November 10, 1900
Davie Hannah, who has done such good service for Woolwich Arsenal, was born in that best of football villages, Renton, and he is about thirty years of age. Hannah’s great reputation commenced with the famous Renton Club, for whom he first played. After leaving them, however, he journeyed as far as Sunderland, where he stayed for five years and a half.
He was a conspicuous figure in the team of all talents during this period, in which Sunderland won the League championship. I never before saw such football as these Sunderland men played, and I am absolutely certain I have never seen anything like it since. The nearest approach to its perfectness was in 1889, when Preston North End won the English Cup against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
After Hannah had helped his club – Sunderland – to win the League Championship – best of all test – two years in succession he migrated to Liverpool, with whom he stayed one season, afterwards going to Dundee. He did not, however, like that marmalade town, and receiving an offer from Woolwich, he went South, where some of his best games have been played.
His opinion on the relative merits of North and South football, given in an interview a couple of seasons ago, are well worth repetition. “My opinion,” said Hannah, “is that the differences between North and South is not so pronounced as most people think. I am astonished at the rapid strides of improvement the South has made during the last few years. It is in the forward work that Southern elevens are behind the Northern combinations, the method of passing in the South being so widely different to those in the North. With greater experience forward, I think the South will equal the North in everything appertaining to football, but the combination must be more general amongst the men before this accomplished.”
(Tamworth Herald: November 10, 1900)
Davie Hannah (picture with article).
"Play Up, Liverpool" 