CARDIFF CITY 0 CITY 1
FA Cup 4th Round Replay
12th March 1924
Attendance 50,000
Scorer Browell
City Mitchell, Cookson, Fletcher, Hamill, Wilson, Pringle, Meredith, Roberts, Johnson, Barnes, Browell
Cardiff Farquharson, Nelson, Blair, H Evans, Keenor, Hardy, Lawson, Gill, Davies, Clennell, J Evans
extract from FOOTBALL WIZARD THE BILLY MEREDITH STORY By John Harding
After causing the Welsh crowd some heart-fluttering moments in the first half with some dashing runs and perceptive centres, he [Meredith] settled down to play probably his finest game for many years. Unfortunately for Cardiff, Hardy received an injury early in the game which reduced the overall efficiency of the defence, but, as one Welsh reporter admitted, ‘In the wily veteran Meredith, Hardy met a winger who beat him more often than any other winger has done this season’.
Jimmy Broad back now as City’s trainer felt that it was Meredith’s control of the ball that lifted him above all the other forwards: ‘His superiority was due to the fact that he could control the light ball with comparative ease, whereas most of the other players were often beaten by it. On the hard, dusty ground, the ball bounced disconcertingly, but hardly once was the veteran deceived by it.’
In the second half, with the scoresheet blank, Meredith fashioned the move that sent the Cardiff crowd home bitterly disappointed. That he had once been their greatest idol could have been of little comfort to them. Few would have savoured the trickery with which he set up the decisive goal.
…The Topical Times described the goal: ‘Keeping the ball at the end of his toes as surely as though he had it on a piece of string. The veteran glanced in his bird-like fashion to his left, as though he meant to pass in that direction. Blair saw this, and kept his position accordingly; but like a flash the forward darted ahead and leaving the back standing, as it were, he was able to go on and put in a centre which left the Cardiff goal at the mercy of Browell.
Browell so soon as he had pushed the ball into the net rushed to Meredith to offer his praises; this and that Manchester player surrounded the grand old man for the goal which was designed to take their team to the last round but one of the competition was really his
After causing the Welsh crowd some heart-fluttering moments in the first half with some dashing runs and perceptive centres, he [Meredith] settled down to play probably his finest game for many years. Unfortunately for Cardiff, Hardy received an injury early in the game which reduced the overall efficiency of the defence, but, as one Welsh reporter admitted, ‘In the wily veteran Meredith, Hardy met a winger who beat him more often than any other winger has done this season’.
Jimmy Broad back now as City’s trainer felt that it was Meredith’s control of the ball that lifted him above all the other forwards: ‘His superiority was due to the fact that he could control the light ball with comparative ease, whereas most of the other players were often beaten by it. On the hard, dusty ground, the ball bounced disconcertingly, but hardly once was the veteran deceived by it.’
In the second half, with the scoresheet blank, Meredith fashioned the move that sent the Cardiff crowd home bitterly disappointed. That he had once been their greatest idol could have been of little comfort to them. Few would have savoured the trickery with which he set up the decisive goal.
…The Topical Times described the goal: ‘Keeping the ball at the end of his toes as surely as though he had it on a piece of string. The veteran glanced in his bird-like fashion to his left, as though he meant to pass in that direction. Blair saw this, and kept his position accordingly; but like a flash the forward darted ahead and leaving the back standing, as it were, he was able to go on and put in a centre which left the Cardiff goal at the mercy of Browell.
Browell so soon as he had pushed the ball into the net rushed to Meredith to offer his praises; this and that Manchester player surrounded the grand old man for the goal which was designed to take their team to the last round but one of the competition was really his
