January 30, 1897
Key note: “Liverpool were almost universally acknowledged to have an easy task on hand in the first round of the English Cup Competition, for, in addition to the advantage accruing from choice of ground, their opponents were Burton Swifts, a club occupying a lowly position in the second division of the League. These two considerations were admittedly sufficient to justify the assumption that the representatives of the brewery town possessed little or no chance of entering the second stage of the competition, but these anticipations were rudely dispelled by the bold front presented by the visitors, who at one period of the game not only held the lead, as far as actual scoring was concerned, but even showed more effective and dangerous tactics than the Liverpudlians. The ground was in a wretched state, pools of slush and muddy turf intermingling in places with ice-covered fragments, which effectually prevented a scientific exhibition, and which served to place even a moderate team on an equality with their acknowledged superiors.” (Liverpool Mercury: February 1, 1897)
Match: FA Cup, First Round, at Anfield, kick off: 15:00.
Liverpool – Burton Swifts 4-3 (2-2)
Attendance: 4,000
Referee: Mr. J.H. Strawson (Lincoln).
Liverpool (2-3-5): Willie Donnelly, Archie Goldie, Tom Wilkie, John McCartney, Joe McQue, Thomas Cleghorn, Willie Michael, Jimmy Ross (C), George Allan, Frank Becton, Davie Hannah.
Burton Swifts (2-3-5): Dick Gray, Harry Ashby, Ned Lawrence, Arthur Chadwick, James Wyllie, Peter Rae, Jack Evans, Bert Yardley, Tommy Leigh, Joe Dewey, Jim McKenzie.
The goals: 1-0 Hannah (5 min), 1-1 Dewey (15 min.), 2-1 Allan (19 min), 2-2 Wyllie (25 min.), 2-3 Evans (55 min.), 3-3 Cleghorn (70 min), 4-3 Ross (90 min).
Match reports:
* Liverpool Mercury: “Liverpool v Burton Swifts”;
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Arthur Chadwick, Burton Swifts (Sporting Life: April 21, 1900):
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"Play Up, Liverpool" 