A Review of the 1897-98 Season

FA Cup Final 1903

This is one of those records that I don't think we'll see beaten; the most onesided FA Cup Final.
It was a case of one game too many for Derby, who were hampered by injuries. Most significantly Steve Bloomer was absent, whilst  Fryer, Morris and Goodall all came into the final carrying knocks.
The relative strengths of these two sides can be judged from the fact that they finished the 1902-03 League season level on points (in 8th & 9th places)
Bury reached the final without conceding a single goal.

Derby Daily Telegraph

Both teams wore change colours, Bury sky blue and Derby County red.

Derby goalkeeper Fryer sustained a further injury in the 1st half and was incapacitated altogether soon after the break. Bury's 2nd goal in the 49th minute was a significant turning point. Fryer went off after colliding with Sagar as the latter scored. Morris went into goal and Derby played 1-3-5. Under the rules of the day this created an effective offside trap, but Bury soon overcame this inconvenience. Fryer returned with the score at 3-0  but conceded twice in rapid succession and left the field permanently after the 5th goal.
The Sheffield Independent described the match as '(the) worst final. tame and dull', commenting on the  subdued atmosphere in the 1st half, the pessimism of the Derby fans and the fact that thousands of spectators were leaving the ground after 70 minutes.

Other accounts portray Derby as being anxious, lacklustre, and showing poor ball control. 

Fryer

This was Fryer's last game for Derby, who signed Grimsby Town's Walter Whittaker the week after the Final. It was ultimately Harry Maskrey, however, who became Fryer's long term replacement, going on to play 223 matches for County.
Fryer, a big man for the times at  6 ft 1 and  15 st (1.85, 95kg) moved to Fulham that May.

Derby Midland

The Mids played in black and white stripes 

Derby had a football club as early as 1869- Derby Town FC. The Midland Railway Football Club 
was founded in 1881 and was soon known by their familiar name Derby Midland, or The Mids. Derby Town, eclipsed by the newcomers, went out of existence in 1882.
Midland's popularity inspired the formation of another team- in 1884 Derbyshire County Cricket Club decided to form a football section. Having rejected the name Derbyshire County Football Club they settled for the snappier Derby County. 
The fact that a number of Midland players joined the new County club was a source of great animosity that led to the 2 clubs refusing to play each other for 3 years. 
When the Football League was founded in 1888 a one club per town principle was applied. Being overlooked in favour of County, Midland became founder members of the Midland League in the 1889-90 season.
In June 1891 the 2 clubs 'merged'. In fact the merger was a takeover.  The Midland Railway Company withdrew funding from the club, who were forced to consider  reverting to amatuerism. However  County agreed to cover Midland's debts and took on the Midland players (including a promising 17 year old inside forward called Steven Bloomer!). There was some speculation that Midland would survive as a second team and continue to play in the Midland League, but the takeover ensured their dissappearance. 

I have found evidence of the following meetings between The Mids and County:

08.10.87	County	1	2	Mids
04.02.88	County	3	1	Mids
24.03.88	County	3	1	Mids
	Derby County Charity Cup played at the County Ground.
01.12.88	Mids	2	1	County
	Midland Ground
24.12.88	County	1	4	Mids
04.05.89	County	3	0	Midland
	Johnny Goodall's first appearance for County. He scored in the 12th minute.
02.11.89	County	1	1	Mids
12.04.90	Mids	0	0	County
30.03.91	County	0	4	Mids
	County reserves
16.04.91	County	0	2	Mids
	Played at The Baseball Ground. County didn’t make the permanent move to The Baseball Ground until 1895, but used it on occasions when the County Ground wasn’t available.
30.4.91	County	4	1	Mids

Derby Midland's League record was :
The Midland League
1889-90 2nd (11 clubs)
1890-91 4th (10 clubs)

Midland entered the FA Cup in 7 consecutive seasons:

1883-84	Bye in 1st Round
	Birmingham Excelsior	1	1	Mids
	Mids	2	1	Birmingham Excelsior
	Wednesbury Town	1	0	Mids	R3
1884-85	Mids	1	2	Wednesbury Old Athletic	R1
1885-86	Mids	2	1	Birmingham Excelsior
	Mids	1	3	Walsall Swifts	R2
1886-87	Birmingham Excelsior	3	3	Mids
	Mids	2	1	Birmingham Excelsior
	Aston Villa	6	1	Mids	R2
1887-88	Ecclesfield	4	1	Mids	R1
1888-89	Mids	2	1	Derby St Lukes
	Notts County	2	1	Mids	3QR
1889-90	Derby St Lukes	0	1	Mids
	Mids	6	0	Stavely
	Mids	3	0	Nottingham Forest
	Bootle	2	1	Mids	R2

They reached the final of The Derbyshire County Cup in 1884, 1885, 1890 and 1891. They won the Cup in 1890. 

Steve Bloomer's England goals

Steve Bloomer , the great inside right, scored 395 goals in his club career (Derby County 527 games, Middlesbrough 130 games).
He was also a prolific scorer in international football.
Making his debut as a 21 year old he got 2 goals in his first match. He then proceeded to score in each of his first 10 internationals, collecting 19 goals in the process.
In his 8th international he overtook Tinsley Lindley as England's highest ever scorer (Lindley had held the record for 7 years).
Bloomer scored in 16 of 23 games played, a strike rate of 1.217 goals per game.

He scored 37.3 % of England’s goals in games in which he played.

1904- goal number 26.

The table charts his international goals with descriptions from contemporary press reports in italics.

							Goals
1	09.03.95	England	9	0	Ireland	Derby CCC	2
		Steve got England’s 2nd (4 mins- put in a splendid run and notched a second point- a shot that the Irish goalkeeper had not the slightest chance of stopping) and 6th (58 mins- scored from a pass from Goodall). Contemporary press reports credited him with England’s 1st goal, which was later deemed an own goal.
2	06.04.95	England	3	0	Scotland	Goodison	3
		Playing at outside left, Steve opened the scoring in the 30th minute. A pass from a free kick by Holt after Goodall had been fouled.
3	07.03.96	Ireland	0	2	England	Solitude, Belfast	4
		Steve’s goal in the 75th minute was England’s 2nd. … a low, swift shot…
4	16.03.96	Wales	1	9	England	Cardiff Arms Park	8
		2nd   a shot that the Welsh custodian never saw until it was in the net. (25 mins). 4th  (40 mins) Sandilands dashed away and with a beautiful center enabled Bloomer to score. …a ‘daisy cutter’ 6th (60 mins) after a fine combined run in the teeth of the wind Bloomer was entrusted with the final chance and made no mistake in banging the ball past the Welsh goalkeeper. 8th   (83 mins) Bassett and Bloomer ran the ball down and the latter finished with a successful shot. 9th  (89 mins) from a pass by Bassett.
5	20.02.97	England	6	0	Ireland	Trent Bridge, Nottingham	10
		1st (19 mins ) Passing to Smith, The English captain cleverly returned to Bloomer, who sent in, amid loud cheering, a straight,  high shot that gave Scott no chance whatever.    6th (85 mins) from Athersmith’s pass… Scott made a noble bid to save, but found it totally beyond his powers. A capital shot by the nimble Bloomer.
6	29.03.97	England	4	0	Wales	Bramall Lane, Sheffield	11
		Steve got England’s  2nd goal in the 44th minute. Athersmith …made a splendid run down the wing and passed to Bloomer who gave Trainer no chance with a lightning shot.
7	03.04.97	England	1	2	Scotland	Crystal Palace	12
		Steve put England in front in the 19th minute. Athersmith… reached the line, and then with a wonderful kick dropped the ball in front of goal, and Bloomer put it into the net.  Athersmith… shot across goal. Bloomer, however, was on the spot, and, taking possession in the melee, he got past Patrick…
8	02.04.98	Scotland	1	3	England	Celtic Park	15
		The ‘sovereigns’ game. England’s captain, Wreford-Brown, presented Bloomer with a gold sovereign after he scored. He was responsible for England’s 2nd   (a high shot) and 3rd(A bad bit of play by Gibson gave Bloomer what was practically an open goal) goals , in the 23rd and 72nd minutes.  Bloomer’s 2nd goal saw him overtake Tinsley Lindley to become England’s all-time top scorer.
9	18.02.99	England	13	2	Ireland	Roker Park, Sunderland	17
		Bloomer, following up a shot by Athersmith which Lewis could not quite get away, kicked the  5th goal (40 mins) He scored England’s 13th (89 mins) Bloomer also missed a penalty at 5-0.
10	20.03.99	England	4	0	Wales	Ashton Gate, Bristol	19
		2nd (44 min),  when (Jones) ventured out to save a good one from Athersmith he was successful, but before he could get back Bloomer put the ball into the net.  4th (86) Forman… pressed towards the goal and Bloomer stopped the ball, and, turning round, scored…
11	08.04.99	England	2	1	Scotland	Villa Park
		This was Bloomer’s 11th International and the first in which he did not score.
12	07.04.00	Scotland	4	1	England	Celtic Park	20
		Steve scored in the 35th minute to make it 3-1. Athersmith dribbled down past Robertson. Drummond caused him more trouble, but could not clear, and Bloomer dashing onto the ball (scored).
13	18.03.01	England	6	0	Wales	St James' Park, Newcastle	24
		1st    (38) Corbett raced up the wing and centred finely to Bloomer, the latter snapping the ball nicely passed Roose just below the crossbar. 3rd (?) Foster’s shot… was cleared by Roose but Bloomer got onto the ball and kicked a third… 4th   (80) from a scrimmage …took a shot and hitting the inside of the post… 6th  (83) a blunder by Morris… Roose delaying his rush too long.
14	30.03.01	England	2	2	Scotland	Crystal Palace	25
		Steve made it 2-2 in the 80th minute with what was reported to be a sensational goal. Bloomer broke almost from his own goal line…with sound judgement he drew Rennie out of goal and made the score ‘two goals all’.
15	03.03.02	Wales	0	0	England	Racecourse, Wrexham
16	22.03.02	Ireland	0	1	England	Balmoral Showgrounds, Belfast
17	03.05.02	England	2	2	Scotland	Villa Park
		Bloomer captained England in this match, however, he ended the 1902 International campaign without a goal.
18	09.04.04	Scotland	0	1	England	Celtic Park	26
		Steve marked his comeback with a 64th minute winner. (Watson) missed his kick and the ball came to Bloomer , who found the net with a high shot…quite unsavable
19	25.02.05	England	1	1	Ireland	Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough	27
		A 50th minute equalizer. An easy thing for him, as he received it close in and had no one but the goalkeeper to beat.
20	27.03.05	England	3	1	Wales	Anfield
21	01.04.05	England	1	0	Scotland	Crystal Palace
22	18.03.07	England	1	1	Wales	Craven Cottage
		Another comeback, but no scoring boots…
23	06.04.07	England	1	1	Scotland	St James' Park, Newcastle	28
		Fittingly Steve Bloomer scored on his international farewell- his 42nd minute strike levelling the game. He took a pretty pass from Veitch … and drove in a great low shot which shook the rigging , and caused a tumult that might have been expected to bring down the scores of people who were finding scanty and precarious foothold on the steep slates of four storey houses facing the ground.

Bloomer held the England record for 4 years , when his total was overtaken by Vivian Woodward.