Officials       

The seventeenth match under Association rules between Ireland and England took place at Cliftonville on Saturday in the presence of 10,000 people. The English players, who arrived in Belfast on Friday morning, were esteemed a fairly strong eleven, though certainly not the strongest available. The Irish team was composed exclusively of Belfast players—four from Cliftonville, four from Linfield, and three from Distillery. The ground as the result of te heavy rains of the early part of the week and the subsequent frost was in a horrible state to begin with, and a heavy snowstorm coming on just before the start lasted through the greater part of the game, making the playing surface still worse, and interfering greatly with the accuracy of the play. A poor game, in which the home side showed up far better that had been hoped or expected, ended in a win for the Englishmen by three to two.
  Pyper started the game towards the pavilion goal, and the English left half missing, the ball came to Oakley, who in clearing handled the ball and got penalised. From the free the English forwards got away, Smith being prominent thus early for some tricky work. Gibson returned finely, and Foreman in tackling received a nasty kick from Peden, which caused play to be stopped for a few minutes. On resuming Wheldon and his partner got away, and Garfield headed into goal. Torrans clearing at the expense of a corner. Scott next kicked away a tame shot from Smith, and, Gibson sending well down the field, the ball was passed to Mercer, who was lying well up, and who, weathering Turner, centred well. Oakley slipped up in attempting to kick, and Pyper rushing up had no difficulty in shooting through, registering the first score for Ireland after fifteen minutes' play. Up to this time the English forwards had been shaping very indifferently, slipping about sadly on the greasy ground, and mispassing frequently. The Irish were playing the rushing game, and playing it very well indeed, being far more at home on the miry ground. England attacked, and for ten minutes held the homesters pinned inside their half, shots being sent over the bar and outside the post, while Scott got rid of one or two dangerous ones from Athersmith, who was fed persistently, and given any number of chances. Ireland at length got away, and Peden and his partner had a good run, the former sending the ball tamely into Robinson's hands. The snow now ceased, and the English play improved considerably, some nice pieces of close passing and dribbling being displayed. Still the defence of the Irish backs was remarkably sound and the game was thirty-five minutes old before Athersmith gave Smith a nice pass, which enabled the English centre to equalise the score. Still attacking and putting a little more life into their play, the English forwards gave the Irish defence a warm time of it, and three minutes before the interval a pretty dribble by Smith ended in his passing out to Garfield. The latter, though, pressed, got in a lovely centre from the corner flag right across the mouth of goal, and Athersmith, timing the ball nicely, banged it past Scott in the net. Half-time found the score—England, 2 goals; Ireland, 1 goal.
   Smith restarted, tipping the ball to the inside right, and the ball was dribbled down on the left, where a corner was forced from Torrans. From some smart play about the home goal, the ball came out to Morren, who finding an opening, beat Scott for the third time five minutes after the restart. Pyper restarted, and was mainly responsible for an incursion into English territory, where the ball was sent behind. The snow now recommenced, ultimately changing to a drizzling rain. The Irishmen now pulled themselves together finely, and for ten minutes the ball was kept in the English half, several long shots being tried with poor success by Milne, Mercer, and M'Allen. One of J. Campbell's, however, gave Robinson enough to do. At last Athersmith, who played finely in this half, got away, and, beating Cochrane, forced a corner from Torrans. It was badly placed, and Peden, getting away, kicked hard past Foreman. The English goalkeeper ran nearly to the half-way to meet the ball, and, handling it, was charged by three of the Irishmen while holding it. Ultimately he got rid of it, but barely had he reached his posts again when Mercer shot in from his right, and M'Allen, catching the pass neatly, tipped the leather softly enough past the unfortunate Robinson into the net. A tremendous cheer greeted this second score for Ireland. The remaining twenty minutes' play was largely a promiscuous scramble in the mud, of which one side had as much as the other. Scott made one or two good saves—notably one from Smith, which he just reached by falling across the goal. Scott had more to do than the English goalkeeper, but proved equal to the occasion, and let no more past him. Try as they would, the Englishmen could not beat the defence, nor could the Irish forwards beat the visiting backs. When the time whistle sounded a hard but scientifically speaking, poor game had resulted in a win for England by 3 goals to 2 goals.