SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1 CITY 3
FA Cup semi-final played at Goodison Park
19th March 1904
Attendance 53,000
Scorers
City Meredith, Gillespie, Turnbull
Wednesday ???
City Hillman, McMahon, Burgess, Holmes, Hynds, Frost, Meredith, Livingstone, Gillespie, Turnbull, Booth
Illustration from Athletic News 21 March 1904
An extract from FOOTBALL WIZARD THE BILLY MEREDITH STORY By John Harding
…the semi-final at Goodison Park was a perfect clash of contrasting talents. Wednesday were the reigning Football League Champions. Captained by England half back Tom Crawshaw, they had scored some sixteen fewer goals that season than City, they had also conceded seventeen fewer. Manchester City, Second Division Champions, unbeaten in almost two months, were led by the country’s most exciting winger. Thus the question posed by the Athletic News was obvious: Would brilliant attack overcome solid defence or would the latter wear down the most persistent peppering?
The day was overcast and wet; 50,000 people packed themselves into Goodison Park their cheers mingling with the strains of the St Joseph’s Industrial School Band, who now followed City everywhere on the big occasions.
And, from the very start, City’s attack overwhelmed Wednesday. They were ahead after 21 minutes through Gillespie bundling in a goal after Meredith’s shot had hit the crossbar; and two up at the interval, Turnbull having hooked in another Meredith cross.
In the second half, Wednesday attacked briefly but were broken by a third City goal 23 minutes from time. Turnbull again scored, inevitably from another Meredith cross. Meredith remebered it as quite the best goal he had ever seen: “I never saw anything like it. I had centred square and ‘Sandy’ took the ball first time when it was well off the ground and drove it into the net with marvellous force. The amazing thing was that the ball kept low all the way. You will understand the pace of the shot when I say the ball hit the net at Goodison Park and came out while the goalkeeper was still tumbling.”
… Jimmy, Catton praised the whole City team, Meredith in particular: “Justice compels me to say that, in a fine and cunning line of forwards, Meredith stood out boldly against the skyline as the unapproachable artist. He was magnificently supplied by that thrusting, hard working partner Livingstone and by the indefatigable Frost, but he made the most of his opportunities by his dextrous dribbles, his teasing centres and his drives into goal. It cannot escape attention that all the three goals came from Meredith’s play, although the finishing touches were left to others. No man has ever had a command of the ‘slippery sphere’ as Meredith.”
…the semi-final at Goodison Park was a perfect clash of contrasting talents. Wednesday were the reigning Football League Champions. Captained by England half back Tom Crawshaw, they had scored some sixteen fewer goals that season than City, they had also conceded seventeen fewer. Manchester City, Second Division Champions, unbeaten in almost two months, were led by the country’s most exciting winger. Thus the question posed by the Athletic News was obvious: Would brilliant attack overcome solid defence or would the latter wear down the most persistent peppering?
The day was overcast and wet; 50,000 people packed themselves into Goodison Park their cheers mingling with the strains of the St Joseph’s Industrial School Band, who now followed City everywhere on the big occasions.
And, from the very start, City’s attack overwhelmed Wednesday. They were ahead after 21 minutes through Gillespie bundling in a goal after Meredith’s shot had hit the crossbar; and two up at the interval, Turnbull having hooked in another Meredith cross.
In the second half, Wednesday attacked briefly but were broken by a third City goal 23 minutes from time. Turnbull again scored, inevitably from another Meredith cross. Meredith remebered it as quite the best goal he had ever seen: “I never saw anything like it. I had centred square and ‘Sandy’ took the ball first time when it was well off the ground and drove it into the net with marvellous force. The amazing thing was that the ball kept low all the way. You will understand the pace of the shot when I say the ball hit the net at Goodison Park and came out while the goalkeeper was still tumbling.”
… Jimmy, Catton praised the whole City team, Meredith in particular: “Justice compels me to say that, in a fine and cunning line of forwards, Meredith stood out boldly against the skyline as the unapproachable artist. He was magnificently supplied by that thrusting, hard working partner Livingstone and by the indefatigable Frost, but he made the most of his opportunities by his dextrous dribbles, his teasing centres and his drives into goal. It cannot escape attention that all the three goals came from Meredith’s play, although the finishing touches were left to others. No man has ever had a command of the ‘slippery sphere’ as Meredith.”