1922: Arsenal’s end of the season tour and summary of games

After all that fret and worry about going back down to the second division, Arsenal missed relegation by five points, but as we will see this was by no means the closest escape of Knighton’s reign; worse, sadly, was still to come.

But with the season over we can take stock before moving on to the rest of May.  First, the crowds.

While crowds were still above the levels of pre-war football, the initial rise in crowd numbers after the end of the war had now dropped back a little.  (Figures from EFS Attendances)

The final season before the cessation for the war was largely played in wartime and all crowds were very much down.  There was a huge boost for the return of league football in 1919/20, which grew again the following year (at least in first division terms but not overall) but then ultimately slipped back a little when we look at the top club’s average.

Arsenal’s attendance figures jumped in 1919/20 both because of the general rise of interest post-war and because of the election to the first division in 1919.  Although the average number at Arsenal league games slipped below 30,000 in 1921/22, this should be set against a poor performance in the league (Arsenal were bottom of the league for much of the season) and a decline overall of the average attendances in the 1st division.

But although the league season was now over Arsenal still had matches to play starting with the London Challenge Cup final on 8 May.   The cup had been disrupted by the serious fogs that swarmed across London in the autumn, but the games up to the final did get played as we have noted in earlier chapters, with Arsenal beating Barking, QPR and Tottenham to reach the final.

Woolwich Arsenal FC first entered the competition upon its foundation in the 1908/9 season and the process through four rounds with the semi-final and final being played on neutral grounds as we have seen this season, was initiated from the start.  This changed in 1933 when all rounds were played on the ground of one of the participating teams (the home team being the first drawn from the hat, as in the conventional style).

From the start, the competition attracted both Football League and Southern League teams plus leading amateur teams – Arsenal for example playing Bromley in 1909 and Tufnell Park in 1914.

There was an unofficial change in the early 1930s when the first division clubs moved over to playing their reserve teams.  This change was similar to that which Arsène Wenger introduced with the League Cup many years later – the selection of the players was entirely a matter for the clubs and not a formal matter of policy by the London FA who organised the competition.

However change was afoot, and by 1966/7 it was compulsory for all league clubs to enter the Football League Cup (until that date some clubs, including Arsenal, refusing to take part).  The London Challenge Cup was thus of even less significance than before, and it finally ceased with the 1973/4 competition.    It was revived in 1990 for non-league teams, before being discontinued once again ten years later.

Arsenal’s first ever match in the competition was on 28 September 1908 –a 1-0 away victory over Fulham.  The club’s final match was on November 12 1973 in the semi-final, played away to Tottenham in which Arsenal lost 0-3.

Arsenal reached the final on 16 occasions, winning the competition eleven times. In the final Arsenal on 8 May 1922 Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 1-0.

The next day, two events of note took place. For on 9 May Andrew Kennedy joined Arsenal from Crystal Palace and on 10 May Arsenal played a friendly against Southend.  First, let’s look at Andy Kennedy.

Andy Kennedy was born in 1897 and died December 1963 and was signed from Crystal Palace having previously played for Glentoran, which suggests that he was quite possibly spotted playing in the London FA Cup Final with a transfer being offered on the spot. We have no record of the transfer fee paid, but given he came from 3rd division south team, and had only played one game for them, the amount would have been small.

Yet despite these humble beginnings at the end of his first season for Arsenal he won two caps for Ireland.  It has been written on Wiki that “injury wrecked his 1923-24 season – Kennedy missed the start of the season, and after returning was dropped from the side after Arsenal lost 6-1 to Huddersfield Town,” but the record books show that he played 29 games that season – having two spells where he may have been injured.  He also played 40 out of 42 league games in the 1924/5 season and the first 13 games of 1925/6 under Chapman before Bob John was moved into defence to replace him leaving Kennedy very much as the reserve.  He did however play in the last eight games of the 1926/7 season including the FA Cup Final.  He was sold to Everton in January 1928 having played 129 times for Arsenal.

The Southend friendly seems to have had no particular significance – it was just a way of making some money I guess, although it may also have been a way to try and inform the locals that their club was not about to be dead and buried, for Southend had the unenviable distinction of being the first ever team to come bottom of the Third Division (South), in the season just finished.  And not just bottom but seven clear points behind the club one place above them.

Arsenal won the game 2-1, and brought along mostly first team players, but it is interesting that Clem Voysey made an appearance in the side.  There are no details of the crowd on this occasion.  Bob John noted above played at right half in this match.

On 14 May Arsenal began a tour of Scandinavia with a game against IFK Göteborg – who finished their season in mid-table in the Swedish Division 1.  The team was much as before, but with one or two hopefuls being given a game.  These included Frank Townrow who joined Arsenal in November 1920, signing as a professional in April 1921.  He only played nine times for the first team in five years at Arsenal, making his debut on 2 October 1922 against Sheffield United.

Also in the squad was James Hopkins who had had joined from Belfast in 1919 and had had a handful of games at inside right in April 1921, but not progressed too much further beyond that.

In all Arsenal played four games against Swedish first division clubs and won all four matches.  Crowds were not enormous, but it undoubtedly gave Arsenal a little extra income and the players a chance to see a European country they might otherwise have had no experience of.  And it spread the name of Arsenal.   Details of the games appear below.

We might also note two non-footballing events in May: on 16 May the final group of British troops left Ireland, while on 29 May in a major scandal the Liberal MP Horatio Bottomley was jailed for seven years for fraud.

Here are the matches for May 1922…