Match Summary

Ireland Team

England Team

At Belfast on Saturday the first international match under Association rules of the present season resulted in a victory for England by five goals to none. The winners deserved their victory, showing more method in attack than was possessed by the Irishmen, and much better powers of defence. At the same time there was no such disparity between the two elevens as the score would suggest. Indeed, taking the game all through the home side had almost as much of the play as their opponents ; but the Englishmen, after an indifferent start, steadily improved. They were leading by two goals to none at the interval, and they attained to real excellence in the second half of the match. The limitations of the Irish half-backs and backs became strongly emphasized during the last hour. Still, from start to finish, the home forwards, if possessing only moderate combination, worked with untiring energy...

...both Harris and Day dribbled very finely, and each had the satisfaction of scoring from the other's pass...

Apart from the state of the ground, the conditions in which the game took place were of the most pleasant description, the afternoon being fine and mild with scarcely any wind. - The Times - Monday 19th February, 1906

 

Football League Division One 17 February 1906
Team	P	Pts
Liverpool	27	37
Preston North End	27	33
Manchester City	25	32
Birmingham	27	31
The Wednesday	27	31
Aston Villa	27	30
Bolton Wanderers	26	28
Newcastle United	26	28
Blackburn Rovers	25	28
Stoke	28	28
Everton	26	27
Sheffield United	27	27
Derby County	25	27
Notts County	28	25
Nottingham Forest	27	22
Woolwich Arsenal	27	21
Sunderland	25	21
Bury	27	20
Middlesbrough	26	19
Wolverhampton Wanderers	27	25

 

Division One matches played on 17 February 1906:

ASTON VILLA 3-1 NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Hall, Bache, Garraty (nk)
25,000 (Villa Park, Birmingham)

BOLTON WANDERERS 6-2 SUNDERLAND
Clifford, Shepherd 4, White (Holley, Bridgett)
15,000 (Burnden Park, Bolton)

Sunderland were without English McConnell, who was playing for Ireland against England in Belfast.

LIVERPOOL 2-1 THE WEDNESDAY
Cox 2 (Stewart)
20,000 (Anfield, Liverpool)

NOTTS COUNTY 0-0 EVERTON
10,000 (Trent Bridge, Nottingham)

PRESTON NORTH END 1-0 BURY
Derbyshire
7,000 (Deepdale, Preston)

Preston were without Dicky Bond, who scored twice for England in Belfast.

SHEFFIELD UNITED 1-0 DERBY COUNTY
Pattinson
14,206 (Bramall Lane, Sheffield)

United were without Arthur Brown, who scored for England in Belfast, whilst Derby were without Ben Warren, who was making his international debut for England.

STOKE 2-2 BIRMINGHAM
Rouse, Jones (Jones 2)
5,000 (Victoria Ground, Stoke)

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 0-0 MIDDLESBROUGH
4,000 (Molineux, Wolverhampton)

Middlesbrough were without Alf Common, who was an England reserve in Belfast.

WOOLWICH ARSENAL 3-2 BLACKBURN ROVERS
Coleman 2, Bellamy pen. (Wilson, Davies)
8,000 (Manor Ground, London)

Arsenal were without Jimmy Ashcroft, who was keeping a clean sheet on his international debut for England in Belfast, whilst Blackburn were without Bob Crompton, who was also playing for England.

After a slow start, newly-promoted Liverpool were now setting the pace and looked capable of winning a second successive championship.

Football League Division Two 17 February 1906
Team	P	Pts
Bristol City	26	44
Manchester United	26	41
Chelsea	26	38
West Bromwich Albion	25	34
Leicester Fosse	27	33
Hull City	24	30
Leeds City	24	28
Bradford City	26	28
Grimsby Town	25	27
Burnley	26	23
Chesterfield Town	26	23
Stockport County	26	22
Burton United	27	22
Barnsley	24	21
Glossop	27	18
Blackpool	25	18
Lincoln City	26	17
Burslem Port Vale	26	17
Gainsborough Trinity	25	16
Clapton Orient	25	12

 

Division Two matches played on 17 February 1906:

BRISTOL CITY 1-2 LEICESTER FOSSE
Gilligan (Bannister, Blessington)
8,000 (Ashton Gate, Bristol)

BURNLEY 2-1 BARNSLEY
Davidson 2 (Birtles)
3,000 (Turf Moor, Burnley)

BURTON UNITED 4-0 CHESTERFIELD TOWN
Bradshaw 2, Axcell, Aston
3,000 (Peel Croft, Burton)

CHELSEA 4-2 LINCOLN CITY
Pearson, McDermott, Key, McRoberts pen. (Martin 2)
3,000 (Stamford Bridge, London)

Chelsea were without Jack Kirwan, who was playing for Ireland against England in Belfast.

GAINSBOROUGH TRINITY 3-1 HULL CITY
Dixon 2, Morley (J.E.Smith)
4,000 (The Northolme, Gainsborough)

GLOSSOP 2-3 BRADFORD CITY
Cameron, Irvine (Orr o.g., Smith, McMillan)
1,500 (North Road, Glossop)

GRIMSBY TOWN 4-1 CLAPTON ORIENT
Robinson 2, Swarbrick, Hooper (Evenson)
3,000 (Blundell Park, Cleethorpes)

LEEDS CITY 3-1 BURSLEM PORT VALE
Wilson, Hargraves, Parnell (Mountford)
9,000 (Elland Road, Leeds)

MANCHESTER UNITED 0-0 WEST BROMWICH ALBION
15,000 (Bank Street, Manchester)

STOCKPORT COUNTY 2-1 BLACKPOOL
Suart 2 (Francis)
2,000 (Edgeley Park, Stockport)

 

Bristol City experienced only their second loss of the season, and their first at home, after previously equalling the Football League record of fourteen consecutive victories. It was to be their last defeat of the season and they only dropped two more points as they earned promotion to the First Division for the first time, unsurprisingly also winning the Second Division Championship.

IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 17 February 1906 that King Christian IX of Denmark was buried at Roskilde. He had died at the age of 87 and had reigned for 42 years. His daughter was Queen Alexandra, the consort of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. At the beginning of the First World War, eight different countries had monarchs that were direct descendants of either Queen Victoria or King Christian, who was nicknamed the 'father-in-law of Europe'. Seven of the thrones (including the UK) still carry this ancestry.

Source Notes

Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats
Original Newspaper Reports
TheFA.com
Rothman's Yearbooks
FA Yearbooks 1950-60
Ancestry.com
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CG