On this day - 18 November

Division 1, Manor Ground Plumstead

Sunderland 0 (0)
Woolwich Arsenal 3 (2) Randall 3

Sunderland: Scott, Troughear, Milton, Tait, Thomson, Cuggy, Best, Gemmell, Kirby, Bridgett, Mordue

Attendance: 4,000

League Position after match: 11th

Fred Kirby, an amateur from Bishop Auckland, made his debut in what was to be his only game for the first team.

Walter Scott was in goal this season, having been recruited to fill the gap left by the departure of Dick Roose; Scott was to be dismissed by the club the following season for "palpable inefficiency in the performance of his duties". He was to claim that he was put off his game by "a group of spectators who made it their business to stand by his goal and hurl offensive epithets at him", and that this had made him decide to take his wife to Whitley Bay for the day rather than attend training.

Add to this a full-back universally nicknamed "Billy Toughlugs", and you start to get the impression that all was not well chez Roker. At least Charlie Thomson’s magnificent moustache (above right) remained supreme.