ASTON VILLA 3 CITY 2
League Division 1
29th April 1905
Attendance 20,000
Scorers
City Turnbull, Livingstone
Villa ???
City Hillman, Frost, McMahon, Norgrove, Hynds, Booth, Meredith, Turnbull, Livingstone, Jones, Buchan
from FOOTBALL WIZARD THE BILLY MEREDITH STORY By John Harding
…Meredith recalled “Aston Villa had no chance of taking the honour. Our officials were very keen on us finishing on level points and we were offered a good bonus (£100) if we manged to do this.
Our blood was up and the game wasn’t the pleasantist”. Villa were old rivals of course, and City were never popular visitors to the Midlands. Their clashes with Small Heath over the years had never failed to end in some sort of trouble and, on principle, Birmingham crowds had a poor opinion of Manchester football.
As Meredith said, the Villa match was not the pleasantest. Villa for their part, were in no mood simply to lie down and allow City to walk alll over them. They had won the cup the previous week and wanted to finish the season in style, an attitude the Manchester men seemed to find extremely irritating.
By all reliable accounts City lost their heads in the second half. A weak referee, plus some over zealous tackling, led to mud slinging and eventually punches were thrown.
The two players at the centre of the ugliest confrontation were Sandy Turnbull, never the most placid of men on the field, and the Villa captain and England international Alec Leake, of whom it was said ‘With Alec Leake, football is a pleasure, a show, an unadulterated dish of delight. He will crack a joke with an opponent while he robs him of the ball.’ Unfortunately, Sandy Turnbull was in no mood to swap pleasantries.
In the second half, with City trailing 3-1, the faint title hopes had gone. The match itself had already turned sour as The Bolton Football Field reported: ‘Turnbull was in his dourest dribbling mood, dashing about with the ball with his whole heart set on victory. Leake found him a real hard opponent and, becoming annoyed at the rough impact, gathered up a handful of dirt and hurled it at the City man. Turnbull was not hurt and responded with an acknowledgement favoured by the bourgeoisie, thrusting two fingers in a figurative manner at the Villa man. He then says that Leake appeared to look towards the referee as though appealing, and not catching his eye, “Gave Turnbull a backhander”. The latter immediately respondeded with his fists and Leake was restrained by his fellow players from retaliating further.
Predictably the Birmingham based Sport Argus saw the incident somewhat differently: ‘To think that Leake, the mildest mannered man and the most jovial who ever stepped on to a football field should be the victim of so unprovoked an assault as that committed by Turnbull is entirely to make one’s blood boil. It is a mistake to say Alec tried to retaliate after being struck once, as my correspondent seems to think. He had good naturedly asked Turnbull, “What he was doing” on the first offence, thinking that it might have been one of the mishaps of the game, when the City sharpshooter struck him a second time. This was too much even for Leake’s complacency and though George clung to his neck like ‘The Old Man of the Sea’ and four to five other Villa players assisted the pacificatory efforts of the goalkeeper, Leake was, with difficulty held in leash. This was not the last of the affair but I am not going to raise the veil that ought to enshroud the proceedings in the dressing room’.
The match ended in a 3-2 win for Villa and as the players left the pitch the police once again had to restrain the crowd from attacking some of the City men.
On the way from the ground the City coach was stoned and reinforcements were called for to clear the mob.
…Meredith recalled “Aston Villa had no chance of taking the honour. Our officials were very keen on us finishing on level points and we were offered a good bonus (£100) if we manged to do this.
Our blood was up and the game wasn’t the pleasantist”. Villa were old rivals of course, and City were never popular visitors to the Midlands. Their clashes with Small Heath over the years had never failed to end in some sort of trouble and, on principle, Birmingham crowds had a poor opinion of Manchester football.
As Meredith said, the Villa match was not the pleasantest. Villa for their part, were in no mood simply to lie down and allow City to walk alll over them. They had won the cup the previous week and wanted to finish the season in style, an attitude the Manchester men seemed to find extremely irritating.
By all reliable accounts City lost their heads in the second half. A weak referee, plus some over zealous tackling, led to mud slinging and eventually punches were thrown.
The two players at the centre of the ugliest confrontation were Sandy Turnbull, never the most placid of men on the field, and the Villa captain and England international Alec Leake, of whom it was said ‘With Alec Leake, football is a pleasure, a show, an unadulterated dish of delight. He will crack a joke with an opponent while he robs him of the ball.’ Unfortunately, Sandy Turnbull was in no mood to swap pleasantries.
In the second half, with City trailing 3-1, the faint title hopes had gone. The match itself had already turned sour as The Bolton Football Field reported: ‘Turnbull was in his dourest dribbling mood, dashing about with the ball with his whole heart set on victory. Leake found him a real hard opponent and, becoming annoyed at the rough impact, gathered up a handful of dirt and hurled it at the City man. Turnbull was not hurt and responded with an acknowledgement favoured by the bourgeoisie, thrusting two fingers in a figurative manner at the Villa man. He then says that Leake appeared to look towards the referee as though appealing, and not catching his eye, “Gave Turnbull a backhander”. The latter immediately respondeded with his fists and Leake was restrained by his fellow players from retaliating further.
Predictably the Birmingham based Sport Argus saw the incident somewhat differently: ‘To think that Leake, the mildest mannered man and the most jovial who ever stepped on to a football field should be the victim of so unprovoked an assault as that committed by Turnbull is entirely to make one’s blood boil. It is a mistake to say Alec tried to retaliate after being struck once, as my correspondent seems to think. He had good naturedly asked Turnbull, “What he was doing” on the first offence, thinking that it might have been one of the mishaps of the game, when the City sharpshooter struck him a second time. This was too much even for Leake’s complacency and though George clung to his neck like ‘The Old Man of the Sea’ and four to five other Villa players assisted the pacificatory efforts of the goalkeeper, Leake was, with difficulty held in leash. This was not the last of the affair but I am not going to raise the veil that ought to enshroud the proceedings in the dressing room’.
The match ended in a 3-2 win for Villa and as the players left the pitch the police once again had to restrain the crowd from attacking some of the City men.
On the way from the ground the City coach was stoned and reinforcements were called for to clear the mob.