Match Summary

Ireland Team

England Team

The side selected to represent England in the first of her international matches this year gained a convincing victory at Windsor Park, Belfast, on Saturday, when Ireland were beaten before about 40,000 spectators by six goals to two...

From the start the Englishmen played the more methodical football on a pitch that was in excellent order, and within 11 minutes they had obtained a lead of two goals. An attack by Chambers and Dunne was beaten off, and then Crooks put over a fine centre from the right wing and Smith promptly scored. A minute later Waring also kicked through...

England took up the attack again, and Gardiner, after clearing well from Crooks, was beaten a third time by Hine. The superiority of the English team was always most marked, but towards the interval Dunne succeeded in scoring from a free kick for Ireland...

A pass from Crooks paved the way for a fourth goal. When he centred a misunderstanding between Gardiner and Russell occurred, and Waring seized the opening, rushing up and kicking through. Houghton added a fifth goal, a brilliant low drive going well out of Gardiner's reach...

Though in complete control of the game during the last half-hour, England failed to score again until near the end, when Houghton increased the advantage with a sixth goal. In the last minute Kelly scored Ireland's second goal. - The Times - Monday 19th October, 1931

Football League Division One 17 October 1931
Team	P	Pts
West Bromwich Albion	12	16
Everton	11	16
Huddersfield Town	11	15
Arsenal	11	14
Aston Villa	9	13
Sheffield Wednesday	11	13
Birmingham	11	13
Middlesbrough	11	13
Liverpool	11	12
Sheffield United	11	12
Leicester City	11	12
Sunderland	12	11
Newcastle United	9	10
Bolton Wanderers	11	10
Manchester City	12	9
Derby County	12	9
West Ham United	11	9
Blackpool	11	8
Chelsea	11	7
Blackburn Rovers	11	7
Grimsby Town	11	7
Portsmouth	11	6

 

Division One matches played on 17 October 1931:

ARSENAL 1-1 BOLTON WANDERERS
Hulme 13 (Blackmore 24)
42,141 (Highbury, London)

BIRMINGHAM 2-1 GRIMSBY TOWN
Gregg 30, Bradford 33 (Glover 56)
16,313 (St Andrew's, Birmingham)

 Birmingham were without Harry Hibbs, who was in goal against Ireland in Belfast.

BLACKBURN ROVERS 0-3 NEWCASTLE UNITED
(Allen 23, Lang 37, Boyd 75)
11,947 (Ewood Park, Blackburn)

BLACKPOOL 1-2 MIDDLESBROUGH
Rattray 85 (Warren 1, Holliday 61)
17,481 (Bloomfield Road, Blackpool)

Fred Warren gave the visitors the lead in the first minute, but went off injured after five minutes, and did not play again until the end of the season. The ten men bravely held on to the points.

DERBY COUNTY 1-1 LEICESTER CITY
Lewis 28 (Langford 23)
14,707 (Baseball Ground, Derby)

Derby were without Sammy Crooks, who was playing against Ireland in Belfast, as was Leicester's Ernie Hine, who scored the third goal.

EVERTON 9-3 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
Stein 22, Dean 42, 49, 56, 73, 75, White 46, Critchley 60, Johnson 87 (Rimmer 43, Hooper 61, Ball 67)
38,186 (Goodison Park, LIverpool)

Wednesday were without Blenkinsop and Strange, who were playing against Ireland in Belfast.

MANCHESTER CITY 0-1 WEST HAM UNITED
(Ruffell 86)
18,310 (Maine Road, Manchester)

PORTSMOUTH 0-3 ASTON VILLA
(Walker 66, Beresford 82, Astley 90)
20,915 (Fratton Park, Portsmouth)

Portsmouth were without Jack Smith, who scored the opening goal on his international debut, against Ireland in Belfast, whilst Villa were without Houghton and Waring, each of whom scored twice in Belfast.

SHEFFIELD UNITED 0-2 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN
(Mangnall 40, Jennings 42)
14,300 (Bramall Lane, Sheffield)

United were without Jimmy Dunne, who scored Ireland's first goal against England in Belfast, whilst Huddersfield were without Campbell and Goodall (the captain), who were playing against Ireland.

SUNDERLAND 2-1 CHELSEA
Temple 21, Connor 39 (Pearson 9)
17,294 (Roker Park, Sunderland)

WEST BROMWICH ALBION 1-2 LIVERPOOL
Glidden 60 (Hodgson 2, Gunson 90)
29,970 (The Hawthorns, West Bromwich)

Any team with Bill Dean playing up front was guaranteed lots of goals and he was the prime force behind newly-promoted Everton's astonishing victory. They would hit nine again, six weeks later, in their relentless charge to successive championships. The FA Cup holders, West Brom, who had won promotion with them, held on to the leadership, for now.

Football League Division Two 17 October 1931
Team	P	Pts
Bury	11	17
Leeds United	11	16
Stoke City	11	15
Plymouth Argyle	11	15
Bradford	11	14
Wolverhampton Wanderers	10	13
Millwall	11	12
Nottingham Forest	11	12
Oldham Athletic	11	11
Southampton	11	11
Notts County	11	11
Port Vale	11	11
Swansea Town	11	10
Burnley	10	10
Tottenham Hotspur	11	9
Manchester United	11	9
Preston North End	11	9
Bradford City	11	8
Chesterfield	10	8
Barnsley	11	8
Bristol City	11	5
Charlton Athletic	10	4

 

Division Two matches played on 17 October 1931:

BARNSLEY 0-0 MANCHESTER UNITED
4,052 (Oakwell, Barnsley)

BRADFORD CITY 1-1 CHARLTON ATHLETIC
Hallows (Peters)
10,385 (Valley Parade, Bradford)

BRISTOL CITY 1-1 CHESTERFIELD
Elliott (Frith)
8,919 (Ashton Gate, Bristol)

BURY 4-1 PRESTON NORTH END
Eggleston, Ward o.g., Robbie, Lindsay (Owens)
10,442 (Gigg Lane, Bury)

With Bury leading by four goals, Preston's Bobby Crawford missed a penalty.

LEEDS UNITED 2-1 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Furness, Keetley (Phillips)
13,825 (Elland Road, Leeds)

Leeds were without Willis Edwards, who was a reserve against Ireland in Belfast.

MILLWALL 1-0 STOKE CITY
Smith
17,737 (The Den, London)

NOTTS COUNTY 3-1 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Keetley, Fenner, Taylor (Harper)
13,397 (Meadow Lane, Nottingham)

OLDHAM ATHLETIC 3-1 BURNLEY
Worrall, Roscoe, Johnstone (Beel)
11,564 (Boundary Park, Oldham)

PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 5-1 NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Leslie 4, Grozier (Dickinson)
20,425 (Home Park, Plymouth)

Forest were without Chambers, who was playing for Ireland against England in Belfast, and Graham, who was playing against Ireland.

PORT VALE 0-0 SOUTHAMPTON
11,990 (Recreation Ground, Stoke)

SWANSEA TOWN 1-0 BRADFORD
Sykes
11,279 (Vetch Field, Swansea)

Bury's response to losing 4-1 at home to Leeds, a week earlier, was to thrash Preston, but Leeds were on a run of nine successive victories and it was they who won promotion.

Selected Division Three matches played on 17 October 1931:

CARDIFF CITY 2-0 MANSFIELD TOWN
Emmerson, Robbins
7,688 (Ninian Park, Cardiff)

Cardiff were without Jimmy McCambridge, who was playing for Ireland against England in Belfast.

GATESHEAD 2-0 SOUTHPORT
Charlton, Meek
8,904 (Redheugh Park, Gateshead)

Southport were without Paddy McConnell, who was playing for Ireland against England in Belfast.

LINCOLN CITY 1-2 STOCKPORT COUNTY
Hall (Webster, Taylor)
7,747 (Sincil Bank, Lincoln)

SOUTHEND UNITED 3-0 SWINDON TOWN
Jones, Barnett, Thompson
10,430 (The Kursaal, Southend)

Having narrowly missed out on promotion in the previous season, Lincoln led the northern section, by two points from Wrexham and Southport, each of whom had played a game more. Lincoln's defeat followed a run of five straight wins. Southend were the only unbeaten team in the Football League, and led the southern section by a point from Brentford.

IN OTHER NEWS...

It was on 18 October 1931 that the great American inventor, Thomas Edison died at the age of 84. His multiple achievements included the first playback of a sound recording, on a phonograph in 1877, the creation of the first commercially successful electric-light bulb, a year later, in 1878, and the introduction of the kinetoscope (peep-hole viewer) in 1891 which showed some of the first short motion-pictures in penny arcades.

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