August 30, 1902
Undaunted by the disappointment and financial losses of last season, the Chesterfield Town Football Club are facing the coming season with much courage and a reasonable amount of hope. The financial position of the club is, like that of many another club of equal standing, one to cause some anxiety but not despair.
Last season’s operations resulted in an actual loss of some £800, which loss was, however, covered by the profits derived from an archery tournament and a bazaar. The club commences the season with a team the capabilities of which are fairly well known, and so there is not likely to be experienced this season any wholesale shedding of players soon after the opening such as occurred last season.
Mr. J.T. Hoskin has been appointed manager of the team. This appointment will assure the confidence of the shareholders and the public as to the best disposition of the players on the club’s list. Mr. Hoskin has also been appointed secretary of the club in succession to Mr. A. Mitchell, who has accepted a position on the directorate.
Andy McCowie, who did such sterling work for the club in the later stages of last season, and was seriously lamed a few weeks before the close, and had been signed on again for the coming season, has intimated that he will be unable to fulfill his contract, as the specialist whom he has consulted has advised him that the injured leg is not yet in a condition to stand the strain of a season’s play. Like the true sportsman and gentleman that he is, he has written the directors of the club to this effect, and has presented the club with the balance of summer wages that was due to him.
Andy McCowie.
The club will have available when the season opens the following players: –
Goal, Henry Clutterbuck, W. Silcock, and Sam Hardy; backs, Harry Thorpe, Billy Banner, Joe Leiper, and Emmerson Marples; half-backs, Jimmy Haig, Peter O’Rourke, Frank Thacker, George Milnes, Ludlam, and Frith; forwards, Isaac Tomlinson, Frank Newton, Fox, Matthew Unwin, William Steele, Paddy Milward, Weston, Harry Taylor, and Herbert Munday.
Clutterbuck has been associated with the Grimsby League team; Hardy is a Newbold player of promise; Leiper has been connected with Grimsby Town and Derby County; Marples played with Chesterfield’s second team last season, as also did Milnes; Ludlam has played with Matlock teams; Frith was a Chesterfield reserve player last year; Newton comes from Grassmoor; Unwin is a Clay Cross man who last year played once or twice with the Tottenham Hotspur team; Steele hails from St. Mirren’s Paisley; Weston from Birkenhead, and Fox from Poolsbrook.
The management are in negotiation with Leicester Fosse for the transfer of Brown, who played with Chesterfield in the final stages of last season and did sound work. The composition of the League team at the outset of the season will probably be as follows; – Clutterback, goal; Leiper and Banner or Thorpe, backs; Haigh, O’Rourke, and Thacker, half-backs; Tomlinson, Newton, Fox or Unwin, Munday, Steele.
The club will run a second team, for which admission has been secured to the Midland League.
(Sheffield Independent: August 30, 1902)
"Play Up, Liverpool" 