1898/9: Home form is great but why is away form so dodgy?

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.

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result
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..

Leave a Reply