[LFC History] Part II: 1901 to World War I

Return of the Championship to Anfield

Can a newly-promoted team winning the League Championship? It will never happen today.

But, over a century ago, that's exactly what Tom Watson achieved by clinching successive Division Two and One titles.

With goal hero Joe Hewitt scoring 25 at one end and £340 signing Sam Hardy keeping shots out at the other, Liverpool trampled over English football's aristocracy to bring the Championship back to Anfield for only the second time.

 

The stars: Sam Hardy (Left) and Joe Hewitt (Right)

Each week, crowds of about 18,000 watched the Reds dispatch sides such as Wolves, Bury, Notts Forest, Newcastle and Brentford with consummate ease. Middlesbrough suffered most, falling to our sword 5-1 and 6-1.

Not that Watson's men had things all their own way. Incredibly, Liverpool lost their first three games of the campaign, including an embarrassing 5-0 reverse at Villa Park.

Still, the Reds recovered and would eventually top the table four points ahead of north-west rivals Preston.

The season ended with the Sheriff of London Charity Shield at Craven Cottage, in which Liverpool beat Corinthians 5-1.

#	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	G.Avg	Pts
1	Liverpool FC	38	14	3	2	49	15	9	2	8	30	31	1.72	51
2	Preston North End	38	12	5	2	36	15	5	8	6	18	24	1.38	47
3	The Wednesday	38	12	5	2	40	20	6	3	10	23	32	1.21	44
4	Newcastle United	38	12	4	3	49	23	6	3	10	25	25	1.54	43
5	Manchester City	38	11	2	6	46	23	8	3	8	27	31	1.35	43
6	Bolton Wanderers	38	13	1	5	51	22	4	6	9	30	45	1.21	41
7	Birmingham City	38	14	2	3	49	20	3	5	11	16	39	1.10	41
8	Aston Villa	38	13	2	4	51	19	4	4	11	21	37	1.29	40
9	Blackburn Rovers	38	10	5	4	34	18	6	3	10	20	34	1.04	40
10	Stoke City	38	12	5	2	41	15	4	2	13	13	40	0.98	39
11	Everton	38	12	1	6	44	30	3	6	10	26	36	1.06	37
12	Woolwich Arsenal	38	12	4	3	43	21	3	3	13	19	43	0.97	37
13	Sheffield United	38	10	4	5	33	23	5	2	12	24	39	0.92	36
14	Sunderland	38	13	2	4	40	21	2	3	14	21	49	0.87	35
15	Derby	38	10	5	4	27	16	4	2	13	12	42	0.67	35
16	Notts County	38	8	9	2	34	21	3	3	13	21	50	0.77	34
17	Bury	38	8	5	6	30	26	3	5	11	27	48	0.77	32
18	Middlesbrough	38	10	4	5	41	23	0	7	12	15	48	0.79	31
19	Nottingham Forest	38	11	2	6	40	27	2	3	14	18	52	0.73	31
20	Wolves	38	7	5	7	38	28	1	2	16	20	71	0.59	23

League champions again in 1906, when Everton won the FA Cup, the ground capacity was increased with the building of a huge cinder bank behind the south end goal. It was christened the Spion Kop, after a Boer War battle of 1900 where over 300 men of the Lancashire Regiment died, with many being from Liverpool.

Joint match-day program from Everton and Liverpool from 1910

The first FA Cup final

In March 1914, at the fourth time of asking, Liverpool finally prevailed in an FA Cup semi-final.

Having dispatched Aston Villa 2-0 at White Hart Lane, only Burnley now stood in the way of an historic first FA Cup. Crystal Palace was the venue, where the 72,778 crowd included a reigning monarch for the first time.

It proved a nervy occasion for both sets of players – unsurprising considering neither club had got this far before.

Liverpool went into the fixture without tough-tackling half-back Harry Lowe, and things went from bad to worse when the Clarets won the toss and opted to play with the advantage of a strong wind in the first half.

Despite Burnley having the better of the opening exchanges, the Reds did threaten through Jimmy Nicholl, who was only denied when his shot smacked an opponent in the face.

Then, 14 minutes after the restart, Bert Freeman opened the scoring for the Lancashire men. The goal followed a throw-in which was headed to Freeman, and within the blink of an eye the ex-Evertonian had smashed the ball beyond Liverpool custodian Ken Campbell.

Merseyside's finest threw everything and the kitchen sink at Burnley as the game drew to a close, testing the Claret resistance with a host of long shots. The Reds even had a pop from the half-way line, but it wasn't to be.

Having beaten Barnsley, Gillingham, West Ham, QPR and Aston Villa, Liverpool's FA Cup journey was over as King George V handed the famous trophy to Burnley.

Incredibly, the country's most famous silverware didn't find its way to Anfield until 1965.

However, the club was also involved in the 1915 British football betting scandal, one of the earliest match-fixing scandals which saw four Liverpool players banned, although the bans were rescinded in 1919.

1915 Match-fixing Scandal

The 1915 British football betting scandal occurred when a Football League First Division match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford on 2 April (Good Friday) 1915 was fixed in United's favor, with players from both sides benefiting from bets placed upon the result.

At the time, Manchester United were struggling to avoid relegation, while Liverpool were in mid-table and neither challenging for honors nor facing the threat of relegation themselves. The effects of the First World War provided further motivation to perpetrate a fix - by the end of March it was almost certain that the league would suspend operations after the 1914-15 season was finished, interrupting and possibly ending the footballing careers of everyone then playing in the league. Also, the players perhaps thought the diversion of the conflict would lessen the attention that would normally be paid to a dubious match result.

The match ended in a 2–0 win to United, with George Anderson scoring both goals. However, the match referee and some observers noted Liverpool's lack of commitment during the game – they had even missed a penalty that had been awarded to them.

After the match, handbills started to appear, alleging that a large amount of money had been bet at odds of 7/1 on a 2–0 win to United. An investigation by the Football Association was launched and found that players from both sides had been involved in rigging the match: Sandy Turnbull, Arthur Whalley and Enoch West of United, and Jackie Sheldon, Tom Miller, Bob Pursell and Thomas Fairfoul of Liverpool; Sheldon was a former United player himself and was found to be the plot's ringleader. Some players, such as Liverpool's Fred Pagnam and United's George Anderson refused to take part. Pagnam had threatened to score a goal to ruin the result, and indeed late in the match hit the crossbar, causing his teammates to publicly remonstrate with him. He later testified against his team-mates at the FA hearing.

Liverpool players involved in fixing (L to R): Thomas Fairfoul, Tom Miller, Bob Pursell and Jackie Sheldon

All seven players were banned from playing for life in a decision handed down on 27 December 1915. The FA concluded that it had been a conspiracy by the players alone – no official from either club was found guilty of wrongdoing, and neither club was fined or had points deducted. West vociferously protested his innocence, even going so far as suing the FA for libel. However, he lost the case and the ban stood. In itself, the ban had no immediate effect on the players' footballing careers, since, by that point, the Football League had suspended operations for the duration of the First World War. The ban did not apply in Scotland (four of the suspended players were Scottish), however since the Scottish Football League had also suspended operations there was never a need for the Scottish Football Association to issue any sort of ruling on the players' eligibility there.

Fred Pagnam; who refused to take part in the rigging

Sandy Turnbull was killed while serving in the war, but all the other players, except West, had their bans lifted by the FA in 1919 in recognition of their service to the country; Turnbull received a posthumous reinstatement. The intervention of the First World War meant that the Football League did not resume until 1919–20. This meant that West was the only player involved who was actually unable to play League football due to suspension. Fairfoul also did not return to football although he was re-instated, however the other four players resumed their careers after the war. West had to wait until 1945 for his ban to be lifted, by which time he was 59.

Although the players' main motives for the match-fixing appear to be financial, and not to save United from relegation, the two points United won from that game were enough to earn them 18th place and safety, one point ahead of 19th-placed Chelsea, who were nominally relegated. Before the 1919–20 season started, the League decided to expand the First Division by two teams; Chelsea (along with Arsenal) were elected back into the First Division and thus spared the drop.

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Next in the series: Between the Wars.