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1903 F A CUP FINAL
BURY 6
VS
DERBY COUNTY 0
SCORERS-GEORGE ROSS-20, CHARLIE SAGAR-48, JOE LEEMING-56, 75 WILLIAM WOOD-57, JOHN PLANT-59,
18th APRIL-CRYSTAL PALACE-LONDON
ATTENDANCE-63,102
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New years day 1903 was the first new year of the Twentieth Century that the people of Britain could celebrate without conflict. New dangers were arising however with the re-emergence of Nationalism in both Ireland and India. The variety clubs and music halls were growing concerned with the new movie epics that were being made. Films of anything more than five minutes were just too long for the theatres to include in their shows. The new ten and fifteen minute movies needed a new arena and in this year the UK's first cinema was under construction. The cinema would still surely never be able to match the music hall for entertainment when songs of the quality of this year's big hit "Down at the old Bull and Bush" were being written. After all, a Century on and most people today at least know the tune if not the words.
Football also was having to cope with new sporting rivals as motor racing began to creep into the sports pages for the first time. The growing number of fatalities on Britain's roads saw the first National speed limit of 20 mph imposed and sent the clear signal that the days of the red flag men were well and truely over. The days of the horse for transport were numbered too if the horseless carriage could now match it for speed.
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The train remained the preferred method of transport for football teams as the F A cup first round kicked off on February 7th and on this occasion it was Bristol City who stole the limelight. The second division side arrived at Bolton with a view to nicking a one goal victory. In heavy rain, City were coasting 3-0 at half time and compounded Bolton's misery with two more goals in the second half to throughly humiliate their top flight opponents on home soil. Portsmouth were less fortunate on their visit to Everton as the first division side reversed Bristol City's exploits but Tottenham flew the flag for the Southern league with their replay win 2-0 at West Brom as Reading lost their replay 3-6 at home to Nottingham Forest. Both the defending champions, Sunderland and champions elect, Sheffield Wednesday were also among the first round casualties along with last year's beaten finalists Southampton.
The second round failed to throw up any major shocks though as the two first round giant killers were paired at Tottenham. The Southern league club's 1-0 victory over Bristol City could have been classed as a minor upset and they would not be the only non league side in the last eight as Millwall were also there. The cup holders were not though as Sheffield United were beaten at home by Bury. The conquerors of the holders were joined by six other top flight clubs in the quarter final line up in the shape of Aston Villa, Notts County, Derby, Everton and Stoke, the latter after a replay.
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The quarter final draw was good to the two non league clubs as both Tottenham and Millwall got drawn at home. It was the former's tie against cup favourites Aston Villa that attracted the biggest crowd of the day although the biggest tie in terms of press interest was the duel between Derby and Stoke. Both sides were missing their most famous player as Derby's Steve Bloomer and Stoke keeper Roose both missed out through injury but it was Derby who coped better with their loss and the pouring rain and heavy pitch. They were two up in just ten minutes through Boag and Davis and never in any real danger of letting the tie slip as they put on an exhibition of football in the second half. Warrington added the killer touch to an easy 3-0 victory. The biggest gate of the day, as mentioned earlier, was the 25,000 who turned up looking for a cup shock at Tottenham against the outright favourites Aston Villa. The great amateur player Vivain Woodward looked to have delivered the cup shock after twenty minutes when he put the home side in front but Villa quickly levelled through Johnson's free kick. A torential downpour at half time turned the pitch into a bog but it was the favourites who took to it better and McLuckie put them 2-1 up in the 56th minute before Nibloe wrapped up the tie in the 78th minute, although Copeland's late goal for Spurs caused a nervous finish. Millwall did provide the shock result and prevent an all top flight semi final line up when Watkins' first half drive was the only goal of a deserved victory over Everton. In truth Millwall's great result was under more threat from the weather than from an Everton fight back as the game had to be stopped for a time due to the weather. The referee resisted the temptation to abandon the game and provide Everton an underserved
lifeline. The fourth quarter final was dreary affair settled by a second half penalty for Bury after Nott's County's Prescott had handled on the goal line. County had a goal disallowed in the first half but could not begrudge Bury who peppered their goal after taking the lead and deserved more. Everton's Goodison Park and Aston Villa's Lower grounds {Villa Park} where the popular choices for the semi finals as the draw paired the two expected finalists Aston Villa and Bury while underdogs Millwall got the tie they had probably wanted most against Derby. Att Goodison Bury were dealt a blow even before the game when keeper Hugh Montieth was forced to step down, Montgomery taking his place. 45,000 saw Villa lose heavily despite dominating the first half of the game. They should have been a couple of goals to the good before John Plant's shot was deflected into his own net by Howard Spencer. Villa though they had equalised shortly after only to see the ref rule the goal out for offside. The fans spilled onto the pitch at half time and the second period was played with spectators at the touchlines but any hope of a Villa fightback died when Charlie Sagar put Bury two up in the 47th minute. That goal knocked the stuffing out of Villa and Bury were the better side from then on, William Wood sealing the 3-0 victory late on.
The result looked equally one sided at Villa Park as Millwall goalkeeper Sutcliffe gifted Derby a two goal lead after just twelve minutes. Derby were still without Steve Bloomer but that didn't hinder them as 30,000 fans looked on in disbelief as, in beautiful spring sunshine, Ben Warren's daisey cutter completely decieved Sutcliffe after seven minutes. It got worse for Sutcliffe five minutes later when he failed to deal with a Derby cross and John Boag made him pay to make Millwall's task virtually impossible. To his credit, Sutcliffe was probably Millwall's best player in the second half as Derby put in a masterclass for the fans. They pushed hard early on until George Richards scored the third goal but in the final half hour it was exhibition stuff as Millwall were left chasing shadows.
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THE FINAL
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The cup final rarely lives up to it's billing but it is hard to think of a final that was quite as poor as this clash in 1903. On paper it didn't look any more or less attractive than any other final between two mid table top flight clubs. In fact both Bury and Derby had made themselves fashionable cup fighters in the early Edwardian era and Bury in particular had come in for great praise for their semi final defeat of Aston Villa. Bury had finished the season slightly stronger than Derby and this was one of the reasons that they were regarded as slight favourites on the day. Five of their winning side from three years earlier, George Ross, Charlie Sager, William Wood, Joe Leeming and W Richards were back in search of a second winners medal but there was heart break for goalkeeper Montgomery who had deputised so well in goal in the semi final for Hugh Monteith. Derby also had five who had played in one or both of their previous finals. Jack Fryer and Jimmy Methven had played in both 1898 & 1899 while Archie Goodall and John May had played in the first and John Boag the second. The game certainly wasn't won and lost when Jack Fryer hid his pain when convincing the trainer that his groin injury had cleared up but Fryer's decision not to let the fit reserve keeper take his place certainly assisted in Bury racking up a record score.
It is sad considering how they have fared in the Century since to note that Bury were probably the poorest supported cup finalists of the twentieth Century. Only a few thousand bothered to make the journey to London and the local press didn't deem the cup final worthy of its front page. Fortunately Londoners and Derby fans were more interested and swelled the crowd to over 60,000 on a glorious spring afternoon in April.
The match they witnessed turned out to be one of the poorest in the history of the final. Bury played reasonably well and got into their game early on but Derby looked jittery and nervous and it was only the wayward finishing of Bury's strikers that didn't break the early deadlock or expose Jack Fryer's injury.
It couldn't continue like that and after twenty minutes, William Wood's cross eluded Joe Leeming and reached George Ross who caught the ball on a reasonable if not spectacular half volley from long range. A fit Fryer would have gathered the ball with ease but the handicapped keeper could only make a token attempt to stop Bury taking the lead. Needless to say Fryer failed to stop the shot and Bury had scored in front of a very muted crowd. That was pretty much all there was to report in the first half and there was plenty of opportunity for Derby to put right their awful first half display at half time.
The tougher talking at half time actually came from the Bury team who were annoyed that they had not killed Derby off, so dominant had their display been in the first half hour. There was a fear that Derby had got more into the game as half time approached and Bury were running the risk of following other previous losing finalists who had been the better side in the first half.
It didn't take Bury long to finish Derby off when the second half began. Within seconds of the restart Joe Sagar was unlucky to see his shot come back off the bar but he was luckier in the 48th minute when he beat Jack Fryer to Thorpe's through ball and slid it into the net for the second goal. This time Fryer couldn't hide his pain and Charlie Morris had to step in as a reluctant substitute goalkeeper. It proved a real baptism of fire for Morris who managed to keep Bury out for eight minutes before the inevitable third goal came on 56 minutes. William Wood crossed into the Derby box and Morris did well to get a fist to it. Sadly he didn't have the power of an experienced keeper and the ball fell to Joe Leeming who fired past the stand in keeper who was helpless to stop him. At 3-0 there was no chance at all of a Derby fight back so Jack Fryer decided to step back into goal for the remaining thirty-four minutes. He was picking the ball out of the net for Bury's fourth goal within a minute though. Again it was Charlie Sagar doing the damage as he let fly from the edge of the box, Fryer saved but couldn't hold it and William Wood gleefully slid the ball home. Now it was just a matter of how many goals Bury would score. Their few fans didn't have long to wait for number five, which came in the 59th minute. Derby were by now virtually down to nine men as Charlie Morris was crippled with cramp and when he was unable to clear the ball from the edge of his own area, Joe Leeming picked it up and set up John Plant for the fifth. By now the game was a virtual farce and there was still half an hour to go. Jack Fryer called it a day at this stage and left the field when Charlie Morris eased his cramp by taking over in goal. By now many of the Derby fans had seen enough and decided to take in some of the other entertainments that were available at the Crystal Palace grounds and many of the local neutrals had decided enough was enough as well. The final thirty minutes were played out to a half empty stadium that only served to help the final become a poor one. With fifteen minutes remaining Bury hammered one final nail into Derby's coffin whenJoe Leeming beat the offside trap to shoot past Charlie Morris for another soft goal. At 6-0 it may have been kinder for the referee to put Derby out of their misery. In one last tactical decision, Jimmy Methven took over in goal for the last ten minutes and at least he was able to boast a clean sheet. To be fair though nobody who was there can remember either side having a shot at goal in that period and Hugh Monteith had one of the quietest cup finals of any keeper.
The humiliation complete, the Bury players received the cup and medals from Lord Kinnaird who had won five winners medals in the 1870's and 80's.
Derby would be back, although they would have to wait over forty years for their next final and to at last get their hands on the cup. Bury were not so lucky and marked the centenary of their last cup final appearance in 2003 with a walk to their third division fixture at Rochdale to raise money to try and save the club from extinction.
TEAMS
BURY
HUGH MONTEITH
J LINDASY
JIMMY MCEWEN
W JOHNSTONE
F THORPE
GEORGE ROSS {CAPTAIN}
W RICHARDS
WILLIAM WOOD
CHARLIE SAGAR
JOE LEEMING
JOHN PLANT
DERBY COUNTY
JACK FRYER
JIMMY METHVEN
CHARLIE MORRIS
BEN WARREN
ARCHIE GOODALL {CAPTAIN}
JOHN MAY
JOE WARRINGTON
CHARLIE YORK
JOHN BOAG
GEORGE RICHARDS
GEORGE DAVIS
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