The Isthmian Years- 1956-57

Wycombe Wanderers won the 1955-56 Isthmian League title at a canter. These were the days of a fifteen team Isthmian League, with only two points for a win, yet the Chairboys ended the season a full twelve points ahead of second placed Bromley, scoring almost three goals a game and with far and away the best defensive record in the League too. In the professional game Manchester United were Football League Champions, although they won by only a paltry eleven points; whilst their local rivals City took the FA Cup with goalkeeper Bert Trautmann playing most of the match with a broken neck.

Could Wycombe- and Manchester United- hold onto their titles? The answer, funnily enough, turned out to be yes.

Isthmian League

The opening day was August 18th, and the results were as follows:

Woking 7 Clapton 1
Barking 2 Corinthian-Casuals 0
Ilford 3 Kingstonian 3
Wycombe Wanderers 2 Leytonstone 1
Bromley 9 Oxford City 3
Dulwich Hamlet 6 St Albans City 1
Tooting & M Utd 2 Walthamstow Avenue 2
Romford 1 Wimbledon 0

Tooting & Mitcham United were competing in the Isthmian League for the first time, and ended the season in sixth place. Corinthian-Casuals and Barking, both of whom were to win only seven matches all season, ended the campaign holding up the rest and had to apply for re-election.

At the other end of the table Wanderers didn’t have the runaway success of their previous season, and indeed were pushed all the way by Woking, who scored one hundred and four goals in their thirty matches and ended the season only a point behind the champions.

The last match of the season came on 4th May. Wycombe entertained Corinthian-Casuals whilst rivals Woking welcomed Walthamstow Avenue. Casuals already knew they’d have to apply for re-election, whilst Avenue were firmly ensconced in mid table, so it appeared that the current champions were favourites to go on and emerge victorious once more. Casuals, however, did not roll over, and put up a fight in a three-two defeat, whilst Woking won two-nil; but the Surrey side needed their rivals to fail to win- a draw for Wanderers would have seen the Cardinals win the title on goal average.

The two matches between the clubs had seen Wanderers defeat Woking five-three on December 1st, revenge for their three-two defeat on 1st September.

Notable results:

Oxford City 10 Romford 1
Bromley 9 St Albans City 3
Leytonstone 8 Kingstonian 2
Wycombe Wanderers 7 St Albans City 0
Woking 7 St Albans City 1
Woking 7 Clapton 1
Clapton 7 Romford 1
Kingstonian 7 Corinthian-Casuals 1
St Albans City 7 Ilford 1
Romford 1 Woking 7
Woking 6 Corinthian-Casuals 0
Woking 6 Ilford 0
Woking 6 Wimbledon 0
Kingstonian 0 Wycombe Wanderers 6
Dulwich Hamlet 6 St Albans City 1
Wycombe Wanderers 6 Barking 2
Bromley 6 Wycombe Wanderers 2
Kingstonian 6 Clapton 3
Dulwich Hamlet 3 Woking 6
Wycombe Wanderers 5 Tooting & Mitcham Utd 4

We don’t have attendance figures for most of the matches, sadly- but the highest we have is the six thousand that watched Wanderers defeat Casuals on that final day.

FA Cup

We didn’t have a great FA Cup season, with only two sides reaching the First Round.

Walthamstow Avenue suffered a defeat at Crystal Palace, two-nil, but the only other side to reach the First Round, Tooting & Mitcham United, did much better, defeating Bromsgrove Rovers two-one before losing to Queens Park Rangers in Round Two.

FA Amateur Cup
It was an entirely different story in the FA Amateur Cup, however. Five of our sides- Wycombe Wanderers, Ilford, Kingstonian, Tooting & Mitcham United and Corinthian-Casuals made it to the Quarter Finals, and- of course- four of them were drawn against each other.

The K’s were the only one to escape familiar opponents, but went out to Hayes one-nil in a replay after a one-one draw in the original fixture. Ilford and Wycombe Wanderers also needed a replay after a three-three draw in Essex, and Wanderers came away from that two-nil victors, whilst Corinthian-Casuals travelled to Tooting & Mitcham United and showed cup form which belied their league form, coming away with a three-one victory.

So then there were two, and once more they were drawn together, as Casuals and Wanderers went up the Arsenal, meeting in their Semi-Final at Highbury. Wanderers went into this match at the opposite end of the table from their opponents, and this time favouritism was no burden, as they emerged four-two winners.

Awaiting them in the Final at Wembley were those Northern powerhouses Bishop Auckland. Wanderers would have been within their rights to give an involuntary shudder at the prospect, as the sides had already met twice in the Amateur Cup, Bishop defeating them at the Semi-Final stage in 1950 and 1955. Would it be third time lucky?

One interesting footnote is that both clubs played in kits which were a mixture of light blue and dark blue- indeed, Bishop were known as the Two Blues. For this final both changed their strips, Bishop playing in black and white, Wanderers in red and white.

The Final took place on April 13th 1957, and ninety thousand people turned up to watch. There was no doubt that the side from the North East were favourites. They were also the holders, and indeed were going for three in a row, having defeated Corinthian-Casuals and Hendon in the previous two finals. They’d also been losing finalists in 1950, 51 and 54. This was their eighteenth appearance in the Final, and one more win would mean they had lifted the trophy ten times.

Wanderers had previously won the competition in 1931, their only final appearance.

Bishop Auckland lined up as follows:

Harry Sharratt, Dave Marshall, Bert Childs, Bob Thursby, Corbet Creswell, Jim Nimmins, Warren Bradley, Derek Lewin, Billy Russell, Bobby Hardisty, Benny Edwards

Bobby Hardisty is a contender for the title of the greatest footballer never to turn professional, and retired at the end of this season. This was his sixth Wembley Final, and he’d also played for Great Britain in three Olympic Games. But there is another story to tell about Hardisty, one which is of particular interest to all football fans.

After the 1958 Munich Disaster, Manchester United manager Matt Busby, still in his hospital bed, instructed his Assistant Jimmy Murphy to call his friend Bob Hardisty and get him to come and help. Hardisty immediately came out of retirement to join United as an Amateur, and brought with him his former team mates Derek Lewin- who worked in Manchester- and right winger Warren Bradley, who lived in Cheshire. All three made their United debuts for the Reserve Team in front of ten thousand people, and Bradley went on to sign professionally at Old Trafford, scoring twenty goals and becoming the only player to ever win both Amateur and Full International caps for England in the same season.

Not even in the squad due to injury was Seamus O’Connell, who had been a Football League Champion will Chelsea only two years previously.

Wycombe Wanderers lined up as follows:

Dennis Syrett, Freddy Lawson, Frank Westley, Geoff Truett, Michael Wicks, Jimmy Truett, Len Worley, Cliff Trott, Paul Bates, Jackie Tomlin, Frank Smith

Keeper Syrett had been an amateur with both Charlton Athletic and Watford, whilst Lawson had been on similar terms at Arsenal and Brentford. Westley had been an amateur with Tottenham Hotspur, whilst the first of the Truett brothers was currently an amateur at Crystal Palace. Worley was also an amateur at Charlton, whilst Smith had played against today’s opponents many times in the Northern League for Consett and Evenwood, and had previously been an amateur with Newcastle United.

The match ended three-one to Bishop Auckland
. Billy Russell put the favourites ahead in the fifteenth minute, and although Frank Smith equalised against the run of play, Lewin restored the Bishop advantage and Bradley rounded off the victory nineteen minutes from time. But rather than write a detailed match report, if you look below you’ll see the report taken directly from the Official FA Year Book of 1957-58- albeit with a little damage where two pages got stuck together!

Check out our Isthmian Archive site, here- that's where we got the tables and much of the other information.