29 April 1911 and Manchester United win their second League title

29 April 1911 saw Manchester United win their second First Division title in four years when they beat Sunderland 5-1 before a crowd of 12,000 at Old Trafford, where Manchester United had first played a match against Liverpool on 19 February 1910. Like many future affairs with the Scousers this proved to be a thrilling occasion in which the away side took both points home in a 4-3 win. The opening goal of the match was scored by home forward Sandy Turnbull who hurled himself forward to head the ball from just a foot off the ground beyond Sam Hardy, one of English football’s greatest ever keepers. 

Sam Hardy was a great keeper 

Inside left Turnbull was brilliant in the air and regularly got on the end of the crosses from outside right Billy Meredith. Both men had played for Manchester City at the 1904 FA Cup Final against Bolton at the Crystal Palace which City won by a single Meredith goal. Five season later, 1908/09, Turnbull had been the player to score the only goal in an FA Cup Final as Manchester United beat Bristol City at the Crystal Palace to win the famous trophy for the first time. 

In the previous season, 1907-08, Manchester United had also won the Division One title for the first time ever. Ernest Mangnall’s side virtually blew the opposition away at the start of the season by winning 13 and losing just one of their first 14 League fixtures. Away to League Champions Newcastle United on 12 October 1907 they scored three in each half to win 6-1 with Meredith scoring the sixth, collecting a fine pass from centre half Charlie Roberts before smashing it past Jimmy Lawrence from 20 yards out. When the final whistle sounded, Newcastle fans cheered the away side from the pitch. 

George Wall 

In the second half of the season, Manchester United, perhaps because they were so far in front, lost focus but they still had the title as good as wrapped up when they won 3-1 away to Everton with six matches remaining. Outside left George Wall was one of the scorers at Goodison Park and he netted 19 League goals during the season, just six less than Turnbull. 

The Manchester United side had a formidable half-back line up of Dick Duckworth, Alec Bell and Charlie Roberts, an imposing 6’ tall figure weighing over 13 stone who could cover 100 yards in 11 seconds. Roberts’ heading, tackling, and positional play and his passing was unmatched in the First Division at this time. Darlington born Roberts though was to make just a handful of England appearances. He was kept out of the side by Bristol City’s Sam Wedlock, a fine player it is true but what did not help Roberts cause was that he objected strongly against his poor pay and also his working conditions that meant he could not move on to anther club unless his employers agreed to release him. When they finally did in 1913, Roberts was past his best and yet Oldham Athletic were still happy enough to invest £1,000 in him. The large expense nearly paid off as the Latics almost - probably should have - won the League title in 1914/15.

Charlie Roberts 

Roberts and Meredith were key men in the fight by professional players and trainers to establish a trade union of their own in the first decade of the twentieth century. A maximum wage of £4 a week had been imposed on the players and considering that some of the top ones had been getting paid £10 a week at the turn of the century they naturally felt embittered. 

Players knew of the case of James Trainer, the brilliant Preston North End and Wales keeper from the 1880s and 90s, who was later forced to turn to begging when his company went bust and he could find no other income. Incidents where players had died whilst playing for the clubs, including Thomas Blackstock at Manchester United in April 1907 and Dai Jones in 1902 at Manchester City, was bad enough but when their grieving families also had to fight for any form of compensation then revolt was in the air.

A union was formed at the Imperial Hotel, Manchester on 2 December 1907. Initially the players had the support of some of the clubs but this quickly changed such that the FA told all the players they must leave the union by 1 July 1909 or be sacked by their clubs.

Manchester United players decided to do their pre-season training at Fallowfield, home to Manchester Athletic Club. Reporters arrived to interview the rebels and Roberts helped create a legend when he obtained a piece of wood and wrote on it ‘Outcasts Football Club 1909.’

Billy Meredith 

A shabby compromise that neither Roberts or Meredith was party to then saw the FA recognise the new union, which in return agreed not to take  strike action. Pay went up by just a £1 a week and it was to be decades before players got the rewards they were entitled to.

Meredith, who played an incredible 48 times for Wales, himself had sought additional means of earning a living. He had revealed in 1904 that at Manchester City he was being paid £10 a week, way over the maximum wage allowed and when this led to an enquiry the Citizens were ordered by the FA to sell all their players. This they did in December 1906 when Turnbull, Dick Duckworth, James Bannister all moved to Manchester United along with Meredith, who had already been provided with sufficient finance by the Manchester United owner John Henry Davies to allow the Welsh international to open a city centre sports outfitters. 

Meredith’s first game for his new club was on New Year’s Day 1907. Away to Aston Villa< Manchester United won stylishly by 4-1. Meredith netted two although Roberts was man-of-the-match. United steadily rose up the table to finish the campaign in eighth place. The following season they won the League, started the 1908/09 season by winning the Charity Shield and topped it by winning the FA Cup.

Although 1910 proved a barren year the arrival of centre forward Enoch West from Nottingham Forest, where he had finished as the League top scorer in 1907/08, at the start of the 1910/11 season again gave Manchester United a cutting edge up front. All-action West was to score 19 League goals in his first season at Old Trafford, topping Turnbull by one. West was also top scorer at Old Trafford in the following two seasons. 

When the season started, Manchester United and Sunderland were tied in a race for top spot. When the sides clashed at Roker Park on Christmas Eve, the away side won courtesy of a last minute goal by Meredith as the Wearsiders dropped from top spot. In January, Everton took a two goal lead at Old Trafford but the home side rallied and after Duckworth scored with a great drive, Wall hit a last minute equaliser. 

Against Bristol City at home, ‘keeper Hugh Edmonds, signed from Bolton and where he was a reserve keeper, made his debut as Harry Moger, 6’ 2’ tall, was out injured for the rest of the season. Edmonds played the final 13 League games and by doing so collected a League Championship medal. The Robins were beaten 3-1 and then Newcastle United were beaten 1-0 on their own ground with Harold Halse scoring for Manchester United who were now tied in a race with the title with Aston Villa.

The Birmingham side appeared to have take a big advantage when before a 51,000 home crowd they beat Manchester United 2-1 in a game in which West and George Hunter were dismissed after they tangled with one another. 

Enoch West 

The victorious side traveled to Blackburn Rovers knowing that victory would as good as give them the title. The game ended goalless after Charlie Wallace missed a penalty, a feat he repeated two years later at the 1913 FA Cup Final against Sunderland. That failed to stop Villa taking the trophy in a 1-0 success.

Villa now faced a trip to Anfield on the last day of the season. Victory would give them title, whilst a 1-1 draw would open the race to Manchester United to win the First Division with Mangnall’s side then needing a victory by three goals or more to finish top on goal average. 

Many Manchester United fans were pessimistic about their title chances. In an era when to catch a cold could be deadly, heavy rain kept many supporters away from the match and just 12,000 attended. Despondency quickly set in. West missed two chances and then George Holley put the Wearsiders in front. Turnbull was a never say die competitive player and he soon headed his side level. 

Just before the interval West, craning every muscle, headed Meredith’s corner into the net and then Halse quickly made it 3-1 before half time. All eyes now turned to the half time scoreboard which had been introduced at the start of the season to coincide with the launch of the programme. Villa were losing 2-1.

On their return to the pitch, Halse, from a Meredith centre made it 4-1 before an under pressure Albert Milton, who like Sandy Turnbull was to later lose his life on active service during WWI, put the ball into his own net to make it Manchester United 5 Sunderland 1.

At Anfield, Villa gave it a real go in the second half but when John McDonald netted for Liverpool on 89 minutes the title was now Manchester United’s who finished the season on 52 points, 1 ahead of Aston Villa and seven ahead of third placed Sunderland. 

Manchester United were to later win the Charity Shield for the second time when they beat Southern League side Swindon Town 8-4 at Stamford Bridge at the beginning of the following season with Halse scoring six. 

The 1910/11 success was, if anything, a greater feat than the one in 1907/08 when Manchester United had been fortunate in largely avoiding injuries to their players. In 1910/11 just five players made more than 30 League appearances and just two more exceeded 25 from the total of 38 matches. Mangnall was constantly having to make changes and his signing of Edmunds to replace the reliable Moger proved to have been an astute gamble.