Recent posts in this series
By Tony Attwood
I mentioned in the last article that Arsenal’s problem in the 19th century was it had fine home form but poor away form and at the very start of 1898/9 it looked as if this might have been addressed since of the first three away games Arsenal won two and lost one, with a goal tally of six goals scored and five conceded. And with a 4-0 victory followed by a 5-1 win, after five games Arsenal had not only won four and lost just one, their goals tally was 15 for and six against.
But sadly from the start of October the old habits returned with consecutive defeats away to Middlesbrough and Walsall. Home form however held up and Arsenal won each home game save one, a goalless draw with Walsall.
And this makes me wonder just how Arsenal players got to Middlesbrough from Plumstead. Part of the problem if we don’t have details of how the trip was made – although I know that these days the journey to Middlesbrough from Victoria takes six hours by coach – which allowing for slower transport in the 19th century could mean eight hours. Trying to do that before the game to avoid the cost of a hotel stay could easily explain why so many away games caused a problem.
But whatever the reason, the away form remained poor and Arsenal ended up seventh in the league scoring 72 goals in 34 games, although even with that tally they were not the top scorers.
Club
P
W
D
L
F
A
PTS
1
Manchester City
34
23
6
5
92
35
52
2
Glossop North End (P)
34
20
6
8
76
38
46
7
Woolwich Arsenal
34
18
5
11
72
41
41
Bur the fact was although Arsenal were seventh they were only five poinhts behind second placed Glossop, although their goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded) was considerably poorer
SEASON Division P W D L F A Position 1893-94 2 28 12 4 12 52 55 9/15 1894-95 2 30 14 6 10 75 58 8/16 1895-96 2 30 14 4 12 58 42 7/16 1896-97 2 30 13 4 13 68 70 10/16 1897-98 2 30 16 5 9 69 49 5/16 1898-99 2 34 18 5 11 72 41 7/18
Arsenal, as you can see, were solidly mid-table season after season, but were not challenging the northern clubs at the top of the league, most particularly with their away form. They won just four away games.
3 September 1898
Luton Town
A
2–1
5 September 1898
Burslem Port Vale
A
0–3
10 September 1898
Leicester Fosse
H
4–0
17 September 1898
Darwen
A
4–1
24 September 1898
Gainsborough Trinity
H
5–1
1 October 1898
Middlesbrough
A
1–3
15 October 1898
Walsall
A
1–4
22 October 1898
Burton Swifts
H
2–1
5 November 1898
Small Heath
H
2–0
12 November 1898
Loughborough
A
0–0
26 November 1898
Grimsby Town
A
0–1
3 December 1898
Newton Heath
H
5–1
10 December 1889
New Brighton Tower
A
1–3
17 December 1898
Lincoln City
H
4–2
24 December 1898
Barnsley
A
1–2
31 December 1898
Luton Town
H
6–2
7 January 1899
Leicester Fosse
A
1–2
14 January 1899
Darwen
H
6–0
21 January 1899
Gainsborough Trinity
A
1–0
4 February 1899
Glossop North End
A
0–2
11 February 1899
Walsall
H
0–0
13 February 1899
Glossop North End
H
3–0
18 February 1899
Burton Swifts
A
2–1
25 February 1899
Burslem Port Vale
H
1–0
4 March 1899
Small Heath
A
1–4
13 March 1899
Loughborough
H
3–1
18 March 1899
Blackpool
H
6–0
22 March 1899
Blackpool
A
1–1
25 March 1899
Grimsby Town
H
1–1
1 April 1899
Newton Heath
A
2–2
3 April 1899
Manchester City
H
0–1
8 April 1899
New Brighton Tower
H
4–0
15 April 1899
Lincoln City
A
0–2
22 April 1900
Barnsley
H
3–0
So the remedy for Arsenal, if they wanted to get promotion to the top league was simple – improve their away form. And the way to improve their away form was, most likely (although I have not found written evidence that agrees with this point) to find better ways to approach the away games so that the players were refreshed and ready to play at 2pm on the saturday, rather than exhausted from being cramped on a coach or most likely a rail carriage (third class).
Now of course I am speculating here, but I rather do suspect that there was a real prejudice among the directors of allowing players to travel in any way other than third class on a train. Indeed there was probably a worry that other passengers might protest if they found “common working-class men” in second class. So for the moment, I believe they were stuck with the problem of their location. It gave Woolwich Arsenal a real benefit for home games (given that their visitors had the “pleasure” of the trip) but a real disadvantage for away games..