Tottenham Hotspur: Season 1892/93

Season 1892/93

Tottenham Hotspur faced difficulties in its early years. Repetitive friendlies were not attracting large crowds and were often canceled or rearranged at short notice when teams found themselves engaged in the latter part of cup competitions. At the same time, the lack of organised fixtures and the varying crowd sizes meant that Tottenham were unable to attract the very best players to the club, who went to the northern clubs playing in the professional Football League. They solved this, albeit only for a season, by joining the newly founded Southern Alliance and recorded only 3 loses all season.

Results

17 Sep        H Paddington    W 10-0 | 26 Dec        H Edmonton        *
24 Sep SAll   A Polytechnic   W 2-1  | 14 Jan SAll   A Erith         L 1-2
 1 Oct        H Royal Arsenal W 3-0  | 21 Jan SAll   A Slough        D 3-3
 8 Oct        H Coldstrm Gds  W 6-0  | 28 Jan LnC    H Casuals       L 0-1
15 Oct SAll   A Old St Stphns W 3-0  |  4 Feb SAll   H Slough        W 5-2
22 Oct        H Coldstrm Gds  W 3-2  | 11 Feb SAll   H Polytechnic   D 2-2
29 Oct        H 2nd Scts Gds  L 2-4  | 18 Feb        H London Welsh  D 2-2
 5 Nov SAll   A Windsor       W 2-1  | 25 Feb SAll   H Upton Pk      W 1-0
12 Nov        H Clapton       L 1-2  |  4 Mar SAll   H Windsor       W 5-2
19 Nov SAll   H Erith         W 3-2  | 11 Mar        H QPR           W 1-0
26 Nov        H Calednian Ath W 5-0  | 25 Mar SAll   H Old St Stphns L 1-2
 3 Dec LnC    A Polytechnic   D 2-2  |  1 Apr        H City Ramblers W 1-0
10 Dec        H Hampstead     D 1-1  |  8 Apr SAll   A Upton Pk      L 1-4
17 Dec LnCr   H Polytechnic   W 3-0  | 15 Apr WDC    † Smethwick     L 0-2
24 Dec        H Coldstrm Gds    *    | 22 Apr        H London Welsh  W 4-1

† Played at Wolverton
The Herald gives Spurs full first team record for the season as played 31,
won 17, drawn 6, for 79 goals and against 46. They fail to record the
results of five of these matches, however.
* Result not available

LnC  London Cup
SAll Southern Alliance League
WDC  Wolverton and District Charity Cup

Southern Alliance 1892-93

                Pl  W  D  L GF GA  Pt
1 Old St Stphns 12 10  1  1 44 15  21
2 Erith         11  8  1  2 29 14  17
3 Tottenham     12  7  2  3 29 21  16
4 Polytechnic    8  4  0  4 18 12   8
5 Slough        11  2  2  7 21 33   6
6 Windsor/Eton  10  2  1  7 14 37   5
7 Upton Pk      10  1  0  9  7 36   2

Only two other fixtures were known to
have been played - Slough v Upton 
Park on 29 April and Windsor v
Polytechnic on 23 April. The results
of these games are not recorded and,
as far as known, the league was left
incomplete.
The Southern Alliance was disbanded
at the end of this season.

< 1891/92 | Up | 1893/94 >

Tottenham Hotspur: Season 1892/93

Evening guys. May I correct your statement regarding the other two known SFA fixtures?

Slough v Upton Park almost certainly wasn't played. I have found match reports for all 11 Slough fixtures and whilst the goals totals are 21-32 from the reports rather than 21-22 as per the league table, their record was P11 W2 D2 L7.
The South Bucks Standard of Friday 28 April 1893 does state the last game of the season for Slough was scheduled for the following day, being v Upton Park, but subsequent editions make no mention of the game whatsover.

Windsor v Polytechnic was not played on 23 April 1893 as that was a Sunday. They were beaten at Reading 0-6 on 22nd April in a Berkshire Charity Cup match. Again there is no reference in the SOuth Bucks Standard of a match v Polytechnic around that time, nor indeed at Windsor throughout the season.

I'm trying to track down all the known results and will update you if I find the two matches concerned.

Great site BTW, and thanks for the info.

Quick update - In the Chelmsford Chronicle of 14/04/1893, the Tottenham v Upton Park result on 8th April that years is given as 4-1 in Tottenham's favour, rather than Upton Park winning 4-1. This would be a far more logical result as the final table suggests Upton Park won 1 match all season - this was a 1-0 home win v Slough, with a brief match report in the South Bucks Standard of 14/10/1892.