Brighton & Hove Albion 1901-02 Season

Brighton & Hove Albion 1901-02 Season Overview

Pre-season: Jackson assembles his squad
From the club’s founding on June 24^th 1901, Jackson had a little over two months to put a squad together. He signed nine professionals and supplemented those with 12 amateurs, a number of whom had turned out for the Albion’s forerunners, Brighton United and Brighton & Hove Rangers.

Captain and utility player Frank McAvoy, left-back Jock Caldwell and Irish international right-half Paddy Farrell all played under Jackson for United. Inside-left Ephraim Colclough was signed from Watford, outside-right C.J. Mendham from Glossop and outside-left Jock Russell from Blackburn Rovers.

Goalkeeper Squire Whitehurst and centre-half Jim Sutherland had turned out for Rangers in the previous season and centre-forward Clem Barker made the switch from the Albion’s new local rivals, Hove.

Brighton played two pre-season friendlies, both held at Dyke Road Park as the Sussex County Cricket Ground was unavailable. Shoreham were beaten 2-0 in the Albion’s first ever fixture on Saturday 7^th September 1901, goals from Barker and McAvoy. The other friendly ended in a 3-2 win over Woolwich Polytechnic before the real action began.

September 1901: Brighton make their Southern League debut
The Albion’s competitive debut took place in the Preliminary Qualifying Round of the FA Cup against the amateurs of Brighton Athletic on Saturday 21^st September 1901. A crowd of around 1,200 was present at the County Ground to witness a 6-2 victory with Barker claiming the first hat-trick in Brighton history.

A week later and Brighton won their first Southern League match, beating Shepherd’s Bush 2-0 on Saturday 28^th September 1901. McAvoy and Barker were the scorers. Keeping a clean sheet was particularly impressive as Whitehurst missed the game with Sutherland playing out-of-position in goal.

October 1901: Sinking other Sussex clubs in the FA Cup
October saw Brighton make good progress in the FA Cup as they eliminated fellow Sussex clubs Eastbourne 3-1 at the County Ground on Saturday 5^th October 1901 and Hastings & St Leonards 5-0 on Saturday 19^th October 1901.

The club’s first home league fixture saw West Hampstead visit Hove and it was another good result for the fledgling Albion, a 4-0 success with a brace from McAvoy taking him onto five goals from five appearances.

November 1901: Albion shock the Cottagers
Brighton suffered defeat for the first time on Saturday 2^nd November 1901, exiting the FA Cup at the Third Qualifying Round in a 3-2 loss at home to Clapton. The game drew the biggest crowd of the season to the County Ground with 2,500 in attendance.

Eventual Southern League Division Two champions Fulham were beaten 2-0 on Saturday 30^th November 1901 through goals from Barker and McAvoy, moving Brighton into second spot in the table.

December 1901: Brighton hit top spot – but trouble brews
One week after Fulham had been defeated at the County Ground, Grays United were the visitors to Hove. Grays would end the season as runners up to Fulham. Just like the Cottagers though, they had no answer to Jackson’s Brighton who ran out 2-1 winners via Barker and Baker.

Brighton picked up two victories on the road, winning 7-2 at Chesham on Saturday 14^th December 1901 and 3-2 at Maidenhead on Saturday 21^st December 1901, leaving them top of the table with six wins from their first six matches.

Trouble was brewing, however. Jackson and McAvoy had a blazing row at Christmas and their relationship never recovered. Football League Division Two club Blackpool came to the County Ground for a glamour friendly on Boxing Day with the Tangerines running out 3-1 winners in front of an intrigued crowd of 3,500.

January 1902: Grays make Albion feel grey
Grays gained revenge for their defeat at the County Ground by inflicting a first league defeat of the season on Brighton on Saturday 4^th January 1902.

An injury to Brighton’s only professional goalkeeper Whitehurst caused a headache for Jackson. Sutherland took over in goal again for a 3-1 win over Shepherd’s Bush on Saturday 25^th January which got things back on track, but playing a centre half in goal was clearly not a long-term solution.

Jackson brought in J Telford, who lasted one game before 19-year-old J Gardiner took over the gloves. Gardiner solved Brighton’s goalkeeper problems, leaving Jackson to worry about Grays and Fulham closing in on his league leaders and the simmering situation between the manager and McAvoy which was about to come to a head.

February 1902: McAvoy punches his way out of the Albion
Home victories over Maidenhead, 2-1 on Saturday 1^st February 1902, and Southall, 2-1 on Saturday 8^th February 1902, kept Brighton at the top of the pile.

Despite their lofty position, the Albion were not playing particularly well. A week after their home win over Southall, the Albion suffered a shock 1-0 defeat away against the same opponents at Southall Park. Jackson though had bigger issues to deal with after he was struck to the ground by McAvoy.

McAvoy never played for the club again. Neither did his great friend Barker. The pair had contributed 17 goals between them and despite there being five games of the campaign still to play after they left Brighton, McAvoy and Barker still finished as top scorer and second-top scorer respectively.

The duo’s departure did not end Jackson’s problems with McAvoy, either. Six months later in August 1902, McAvoy sough out Jackson at the Farm Tavern in Farm Road, Hove – the pub that the Brighton boss owned.

Fortunately, Jackson was in Lewes at the time which left McAvoy to tell Mrs Jackson: “We are going to the station to meet your husband and you must consider yourself lucky if he is brought home alive.”

March 1902: The Division Two title starts to slip away
With the firepower of McAvoy and Barker gone, Jackson brought in Eddie King from Eastbourne, W Hill from Cuckfield and a forward called Sear who came from the Luton area.

All impressed in a 7-1 friendly win against Southampton at the end of February – held at the Goldstone Ground because the County Ground was being used for a Sussex Senior Cup Semi Final – and Jackson handed the three their debuts against Chesham Town on Saturday 1^st March 1902.

The visit of Chesham was Brighton’s first competitive fixture at the Goldstone, used again due to the County Ground’s Sussex Senior Cup commitments. Sear scored along with F Mitchell, Sutherland and an own goal in a 4-0 win.

Brighton won 1-0 back at the County Ground against Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday 8^th March 1902, but that proved to be their last win of the season.

Losing 2-1 at Fulham on Saturday 22^nd March 1902 was not entirely unexpected. The Albion were still top after defeat at Craven Cottage, but left facing two away games to secure promotion to Division One at the first time of asking.

April 1902: Brighton title dreams go up in smoke
The final month of the 1901-02 season began with defeat for Brighton, a 2-0 loss at Wycombe on Tuesday 1^st April 1902 which knocked them off top spot for the first time since December as Grays took over.

Brighton ended their season with a 3-1 loss at West Hampstead four days later on Saturday 5^th April 1902. The Albion were still second and now faced a wait to see if Fulham could beat them to runners up spot.

The Cottagers not only managed that but ended up winning the title. Grays lost their final game at Southall, seeing Fulham pip them at the post thanks to a blistering run of eight successive victories to end the season.