1897/98 SEASON REVIEW
City’s fourth season in Division 2 couldn’t have started better as they beat Gainsborough Trinity 3-0 at Hyde Road, Darwen 4-2 at Barley Bank and again at home they beat Loughborough Town 3-0.
In a friendly at Stoke they continued a 100% record with a 5-0 win and back in the league they finished September with two further victories, 2-0 at Blackpool and 4-1 at home to Woolwich Arsenal. The early Division 2 table showed City top with a maximum ten points.
City’s good form continued into October as they beat Loughborough Town 3-0 at The Athletics Grounds, and at Hyde Road Grimsby were beaten 3-0.
Newton Heath were the first club to take a point off The Blues with 1-1 draw in Clayton, however back at Hyde Road The Blues won again beating Darwen 5-0.
City then played second placed Burnley and lost 3-1, leaving both clubs at the top of the league on 17 points, 4 points ahead of the chasing pack.
The Blues took a break from league football as an England International game was being played at Hyde Road, City travelled to London to play a friendly against The Casuals at Tufnell Park, City winning 3-2.
Two days later in another friendly at Burslem Port Vale they lost 2-0, and then in a third friendly at Notts County they won 3-2. With the lack of league action City had fell four points behind The Clarets by the fact that they had played two games less than their Lancashire rivals. And the gap stayed the same as they played Burnley at Hyde Road in their next game and drew 1-1.
The board could sense that the club had a great chance of promotion if they could keep up the great form so far and they invested in bringing in half back, Stewart Munn from Grimsby Town.
Yet again The Blues had a Saturday off from league football and lost further ground on Burnley as they beat Burslem Port Vale 3-2 in a friendly at Hyde Road.
An agreement was then agreed with Lincoln for Jock Wilson to join City with Charles Bannister moving the other way to Lincoln.
Back in the league and City beat Leicester Fosse 2-1 at Hyde Road, then played one of their games in hand in Burnley and in an entertaining game at Grimsby then won 4-3.
It was a mixed Christmas period with a 1-0 defeat at home to Newton Heath on Christmas Day and a 1-0 victory at Small Heath Alliance two days later.
On New Years Day 1898 City lost 3-0 at Luton and were now six points behind Burnley with a game in hand.
January finishd with a 3-2 win against Walsall and a 1-1 draw against Newcastle, both games at home. Them a 1-1 draw at Walsall and a 3-1 win against Lincoln at Hyde Road. Then in The FA Cup 1st Round thet beat Wigan 1-0 at home.
February saw no victories for City, drawing 2-2 at Woolwich Arsenal, a 1-0 defeat at Bolton to knock them out of the FA Cup in the second round and a 1-0 defeat at Gainsborough Trinity in the league that saw City drop out of the top two in Division Two. They were also beaten 5-0 in a friendly at Preston.
winning the league was now looking unlikely and City’s best option for promotion was to chase second and gain a place in the end of season test matches, to help the board brought in another player, George Dougal from Hibernian.
City’s next game was against second placed Newcastle who they trailed by five points and needing cover at right back The Blues arranged a temporary transfer of Tom Clare from Burslem Port Vale just to play against The Geordies, and then he would return back to Vale. Clare played in the game at Newcastle but City still lost the game 2-0.
With just seven games to play any chance of promotion was looking unlikely unless City could return to their early season form, and unfortunately they couldn’t as they slipped to fourth place with a 2-1 defeat at Lincoln City.
Two days later The Blues drew 2-2 at Burnley in a friendly benefit match for Archie Livingstone and Tom McLintock.
The Blues briefly moved back to third with a 2-1 win at home to Luton, which was followed by three draws, 3-3 against Blackpool at Hyde Road, then 0-0 at Leicester Fosse and 0-0 at Burton Swifts, a result that meant with just two games to play it was no longer possible to catch Newcastle for second place.
On Easter Bank Holiday City played their penultimate league game of the season drawing 3-3 against Small Heath Alliance at Hyde Road, then two days later in a friendly at Macclesfield they won 2-1.
Despite just falling short of promotion City put up a great end of season show at Hyde Road as they beat Burton Swifts 9-0, to finish third in Division 2 with 39 points from 30 games.
Post season friendlies saw City draw 0-0 to Sunderland and beat Bury 2-1, both games at Hyde Road, Then in The Healey Charity Cup they beat Newton Heath 4-2 in Clayton, and in the final friendly they beat Everton 4-2 at Hyde Road.