Origins  

Celebrating 120 years of the Grecians –
The St Sidwell’sUnited Story

20. St Sidwell United’s third season

The 1903-4 season was quite a change for St Sidwell’s United. In both their first two seasons, playing at PinhoeRoad, they had been Exeter Junior League champions.  Now they were stepping up into the East Devon Senior League and had moved to St James’ Park.  Their main rivals for the ‘City Club’ tag, Exeter United, were no more.   It was a chance for The Grecians to really make their mark, and one they rose to impressively.

A series of League games were played at the start of the season. A couple of thumping wins, 6-2 against Newton Abbot GWR Students and 8-0 v Dawlish, were a little misleading. Tougher matches lay ahead. Indeed, four of their next five League games were lost.

One of these was away at Dawlish where the local paper, the Dawlish Gazette, said St Sidwell’s ‘had a rude shock’ as the home team ‘scored a handsome victory over the Exonians by 2 goals to nil’.

As well as a series of close games with the 110th, 111th and 112thBatteries Royal Field Artillery, St Sidwell’s enjoyed contrasting fortunes with eventual champions St Luke’s Training College.  The students set out their stall on 17 October with a 6-1 home win. The Devon and Exeter Gazettereported that as the game went on ‘the visiting combination became thoroughly disorganised’.

The truth was that St Sidwell’s were struggling at this stage of the season as new players were integrated. Some of these, like Ashford, Bailey and Wallage, had previously played for Exeter United.  

But once the side became settled their form was transformed. In the second half of the season they won 14 of 17 games.  A trend underlined in the return game with St Luke’s. This time the tables were well and truly turned with St Sidwell’swinning 5-0 in what the Gazette called ‘a capital game’. The paper went on to say that ‘United proved themselves the better team in almost every department of the game’.

Although the team was evolving, it’s still worth recognising that a large number of goals were being scored by Originals: Thomas, Sillick and Eveleigh. And Robinson remained the last line of defence.  

It was too late to win the League, but St Sidwell’s finished a creditable third behind the students and the 111th Battery.  The League season is also of note as the first time The Grecians played Torquay United in Senior League action. And the honours went to St Sidwell’s with 2-1 and 5-1 victories.

There was also a Cup run, which will feature in the next article.  For the games we have results for, the season’s playing record, including a number of friendlies, was P28 W19 L6 D3.  The foundation had been laid for the following season’s League title, playing as Exeter City.