{"id":7087,"date":"2022-12-07T17:19:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T17:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7087"},"modified":"2022-12-10T14:46:38","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T14:46:38","slug":"when-we-won-the-league-at-doncaster-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7087","title":{"rendered":"When We Won the League at Doncaster Station"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/51478338\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:72.89562% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/51478338?et=BQdicqkfTKpGjEbPmbgnEw&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=5slBTccT_ALN7qKB2igSyucewamk4plP4Iwq-zUPSIQ=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"433\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The last time we were top of the league at Christmas and went on to win the title was in 1947.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Few, if any, in this bar, save Dr F.\u2019s interlocutor in the previous, most excellent post, will remember that Christmas. American crooner Buddy Clark topped the UK pop charts with&nbsp;<em>An Apple Blossom Wedding<\/em>, Cambridge University has just admitted women into full membership and Princess Elizabeth had married her Greek prince just a month before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Life was drab, austere and wearing. Rationing was still in effect, and London was bombed out and exhausted. The devastating V-1 rocket hit in 1944 at Highbury Corner was a fresh memory. (It is why the Corner isn\u2019t a corner anymore.) At the stadium, the North Bank terracing and South Stand were newly repaired from bomb damage during the Blitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When league football had resumed after the war, we were a shadow of our great pre-war sides. We flirted with relegation for most of the 1946-47 season; the 13th-place finish flattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Refresh, revive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet manager George Allison was putting elements for a revival into place, buying Welsh left-back Walley Barnes, veteran England wing-half Joe Mercer and the mercurial Scottish winger Ian McPherson from Southampton, Everton and Notts County, respectively.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jimmy Logie, a Scottish inside right of the small and skilful ilk who had signed for the club in the summer of 1939 (timing is everything!), had made his league debut, playing ahead of right-half Paddy Sloan, newly acquired from Tranmere Rovers. Laurie Scott, signed before the war but unable to get a first-team game, also made his debut. George Swindin, later to manage the club, became the undisputed first-choice keeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ronnie Rooke joined mid-season from Fulham, an unlikely recruit, 35 years old and a lower-league journeyman centre-forward. Yet he blossomed in red and white. A relegation-averting 21 goals in 24 league games in 1946-47 would be followed by 33 in 42 in 1947-48, the only 30+ goal haul between Ted Drake in 1934-35 and TH14 in 2004-05.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rooke formed a prolific striking partnership with another centre-forward, Reg Lewis, who like Swindin and the Compton brothers had played a handful of games for the 1937-38 title-winning side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time was also wearing away the remaining older heroes of the 1930s. Cliff \u2018Boy\u2019 Bastin, the Robert Pires of his day, and Bernard Joy would retire in the close season. Bryn Jones, bought in 1938 to replace the incomparable Alex James, but another who lost their best years to the war, started to be phased out; so, too, George Male, the greatest full-back of 1930s, although there would be a twist to his tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Whittaker\u2019s world<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison, too, retired at the end of the 1946-47 season. Adding the final touches would fall to his successor, Tom Whittaker, the third manager of the Herbert Chapman dynasty. Whittaker had qualified as a physio after injury cut short his Arsenal playing career in 1925 when he was 27 years old. His innovations in Arsenal\u2019s conditioning of players and rehabilitation of the injured as first-team trainer were critical to Chapman and Allison\u2019s success in the 1930s.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the new manager, he replaced Sloan, later the first Irishman to play in Serie A, with a less attacking wing-half, West Ham\u2019s Archie Macaulay. That let him deploy Mercer, now captain, even deeper, to orchestrate the team Partey-like from in front of a defence of Swindin, Scott, now England\u2019s right-back, and Barnes, shortly to be Wales\u2019s left-back, with Les Compton between them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison had converted Compton from a middling right-back in the reserves into the reserve first-team centre-half. With Joy\u2019s retirement, the position became his own. Thirty-five and the club\u2019s longest-serving player, Compton was about to embark on the Indian summer of his career, including in 1950 becoming the oldest player to win a first England cap.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whittaker\u2019s adjustments were transformative. A defence that had leaked 70 goals the previous season conceded just 32 on its way to the title, keeping 21 clean sheets in 42 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whitaker\u2019s other signing was a young, two-footed winger, Don Roper, from Southampton. Like McPherson, Roper could play on either wing. The pair provided flexible cover for Les Compton\u2019s younger brother Denis, first-choice on the left wing but frequently unavailable because of cricket or a dodgy right knee injured in a collision with Charlton\u2019s goalkeeper in 1938.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Flying start<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 1947-48 season got off to a perfect start, with six straight wins, opening with a 3-1 win at Highbury over Sunderland (highlights&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishpathe.com\/video\/arsenal-3-sunderland-1-soccer-seasonss-flying-star\/query\/arsenal\">https:\/\/www.britishpathe.com\/video\/arsenal-3-sunderland-1-soccer-seasonss-flying-star\/query\/arsenal<\/a>&nbsp;). Six more wins and five draws extended the unbeaten run to 17 games.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It ended on November 29 at the Baseball Ground. That Derby County won with the game&#8217;s only goal was down to Swindin\u2019s keeping. The Pathe newsreel of the game doesn\u2019t show a single Arsenal attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yuletide arrived without further mishap and was celebrated with a 3-1 Christmas morning win at Anfield. We were top of the table, three points clear of Burnley after 22 games and seven ahead of Preston North End, who had played one game more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two days later, \u2018Scouthland\u2019, as the match programme described our visitors (the people take their name from a sailors&#8217; stew that is a contraction of lobscouse since you ask), won the return fixture 2-1 on a wet Saturday that turned Highbury into a quagmire, our first home defeat. Whittaker was still playing Chapman\u2019s pass-and-run game using his modified WM formation. Lesson one for Arsenal is that \u2018they cannot tip-tap their way to success through heavy going\u2019, opined the Daily Herald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cup shock<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another unexpected home loss came on January 10, in the FA Cup 3rd Round against Second Division Bradford Park Avenue (highlights&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishpathe.com\/video\/VLVA2B58EHMHBXFRX3N5K5PF1F4CT-ARSENAL-VS-BRADFORD-IN-THE-THIRD-ROUND-OF-THE-FA-CUP\/query\/arsenal\">https:\/\/www.britishpathe.com\/video\/VLVA2B58EHMHBXFRX3N5K5PF1F4CT-ARSENAL-VS-BRADFORD-IN-THE-THIRD-ROUND-OF-THE-FA-CUP\/query\/arsenal<\/a>&nbsp;). However, the league points continued to accumulate. Defeat would not strike again until the end of February, a 4-2 reverse at Villa Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three more defeats would await before the end of the season, two at Highbury, including against Chelsea in mid-March that started a stuttering run-in. A side with an average age of 30 was running out of steam. We won just three of our final ten games but had a nine-point cushion to fall back on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first of these three wins was a 7-0 thumping of Middlesborough at Highbury on Good Friday, with Rooke getting a hat-trick and Denis Compton a brace.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day, we played Blackpool \u2014 in Blackpool \u2014 fielding nine of the team that had played 24 hours earlier, and lost 3-0. On Easter Monday, we were at Middlesborough, where the identical team that had won 7-0 three days previously drew 1-1.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three games in four days over the Easter holiday involving just 13 players. Rotation? Bah! We used only 19 players all season, with seven playing at least 40 games and another three more than 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Title secured<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two weeks after Easter, it was off to Leeds Road, Huddersfield. A 1-1 draw earned the point that secured a sixth title with four games to spare. However, the team did not know it until they saw the newspapers at Doncaster Station on the way home. Second- and third-placed Manchester United and Burnley had lost and could no longer close the gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The season wound down with another loss to Derby and scoreless draws at Portsmouth and Manchester City but ended with a spectacular May Day thrashing of relegated Grimsby, 8-0 at Highbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>George Male, who had played three games for the club\u2019s first side to win the First Division in 1931 and was an ever-present in the 1933, 1934, 1935, and 1938 Championship sides, was given a valedictory game against Grimsby. Though deep into his thirties, he played eight times in the 1947-48 season when Barnes or Scott was injured, making him the first person to play in six title-winning seasons. After hanging up his boots, he had a long career as an Arsenal coach and scout, discovering Charlie George.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We had led the league for all but three days in September when we were second on goal average. We ended seven points clear of the Mancs and Burnley: P42 W23 D13 L6. GF 81 GA 32. At home, W15, D3, L3; away: W8, D10: L3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lessons from three-quarters of a century ago? Avoid lengthy injuries to key players, and don\u2019t lose away games you can\u2019t win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-0-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/qatarwhy2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7056\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/qatarwhy2-1.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/qatarwhy2-1-300x76.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/qatarwhy2-1-75x19.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images The last time we were top of the league at Christmas and went on to win the title was in 1947.&nbsp; Few, if any, in this bar, save Dr F.\u2019s interlocutor in the previous, most excellent post, will remember that Christmas. American crooner Buddy Clark topped the UK pop charts with&nbsp;An [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7087"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7092,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7087\/revisions\/7092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}