1931/32 Season Summary

After winning their first five games, the ‘Port finished a respectable seventh in the table; they suffered only one home defeat in the entire season, Hartlepools prevailing 2-1 in the penultimate match at Haig Avenue.

The successful side of the previous year was largely retained, although, around Christmas, Tommy Bell from Chesterfield was introduced at inside-right and outside-left Fred Dobson, signed from Huddersfield Town, eventually filled the gap left by the departure of Joe Roberts. Goalkeeper Matt Middleton, a young North-Eastern lad from Boldon Colliery, created a most favourable impression and took over from Billy Baker after a 7-0 rout at Lincoln. His displays in the F.A. Cup did more than anything to ensure Southport’s success.

In recognition of the side’s brilliant Cup performance the previous season, the ‘Port were exempt until the Third Round—the only occasion that this has happened in the club’s history. Defences prevailed in the tie at Barnsley, but Southport easily won the replay 4-1.

Few people gave the team any chance against Newcastle, the eventual Cup winners, at St. James’ Park. When Boyd gave the Geordies the lead in the first minute the pre-match opinions seemed confirmed. but Jimmy Cowen equalised shortly afterwards. That there was no further score was thanks largely to some heroics performed by Middleton and his co-defenders. In this first meeting utility man Albert Rimmer, a local lad, deputised on the right-wing for Ralph Hills, but the latter declared himself fit and returned for the replay.

The 20,010 record crowd soon realised that Hills was not up to the mark. Nevertheless. Cowen again equalised Boyd’ first-half goal and with a little more steadiness in attack Southport might have won. The team were completely overwhelmed in the second replay at Hillsborough. After holding Newcastle for forty minutes they ran out of steam and the Geordies hammered in nine goals. They were far from disgraced – Jimmy Nelson, the United skipper, said after winning the Cup that Southport had given them their “hardest fight and fright.”

The club won the Liverpool Senior Cup for the second successive year, beating Liverpool 2-1, and reached the semi-final of the Welsh Cup-defeating RhyI and Newport County-before falling to Wrexham in a replay at Chester.

The Corporation, as ground landlords, made a grant of £1,000 to the club towards providing a new stand at the Blowick end of the “popular side” and increased the annual rent from £50 to £90. In addition covered accommodation was provided behind the Scarisbrick New Road end of the ground. The whole cost of the stand was defrayed by public subscription, and the Supporters’ Club worked hard to carry out the excavations as well as providing the bulk of the cash. The club now boasted covered accommodation for 12,000 spectators.

But there were signs that the team was breaking up. Waterston. lost his form and was released on a “free” to Doncaster Rovers. Paddy McConnell, although capped for Ireland against England in October, 1931, was no longer a regular, and Ernie “Ginger” Vincent was transferred to Manchester United in February for a substantial fee. Few people expected the decline which followed to be quite so sudden.

Season Summary reproduced with Permission from: The Sandgrounder (Southport FC Matchday Programme) Article Series. Southport through the seasons. The League History of Southport FC, Compiled by Michael p. Braham and Geoffrey S. Wilde

Source:
Wikipedia the free encyclopedia and reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

FINAL TABLE LANCASHIRE COMBINATION '31-'32
==========================================

 1. Darwen                     36-55 (104-43)  24  7  5  Champions    
-------------------------------------------------------
 2. Prescot Cables             36-48  (91-48)  21  6  9          
 3. Barrow II                  36-46  (87-45)  19  8  9          
 4. Lancaster Town             36-45  (77-52)  18  9  9          
 5. Nelson FC                  36-44  (74-53)  19  6 11          
 6. Rossendale United          36-42  (86-74)  18  6 12          
 7. Fleetwood                  36-41  (98-78)  17  7 12          
 8. Southport II               36-40  (87-60)  18  4 14          
 9. Chorley                    36-39  (85-71)  17  5 14          
10. Barnoldswick Town          36-36  (68-78)  13 10 13          
11. Clitheroe                  36-35  (65-77)  14  7 15          
12. Lytham                     36-33  (77-93)  13  7 16          
13. Dick Kerr's                36-32  (85-83)  14  4 18          
14. Bacup Borough              36-32  (71-83)  15  2 19          
15. Great Harwood              36-31  (68-80)  13  5 18          
16. Burscough Rangers          36-30  (60-82)  11  8 17          
17. Horwich RMI                36-18  (41-93)   6  6 24          
18. Morecambe                  36-18  (41-93)   6  6 24          
19. Accrington Stanley II      36-14  (40-136)  5  4 27          
20. Wigan Borough II            0- 0  ( 0- 0)   0  0  0  left  

Source:
The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.Author Dinant Abbink