Billy Clark
|
When St Albans played so well in the replayed tie in the first round of the Amateur Cup competition as to quite outplay the reputed Shepherd’s Bush team, it may have been though in some quarters that the Saints had reached the limits of their powers. That this was not the case was proved by the City doing better still on Saturday when they faced Tufnell Park, at Tufnell Park, and beat them by one goal to nil, a result upon which the Saints are to be highly congratulated., the more so as the Park had not been beaten previously this season at home.
The fact that the City were a man short for the first ten minutes(1) made their win all the more praiseworthy, despite the fact that the home team played so well throughout that they hardly deserved to lose. That they did lose was due principally to the impregnable defence of Hearn, Grimsdell and Smith and secondly to the smart way in which Leslie Hosier seized an opportunity and scored the winning goal.
These were the main factors in the victory but everybody played so well as to be worthy of a share in it.
R.S.Hammond was probably the cleverest forward on the field. The ground was in a wretched state and the light City inside-left was constantly making rings round players of nearly twice his weight who were impeded by the mud.
A feature of the afternoon was the great number of supporters who turned up to cheer St Albans. Mr Harry Lawton, a local player of good repute some fifteen years ago, was one of the first to visit the dressing-room and congratulate the players on their brave show. There was good crowd to witness the match and the sixpenny “gate” realised nearly £30.
1 Hearn was late owing to his train being held up through the fog, but his change from walking dress to football kit in four minutes must be a record.
Reprinted from “The Herts Advertiser and St Albans Times” 25th January 1913
Played at The Recreation Ground, Tufnell Park.
Tufnell Park were founder members of the Athenian League and finished in 3rd place in 1912/13. |
