Home

© Pride of Anglia. All rights reserved.

Pride of Anglia legal stuff.

A Potted Club History - The 1900's

Results and tables for the following seasons can be found in our all-time results section.

The Decades Winners

League Champions: 1900 Aston Villa, 1901 Liverpool, 1902 Sunderland, 1903 Sheffield Wednesday, 1904 Sheffield Wednesday, 1905 Newcastle United, 1906 Liverpool, 1907 Newcastle United, 1908 Manchester United, 1909 Newcastle United

FA Cup Winners:1900 Bury, 1901 Tottenham Hotspur, 1902 Sheffield United, 1903 Bury, 1904 Manchester City, 1905 Aston Villa, 1906 Everton, 1907 Sheffield Wednesday, 1908 Wolverhampton Wanderers, 1909 Manchester United

Pictured above: Manchester United capture their first League Championship in 1908

Season 1900-01

With finances tight at the club member’s tickets (forerunner of the modern day season ticket) are issued for the first time to raise working capital. Despite a run of six successive league defeats in December, Town recover to finish their second season in the Norfolk & Suffolk League in a respectable mid-table position. Gale force winds result in Town throwing away a 2-0 half-time lead to lose 6-2 to Old Etonians in the FA Amateur Cup, and 2,500 flock to Portman Road to a Suffolk County take on First Division Sunderland.

Season 1901-02

Four consecutive victories in March puts Town top of the Norfolk & Suffolk League but Lowestoft are crowned Champions on the final day of the season with a crushing 9-0 against the Blue’s who finish third. Ipswich reach the last eight of the Amateur Cup but are trounced 10-0 by Old Malvernians. Ernest Kent plays the last of over 200 games for the Club. Kent, who averaged a goal a game for Ipswich, died in 1960 and by special arrangement his ashes were scattered over Portman Road (Town were crowned Second Division and then League Champions in the two seasons that followed!)

Season 1902-03

Town are runners-up to Lowestoft in the Norfolk & Suffolk League, which includes the newly formed Norwich City in its ranks. The Canaries registered a ‘double’ over Town with a 1-0 victory at their Newmarket Road ground and a 2-1 win at Portman Road.

Season 1903-04

Now used to league competition the club competes in not only the Norfolk & Suffolk League but the South East Anglian League as well, finishing Champions of the latter, the first championship of any sort won by Town. Billy ‘Swanky’ Malden weighs in with twelve goals in eleven appearances during his first season with the club. Oddly the Blue’s just avoid the wooden spoon in the N&S League on goal difference. The Suffolk Senior Cup is also won with Town beating Leiston 3-2 in the final at Saxmundham.

Season 1904-05

Town finish runners-up in the South East Anglian League - a point behind winners Colchester Crown - and mid-table in the Norfolk & Suffolk League. The first victory against Norwich City is recorded with a 1-0 win at Portman Road (although it should be noted this was City’s reserve side as the Canaries had turned professional and their senior side competed in the Southern League). Town went out of the Amateur Cup in the first round, losing 9-0 at Clapton, but did lift the Suffolk Senior Cup with victory over Leiston in the final, and Woolwich Arsenal played a friendly at Portman Road in late April beating Town 3-1 in front of a crowd of 3,000.

Season 1905-06

After a feisty encounter with rivals Colchester Crown the club resolve never to play their Essex rivals again and are fined by the South East Anglian League when they choose to play a friendly with Orwell Works rather than play the return against Colchester later in the season. Town terminated their association with the league at the end of the season. Elsewhere, Town finish mid-table in the Norfolk & Suffolk League, the Suffolk Senior Cup is won for the third year running and with the club’s finance’s looking flush a series of ground improvements are planned including a grandstand and the relaying of the pitch in the close season.

Season 1906-07

Town again finish mid-table in the Norfolk & Suffolk League. A crowd of almost 4,000 watch Town beat Bury St Edmunds in the Suffolk Senior Cup final, one of the few remaining trees at Portman Road catches fire during the game with Lowestoft and Town beat Beccles Caxton, Kirkley and Lowestoft in the Amateur Cup before being knocked out by King’s Lynn. Improvements to the ground are completed late and the ‘new’ ground is officially opened in January 1906. The new grandstand, on the Portman Road side of pitch, would survive until the early 1970’s, eventually being moved to the Foxhall Speedway Stadium.

Season 1907-08

A power struggle between the FA and the newly formed Amateur FA results in Town defecting from the FA backed Norfolk & Suffolk League to the newly formed Southern Amateur League. The Blue’s get off to a flying start in the new league with Billy ‘Swanky’ Malden netting after just 30 seconds in the first game against Eastbourne, but eventually finish third bottom. Town also competed in the East Anglian League during the season but not all fixtures were completed and no final league table was published. The famous Corinthians visit Portman Road for the first time, winning 7-1, Town reached the second round proper of the new AFA Cup and won the Suffolk Senior Cup (AFA version) with a 3-0 final victory over Bury Alexandra.

Season 1908-09

Relegation from the top-tier of the Southern Amateur League is avoided despite three defeats in the final four games but Town fair better in the AFA Cup, reaching the third round before being knocked out by The Casuals, in an otherwise dour season.

Season 1909-10

Another dreary season as Town again avoid relegation from the First Division of Southern Amateur League by winning their last three league games. Just twelve paying spectators watch Town’s league game against Norsemen in Edmonton and the Corinthians inflict on Town the heaviest defeat in the clubs entire history when they beat the Blue’s 15-1 at Portman Road on New Years day.

Back to the top ^^