Middle row (l-r);
Front row (l-r);
By Jim Brown
Before the Great War City were an average Southern League side with a good Cup-fighting tradition. The Southern League was effectively the third tier of English football, as there were only two divisions of the Football League, but in 1914 City finished bottom of Southern League Division 1 and were relegated to Division 2. With the war under way there was anger in many parts that football did not come to a halt and gates plummeted to 1,000 as City played in a 13-team league composed mainly of Welsh amateur sides.
It was a major surprise then when the club applied to join the Football League Division Two when football started planning its post-war activities in March 1919. When the votes to fill four extra places in Division Two were counted City topped the poll of the seven clubs with 35 votes with West Ham (32), South Shields (28), Rotherham (28) also elected.
Off the field a large amount of work was carried out on the ground in anticipation of larger crowds with terracing in front of the 1910 Atkinson’s Stand and extra banking at what would become known as the Kop end. Additional entrances and turnstiles were provided, including a new entrance with several turnstiles at the top of King Richard Street. The players were also looked after with a new recreation room and improved dressing rooms.
The season kicked off on 30 August with an attractive home game against Tottenham, relegated from Division One in 1915. City were outclassed by the Londoners and crashed 0-5 in front of a disappointed 16,500 crowd. It was the start of a miserable run of nine successive defeats and City’s first win did not arrive until Christmas Day, after nineteen winless games. By then only two members of the team from the opening game were playing and manager Clayton had resigned only seven games into the season. New manager Harry Pollitt took over in mid-November and was given several thousand pounds to strengthen the woeful team. By the season’s end the club had used a record 43 different players. Despite being several points adrift at Christmas manager Pollitt turned things around and with two games remaining City were one place off the bottom, a point behind Lincoln but with a game in hand. With the bottom two facing re-election, it was widely felt that City would be voted out and with the Football League and the Southern League at loggerheads it was possible that City might even find themselves with nowhere to go.
The final games were home and away to Bury, then lying fifth in the table. City drew 2-2 at Gigg Lane and needed to win the final game to avoid applying for re-election. In front of a record crowd of 23,506 a nervous City struggled to make headway against a strong Lancashire side and trailed 0-1 at half-time. Two second half goals from Alec Mercer saved City’s skins and sent the crowd into wild celebrations. Rumours abounded for three years and finally in 1923 the FA conducted an inquiry at which it was concluded that City and Bury had colluded to allow City to win and six players and five directors and officials were suspended for life. Directors David Cooke and Jack Marshall, manager Harry Pollitt and captain George Chaplin were City’s culprits. Both clubs were fined £100. Ironically City would have been safe even in defeat as Lincoln lost at Huddersfield making the score from Highfield Road immaterial. Almost twenty years later the story behind the scandal emerged in a newspaper interview with Chaplin. He had taken £200 to Bury before the first game and felt confident that it would ensure City gained at least three points from the two games. At half time at Highfield Road one of the Bury players came into the home dressing room and told him that City were so poor that Bury could not lose. Later that night Chaplin handed over the final instalment of the bribe in the cloakroom of the Kings Head.
Despite many poor home performances and the sad plight of the team attendances were at a record high and averaged 16,899, the fourth highest in the division, with several crowds of over 20,000. In the FA Cup City drew 1-1 at Southern League Luton and in the replay on a Thursday afternoon the highest recorded crowd at the ground, 21,893, saw the Hatters snatch a 1-0 win.
