On This Day – 13th September

On this day in 1884 Southport Wanderers played [what we currently believe to be] their first ever game.

A remarkably one-sided match took place on the Halliwell ground on Saturday, when Halliwell played their first match of the season. Their opponents were the new-formed Southport Wanderers club, who sent a weak team, in fact so weak that they were beaten by twenty goals to none, eight being scored in the first half and the remaining dozen in the second half. Scobie kicked no fewer than seven, and Ross four. Black, Pettigrew, Done, and Scobie, four new Scotshmen, and Hasla, (late of Eagley) each made their debut for the winners.

(Athletic News, Saturday 13th September 1884)

Not only were Southport Wanderers a different club to the Southport Football Club of 1881, but the result of this game shows  that the two clubs were a class apart in terms of stature and ability.  reports and letters published in various local papers in the week that followed the game give valuable insight.

Southport Football Club were clearly concerned that as other clubs were springing up in the town there would be cases of mistaken identity when those teams played further afield. The scoreline of this particular game was a 20-0 defeat so they acted quickly to set the record straight!

A letter printed in the Liverpool Mercury on Tuesday 16th September, written by R W T Hatch, the secretary of Southport Football Club, revealed their concerns. “This is calculated to do the Southport Club much unnecessary damage in the football arena” and corrects that this “was the first team of a new Southport club, called “The Southport Wanderers”. The Athletic News, the prominent sports focussed newspaper of the day, dubbed Wanderers “an eleven of ‘novices’, who know very little of the game”.

Players Born On This Day

Players Who Died On This Day

No players died on this day in history

Transfers on this Day

No transfers On this day in history