I was sharing the ether a few weeks ago with guy called Glenn Willmore who is the Historian of West Bromich Albion (14 books) and he came up with the following which i'm sure will be of interest to all.
The story goes back to 1885 when apparently there was a very good relationship between WBA and Third Lanark so much so that Thirds were invited by them to 'open' their new ground Stoney Lane.
Anyway Glenn has the match report of the game and this is a transcription of it verbatim which he sent to me:
There was a 2,000 attendance for the opening game at Stoney Lane, for the game against old friends Third Lanark on Saturday September 5. Matches with the Scottish Clubs would no longer be possible in the English Cup, because the Scottish FA had forbidden its clubs to enter because of a row with the English FA over professionalism.
Rain fell heavily in the morning, but during the game the sun shone brightly. Before the game photographs were taken of both sides in front of the grandstand.
Tom GREEN had the honour of scoring the first goal on the new ground, when he converted a smart centre from the left. After a quarter of an hour, Woodhall and GREEN, the latter scored his second goal with JOHNSTONE pulling a goal back for the Scots before the interval.
In the second half, Green had an early goal ruled out before the Scots staged something of a comeback, only for big Bob Roberts to stop everything that was thrown at him.
With a magnificent shot, Tom GREEN chalked up the first hat-trick at Stoney Lane, and then Ezra Horton fed WOODHALL to slide a fourth goal past Borland.
Both teams dined at the Plough & Harrow after the game.
Albion 4 Third Lanark 1
Friendly Saturday September 5 1885
Albion: Roberts, H Green, H Bell, E Horton, F Bunn, Timmins, Woodhall, T Green, Bayliss, Lavender, G Bell.
Yeah not exactly a classic piece of sports journalism but i guess reporting like this was in its infancy or perhaps were talking of the 'Sun' of its day!! Glenn was certainly surprised at the quality of the report which was the only one he could find of the occasion and the meagre support of only 2000 but i suppose football itself was a new phenomenon.
Albion played at Stoney Lane till 1900 when they moved to the 'outskirts of town' to the Hawthorns.
Nice post script to this (and perhaps an indication of the close relationship between the clubs) is that the Albion Match Secretary, Frank Heaven when relieved of his post in the late 90s joined Third Lanark as Manager and Match Secretary and if any of you have Bob Lairds book you'll find a picture of him with 1903/04 Glasgow Cup winning team (p16).
