Beware of Ware!

1926/7 was the first season under a revision of the offside rule such that only two opposing players (as opposed to three) were necessary to put an attacker onside. Dearman made hay in that winter's sunshine to score 98 goals in the season whilst the club netted 188, records which are unlikely to be beaten.

Both player and team had their best spell in the early part of 1927 starting with a 6-2 win at Hoddesdon Town in the Senior Cup on January 15th. The winter weather must have prevented any game the following week (no artificial pitches then of course) so it was a fortnight before the next game, a 6-1 league win over an army side from RASC Feltham followed by an 11-1 league win over Northampton Polytechnic Institute (now part of London University). There was another empty weekend before an 8-0 senior cup win over Letchworth works side Kryn & Lahy on February 19th. That's 31 goals in four matches as opposed to the current side's 24.

There are other differences too. The current squad have spread their 24 goals among eight players whilst 1927's 31 goals were shared between seven of whom Dearman was the runaway leader. He scored 18 (over half the total) in a progression from three in the first match, then four followed by five and finally six of the eight against Kryn and Lahy. He was the only player to score in all four matches.