Soccer Siftings: When The Shaymen took on the league's new boys

As we embark on a new season, I thought it might be interesting to look back on seasons when Halifax Town welcomed newcomers to which ever league they happened to be in.

There’s been several occasions, obviously the first-ever league game played by Town also heralding, by definition, the start of league football also for Darlington, as both clubs were among the original twenty-two clubs elected to the newly constituted Third Division (Northern Section) in 1921.

That game took place at Feethams on 27 August 1921, but despite Town, then under the tutelage of Joe McClelland – he’d been in position since the formation of the club ten years earlier, when Town competed in the Yorkshire Combination and Midland League – having signed many players in readiness for the start of the 1921-22 season, among them Sid Hetherington, Jack Woods and skipper Sam Challinor, and amid much hype, Town found themselves a goal down within a minute, Bill Hooper heading in a free-kick conceded by debutant Bill Hawley, who was also responsible for the giving away of a penalty six minutes from time, converted by Hughie Dickson as the Quakers ran out 2-0 winners.

Fortunately, the Shaymen didn’t have long to wait before exacting revenge.

In those far-flung days, clubs were given back-to-back home and away fixtures, so it was Darlington who provided the opposition for the first match played at Town’s new home at The Shay the following Saturday.

The visitors were swept away as Town ran out 5-1 winners, Woods being the scorer of the first Shay goal after fifteen minutes and it was also his goal which completed the scoring, with a brace from Fred Dent and a goal by Hetherington making up Town’s tally, with Bill Edmunds replying for the Quakers when his side was four goals down.

The euphoria which greeted Town’s emphatic win didn’t however, manifest itself into a great season.

With the bottom two clubs forced to apply for re-election come the season’s close, the Shaymen found themselves in such an unenviable position, having concluded their fixtures but then being overhauled by Tranmere Rovers, who won their remaining game in hand.

Halifax Town would be well versed in the protocol of the re-election process, as it was something they became accustomed to, having had to go cap in hand to the Football League authorities on twelve occasions, a total bettered (or worsened) by Hartlepool United (14).

This was the process which clubs would go through, though by the time it was scrapped in favour of automatic relegation to the GM Vauxhall Conference in 1987, the Fourth Division trapdoor had consisted of four clubs since its creation in 1958.

For the non-league clubs applying to join the Football League, there was no given right to admission, nor was it reserved simply for champions.

Workington had been treading the boards in the North Eastern League since 1921 when the club was formed, and had tried their luck after the first two seasons following the end of the Second World War and the return of league football, despite having finished only thirteenth and sixteenth in 1947 and 1948 respectively.

They tried unsuccessfully again in 1950 following a ninth-place finish but had more joy at the Football League’s AGM on 2 June 1951 when, having finished fifth, they staked their claim for admission, hoping then to oust either New Brighton or Accrington Stanley.

This time they polled 28 votes, eighteen fewer than Accrington but crucially and significantly, ten more than New Brighton, and it was the Tower Athletic Ground club which lost its league standing, destined never to return.

So it was that Halifax Town, who had been forced to apply for re-election themselves in three of the four seasons immediately following the war, were handed a home fixture on the season’s opening day, and played hosts to the first newly-elected league club since Ipswich Town had taken the place of Gillingham to become members of the Third Division (South) in 1938.

Managed by Albert Flatley, who had guested for Town over the course of several wartime seasons, Workington were still seeking the right type of players when they arrived at The Shay for their first league match on 18 August 1951, though they had made the significant signing of former Rangers goalkeeper Archie McIndewar, whilst Halifax Town manager Bill Burnikell included just two new faces, those of goalkeeper Taylor and right-back Jim Lee.

Flatley must have been encouraged at how his side had shook off the disappointment of conceding Jackie Moss’ 27th minute goal by drawing level through Maxfield’s header from a corner in the 65th minute.

Perhaps with a little more composure, Workington could have held out for a draw.

But within three minutes of their equaliser, Town had forced their way back in front courtesy of Tom Hindle’s angled left-foot drive, closely followed by Des Frost’s goal, a stinging shot, and the Shaymen ran out 3-1 winners, their first opening day success since the war.

Over the ensuing years, both Halifax Town and Workington’s fortunes fluctuated. When the league was restructured in 1958, the Shaymen qualified for the newly created Third Division whilst Workington became members of the Fourth.

Acquaintances were briefly renewed following Town’s relegation in 1962-63, though Workington were duly promoted and spent three seasons in the league’s third tier.

Relegated at the end of the 1966-67 season, the two sides met each other over the course of the next two seasons before the Shaymen were promoted under Alan Ball Snr in 1968-69.

Town competed reasonably well over the next seven seasons in the Third Division but following Ball’s controversial return to the club in February 1976, the side was relegated back to the league’s basement, where, despite claiming his side was looking for instant promotion, the first season back in the Fourth Division ended with a re-application, alongside Workington, who were about to discover that time was running out for them.

This was their fourth successive application for re-election but the league had had enough, and with Southern League Wimbledon having made noises in 1974-75 by taking top flight Leeds United to a fourth round FA Cup replay, their case was strengthened when they were crowned Southern League Premier champions in 1976-77.

Having failed in their attempts for election to the league over the previous two seasons, Wimbledon finally made it.

At the Football League’s AGM at the Café Royal on 17 June 1977, it was Halifax Town who topped the poll with 44 votes, followed by Hartlepool (43) and Southport (37), but Wimbledon’s 27 votes was six more than Workington’s, so it was they who took their place in the Fourth Division for the start of the 1977-78 season and the beginning of what proved to be an epic journey.

For their part, Workington started the new campaign in the Northern Premier League.

By a strange quirk of fate, the football computer threw them an opening day home game for Wimbledon…against Halifax Town.

But by the time these two clubs faced each other, the Dons had already begun life as a league club by playing out two League Cup ties with Gillingham, winning 4-2 on aggregate, to set up a meeting with Tottenham Hotspur, newly relegated to the Second Division, at White Hart Lane in the second round.

But on 20 August 1977, four days after the death of Elvis Presley, the curious and excited descended on Plough Lane for Wimbledon’s first League match, with BBC Radio’s ‘Sport On Two’ anchor man Bryon Butler informing the listeners that their opposition was, ‘of all people, Halifax Town’.

Ever so slightly disrespectful but nevertheless, in the days when we were presented with live second half commentary of a top match, usually with Peter Jones at the mic, the Shaymen were ready to get themselves noticed in this history-making match.

Memory escapes me as to which game the BBC covered that afternoon, but there weren’t many mouth-watering fixtures.

Champions Liverpool were at Middlesbrough, FA Cup winners Manchester United travelled to Birmingham City, though there was an interesting game at Everton where Brian Clough’s promoted Nottingham Forest side pulled off an unexpected 3-1 win.

The BBC could have done worse than sending their full commentary team to Plough Lane, for it proved to be an exciting affair, watched by a welcome 4,616 crowd, most hopeful of victory for the Dons.

Their side still included goalkeeper Dickie Guy, who’d made a name for himself by saving a Peter Lorimer penalty in the cup-tie at Elland Road, and new signings on view were David Galvin, Geoff Davies, Steve Galliers and Willie Smith.

Alan Ball’s side included just two new signings, those of Tommy Horsfall and the experienced Steve Smith, who’d arrived just two days before the league programme kicked off after a lengthy career with Huddersfield Town.

It was Joe Carroll who gave Town the lead in the 40th minute, pouncing on a poor throw-out to Wimbledon skipper Dave Donaldson and slotting home.

It was the only goal of the first half but there were plenty in the second, with the outcome in doubt until the very end.

Jeff Bryant forced the ball home in a scramble to equalise in the 51st minute only for Carroll to pounce again just four minutes later, getting on the end of Bobby Flavell’s ball following a free-kick move.

‘Sport on Two’ could hardly keep up. Then the tables were turned, with John Leslie scoring a scrappy goal in the 70th minute, and with just four minutes remaining, Roger Connell scoring the game’s best goal from twenty-five yards.

At that late stage, it looked as if it might prove be a Wimbledon winner but a minute later Derek Bell provided the sting in the tail, receiving a short corner then seeing his cross- cum-shot floating in.

The full-time whistle sounded and the sides went off having to be content with a point from a six-goal thriller.

Dons’ manger Allen Batsford bemoaned his side conceding a late equaliser, calling it ‘disgraceful’, whilst Ball stoked up things by claiming Wimbledon wouldn’t set the league on fire.

Yet within nine years, they were in the top flight and overcame the odds by defeating new champions Liverpool 1-0 in the final of the FA Cup in 1988.

Halifax Town have provided the opposition on three occasions for newcomers to the National League or equivalent.

In 1995, Hednesford, with newly signed ex-Shaymen Colin Lambert and Dave Hanson in their side, had just been promoted to the GM Vauxhall Conference from the Southern League and opened with a 3-0 success over John Bird’s cut-price Halifax Town, the club having survived a financial crisis during the summer.

Exeter City were relegated to the Nationwide Conference a year after the Shaymen had experienced relegation from the league for a second time, the sides playing out a 1-1 draw at St James Park on 9 August 2003, with Lewis Killeen’s late goal cancelling out Steve Flack’s 24th minute opener.

And having just missed out on promotion in the play-offs in 2006, Town kicked off the new season at Oxford United, whose 44-year stay in the Football League had just ended with relegation to the Conference.

Managed by ex-Town skipper Jim Smith – the original ‘Bald Eagle’ – Oxford just about shaded the match at the Kassam Stadium on 12 August 2006 and ran out 2-0 winners courtesy of Robert Duffy’s 16th minute controversial penalty, and Andy Burgess’s strike in the 70th minute.