Man Utd 8 Swindon Town 4

Harold Halse

Man­chester Uni­ted 8 Swin­don To­wn 4, Stam­ford Bridge, Eng­lish FA Char­ity Shield, Septem­ber 25, 1911. Foot­ball Lea­gue Cham­pi­ons Man­chester Uni­ted de­feated South­ern Lea­gue Cham­pi­ons Swin­don To­wn 8-4 in front of a 10,000 crowd at Stam­ford Bridge. Har­old Halse sco­red six of the goals for Uni­ted, whi­le Sandy Turn­bull and Ge­orge Wall ad­ded a goal each.

The FA Char­ity Shield was in­tro­duced in 1908 to suc­ceed the Sher­iff of Lon­don Shield, also known as the De­war Shield. The 1911 FA Char­ity Shield was con­tested be­tween Man­chester Uni­ted, win­ners of the 1910–11 Foot­ball Lea­gue, and Swin­don To­wn, win­ners of the 1910–11 South­ern Lea­gue. The Wilt­shire­men haul­ed them­selves in­to the lead when a bril­liantly de­livered cross from Arch­ie Bown fou­nd Eng­land for­ward Har­old Flem­ing who ham­mered the ball pa­st Man­chester Uni­ted shot stop­per Hugh Ed­monds and in­to the goal in the sixth min­ute of ac­tion. Des­pite the early blow, Ern­est Mangnall´s Uni­ted troops soon re­spon­ded as for­mer Man­chester City marks­man Sandy Turn­bull ma­naged to be­at Swin­don goal­keeper Len Skiller just two min­utes la­ter in the mat­ch. Har­old Halse then pro­duced two goals in quick suc­ces­sion to make it 3-1 to Man­chester Uni­ted be­fore Freddy Wheatcroft re­duced the ar­rears for To­wn in the 15th min­ute of pro­ceed­ings. The Man­cuni­ans con­tin­ued their at­tack­ing pres­sure, tho­ugh, and they were re­war­ded for their of­fens­ive play as Halse fou­nd the back of the net for a third time a couple of min­utes la­ter. And al­though a pen­alty goal from Billy Tout the 43rd min­ute gave The Robins some re­newed hope, the ga­me was more or less put bey­ond their reach when Halse hit his fourth goal of the day three min­utes pa­st the hour ma­rk. But the scor­ing was not over yet as Halse re­gistered two more goals for Man­chester Uni­ted whi­le Ge­orge Wall made the score 8-3 in fa­vour of the Bank Street club be­fore Bob Jef­fer­son nettted a late con­sol­a­tion goal for Swin­don in the fi­nal min­ute of the clash. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Hugh Ed­monds, Leslie Hofton, Ge­orge Sta­cey, Dick Duck­worth, Char­lie Ro­berts, Al­ex Bell, Billy Mere­dith, Mickey Hamill, Har­old Halse, Sandy Turn­bull, Ge­orge Wall. Sub­stitutes: No­ne. Swin­don To­wn Te­am: Len Skiller, Harry Kay, Billy Tout, Frank Hand­ley, Char­lie Ban­nis­ter, Billy Silto, Bob Jef­fer­son, Har­old Flem­ing, Freddy Wheatcroft, Arch­ie Bown, Sam­my Lamb. Sub­stitutes: None.

 

Harold Halse Quickfacts

Hail­ing from Lon­don, Har­old Halse played for Wan­stead, New­por­tians, Bark­ing To­wn, Clapton Ori­ent, and South­end Uni­ted be­fore he joi­ned Man­chester Uni­ted for a trans­fer fee of £350 at the back end of the 1907-08 sea­son. Af­ter scor­ing on his de­but in a 4-1 Di­vi­sion One vic­tory ag­ainst Shef­field Wed­nesday at Bank Street on the 28th of Mar­ch 1908, Halse went on to notch up an im­press­ive 56 goals in 125 fir­st class ap­pear­ances for the te­am be­fore he sig­ned wi­th As­ton Vil­la for a fee of £1200 in the sum­mer of 1912.

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