1895-96 Pinks change name to St. Albans Town

St. Albans competed in three cup competitions during the 1895-96 season but of the 30 games played 27 were still friendly matches. One major alteration to the fixture list however, was the removal of Reserve team matches. The club had been unable to secure a pitch for the second string and they were duly abandoned. This meant that the club could not defend the Herts Junior Cup that it had won the previous March.

Another significant change had occurred within the club that actually received no publicity, as they now played under the name of St. Albans Town. It is possible that this was done to fall into line with how the club was viewed in London where they were often referred to as St. Albans Town, rather than just St. Albans. The first mention of this came on the eve of the Saints F.A. Cup 1st Round Qualifying tie on 12^th October when they faced Barking Woodville. Prior to then three friendlies had been played and comfortably won without any suggestion of the club being known as anything other than St. Albans.

New newspaper for St. Albans

Football in St. Albans received extra exposure during the 1895-96 season with the launch of ’The Clock Tower’ weekly newspaper that was published on Wednesday’s. The Clock Tower had its offices at No.4 St. Peter’s Street, which is close to the junction of Victoria Street and a short distance from the offices of the Herts Advertiser that were in Market Place at this time.

The first edition of The Clock Tower, published on 18^th September 1895, not only contained a brief look at the financial state of the football club, but also gave mention to this being the inaugural season of the Mid Herts League.

St. Albans kicked of the campaign on 21^st September with London side Olympic visiting the Park and then returning home defeated 7-0. The Mayor set the season in motion with the first kick of the game, described in The Clock Tower thus, ‘He is evidently used to playing football, as he took off his hat, and had a very long run and kicked the ball hard.’ The Mayor had to be patient before taking the kick off though, as the start, set for 3.45pm, was delayed by more than 15 minutes due to the late arrival of some of the home team. Once the game was under way John Sharpe, continuing as the Saints hon. secretary, opened the scoring. Harry Payne chipped in with a couple but the search for a goalscoring centre forward to live up to those that had gone before looked to be bearing fruit as Walter Giddings, recently retired from the army, scored four times.

A week later the Saints entertained Old Weymouthians at Clarence Park . The weather was described as ‘powerfully hot’ and some of the players took to the pitch wearing either straw or sun hats. Jack Dickerson won the toss and, for the opening 45 minutes, the home side kicked towards what would in later years be known at the York Road end of the ground. Giddings and Payne bagged a goal apiece with Walter Miskin completing a 3-2 win.

Harry Laughton and W.G. Long joined Giddings, who also missed a penalty, on the scoresheet as St. Albans completed their build up to playing in the F.A Cup with another 3-1 win at the Park, this time over London side Bowes Park. A week on from playing in temperatures that were close on unbearable, the weather was thoroughly miserable with rain being driven by a cold wind.

Early exit from F.A. Cup

The referee for the Bowes Park match was 35-year-old Arthur Taylor who was recovering from a knee injury. The injury had repaired sufficiently for him to take the place of the injured Bert Sanders at right-back for the F.A. Cup tie at Barking Woodville on 12^th October. Taylor’s normal position was that of half-back. The east London club, previously known as Woodville, added Barking to their name during the recent close season and were making their first appearance in the F.A. Cup. 

The Saints were none too pleased at the state of the pitch and the visitors were also quick to bemoan the choice of referee as they claimed that Mr R.S. Worthing played a significant part in the home sides 2-0 victory. The match official, who had St. Albans very own William Payne running one line, ignored offside appeals and allowed E. Chalk to run through to set up G. Moore for the opening goal. The visitors protested strongly about that goal and made even more vociferous appeals when Mr Worthing allowed Barking to have two attempts with a free kick no more than two yards out for the second goal later in the game. The referee's decision to applaud a Woodville player after one fine shot also found little favour with the by now dispirited visitors. Despite the result the Saints performed well and Taylor, for whom this was his first game of the season although he had made his debut during the previous campaign, certainly did his future prospects no harm with a sound display.

The journey to Barking had been a somewhat troublesome one for the team who were accompanied on the train by a small number of supporters. The party left St. Albans on the 12.44 and were joined in London by John Sharpe, Taylor and Harry Laughton. The Herts Advertiser report complained that 16 persons had to squeeze into one carriage on the underground. The train arrived at Barking shortly before 3pm and once at the football ground – the Vicarage Field - the players found themselves directed to a dressing room barely large enough to take six players at a time.

The Barking, East Ham & Ilford Advertiser claimed that Barking had four or five goals disallowed. It also ran with a letter from a spectator who had tried to watch the game from the ‘enclosure’ but complained that the view had been badly obscured by other spectators standing in front of that stand and close to the touchline. Barking Woodville were beaten by neighbours Ilford in the next Round, Ilford went down 5-1 at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the 3^rd Round Qualifying.

One week after bowing out of the F.A. Cup, the Saints welcomed Harrow Athletic for their first visit to the city on 19^th October. This match was arranged at late notice after Clarence had been unable to fulfil the original fixture. St. Albans fielded a much-changed side from the one defeated at Barking and with goals from Laughton and Roland Brown a 2-0 win was chalked up. Brown, along with Jimmy Dimmock, was one of two former Luton Town players to have returned to amateur status after being professionals with the Bedfordshire club. The duo made their debut against Harrow Athletic and went on to have long spells at Clarence Park . Dimmock made 112 appearances for the Pinks while Brown played 82 games for the club.

For the final Saturday of October, 26^th, the football team of St. Thomas’s Hospital travelled to Clarence Park for a match that saw the proceeds donated to the St. Albans Hospital. The Medics started strongly but were undone by two quick goals from Dimmock on his home debut. With Jack Dickerson having travelled south on the Friday to play for Luton Town at Southampton in a Southern League match on this date, Tom Smith, usually a half-back, went in goal for the Saints and Frank Mardall took over as captain.

It was a bad day for Dickerson, not only did Luton lose 2-1 to Southampton St. Mary’s (later known as the latter-day Southampton club) at the Antelope Ground but, after just ten minutes, he suffered a bad injury to his left knee that put him out of action for the next two months. The home side kindly let Luton bring on a substitute but it could not stave off defeat for the Strawplaiters. Although in some discomfort, Dickerson returned to work at the Hatfield Road School in St Albans just a week after sustaining the injury. 

Amateur Cup win then Saints withdraw

Tom Smith kept his place in goal for the visit of Harwich & Parkeston in the 1^st Round of the Amateur Cup on 2^nd November. For the second consecutive game Smith had just one shot to contend with as the Town side dominated the game but had just a fortuitous late goal by Walter Giddings to show for their efforts. Giddings’ seventh goal was sufficient to tip the Essex side out of the cup and set up a 2^nd Round tie at Cheshunt due to be played on 23^rd November. St. Albans had already booked that date to face Luton Town in the Luton Charity Cup. A request was put to Cheshunt to play the tie on a different date, when that was rejected the Saints, on the 7^th November, announced that they would withdraw from the Amateur Cup. It was clear that the club had completely underestimated how important the Amateur Cup, which was in only its third season, was to become.

One week after the win over Harwich, Giddings took his tally for the season into double figures with a hat-trick during a 5-1 win away to St. Georges on an almost flooded pitch at the school ground. Giddings played at inside-left rather than in his usual place at centre-forward. Tyrell Margetson was better known as a goalkeeper during his time with the Saints but in this game, one of four outfield appearances that he made, he scored his first goal for the club. The tally was completed by C. Ewer of the Mid Herts club City Rovers who also supplied goalkeeper W. Sygrove. Making his debut in this game was full-back Albert Sharp of the St. Albans Abbey club. ‘Albie,’ who played 68 games for St. Albans, also appeared for St. Albans Stanville and Luton Town and wore Watford’s colours on 82 occasions. At a time when players were rarely dismissed, he suffered the indignity of twice being despatched during his days with Watford.

On a day of extremely strong winds, that badly hampered the play, upwards of 500 St. Albans supporters made their way to Watford on the 16^th November to see another goal by Giddings secure a 1-1 draw with West Herts. The Saints played with just ten men during the second half after John Sharpe picked up an injury before the interval.

Luton dish out Charity Cup drubbing

A week later the club would discover whether the decision to withdraw from the Amateur Cup in favour of playing a Luton Charity Cup tie was the correct one. The wind of the previous week was still present and was joined by rain, the combination kept the attendance ‘down’ to around 2,000. The weather may have been dull but the team’s kits must have brightened the occasion as Luton took to the pitch in their red attire and the Saints in pink and black. The prospect of a large gate at Dunstable Road will have been one of the reasons behind St. Albans’ decision to sacrifice playing in the Amateur Cup. The game was given a touch of added spice with the visitors taking to the pitch with five former Luton players in their starting XI. One of the quintet was Jimmy Dimmock who was back in the side after serving a 14-day suspension dished out by the Bedfordshire F.A.

The professionals of Luton were of a class that the amateurs of St. Albans seldom came across and were firmly put in their place as the 6-1 defeat home to the Strawplaiters from the previous November was followed with a 10-0 drubbing. Three Luton players each scored a hat-trick, William Gallacher, Edwin Birch and Robert Parkinson, while William Stewart added the tenth. Matters could have been worse for the Saints, as Luton had three goals disallowed for offside, hit the woodwork twice and put the ball in the net once again just a split second after the final whistle sounded.

With ten games played, St. Albans were now out of all cup competitions and saw out the final five months of the season playing twenty friendly matches, of which 15 were won and just four lost. First up were University College Hospital who were making their only visit to the Park. The Saints won 3-1 and, in a player by the name of Wilkie, had their fifth different goalkeeper of the season.

St. Albans were due to host Guy’s Hospital on the first Saturday in December but called the game off so that their supporters could travel to Luton to see them take on Millwall Athletic in the Southern League. Around 250 spectators are said to have travelled from St. Albans to watch the game. The Dockers won 3-0 and at the end of the season topped the table from second placed Luton by six points.

Another hospital side, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, did play at Clarence Park on 14^th December and enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 win. Jack Dickerson was the referee, as he continued his recovery from injury, it also gave an indication of the path on which his football career would go in later years.

Cecil Aylen makes final appearance at Clarence Park

Four days before Christmas, Clapham Rovers, with Cecil Aylen as captain, made their final appearance at St. Albans. Just like St. George’s School, the Rovers were no longer the force of earlier years and were seen off 6-0 with E. Ware netting a hat-trick. The Rovers were late arriving and due to this the game was restricted to 40 minutes in either half. 

Poor weather, including snow, made life uncomfortable for a crowd approaching 500 for the Boxing Day encounter at the Park with Hammersmith. It was another high scoring affair, 5-3, which included a goal on his debut for forward Trevor Shrewsbury, formerly of the St. Albans Abbey club. Shrewsbury went on to have a lengthy career with the Saints, making 145 appearances and scoring 70 times.

The year was seen out with a 1-0 home win over Old Reptonians. For the first game of 1896, a 2-0 defeat to Bowes Park at the Park on 4^th January, Dickerson returned to the side for the first time since being injured when playing for Luton at Southampton in October. The Saints chalked up their first win of the New Year on the 11^th when the Lewisham-based club Minerva made their only visit to Clarence Park . Robert Paten scored the first of his three goals for the club while Harry Laughton and Walter Giddings completed the 3-0 win. Another former Luton Town player, Fred Allen, made his debut at the start of his 114 games for the club.

Luton-born Allen, 19, who played for a number of local Luton sides before breaking into the Strawplaiters First team, scored his first goal for St. Albans a week later during a 2-1 defeat away to Watford St. Mary’s. Two match reports could hardly have described the game in more contrasting fashion. The Clock Tower was scathing in its criticism of St. Mary’s, its opening lines included this condemnation, “Surely such a brutal exhibition was never witnessed as the play of (the) St. Mary’s Club. It was not football, it was sheer rank blackguardism.” The Watford Observer, on the other hand, made no reference of continual rough play in front of a larger than anticipated crowd. The attendance at Wiggenhall Road was swelled by a large contingent from St. Albans and, also, due to West Herts not having a game. Two players were sent off during the game. First to go was St. Mary’s man R. Slaughter for a wild kick on Arthur Taylor that left the St. Albans player with a bad cut on his leg. The Watford Observer claimed that Taylor had first charged Slaughter heavily but made no mention of the cut to his leg. Next to go was Walter Giddings for, according to the Observer, ‘taking up a threatening attitude’ for a second time. The Clock Tower stated that, “Giddens (his name was frequently misspelt) was suddenly ordered off the field for no cause that the spectators could divine, nor the referee himself assign.”

Saints beat West Herts for first time in seven years

West Herts returned to action the following Saturday and had the unwanted distinction of losing to St. Albans for the first time in seven years and, also, for the first time since changing the club name from Watford Rovers. In fact, it was one of just two defeats in the final 24 games between the two clubs. The weather again tried its hardest to deter people from attending the game. West Herts had around 100 followers at the game in a crowd of about 600. With his first goal for the club, Arthur Taylor equalised after West Herts had an early lead and top scorer Giddings popped up with the winner before half time. Little love had been lost between the two clubs in the pages of the newspapers down the years – the Herts Advertiser was probably the most disingenuous of them all – and the Watford Observer wasted no time in getting its barbed comment in first when is said, “At least we can hope that having been so unpleasant about their losses, they will at any rate be the reverse with the reverse.”

Despite two goals from Herbert Webdale the following week at home to St. Mary’s Hospital, St. Albans slipped to their final defeat of the season, 3-2. Of the remaining ten games, nine were won and one drawn. Forty-three goals were scored during that time and a mere six conceded. Full-back Bert Sanders scored his first goal as the winning run kicked off with a 6-0 win over the London Midweek League at Clarence Park on 8^th February. Fred Allen scored his first goal on home soil and there were doubles for Giddings and Trevor Shrewsbury.

The employees of Sir John Blundell Maple’ furniture company, playing under the name of Clarence, made their almost annual trip to the Park on the 15^th and were sent back to Camden smarting from a 4-1 defeat. Albert Hoy scored his only goal of the season and Margetson again showed his value when used as an outfield player by collecting his second goal of the season, Giddings completed the victory with a brace.

The Saints won 6-0 for the second time in three games on the 22^nd when Edmonton were, seemingly, rolled over at Clarence Park . The match had, by all accounts, actually been a closer encounter than the final score suggests. Giddings added two more to his tally as he advanced past twenty for the season. The Clock Tower claimed that there had not been a single free kick awarded during the entire game. The report was almost poetic in its description of centre half-back Herbert Vinsen, “Vinsen distinguished himself, not only for his clever manipulation of the ball but from the gentlemanly style in which he effected it.” Although the report claimed that Edmonton fought hard, Saints custodian Dickerson had a quiet afternoon and, to keep warm, donned his jacket and ‘trotted up and down between the goal and the half-way line.” At the opposite end of pitch, the Edmonton goalkeeper was N.L. Lavers, previously of Guy’s Hospital and a county player for Surrey. His display was credited as being one of the best seen at the Park.

 Guy’s Hospital called in at St. Albans for a sixth and final time on the last day of February and were beaten more easily that the 1-0 score suggests as Giddings scored for the fourth successive match. The following Saturday saw the Saints take on a side that was variously listed as either Pemberton or W.L. Miecznikowski’s XI. The latter named was a 19-year-old of some ability and was captain of the side. He scored the visitors second goal and later played for Clapton and West Ham United shortly after the club changed its name from Thames Ironworks. He also played seven times for the Middlesex county team. Bert Sanders scored his second and last goal for the Saints while further goals from Allen and Laughton secured a 3-2 win. Dickerson made his final appearance of the season with Tyrell Margetson filling in for the final five games.

Saints pose for first published team photo

St. Bartholomew’s Hospital appeared at St. Albans for the last time on 14^th March and despite having four Middlesex county players in their side went down to a 3-0 defeat. During the half time interval, the Saints posed in front of the cricket pavilion for what is believed to be the first published team photograph of a St. Albans side. The photograph, which was taken by Mr Lane of St. Peter's Street, appeared in The Clock Tower on 6^th May 1896 along with informative profiles of each player.

St. Albans were without a game for the next two weekends and several of the players took the opportunity to assist other local clubs. Paten and Giddings played for St. Albans Abbey during a 2-2 draw with Harpenden, the latter got on the score sheet. It was announced that the Abbey had entered a tournament to be played in Aylesbury on Easter Monday. Of the eleven players named to take part for the Abbey seven appeared for St. Albans at one time or another. Eight teams were to take part with the winners receiving gold medals and the runners up silver medals with a gold centre.

 The final of the Herts Charity Cup was played at Clarence Park on 1^st April in front of a ‘large number of people including a formidable contingent from Apsley.’ The Apsleyites were probably in good spirits at half time with the game against Hitchin nicely balanced at 1-1, by full time it had tipped against them somewhat with Hitchin winning 8-1. The cup was presented by the Mayor of St. Albans, Henry J. Toulmin to the Hitchin captain, Lattimer, who said that he regretted the circumstances that saw his side play only one game to lift the cup.

Goals flowed again the following Saturday with Fred Allen scoring the first of his six hat-tricks for the club during a 7-0 win over Old Cholmeleian’s at Clarence Park . Allen actually scored four of the goals. The Old Cholmeleians were, and still are, former pupils of Highgate School that was originally named Sir Roger Cholmeley’s School at Highgate.

On Easter Monday afternoon, 3.30pm kick off, a return match was played at Clarence Park with Watford St. Mary’s. Bearing in mind the criticism that The Clock Tower piled upon St. Mary’s following the meeting at Watford in January, the newspaper could not have praised the visitors more highly at the end of this game. Playing at centre-forward for St. Albans was W.L. Miecznikowski but it was two more goals from Giddings that condemned St. Mary’s, kitted out in blue and white stripes, to a 2-1 defeat. The attendance was estimated to have been in excess of 2,000 and entertainment, other than the football, was provided by the St. Albans City Silver Band that had been formed in 1892.

(Above) Watford St. Mary’s pictured outside the Queens Arms in Watford.

Stanville win Bingham Cox Cup for third time

The musicians had also been out earlier in the day in front of another large crowd at Clarence Park to see Stanville lift the Bingham Cox Cup for the third time, this time at the expense of Harpenden Rovers.

Over at Aylesbury that day, St. Albans Abbey tried their luck in a most unusual tournament that also attracted a gate in the region of 2,000. The eight-team competition saw games restricted to 15-minutes each way. To avoid the possibility of matches being drawn the following points scoring system was devised; side goals were added to the pitch and counted as one point, and three corners also counted as one point. A bona fide goal superseded all other points. The tournament was on a straight knock-out basis and the Abbey defeated Aylesbury Night School in their first game by one goal and five points to one goal and three points. In the semi-final the Abbey side were beaten 2-0 by Aylesbury Printing Works.

Just two games remained for St. Albans but the opportunity to end the campaign with a run of ten straight wins fell when Polytechnic secured a 2-2 draw at the Park on 11^th April. Laughton took his tally for the season to ten with both of the Saints goals. The season had commenced with a 7-0 rout of Olympic and the Saints bettered that in the final game with Romford trounced 9-0. The goals were contributed by four players; Miecznikowski 4, Giddings 2, Allen 2 and Roland Brown 1. Walter Giddings was the only ever-present player, 30 games, and ended the campaign as by far the top goalscorer with 30. Harry Laughton’s ten goals was the second highest tally.

The following player profiles appeared in The Clock Tower on 6^th May 1896.

1895-96 Season Line-Ups

1895-96 Appearances & Goals