The 1895–96 season was the 15th season of competitive association football and fourth season in the Football League played by Small Heath F.C., an English football club based in Birmingham. In 1894–95, the newly promoted Small Heath maintained their First Division status, finishing 12th in the 16-team division. In 1895–96, the team finished 15th and were relegated through the test match system.
Small Heath entered the 1895–96 FA Cup at the first round proper, and lost in that round for the fourth consecutive year, this time to Bury. In local competitions, they were eliminated in the first round of the Birmingham Senior Cup by Sheffield Wednesday, and lost to West Bromwich Albion in the first round of the Staffordshire Senior Cup, which they had entered for the first time.
Thirty-two different players represented the club in nationally organised competitive matches during the season and there were 14 different goalscorers. For the fifth time, Fred Wheldon appeared in every League match, in his last season with the club before joining local rivals Aston Villa for an initial transfer fee of £350, believed to be a record. The top scorer, for the third year running, was Frank Mobley with 11 goals. The highest attendance was around 10,000, significantly down on the previous season.
Background Small Heath had finished 12th of 16 teams in 1894–95, their first season in the First Division. Alf Jones continued as secretary-manager,Matthews (1995), Complete Record, pp. 8–9. and Billy Ollis took over the captaincy after Caesar Jenkyns was dismissed for misconduct. Apart from Jenkyns, who signed for Woolwich Arsenal where he was appointed captain, all the regular first-team players remained with the club. Of the fringe players, Charlie Letherbarrow joined Millwall, with whom he won the Southern League title in 1895–96, Ernie Moore and Tilson Pritchard returned to non-League football, and Tom Watson resumed his police career.Matthews (1995), Complete Record, pp. 106, 111, 118, 132.
Goalkeeper Joe Fall signed from Newton Heath for a fee reported as £20, and defender Harry Haynes joined from Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Dart thought that Jenkyns would be missed "a great deal more than some of [the] supporters imagine", and that apart from Fall, who was expected to be a significant improvement on Charles Partridge, the 1895–96 team would be noticeably weaker than that of the season just ended.
There was no change to the team's kit of light blue shirts with navy collar trim, cuffs and pocket, white knickerbockers and navy socks.
Review
September–October
Both Sheffield United and Small Heath fielded the same personnel as in the last game of the previous season, which Small Heath had won to secure their First Division status. The Sheffield Independents prediction that the result would be reversed proved justified. The players had not yet got used to the new rule forbidding the thrower to step over the line while taking a throw-in, and after penalising the Sheffield captain for a foul throw, the referee took time out to demonstrate the correct procedure.
With Joe Fall still unavailable because of an injury sustained in pre-season training, Charles Partridge was replaced in goal by reserve Jim Roach, who made an eventful debut at local rivals Aston Villa. According to the Birmingham Daily Post, he should take no blame for any of the five goals conceded before half-time, due in part to the sun in his eyes and with the half-backs "little more than landmarks on the field". On change of ends, the balance of play tilted towards the visitors, but the match still finished 7–3. Fall returned to fitness for Small Heath's third defeat of the season, at home to Stoke in a game characterised by excessive foul play. At Nottingham Forest, Tommy Hands and Jack Hallam were lively on the wings, but the weakness of the half-back line was noted in yet another loss.
In temperatures approaching , Bolton Wanderers went top of the league by inflicting on Small Heath their fifth defeat in as many games. The forwards, with Frank Mobley the honourable exception, were "lamentably deficient in shooting ability", missing two early chances which "had their shooting been only of a medium character" would have opened the scoring. With only a month of the season gone, the Post suggested it was high time results began to change or there was a real prospect of relegation via the test matches. A visit to Preston North End produced a much improved performance but still no points. After Preston opened the scoring against the run of play, Small Heath took the lead through a "couple of stinging shots" from Mobley, who appeared to score a third soon after half-time, but it was disallowed because goalkeeper James Trainer was impeded. Small Heath were playing the better football, and the home fans began to jeer their team. Perhaps that had an effect, for after a succession of corners, Preston regained the lead to take the game by three goals to two.
On 12 October, Small Heath finally won a match. They beat Bury 5–4 in a game "remarkable for the poor defence on both sides". The Dart gloomy view that "if they gain any points at all out of [the next four] games it will be a bit of a surprise to a large number of their followers" was evidence of growing discontent. Many English clubs had imported top Scottish players to strengthen their team, but Small Heath's directors were unwilling to follow suit.
A disappointingly small crowd saw Small Heath lose 3–1 to Aston Villa in a benefit match for Ted Devey, the club's longest-serving player and fans' favourite who had been in poor health. Both clubs had promised full first teams, but numerous regulars were unavailable, and Small Heath fielded their fourth different goalkeeper of the season, Bill Meates, an amateur signed from Eastbourne a few weeks earlier. Meates kept his place for the next League game, and Hands, who was injured against Bury, Billy Walton and Devey were replaced by Jack Jones, Charlie Izon and Alex Leake, the latter two making their first appearances of the season, as Small Heath were "completely outclassed" by Stoke. The Heathens had much the better of the first half against Aston Villa, and the pace and trickery of the visitors' forwards was thwarted only by the excellence of the home side's defence. The second half was quite the opposite. Meates made two blunders that led to goals, Villa gained and kept the upper hand, and the final score was 4–1.
November–December
The directors changed their minds, and sent secretary Alf Jones and player Jack Oliver to Scotland on a recruitment mission. Their only purchase was greeted with suspicion by the Dart: the 19-year-old Adam Fraser "is said to be a most capable half-back. Whether he is worth all the trouble the club have gone through to secure him remains to be seen, but if he is anything like a 'class' player it is strange that he has never been heard of before." It was reported that the Cambridge University and England full back Lewis Vaughan Lodge had agreed to play for the club, but he did appear until February. Meanwhile, after a casual start, Small Heath came back from a three-goal deficit to beat Leyton 8–3 in a friendly. Winning ways continued in the League as they beat Nottingham Forest with a goal in the first five minutes, scored by Hands from a Hallam centre. Roach's performance in goal suggested he was the best of the four tried thus far, and Frank Lester made a promising debut at back, but both teams' forwards were disappointing.
The visit to Bolton Wanderers was postponed after severe weather in the north-west left the ground waterlogged, so the next game was at home to Preston North End on 23 November. Wheldon, back to something approaching his best, scored twice from distance to lead 2–1 at half-time. During the interval, Preston's goalkeeper John Wright was found to have broken his wrist and could not continue. Lester turned the ball into his own net to bring the scores level, but despite the brilliance of Bob Holmes, playing on his own at back after Sandy Tait had gone in goal, Preston could not prevent Small Heath exploiting their numerical advantage. The third goal ended with ball, goalkeeper and all five Small Heath forwards in the net, after which Jones scored twice to make the final score 5–2. Walton, now playing at centre half, drew particular praise for his judgment and the quality of his passing. The two points gained took Small Heath off the bottom of the table for the first time.
Fraser made his first-team debut in a benefit match for Sam Holmes of Walsall, and his League debut the following Saturday at Derby County alongside Dan Bruce. Bruce, a Scottish forward signed from Notts County for a £100 transfer fee – the first time that Small Heath had paid a three-figure sum for a playerMatthews (1995), p. 76. – came with a "great reputation as a cool, clever player, and a good shot", but was far from fit. Small Heath never threatened, each of the five Derby forwards scored in the first half, and the final score was 8–0.
A poor performance followed at home to Everton. In the face of wind laced with flurries of snow, Small Heath "almost to a man, blocked their goal in such a manner as to render it well nigh impossible for Everton to score through such a forest of legs." On Small Heath's sole attack, they might have scored, the ball coming down off the crossbar a foot over the line before spinning back into play. The Daily Post wondered whether, as had happened more than once in recent matches, "a strong and unanimous appeal by Small Heath might have gained them a goal". Everton went into the interval a goal ahead and scored two more in the second half to go top of the League. Caesar Jenkyns, now captain of Arsenal, was among the spectators, and the Daily Post speculated on how much difference his captaincy might make to his old club's current predicament.
The expected heavy defeat at Sunderland failed to materialise, that club's winning goal coming only when Jack Oliver – a native of the town – chested the ball into his own net while attempting to block a shot. The Leicester Chronicle suggested that if Small Heath could only maintain similar form, they would soon be out of trouble. An exciting though unscientific local derby against West Bromwich Albion, the closest team to Small Heath in the table, produced a 2–2 draw in which Fraser's courage and judgment in a defensive role was remarked upon, and Bruce and James Adlington scored their first goals for the club. On an icy surface on Boxing Day, the home forwards' enthusiasm was rewarded with a goal scored by Adlington from a Wheldon cross to beat Burnley and narrow the gap to just one point behind that club and West Bromwich Albion.
After the last scheduled match of 1895, at Everton, was abandoned after 37 minutes because of bad weather and the state of the pitch, there was discontent among the crowd. Some of those present demanded their money back, and one spectator took the host club to court claiming the return of his admission money. The case was decided in favour of the club, the judge ruling that the paying spectator is not entitled to a full 90 minutes' football, but only to that portion which can reasonably be completed within the rules of the game.
January–February