EVERTON 1 ASTON VILLA 2 (Game 309)
September 18 1899. The Liverpool Mercury
The visit of the Villa to the Liverpool district is always productive of a stir in football circles, and that of Saturday was no exception to the rule, for the attendance at Goodison park numbered close upon 30,000. On the home side there were two enforced changes owing to injuries at Newcastle to Muir and Settle, and places were thus vacant fort Kitchen and Proudfoot while in the Villa team, Evans displaced Aston at full back. At four o’clock the teams faced as follows: – Everton: – Muir, goal, Balmer, and Molyneux backs, Wolstenholmes, Boyle, and Taylor (captain), halfbacks, Sharp, Proudfoot, Toman, Abbott, and Gee. Forwards. Aston Villa: – George, goal, Evans, and Spencer, backs, Bowman, Cowan, and Crabtree, halfbacks, Athersmith, Devey, Garrity, Wheldon, and Smith, forwards. Everton won the toss, and the first item of any moment came from the home right. Proudfoot eventually running the ball over the line, and from the goal kick, Smith forced a corner to no advantage two similar concessions to Everton immediately afterwards also proving of no avail. A few minutes later Gee was ruled offside when in fine position for scoring, and following some clever passing between the Villa inside men and halfbacks. Wheldon sent in a dropping shot which only just missed the mark. Then followed some fine concerted play by the Everton forwards which culminated in Abbott having a clear opening to score, but failing badly, the Villa signalised their escape by bearing strongly down in Kitchen’s charge, the custodian having twice to leave his post in order to kick out shots from the left wing. A further ended by Athersmith centering splendidly, and Wheldon getting his head to the ball put it to the keeper, who got it away; but the appeal the referee allowed a goal after consulting one of the linesman who, however, was not in a position to give accurate judgement on this point. There was evidently a doubt about the legality of the point, but unfortunately the defending side did not get the benefit of it which, apparently they well deserved. Play slackened considerably though on one occasion Gee raced down splendidly and Toman was only a trifle wide with the shot. For some time the Everton forwards put plenty of dash into their
play and the Villa backs and custodian were kept fully extended to their best form. Success was however denied them until close on the arrival of the interval when Toman took a pass from Proudfoot after a splendid run by Sharp, and racing round the opposing backs equalised, the score at the change of ends being Everton 1 goal, Aston Villa 1. On resuming; play again favoured Everton and George was fortunate in saving a splendid shot from Toman. Pressure was steadily levelled on the Villa goal though there was no defeating the backs, who covered each other in splendid fashion, Spencer in particular showing capital judgement in this respect. It was not until the second half was well advanced that the visiting forwards were anything like in a dangerous mood, and then they were invariably thwarted by the fine tackling and clean kicking of Balmer and Molyneux. The halfbacks however, were not over resourceful-a defect which lost the side considerable headway, and possibly a goal-and following several failures to score close in, the Villa replied with a spurt on the right wing which led to Garrity obtaining a leading point. Gee put in many splendid centres, but they went begging, and later on the whole side struggled hard to get upon equal terms, but the Villa were not inclined to leave anything to chance and directed all their emergies towards covering their goal. No further scoring was forthcoming, and on the play the Villa were lucky in receiving a victory