Scottish Football Reminiscences and SketchesBone, David Drummond
History
Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches
Bone, David Drummond
Football
There are yet other two Internationals, which introduce new faces into
the field of play, and the first is that of 1885 at Kennington Oval,
London, and ended in a tie, each side scoring one goal. Kennington
Oval--in the winter time, at anyrate--is to football in London what
Hampden Park is to Scotland in general and Glasgow in particular. The
weather was delightful on that afternoon (Saturday, 21st March), and the
spectators mustered in considerable force. Not, of course, so largely as
we can show in Glasgow, for it takes an enormous amount of attraction to
gather a big crowd in London. There was little or no wind to interfere
with the play, and as both teams were in the pink of condition, it was
an illustration of Greek meeting Greek in the open. The Scotchmen,
however, were the first to make matters exciting by scoring a smart goal
from the foot of Mr. Lindsay, and this was all the effective work done
in the first round. The second forty-five minutes of the play was also
of a very give-and-take order, and once Mr. Allan hit the English goal
bar with a hard shot, but the ball rebounded into play, and was
eventually sent behind. Towards the close, however, the Englishmen, led
by Messrs. Bambridge, Cobbald, and Brown made a fine run, and the former
put the game square for England. The contest, therefore, as I have
already indicated, ended in a tie. As in all the other events that I
have already touched upon, many of the players are now scattered far and
wide. Some have given the game up altogether, while others are still
playing on, and doing football duty as well, if not better, than ever
they did before. Taking the eleven in the order of positions, I shall
begin with
~J. Macaulay (Dumbarton).~
Among the brilliant array of goalkeepers who have sprung up to
distinguish themselves during the past ten years, none deserves a more
kindly notice in any football reminiscences than Mr. Macaulay. The
present match was the third he stood sentinel before Scotland's
stronghold, and he also played in '86 and '87. His first was at
Sheffield in 1883, when I saw him save several splendid shies from the
feet of the English forwards, and it is something to add of him that he
was included in the Scotch teams who never lost a match with England. In
the 1885 contest he kept goal in his best form, and was frequently
cheered for the manner in which he got out the ball and dodged the
English forwards. Mr. Macaulay was very quiet and unostentatious in his
manner, and did his work brilliantly. He returned to Scotland the other
day from abroad, and may yet play for some of our leading clubs.
~Walter Arnott (Queen's Park).~
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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