The 1889–90 season was the ninth season of competitive association football played by Small Heath F.C., an English football club based in the Small Heath district of Birmingham. They competed in the inaugural season of the Football Alliance. They finished in tenth position in the twelve-team league with six wins, five draws and eleven defeats, which gave them seventeen points. The team scored 44 goals in Alliance competition but conceded 67.
Small Heath entered the 1889–90 FA Cup at the second qualifying round stage. They progressed through three qualifying rounds and one round proper, eventually losing in the second round proper (last 16) to Football League club Wolverhampton Wanderers. In local cup competitions, they were eliminated by West Bromwich Albion in the second round of the Birmingham Cup, and drew with Warwick County in the final of the Warwickshire Cup. Small Heath also played several friendly matches during the season.
Small Heath used twenty-four different players in nationally organised competitive matches during the season and had fourteen different goalscorers. Walter Gittins missed just one such match over the season; his full-back partner Fred Speller missed two. The top scorer was centre forward and captain Will Devey with 27 goals, of which 18 were scored in league competition.
Background
In the 1888–89 season, which coincided with the Small Heath club's first year as a limited company, it made enough profit to pay shareholders a dividend of . The team played in the Combination, a league established to provide regular competitive football for those clubs not invited to join the newly formed Football League. The Combination was not well organised, and not all teams completed their required 16 fixtures; Small Heath achieved 11 likely Combination matches. After Leek pulled out of their visit to Small Heath in January 1889, the Birmingham Daily Mail opined that it was "becoming the exception rather than the rule to keep a Combination fixture", and its management needed to consider its future. A proposal that the Football League be expanded to 24 teams was rejected, so a new league, to be known as the Football Alliance, was formed to cater for those excluded. Small Heath was one of the 12 clubs accepted.
Small Heath retained most of the previous season's regular players, despite talk of "two or three desertions that will be serious to their prospects if rumour should turn out to be correct". Reports linking full-back Fred Speller with Warwick County left the Birmingham Daily Post "wondering at footballers' ingratitude." One major departure was goalscoring winger Ted Hill, who was unwilling to commit to regular competitive football. New arrivals included Fred Heath, "a fast runner and a good dribbler [who] centres while running at full speed" who was seen as Hill's replacement, fellow forward Billy Pratt, full-back Walter Gittins and backup goalkeeper Francis Banks.
Devey was appointed captain, though the Post suggested his tendency to argue with teammates made him a less than ideal candidate for the role. The team played in black shirts with an amber collar, white knickerbockers and black stockings, colours first adopted in January 1889.
Season review
September–October Small Heath opened the Football Alliance campaign with a win. They took an early two-goal lead against Birmingham St George's at Coventry Road, and although Saints equalised before the interval and had the better of the second half, Chris Charsley's goalkeeping and Fred Speller's defence kept the Heathens in the game, and Will Devey took advantage of a goalkeeping error for the winning goal. During the reserve team match played the same day, a young opponent was kneed in the abdomen; he died of his injuries two days later in Birmingham General Hospital. Walter Gittins and Wilton Lines made their debuts at home to Bootle in front of a large crowd, attracted by Bootle's success in holding the "Invincibles"Preston North End, champions of the Football League, who had gone through the inaugural season unbeatento a draw in a friendly match. Small Heath came out of the match with a 2–2 draw, with goals from Devey and Eddy Stanley in the first 12 minutes of the game. Bootle scored once before Thomas Davenport narrowly failed to increase Heath's lead when he headed against the crossbar, and after Bootle tied the scores, both sides' defences worked hard to keep them tied. For the third Alliance match in succession, Small Heath let slip a lead, as their visit to Walsall Town Swifts finished at one goal apiece, and September ended with a 3–1 defeat of Burslem Port Vale in a "somewhat dull" friendly.
On a slippery pitch in "a perfect deluge", Small Heath held hosts Sunderland Albion to a one-all draw at half-time, but in the second half, Sunderland scored five goals without reply; Charsley "was indifferently supported, and the visitors seemed to fall all to pieces". At home to The Wednesday in similar conditions, Devey gave Small Heath a two-goal lead, but although Speller was able to frustrate many of Wednesday's left-wing attacks, they were able to score twice to draw the game. The Birmingham Daily Post thought Small Heath had done well to secure a draw, because their forwards passed wildly and lacked any effective combination, while Wednesday's forwards had been profligate in front of goal. The Sheffield Independent concurred that Small Heath were "somewhat lucky" to draw, as "in every part of the game [Wednesday] surpassed their opponents", and Small Heath only managed to keep them out by defending in numbers. The result left them seventh in the table, having spent September in the top three. In a largely one-sided game, Small Heath beat Oldbury Town 3–1 in the second qualifying round of the Association Cup.
November–December A goalless visit to Nottingham Forest, where both sides' forwards were "altogether nonplussed by the wind, which careered about in the wildest gusts", was a better result for the visitors than for their hosts. Eddy Stanley shot against the crossbar, and Forest had a goal disallowed for offside. The 18-year-old Billy Walton made a "not conspicuously successful" debut: Walton had attended the 1886 FA Cup semi-final as a supporter of the then Small Heath Alliance, was to play for the club for fourteen years, helped clear snow from the pitch so that the official opening of the St Andrew's Ground in 1906 could go ahead, was present at the 1931 and 1956 FA Cup Finals, and attended St Andrew's until not long before his death in 1963. The match with Walsall Town Swifts began late because the visitors' kit had gone missing. Walsall's defence was sound, if unnecessarily rough, and their forwards took advantage of mistakes by Gittins and Speller to clinch a 2–0 win. Small Heath had no difficulty progressing in the Association Cup, winning 5–1 at the home of Wednesbury Old Athletic. The Alliance fixture with The Wednesday, scheduled for the same day, was postponed until 21 December.
The comfortable victories continued at home to Grimsby Town in the Alliance, courtesy of a steadfast defence, two goals from Devey, and one by Heath, and then in the next round of the Cup, by four goals to nil at home to Walsall Town Swifts, on a pitch covered in a combination of snow, slush and mud on which "occasionally one of [the players] would take an involuntary slide of about a dozen yards, and then sit down with a force and a directness that must have been surprisingly sad." Small Heath, without Charsley, Short, Walton and Will Devey, could field only ten men for their rearranged visit to The Wednesday, top of the table and a particularly strong side at home. Jenkyns took over the captaincy, and he, Speller and reserve goalkeeper Francis Banks performed well, but the team was overwhelmed; the result, a 9–1 loss, in which Small Heath's only goal was scored by Wednesday's Teddy Brayshaw, remains a club record defeat.
Small Heath had three Alliance matches over the Christmas period. On Christmas morning, still without Devey and Walton, they played Birmingham St George's at Cape Hill. The home side took the lead, but Short equalised with a shot that rebounded off the underside of the crossbar shortly before half-time. In the second half, with the sun at their backs, St George's took charge, and the match finished 4–1. At Grimsby Town the following day, another weakened team lost by four clear goals, but two days later, Small Heath stopped the rot against Long Eaton Rangers despite the continued absence of Devey and Short's withdrawal. The play in a goalless first half suggested the players had enjoyed their Christmas festivities, but after the interval, Small Heath began to press, and came out winners by three goals to one. They went into the new year in seventh position; in terms of points, ten from twelve games placed them rather nearer the bottom than the top of the table.
January–February Will Devey was able to return to the attack, but his brother and Jenkyns were replaced in the half-back line by Morgan and Charlie Simms for the match at home to Crewe Alexandra; further depleted when Harry Morris left the field through injury, Small Heath lost 2–0. This was their last Alliance match until mid-February. With the half-back line at full strength, Small Heath took a two-goal lead at home to Long Eaton Rangers in the Birmingham Cup, but J. Start scored twice in the second half to force a replay. A 4–0 defeat of Notts Jardines in a friendly "played in the most apathetic manner" preceded the first round proper of the Association Cup, against London Cup-holders Clapton; the Birmingham Daily Post warned that the visitors, "somewhat of an unknown quantity", should not be taken lightly. Simms and Stanley replaced Ted Devey and Short in a win by three goals to one, helped by Small Heath's superior passing and stamina, and the Post thought the "brilliant run by which Stanley scored the third goal was one of the finest pieces of play that has been witnessed at Coventry Road for many a day". The London-based Pall Mall Gazette thought their team were "evidently out of form just now." In the Birmingham Cup replay, at Long Eaton, the Rangers tried to force the game in the first half, but could not score, and Devey could; after the interval, the game was more open, and Small Heath won 2–0. The result was variously reported as a Birmingham Cup tie, an Alliance match, or both. The teams were scheduled to meet in the Alliance on 8 February, but did not do so, and the committee later ruled that the Birmingham Cup meeting should also count as an Alliance fixture.
Small Heath were not expected to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers on their own ground, and they did not, but the match and the result were much closer than envisaged; the Liverpool Mercury described it as a "scare". The pitch was particularly deep in mud, and the visitors played under protest, but later decided it would be unsporting to take their complaint further. Heath played at left half instead of Ted Devey, and Short was absent, but Small Heath opened the scoring through Will Devey's determination, despite Wolverhampton allocating three men to mark him. The home players were more accustomed to the conditions, and this told in the end; despite the sound defensive work of Charsley, Speller and Heath, Wolverhampton scored twice, and went through to the last eight of the competition.