December 19, 1908
The Sorrows of Liverpool.
Liverpool didn’t take long to cross from the sunny-side of the road into shadowland. Two points lost at Bury and the Lancashire Cup gone astray at Blackburn is a poor return for the same eleven that lowered Sheffield Wednesday’s colours to make.
At Bury, the Liverpool attack fell a long way below anticipations, and it is fairly clear that the problem of the Reds’ best vanguard has not been solved. Jack Parkinson and Bertram Goode disappointed. It seems a pity that the latter is so light. His rare work for the Reserves has not been repeated as yet for the seniors.
Then Joe Hewitt at centre players two or three moderate games for good one good one. Something needs to be done here, either by the player himself or the team builders. Ronald Orr is so good at inside left that it seems a pity to move him, whilst Sam Bowyer has given promise on the extreme left.
In the reserve team the most likely candidates for promotion are William Hunter and Harold Uren – the latter an outside left and the former a useful forward. I am told, at either centre or inside right. With Arthur Goddard recovered an experimental forward line might read: Goddard, Orr, Hunter, Bowyer, and Uren.
Of course there are other possible combination. For instance Uren is also a useful outside right. Again, Robert Robinson – despite his detractors – has played many rare games at inside right; whilst John Cox, if in anything like his old-time form, might be welcomed again, but the former-day speed is essential to success in his case. Finally, if the directors desire to launch out on a bold policy, Jim Harrop strike one as a likely man to succeed in the front line. Clever, cool, good at trapping and distribution, he would, I fancy, make a neat centre forward, could we be sure that he would shoot goals. Up to the present he has never given us the impression that he is a marksman of necessary power. But neither did Bert Freeman until the current season; with Freeman it is the judgment more than the power, however.
An eleven puzzle.
It is a puzzling situation, to say the least, and the only thing that can solve it is a string of successes on the part of those chosen for the next few matches. At Bury Orr and Bowyer were the best of a moderate line. Bury were, of course, greatly encouraged with an early lucky goal, apart from which mishap Donald Sloan exceeded expectations. Of the remaining defenders Billy Dunlop and Harrop also did well.
Going on to Blackburn for the County Cup final the Reds cut-up awfully rough, despite another creditable exhibitions by Sloan. The Rovers were practically all over our men, and the Reds’ defenders could not hold them, Maurice Parry and Tom Chorlton, in particular, being sadly left in the rare. The forwards retrieved their reputations somewhat by scoring thrice, but as this occurred after the Rovers had got five and had begun to come off we mustn’t set too much store thereby. It is remarkable how that Lancashire Cup frowns upon our two Merseyside clubs.
(Cricket and Football Field: December 19, 1908)
XX
"Play Up, Liverpool" 