The 1890–91 season was the tenth season of competitive association football played by Small Heath Football Club, an English football club based in the Small Heath district of Birmingham, and their second season in the Football Alliance. They finished in tenth position in the twelve-team league for the second consecutive year. Seven wins, two draws and thirteen defeats gave them sixteen points, one point fewer than in 1889–90. The team scored 58 goals in Alliance competition, but conceded 66, at an average of three goals per match.
Small Heath entered the 1890–91 FA Cup at the first qualifying round stage, but were disqualified from the competition after winning their second qualifying round match for fielding an unregistered player.Matthews (1995), p. 140. In local competitions, they were eliminated by West Bromwich Albion in the first round of the Birmingham Senior Cup and by Aston Villa in the semi-final of the Birmingham Charity Cup. Small Heath also played several friendly matches during the season.
Small Heath used twenty-two different players in nationally organised competitive matches during the season and had eight different goalscorers. Five players – the full-back pairing of Tom Bayley and Fred Speller and forwards Jack Hallam, Fred Wheldon and captain Will Devey – were ever-present over the 24-match season. The top scorer in the Alliance was centre-forward Charlie Short with 16 goals; if the FA Cup is included, Short and Devey each scored 17.
Background
Small Heath finished tenth in the inaugural season of the Football Alliance, and was re-elected for 1890–91. Among regular first-team players to leave the club were Walter Gittins, Eddy Stanley, and Chris Charsley. Gittins was Fred Speller's full-back partner for most of the previous season, and moved on to Stafford Rangers.Matthews (1995), pp. 90, 140. Stanley had been with the club for nine years before injury forced his retirement. During that time he played in 22 FA Cup matches, scoring 14 times, contributed two goals and an assist as Small Heath won their first trophy, the Walsall Cup in 1883, and scored 5 goals from 13 games in the first Football Alliance campaign.Matthews (1995), pp. 140, 231. Goalkeeper Charsley, a serving police officer, announced his retirement. In June, he was honoured with a dinner at which he was presented with a £40 collection and a piano.Notes on Sport. Scraps. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 16 June 1890. The Birmingham Daily Post suggested the club "were hardly likely ever to find so good a man again".Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 25 August 1890.
New arrivals included forward Charlie Short, who had played one match for Small Heath in March before finishing the season with Unity Gas,Matthews (1995), pp. 123, 140. full-back Tom Bayley from Walsall Town Swifts,Matthews (1995), p. 71. and goalkeeper Charles Partridge from Wednesbury Old Athletic.Matthews (1995), p. 116.
The club's intended new kit – a plain royal blue shirt and stockings with white knickerbockers – failed to arrive by the start of the season, so the team began the new campaign in the previous year's black shirts with an amber collar, white knickerbockers and black stockings, which had proved difficult to see for players and spectators alike. When the new kit arrived ahead of the match against Sunderland Albion in mid-September, the suppliers had sent only nine sets, so they had to play one more game in the old colours.Birmingham City. Historical Football Kits. Retrieved 17 July 2013. Will Devey was captain.
Season review
September–October
The season opened with a friendly against local Football League club Aston Villa, who suffered a defeat that was "little short of humiliating, and altogether unexpected, even by adherents of Small Heath who had been looking forward to the contest with feelings of apprehension".Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 8 September 1890. The visitors "thoroughly deserved their pronounced and handsome victory", by four goals to nil in a rough game, in which "play was once stopped for some minutes due to one of the Villa men having been badly kicked, and subsequently the Villa goal-keeper and one of the Small Heath players came very nearly to fighting."
The Football Alliance season began with a visit to Walsall Town Swifts in summery weather. Will Devey opened the scoring, but Swifts asserted their superiority and led by three goals at the interval; Small Heath regrouped, and the second half brought one goal for each side.The Alliance. Walsall Town Swifts v. Small Heath. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 7. 8 September 1890. On "one of the hottest days of the whole year", Small Heath had intended to introduce their new blue-and-white kit for the visit of Sunderland Albion, but had to revert to the "old and dismal black-and-amber jerseys" when they discovered the suppliers had sent only nine sets of clothing.Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 15 September 1890. Chris Charsley kept goal, apparently having postponed his retirement, and Small Heath played well in losing 3–0. The Post commented favourably on Fred Speller at full-back and on half-backs Harry Morris and Ted Devey, and described how "the ponderous Jenkins did much useful work in his usual inelegant fashion."
A strong Small Heath team played a "dashing" game in a 3–1 friendly defeat away to West Bromwich Albion, but took the next friendly, a 3–0 win at home to Midland League club Warwick County, rather less seriously. The Posts correspondent thought Speller was "always safe and judicious" and his full-back partner Tom Bayley had improved since the Sunderland game, but was unimpressed by Charles Partridge's goalkeeping.Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 22 September 1890. The forwards passed well but missed too many chances in the Alliance match away to Grimsby Town as Heath lost 3–1.Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 29 September 1890.
October began with the first qualifying round of the 1890–91 FA Cup at home to Hednesford Town, who went into the match unbeaten, having scored 50 goals and conceded just 3. After the kickoff was delayed while the Small Heath team had their photographs taken, Hednesford were outclassed 8–0.Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 6 October 1890. Despite fears that the attendance at The Wednesday's first home Alliance game of the season would be adversely affected by the minimum admission charge being raised to 4d. and by Sheffield United arranging a friendly for the same day,"Centre-forward", Football Notes. Sheffield & Rotherham Independent. p. 8. 7 October 1890. a crowd of 7,000 watched Small Heath secure their first point of the season. The visitors settled down only after Wednesday had taken the lead, and struck the crossbar twice before Billy Walton took advantage of a poor clearance to tie the scores. Two minutes later, Will Devey scored with a low shot, but "one of the best got goals ever scored on Olive Grove", a fine team attack finished by Harry Winterbottom, made the half-time score 2–2. Jack Hallam's long shot regained the lead for Heath soon after the interval, but Wednesday levelled the scores again late in the game after strong attacking pressure.Alliance Matches. Sheffield Wednesday v. Small Heath Alliance. Sheffield & Rotherham Independent. p. 7. 13 October 1890.
A strong wind blowing towards the Charles Road end was instrumental in settling the visit of Walsall Town Swifts in the Alliance:The Alliance. Small Heath vs. Walsall Town Swifts. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 7. 20 October 1890. in a match with "a great deal of bumping, but very little science", Swifts scored when the wind was in their favour, Small Heath did not.The Alliance. Small Heath vs. Walsall Town Swifts. Manchester Guardian. p. 7. 20 October 1890. The Post attributed the lack of a detailed match report on the 3–3 friendly draw with West Bromwich Albion to its reporter's inability to find space in the press hut after it was invaded by spectators seeking shelter from the rain.
The Football Alliance fined Small Heath and three other clubs £1 each for not notifying the secretary of their results,Football. The Football Alliance. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 24 October 1890. a minor failure in administrative competence compared with what was to follow. In the second qualifying round of the FA Cup, Small Heath had a harder time than perhaps they expected in beating Wednesbury Old Athletic by two goals. Credit was as much due to Charsley, Speller and Jenkyns in defence as to the goalscorers.Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 5. 27 October 1890. But their efforts were in vain, as Wednesbury's protest, that Charlie Short had not been registered in time to play in the match, was upheld, and Small Heath were disqualified from the competition.Football Association Challenge Cup. Manchrster Guardian. p. 6. 30 October 1890. The local press was scathing: the Post called it "quite the most egregious blunder which has been perpetrated in football circles this season", and supposed that "the veriest tyro in the winter pastime would have known better than to spoil the club's chances for fame in such an absurd way".Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 7. 3 November 1890.
November–December
Small Heath went into November bottom of the Alliance with only one point, and approached the encounter with league leaders Stoke "intend[ing] at least to test the opponents' mettle".The Alliance. Small Heath v. Stoke. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 7. 3 November 1890. They did rather better than that. In a fast-paced game, they took a two-goal lead in the first half and scored another three in the second, Stoke's only reply coming from Ted Devey's own goal. Walter Ward's debut in goal in a 1–1 draw at Bootle attracted praise from the Liverpool Mercury, as did his defence, and the quickness on the ball and combination play of the forwards, particularly Hallam and Will Devey, was also noted.The Alliance. Bootle v. Smallheath Alliance. Liverpool Mercury. p. 7. 10 November 1890. Small Heath arranged a friendly with Burslem Port Vale for the day allocated for the next round of the Association Cup. Heath's forwards combined well in attack and shot accurately to score five goals (with several disallowed) to Vale's one.
In contrast, the forwards performed with "little cohesion, and were especially weak in front of goal" on their return to Alliance competition at home to Darwen. Arthur Turner, in what was to be his only appearance in league competition, was a poor substitute for Short, and neither Will Devey nor Charsley were at their best, the latter putting through his own net with an attempted clearance. At 4–1 behind with little time remaining, the home side adopted a more direct style of play that brought two goals, but Darwen held on for the win.Notes on Sport and The Alliance. Small Heath v. Darwen. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 7. 24 November 1890. Their next match, a visit to local rivals Birmingham St George's, took a similar course. On a pitch with a thick covering of snow, Saints took a three-goal lead before Heath recovered their competitiveness, and the game reached half-time with the score 4–2. John Devey increased Saints' lead, but after Fred Wheldon had a goal disallowed, Hallam scored twice, and Saints were hard pressed to stop their visitors gaining an unlikely draw.The Alliance. St. George's v. Small Heath. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 12. 1 December 1890. The Post warned that "if Small Heath seriously contemplate winning another Alliance match this season, it will be necessary for their players to make a more sustained effort during the progress of the game, and not wait until the last twenty minutes before they afford the spectators a glimpse of their proper form."Notes on Sport. Birmingham Daily Post. p. 12. 1 December 1890.