Blackpool F.C. season 1915-16
Encyclopedia
| Season 1915-16 | |
|---|---|
| League | Principal Competition: Lancashire Section, Northern Group Subsidiary Competition: Lancashire Section, Northern Group (Group B) |
| Manager | None |
| League position | 3rd (Lancashire Section, Northern Group Principal Competition) 2nd (Lancashire Section, Northern Group Subsidiary Competition) |
| Top goalscorer | Eddie Latheron Eddie Latheron Edwin Gladstone "Eddie" Latheron was an English footballer who played as an inside forward for Blackburn Rovers, helping them to win the Football League title in 1912 and 1914. He also made two appearances for England in 1913 and 1914... (16) |
| FA Cup FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's... |
Competition suspended |
| Highest home attendance | 5,000 |
| Lowest home attendance | 4,000 |
| Previous season | ← 1914-15 Blackpool F.C. season 1914-15 The 1914-15 season was Blackpool F.C.s eighteenth season in the Football League. They competed in the twenty-team Division Two, then the second tier of English football, finishing tenth.... |
| Next season | 1916-17 Blackpool F.C. season 1916-17 The 1916-17 season was Blackpool F.C.s second season in special wartime football during World War I. They competed in two Football League competitions spread over the full season — the Lancashire Section, Northern Group Principal Competition, for thirty games, and then in the Lancashire Section,... → |
The 1915–16 season was Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
's first season in special wartime football during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. They competed in two Football League competitions spread over the full season – the Lancashire Section, Northern Group Principal Competition, for 26 games, and then in the Lancashire Section, Northern Group Subsidiary Competition, for a further ten games. The club finished third in the principal competition and second in the subsidiary competition. Eddie Latheron
Eddie Latheron
Edwin Gladstone "Eddie" Latheron was an English footballer who played as an inside forward for Blackburn Rovers, helping them to win the Football League title in 1912 and 1914. He also made two appearances for England in 1913 and 1914...
was the club's top scorer, with sixteen goals (thirteen in the principal competition and three the subsidiary). The FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
was suspended for the duration of the war.
Background
With the outbreak of World War I, many professional footballers were called up to fight in the war. A conference was held in BlackpoolBlackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
's Winter Gardens
Winter Gardens, Blackpool
The Winter Gardens is a large entertainment complex in the town centre of Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It has twelve different venues, including a theatre, ballroom and conference facilities. Opened in 1878, it is a Grade II* listed building, incorporating various elements built between 1875 and...
on 3 July 1915, with representatives from the English, Irish, Scottish
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League is a league of football teams in Scotland, comprising theScottish First Division, Scottish Second Division and Scottish Third Division. From the league's foundation in 1890 until the breakaway Scottish Premier League was formed in 1998, the Scottish Football League...
and Southern
Southern Football League
The Southern League is an English football competition featuring semi-professional and amateur clubs from the South West, South Central and Midlands of England and South Wales...
Football Leagues to consider whether football should be played in the 1915–16 season. A meeting of the Management Committee of the English Football League was held after the conference, during which a decision was made that football should continue, and that each league should organise their own programme. The national League was suspended and regional leagues formed with clubs being allowed to use whichever players they could get, and the registration policy was scrapped.
With a large number of British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
personnel based in the town, many of the Blackpool players during the four seasons of wartime football were soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s. Blackpool were placed Group B, the Lancashire League, which consisted of fourteen teams. In order to make the season longer, it was divided into two competitions, the Principal Competition and the Subsidiary Competition.
Lancashire Section, Northern Group Principal Competition
The Principal competition for the 1915–16 season consisted of fourteen teams:- BlackpoolBlackpool F.C.Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
- Bolton WanderersBolton Wanderers F.C.Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....
- BuryBury F.C.Bury Football Club is an association football team based in Bury, Greater Manchester. The team currently play in League One. The club's nickname is The Shakers which was bestowed upon them by club chairman JT Ingham, an industrialist and ironmonger of the late 1890s.-Formation of the club and the...
- BurnleyBurnley F.C.Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
- EvertonEverton F.C.Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
- LiverpoolLiverpool F.C.Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
- Manchester CityManchester City F.C.Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
- Manchester UnitedManchester United F.C.Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
- Oldham Athletic
- Preston North EndPreston North End F.C.Preston North End Football Club is an English professional football club located in the Deepdale area of the city of Preston, Lancashire, currently playing in the third tier of English league football, League One...
- Rochdale
- Southport Central
- Stockport CountyStockport County F.C.Stockport County Football Club is an English football club based in Stockport, Greater Manchester. The club formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, shortly afterwards merging with Heaton Norris F.C., and adopted the current name on 24 May 1890 on the creation of the County Borough of Stockport...
- Stoke CityStoke City F.C.Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...
Some Blackpool players had enlisted, but the nucleus of the team remained for the start of the season, including goalkeeper James Mitchell
James Mitchell (footballer)
James Frederick Mitchell, also known as Jim Mitchell, and sometimes Fred Mitchell, was an English footballer who played at both professional and international levels as a goalkeeper...
, who had played only five league games the previous season and who wore glasses
Glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or...
in matches. Other players included Jimmy Jones
Jimmy Jones (English footballer)
James "Jimmy" Jones was a footballer who played as a defender in The Football League in the 1910s and 1920s.Born in Newburn-on-Tyne, Jones began his career with local side Gateshead. In 1912, he signed for Blackpool, then in Division Two. He made his debut on September 28, 1912, in a 2–0 victory...
, Joe Bainbridge
Joe Bainbridge
Joe "Joseph" Bainbridge was an English professional footballer. He spent ten years at Blackpool in the 1900s, making over 100 Football League appearances for the club. He played as a centre-forward.-Blackpool:...
, George Wilson
George Wilson (English footballer)
George Wilson was an English footballer who played in his club career at Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday between 1912 and 1925...
, Bobby Booth
Bobby Booth
Robert "Bobby" Booth was an English professional footballer who made nearly 200 appearances in the Football League playing for Blackpool, Birmingham, Southend United, Swansea Town, Merthyr Town and New Brighton. He played as a wing half.Booth was born in West Hartlepool, County Durham...
, Jack Charles, Len Appleton
Len Appleton
Leonard "Len" Appleton was an English footballer. He played for Blackpool, Exeter City and Southport.-References:...
and Ben Green
Benny Green (footballer)
Benjamin Haigh "Benny" Green was an English professional footballer who played as an inside-forward. He made nearly 200 appearances for Small Heath in all competitions...
. With Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers F.C.
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team currently competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football....
not having a team in the competition, some of their players joined Blackpool, including Bob Crompton
Bob Crompton
Robert "Bob" Crompton was an English professional footballer. He spent the entirety of his career with his hometown club, Blackburn Rovers...
, who was made captain, Eddie Latheron
Eddie Latheron
Edwin Gladstone "Eddie" Latheron was an English footballer who played as an inside forward for Blackburn Rovers, helping them to win the Football League title in 1912 and 1914. He also made two appearances for England in 1913 and 1914...
and George Chapman.
Blackpool began the campaign on 4 September 1915, with an away match at Southport Central. The visitors lost 2–0 in front of a crowd of around 1,100 (attendances recorded during the war years were often estimated). In their next match, at home to Oldham Athletic, which they won 4–1, Blackpool played in an all-white kit, rather than the black, red and yellow hoops they had adopted the previous season. After fourteen games, Blackpool were in sixth place in the league, and with four games left were pushing for a top-two finish. On 5 February 1916, they lost 1–0 at Liverpool in front of a crowd given as 16,000, the second-highest recorded attendance to watch the club during the war years. It was their final defeat of the season, and they finished in third place with a 4–0 win over Rochdale at home in front of 4,000 on 26 February. The competition was won by Manchester City. Blackpool had used just nineteen players in the first part of the season, with Eddie Latheron finishing as top scorer with thirteen goals, and Jack Chapman second-top with nine goals.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd | Blackpool | 26 | 14 | 3 | 9 | 54 | 41 | 31 |
Lancashire Section, Northern Group Subsidiary Competition
For the Subsidiary Competition, the Lancashire League was divided in two with the games played amalgamated at the end of the season to give a composite table.Blackpool were placed in Group B which contained six teams:
- Blackpool
- Burnley
- Bury
- Bolton Wanderers
- Preston North End
- Southport Central
Blackpool's first match in the subsidiary competition was a 2–1 away win at Bury
Bury F.C.
Bury Football Club is an association football team based in Bury, Greater Manchester. The team currently play in League One. The club's nickname is The Shakers which was bestowed upon them by club chairman JT Ingham, an industrialist and ironmonger of the late 1890s.-Formation of the club and the...
in front of a crowd of about 3,000 on 4 March 1916. After three games, Blackpool were top of the subsidiary table and they finished the season in second place. Peter Quinn, who Blackpool had originally signed in December 1910 from Spennymoor United
Spennymoor United F.C.
Spennymoor United F.C. was an English association football club based in Spennymoor, County Durham.In 1905, they joined the Northern League and won the league title six times in their history. In the 1936-37 season, they reached the third round of the FA Cup, where they lost to top-flight side West...
, and who for much of the war fought with the London Scottish Regiment
London Scottish (regiment)
The London Scottish is a unit of the British Army. Formerly a regiment, the unit is now a company of The London Regiment.-Founding of the regiment:...
, spent part of his holiday time playing for Blackpool. He was the leading scorer, with seven goals. On 24 April, they played a friendly match at home to the 3rd West Lancashire Division Grouped Depots, winning 6–3.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Blackpool | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 24 | 13 | 16 |
Overall
The season as a whole was considered a success by the club, both financially and on the pitch, with consistently decent attendances providing gate receipts that enabled the club's committee to reduce the club's debt. The star players were considered to be Bob Crompton, who regularly won the Man of the MatchMan of the match
In sport, a Man of the Match or Player of the Game or Man of the Series award is given to the outstanding player, almost always the one who makes the most impact, in a particular match or series. The term was originally used more often in cricket before being adopted by other sports. This can be a...
award, and Eddie Latheron for his sixteen goals.