper Williams and just beat him to the ball, but his header went inches wide of the post.
Wolves did most of the attacking and were well served by their two splendid wing halves, Slater and Wright, although Sheffield were not letting them have it all their own way. Sewell, Britain's most expensive footballer, put Alan Finney through but his shot was turned aside by Williams. Shaw, who has not been able to recapture his prolific goalscoring form since leaving Rotherham, missed a good chance to put Wednesday ahead.
Wolves were not shooting enough and when they did score it was an intended centre from Swinbourne, from Stuart's pass, that went into the net from twenty five yards out. A more deserving shot by the centre forward set the goal shuddering a few minutes later. Then Mullen, noted for the power of his left foot, sent a right footed shot into the net, but was given off side. Soon afterwards however when Broadbent gave him the ball again, Mullen waltzed round two defenders and again crashed the ball past McIntosh with his newly found right foot.
Wednesday immediately reduced the lead when Slater and Pritchard left Curtis's free kick to each other and Finney nipped in to score. Broadbent wasted two or three good chances by poor shooting. Half time 2-1.
Early in the second half Wolves soon went further ahead, Swinbourne drew the goalkeeper following Mullen's centre and gave Wilshaw an easy goal. After persistent Wolves attacks Wilshaw passed to Swinbourne and from an incredible narrow angle, almost three yards from the post, right on the goal line, the centre forward put Wolves 4-1 up. The scoring was completed after sixty five minutes when Pritchard brought down Finney and Curtis scored from the penalty kick. Before the kick was taken the referee spoke to goalkeeper Williams and they appeared to be still in conversation when Curtis hit the ball into net, just as Williams raised his arm and made no effort to save. Despite vigorous Wolves protests the referee allowed the goal to stand.
SATURDAY 28TH AUGUST, 1954 Attendance 15,484
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE (SOUTH) AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 0 GILLINGHAM 1 (Adey) Referee N.C. Taylor, Westbury
McBride; Fort, Vinall; Ferriday, Bridgett, Tarrant;
Morris, McGairy, Davis, Myerscough, Goffin;
Rigg; Marks, Lewin; Boswell, Ayres, McKee;
Scarth, Evans (capt), Adey, Morgan, Millar;
Tom McGairy, an inside forward signed yesterday from Dumbarton, made his first appearance for Walsall and the two former Aston Villa players, Vinall and Goffin, were making their first home appearances for the Saddlers. McGairy was soon in the action, wining over a centre just out of Myerscough's reach. Then Ayres hesitated and the Scot nipped in to shoot only two yards wide. Goffin had a great chance when Morris's centre found him unmarked, but his shot rebounded from Rigg's legs. Ferriday was prominent in stopping Gillingham's first attack.
Fort injured his leg and had to leave the field for a while. This made little difference to Walsall who had the Gillingham defence in serious difficulties. Tarrant took a free kick on the left and drove the ball inches wide. Gillingham did get in a few attacks and McBride saved a header from point blank range by Morgan. McGairy had a shot blocked by Lewin, then McBride saved a fierce cross shot from Millar. A few minutes later a shot from Evans went past McBridge, but the goalkeeper was able to turn round and smother it as it was about to cross the line. Fort returned shortly before the interval , moving to centre forward, with Davis at outside right, Morris at right half and Ferriday at right back. Half time 0-0.
After a promising start ,Walsall fell away and Gillingham's forwards played some fine football during the second half. Morgan almost scored at once with a first time shot. Ferriday was playing a 'blinder' as emergency right back. It was all Gillingham, Boswell's shot was deflected over the bar, the McBride just tipped over a fierce thirty yard free kick from Marks. After seventy two minutes the inevitable goal came, former Doncaster centre forward Adey heading home a centre from Scarth, the former Spurs winger. Adey, strong and bustling, had been well held by Bridgett for the rest of the game.
Walsall missed a great opportunity to equalise when Goffin was brought down in the penalty area. Tarrant took the kick, but Rigg dived to his right to push it out. During the closing minutes Walsall put everything into attack and for the first time in the game Davis put some good efforts, but it wall in vain and Walsall have shown all their old failings in this their first home match of the new season.
THURSDAY 2ND SEPTEMBER, 1954
LEAGUE DIVISION THREE (SOUTH) AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL
WALSALL 0 BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION 2 (Whitfield, Howard)
Chilvers; Fort, Vinall; Morris, McPherson, Tarrant;
Meek, Myerscough, Bridgett, Ferriday, Goffin;
Gill; Tennant, Langley; Gilberg, South, Wilson (capt);
Gordan, Munday, Whitfield, Leadbetter, Howard;
Referee:- G.F.J. Sawyer, Weston
Walsall made wholesale changes, playing centre half Jack Bridgett at centre forward, the third player in this position in four games and giving reserve centre half Albert McPherson, recently signed from Stalybridge Celtic his first league match. Walsall again began well, showing a willingness to shoot which they soon lost.
Bridgett did well to get in his first shot which went two yards over the bar, then in a thrilling race for the ball with Gill, the goalkeeper just got there first.
Brighton went ahead after twenty three minutes, a long clearance found Whitfield, the former Wolves man, clean through on the left to score with a fierce shot. Then Bridgett missed two simple chances, firstly when clean through he sliced his shot wide, then unbelievably from three yards out with an open goal gaping in front of him, he hit the bar.
Half time 0-1.
Walsall went from bad to worse in the second half and gave a really poor display. Howard found himself completely unmarked after fifty seven minutes and scored a similar goal to Whitfield's from the left wing.
Bridgett moved back to his more accustomed position of centre half where he performed with credit, but this was rather unfair on the newcomer McPherson, who found himself at centre forward!
The outstanding player in the polished and more experienced Brighton side was left back Jim Langley who shut his former Leeds United colleague George Meek right out of the game. Walsall's positional changes did not come off and it is obvious Bridgett must stay at centre half, Morris return to the forward line and Ferriday to wing half. It was also difficult to see why Chilvers had been preferred to McBride in goal.
WEDNESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER, 1954 Attendance 34,320
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT THE HAWTHORNS WEST BROMWICH
WEST BROMWICH ALBION 3 (Allen 2, Lee) EVERTON 3 (Parker 2, Hickson)
Sanders; Rickaby, Millard (capt); Dudley, Kennedy, Barlowl
Griffin, Ryan, Allen, Carter, Lee;
O'Neill; Moore, Donovan; Farrell (capt), Jones, Lello;
Mcnamara, Fielding, Hickson, Parker, Eglington;
Referee:- T. Seymour, Wakefield
Wilf Carter deputised for Johnny Nicholls, who had a sprained ankle, in the Albion side.
With the early kick off (5.30) many spectators, including myself, streamed into the Hawthorns to learn that Everton had scored twice in the first five minutes. The first after only two minutes when Hickson holding off a challenge by Kennedy, got in a shot which Sanders could only push out and Parker ran in to score. The second after five minutes was a splendid shot from the right hand edge of the penalty area by Hickson.
Albion, after five successive wins, were not taking it lying down and both teams played some delightful football with Everton slightly the better side. The backs used the long ball well and also made use of short, quick passes with the half backs to get themselves out of trouble. Then Albion got in the best move so far, Allen to Griffin in the centre, Griffin out to Lee and the winger hit across a low hard centre which Carter just failed to get his foot to. Albion were now having he better of the play and O'Neill did well to save a shot from Dudley and a header from Ryan.
George Lee scores for AlbionThen a simple movement brought Albion a goal. Griffin collected a throw in, slipped past Donovan, and hit a low ball across the goalmouth for Lee to side-foot into the net. Just before the interval from a Griffin corner, Joe Kennedy came upfield and headed the ball down to Allen's feet for the Albion centre forward to hit the ball from just outside the are into the net to score his one hundredth goal for the club. Half time 2-2.
Everton again took the lead soon after half time when Sanders went down to stop a low drive from Eglington only for the ball to lob into the air and Parker following up, headed it into the net. From that point on it was all Albion, Carter getting some lovely through passes from Allen, delayed his shot several times when Nicholls would had them in the net. Everton's defence was taking a hammering, largely due to the effective work of Dudley, Kennedy and Barlow, the most accomplished footballer afield. All the Everton team packed the penalty area for free kicks and luckily for them O'Neill was handling the ball splendidly.
The Everton goalkeeper once picked the ball out of the air and side stepped two advancing forwards like a rugby threequarter. Barlow brough him to his knees with a long range shot, then Rickaby took a run upfield following Dudley's throw in. He passed the ball to Carter, who rather luckily deflected it to Allen as he fell. The centre forward's shot hit the inside of the post and went in for the equaliser. Albion went all out for the winner, but it was not forthcoming and the game ended in a splendid draw.
Everton, newly promoted from the Second Division, have made a great start to the season and if they continue in this form should finish well up among the leaders. A more solid defence and a bit more punch in attack, as if Hickson wasn't enough, would improve the side still more. Their outstanding player, apart from O'Neill was their inspirational captain Peter Farrell. The Irish international really drives his side on.
Jones at centre half will soon be reaching the standard of his famous predecessor and namesake and Lello completed a half back line which could hardly be faulted. McNamara who has come into the side in place of the injured Wainwright showed that although he is willing to chase anything, he is not yet ready for a regular place. Parker is Everton's version of Johnny Nicholls, a taker of chances par excellence.
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