1932/33 Season Summary

The season began with promotion prospects looking bright after two record-breaking years: a series of eight away defeats starting in October dimmed the prospects somewhat and they finally faded altogether when points were dropped at home.

Southport’s endeavour to reach a higher sphere proved to be too ambitious. Twenty-six professionals were engaged at the outset of the season, and at first all seemed well as the club stood undefeated with twelve points from the first eight games. A sustained bid for promotion appeared highly probable, but they failed to keep up their challenge.

The chief reasons for the side’s decline were the rapid break-up of the great Cup-fighting team and the inability to keep a settled side — 32 players were utilised and no fewer than nine men were tried at centre-forward ! One of these. Jack Roberts, introduced late on in the season, did bring about some improvement; however, Roberts, an amateur international, was transferred at the end of the season to Liverpool, where he turned professional, and he later assisted Port Vale, for whom he was a prolific scorer. In November Fred Dobson badly injured his knee in the Cup replay at Nelson. and was never adequately replaced. He later departed to Bradford City.

Not all was black: Matt Middleton confirmed his earlier promise as a brilliant goalkeeper, and was signed by Sunderland in August, 1933. Billy Sellars, a scoring winger and great favourite with the crowd, was transferred to Burnley, and Jack Appleby-an acquisition from Army football who worked the ball well and proved himself a valuable opportunist-quickly made an impression.

After the fine Cup runs of the previous two seasons 1932-33 was a bitter disappointment. Having defeated non-League Nelson by four clear goals in a replay at Seedhill, they lost at home to Swindon Town of the Southern Section. Without any extra Cup-tie revenue, a loss of rust under £3.000 was sustained. After making a profit on five out of the preceding six seasons, this was a particularly severe blow.

Not surprisingly there were several departures. including some familiar names: Jimmy Cowen, whose equalising goal brought Newcastle United to Haig Avenue, George Wyness. skipper Harold Taylor, Tommy Bell and stalwart full-back Jack Little. His burly partner Ted Robinson—a consistently successful taker of power penalty kicks-went to Wigan. whilst Albert Rimmer departed after eight years with the club. mainly in the Reserves.

There were changes, too, in the boardroom. Colonel W. R. Gibson tendered his resignation, as did Ray Hall. bocause of business reasons, and Arthur Hindley, an original director, after a serious illness.

In February Bert Pelham severed his connection with the club, and hopes were temporarily raised when, a month later, Jimmy Commins was reappointed manager. Commins, of course, had worked wonders in his first term as manager, but his second was by no means as successful from either a financial or a playing viewpoint.

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 '32-'33
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 1. Chorley                    38-62 (113-44)  28  6  4  Champions    
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 2. Prescot Cables             38-53 (127-66)  25  3 10  ChesLg  
 3. Southport II               38-50  (96-61)  22  6 10          
 4. Darwen                     38-49 (119-67)  22  5 11          
 5. Fleetwood                  38-49  (97-58)  21  7 10          
 6. Barrow II                  38-48 (100-55)  21  6 11          
 7. Horwich RMI                38-47 (107-82)  21  5 12          
 8. Lancaster Town             38-44  (86-72)  18  8 12          
 9. Clitheroe                  38-40  (95-73)  18  4 16          
10. Accrington Stanley II      38-37  (86-94)  16  5 17          
11. Nelson FC                  38-36  (83-81)  14  8 16          
12. Dick Kerr's                38-34  (72-106) 14  6 18          
13. Lytham                     38-33  (94-116) 13  7 18          
14. Morecambe                  38-32  (68-84)  11 10 17          
15. Rossendale United          38-31  (65-89)  10 11 17          
16. Rochdale II                38-30  (73-111) 13  4 21          
17. Great Harwood              38-28  (86-114) 12  4 22          
18. Burscough Rangers          38-27  (59-100)  9  9 20  left  
19. Bacup Borough              38-19  (62-125)  7  5 26          
20. Barnoldswick Town          38-11  (42-132)  3  5 30          

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