Saturday, April 1 – 1899
The check to the triumphant career of the Liverpool football team, culminating in the defeat at Derby, is a sore disappointment to the followers of the club. Fortunately for the nerves of the enthusiasts, it has not come with startling suddenness or without warning.
For some time now it has been apparent that something like a breakdown had occurred in the Liverpool ranks, and as match after match on three successive occasions, which on previous form ought to have been won, was either drawn or lost, the football public began to be prepared for the reverse by which the club has been disqualified from appearing in the final stage for the English Cup.
No doubt their hard work during the past fortnight has told heavily on the players; but the victors of Thursday, who have again shown themselves such determined cup-fighters, had a similar experience to go through, although they had this advantage, that their task on Saturday last was much lighter and the outcome of
less moment to them than in the case of Liverpool, who were down to meet a team so formidable as Notts Forest, and they were able in consequence to give three of their cup eleven a rest on that day. As if to illustrate the saying that misfortune never come singly, the prospects of Liverpool in the League competition are very much less rosy than they were.
The local club is, of course, still in the running for the championship, but the defeat at Anfield at the hands of Notts Forest and Aston Villa’s victory over Sheffield Wednesday at Birmingham materially altered the look of the table.
With one match more to play than the Lancashire team, the Villa now possess a lead of two points, and whereas the former cannot, under the most favourable conditions, score more than forty-seven points, the latter, where they to win their seven remaining arrangements would finish with a total of fifty-one.
While this gives the Birmingham players the advantage, the race is not yet won, and with care and determination Liverpool may yet find it possible to retrieve their fortunes and establish themselves League champions of England.
(Liverpool Evening Express, 01-04-1899)
"Play Up, Liverpool" 