Last day drama -1903

On Saturday April 18th 1903 (which was FA Cup Final day) The Wednesday completed their League campaign with a 3-1 win over West Bromwich Albion at Owlerton (goals from Andy Wilson, Fred Spikesley and Ambrose Langley).
Sunderland, in second place , just one point behind, had a game in hand.
The following Saturday Sunderland traveled the 20 km to play their local rivals Newcastle United at St James' Park. A win would see them retain the League title (they had won 4 previous titles in total; Aston Villa held the record with 5).
Newcastle went ahead in the 48th minute- a short range effort from Robert Smyth McColl. 
In the latter stages of the game, pressing for the  equalizer, Sunderland changed formation to 1-4-5 (Rhodes 'joining the halves'). Under the rules of the day  this led to  a lot of off sides- much to the anger of the Newcastle fans.

Newcastle United		Sunderland
Charlie Watts	GK	Ned Doig
Andy Aitken	RB	Jimmy Watson
William Agnew	LB	Ephraim 'Dusty' Rhodes
Peter McWilliam	RH	Billy Farquhar
Colin Veitch	CH	Alex Barrie
Jack Carr	LH	Dicky Jackson
Archie Turner	OR	Billy Hogg
Alec Gardner	IR	Robbie Robinson
Bob McColl	CF	Jimmy Millar
Bill Appleyard	IL	Joe Hewitt
Bobby Templeton	OL	Arthur Bridgett

'Toffee Bob' McColl was the founder of a chain of corner shops that can still be seen to this day.

The Rosebery International

The  popular aristocrat and former Prime Minister Lord Rosebery was the  Honorary President of the Scottish FA. This saw the Scots occasionaly turning out in  His Lordship's racing colours. They had previously worn the primrose and pink hoops in 1881. The game against England that year had ended in a 6-1 victory and the colours served Scotland well again as they ran out 4-1 winners in front of a world record crowd of 63.000 at Celtic Park.

Lord Rosebery, in his address after the match, described Scotland playing in his colours as 'the greatest compliment ever paid to me in my life'. 

Pres reports were tinged with nostalgia, describing the Scots play as being reminiscent of the 'old assertive paly of the 70s and 80s', when they were dominant. 

 The Queen’s Park centre-forward, R. S. McColl  scored a hat-trick and Celtic’s outside-left Jack Bell got the other.
Two strong sides indeed:

Scotland		England
Harry Rennie	GK	Jack Robinson
Nicol Smith	RB	WJ Oakley
John Drummond	LB	Jack Crabtree
Neil Gibson	RH	Harry Johnson
Alex Raisbeck	CH	Arthur Chadwick
John Tait Robertson	LH	Ernest Needham
John Bell	OR	Charlie Athersmith
Bobby Walker	IR	Stephen Bloomer
Robert Smyth McColl	CF	GO Smith
John Campbell	IL	Geoffrey Plumpton Wilson
Alexander Smith	OL	John Plant

Read the Glasgow Herald match report here.