1901/02 SEASON REVIEW
Joining City pre-season were Willie Orr from Glossop, Dan Hurst from Workington, Hugh Morgan from Newton Heath, Lionel Watson from Stockport Central, and the trio of Sammy Frost, Fred Bevan and Dick Jones who all joined from Millwall. Moving away from City were George Dougal who joined Glossop, Joe Cassidy who moved to Middlesbrough after just one season at Hyde Road and Herbert Hallows having played just one game for The Blues moved back to his former club Southport Central. Joe Davies also moved to Stockport, ending his second spell with City.
It was a terrible start to City’s Division 1 campaign as they lost all four games in September, 3-1 at Everton, 1-0 at Sunderland, 4-1 at home to Small Heath and 2-0 at Derby. Ormerod strengthened his defence by signing custodian Frank Barrett from Ar
Moving into October The Blues played a friendly at Macclesfield and won 7-1, then they brought in another player, Tommy Hynds from Glasgow Celtic, who made his debut in a 2-0 defeat against Notts County at Trent Bridge. The early table showed City rock bottom with no points from five games.
Despite two wins, 1-0 against Bolton and 3-0 against Grimsby, both games at Hyde Road and a 0-0 draw at Wolves City entered November still bottom of Division 1.
First Division safety, even at this early start to the season, looked to be uncertain for Sam Ormerod’s team, as in November they lost 3-2 at home to Liverpool, 3-0 at Newcastle, the home game against Aston Villa was postponed due to fog and then they lost 5-0 at Sheffield United, with a lone 3-1 victory against Nottingham Forest at Hyde Road.
In December City lost 2-0 at Bury then drew 1-1 at Blackburn. The match at Stoke was abandoned due to fog and so City entered the Festive period still bottom of the league, four points away from safety.
The Blues’ position didn’t improve over Christmas as they were beaten 2-1 at Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day. On Christmas Day City had played a friendly at Hyde Road beating Glasgow Celtic 2-1. There were no other Festive games for The Blues as the game against Everton at Hyde Road was postponed due to an unfit pitch.
It was a busy start to 1902 with seven games in January, of which City won none. On New Years Day they drew 3-3 at Bolton, then lost 3-0 at home to Sunderland, 1-0 at Small Heath and 3-0 at Stoke, then drew 0-0 against Derby at Hyde Road, to leave them still cemented to the bottom of Division 1, now six points from safety.
In an effort to survive in Division 1 The board paid £100 to bring Willie McOustra from Celtic.
The FA Cup was welcome relief from the relegation battle and in the first round The Blues drew 1-1 with Preston at Hyde Road, and four days later in the replay at Preston the teams still couldn’t decide the tie as they drew 0-0 after extra time.
City raided Scotland again to bring in Jimmy Drummond from Celtic.
Back in the league and a rare win, 1-0 at home to Notts County, then back to the FA Cup and the 1st round tie was finally decided at Deepdale in the second replay, City beating Preston 4-2 after extra time.
Just five days later and City were out of the cup as Nottingham Forest beat them 2-0 in the second round at Hyde Road.
1st Division survival was now all that was on the players minds and despite a 3-2 defeat at Grimsby they finished February with two victories at Hyde Road, 1-0 against Aston Villa and 3-0 against Wolves. With ten games to play City now had a fighting chance as they were just three points behind third from bottom club Liverpool.
Unfortunately Liverpool increased the gap to five points as they beat City 4-0 at Anfield on the first day of March, however at Hyde Road the Blues then beat Newcastle 2-0, Everton 2-0 and Sheffield United 4-0, they also lost 2-1 in a friendly against Blackburn. With just six games to play City had caught the clubs above them, The Blues were still bottom on 22 points, however three other clubs were also on 22 points, Notts County, Small Heath and Liverpool, who all had a better goal average.
It wasn’t a good Easter for City as they lost 3-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday on Good Friday and 3-1 at Nottingham Forest a day later. On Easter Monday they drew 2-2 at Aston Villa. The table showed City bottom with 23 points from 31 games, Small Heath 24 points from 30 games and Stoke 25 points from 30 games, The Blues had just three games left to save their season.
In April another two friendlies were played, Ormerod’s side beating Belfast Distillery 3-1 at Hyde Road and 2-1 at Chirk. City gave themselves the best chance of survival by beating Bury 2-0 at Hyde Road and Blackburn 4-1 at Ewood Park. It meant City would have to win their last game and hope teams above them would lose there final games.
Unfortunately City drew the last game of the season 2-2 against Stoke at Hyde Road and were relegated, finishing with just 28 points.
At the end a disastrous season the City board declared losses of nearly £1,000 despite taking in around £8,000 in gate money and manager Sam Ormerod resigned.