The senior England men’s football team last played in Middlesbrough five years ago. It has played there six times in all, with the first over a century ago in February 1905.
Middlesbrough FC had been around for three decades by then and had enjoyed a few particularly eventful years. The club entered the Football League after repeated success in the Northern League and the FA Amateur Cup. And after reaching the First Division, it was managing to hold its own. Attendances were regularly over 10,000, with Alf Common, Sunderland’s star player, being signed for a record fee of £1,000.
To cap it all, the club had recently moved home, from Linthorpe Road, where it had played for more than a decade, to a larger and much better equipped stadium at Ayresome Park. Supporters turning up there would find embankments behind the goals and a little wooden grandstand running along the south side of the pitch that had come from the old ground. But the new North Stand was something else entirely.
Designed by Archibald Leitch, the man behind a host of stadiums, including Ibrox in Glasgow and Sunderland’s Roker Park, it was nearly 300 feet long, with seats for 3,000 and a concrete terrace in front. It had a barrel roof and semi-circular gable that would soon become famous throughout the game. Underneath, there were offices, a boardroom, dressing rooms, baths, a gymnasium and a billiard room.
Tiny Tim
The new ground cost the equivalent of £1.3mn in today’s money to build, but the newspapers were impressed. One called it “splendidly appointed,” while another noted that it had already become “much admired”. It was thought to be the main reason the international match had been given to Middlesbrough (though cynics noted that Newcastle and Sunderland had hosted three England games already).
And fittingly, a local man was now selected to keep goal for the national side. Twenty-year-old ‘Tiny’ Tim Williamson was born in North Ormesby and educated at Coatham Grammar School, and he had played his football in Redcar before making his Middlesbrough debut in 1902. He owed his nickname to the fact that he was barely 5’ 10” tall. The cap he was about to win would be his first – and also the first ever awarded to one of the club’s players.
Also making his England debut would be Seaton Burn-born Jack Carr, a Newcastle United player. His season was destined to end in triumph, as the Magpies claimed their first League Championship and finished runners-up in the FA Cup.
The home team also included Charlie Roberts, the first Manchester United player to play for England, and Steve Bloomer, one of the most prolific goal-scorers of all time, who would shortly become another of Middlesbrough’s star signings.
Special edition
The England players had assembled at the Alexandra Hotel in Saltburn, which overlooked the North Sea and the town’s pier. The Ireland team meanwhile, was based in Middlesbrough itself, at the Grand Hotel on Zetland Road, which overlooked nothing but the station. On the evening before the match, however, they were at least able to go to the Theatre Royal on Sussex Street to see a performance of the play Sherlock Holmes.
Spirits were high in the town as the big day approached. The local Sports Gazette published a special edition. A 12-page souvenir programme went on sale. And Tim Williamson and his new teammates posed for a commemorative photograph, all suited and booted.
The game took place on the last Saturday in February. It was the 83rd one England had played, and Ayresome Park became the 39th ground to host the team. The weather was fine that afternoon, some early rain having cleared away. And though there was a fresh wind blowing, the pitch was in excellent condition.
The grandstands and terraces, meanwhile, were full. Admission cost as little as 6d (or £2.66 today). Some turnstiles had to be closed early to avoid a crush. And an attendance of 30,000 produced more than £1,000 (£106,000) in receipts, with the Middlesbrough club keeping 10 per cent of that sum.
Own goal
A brass band played before the match and both teams were applauded as they ran out from under the North Stand. Ireland kicked off, in their St Patrick’s blue shirts, while England, wearing their familiar white shirts, attacked the Holgate End of the ground, which was for now still known as the Workhouse End.
The game didn’t, in truth, do justice to the occasion. The hosts huffed and puffed but were largely ineffective, and with a Steve Bloomer goal being disallowed, the first half ended all-square. The visitors, meanwhile, were stubborn, with defender Bill McCracken – a Newcastle United team-mate of Jack Carr’s – receiving particular praise.
The first goal came just after the break, when Tim Williamson dropped a corner into his own net. Bloomer equalised two minutes later with a fine, low shot. He had another goal disallowed late on. But the match finished 1-1 and Ireland were left having avoided defeat in England for the very first time. The England players remained in Middlesbrough afterwards, and they too went to see Sherlock Holmes.
If the game itself wasn’t up to much, the way it had been organised was widely admired. “One thing is certain,” Middlesbrough’s North-Eastern Daily Gazette wrote, “the Football Association cannot deny us another international in the near future.” It would, however, take the best part of a decade. And it would be more than three decades before the people of the town finally got to see England win.
