Edgware                   0         

Erith & Belvedere   1          McCullough 10          

Corinthian League Memorial Shield Final, 3 April 1948 (at Grays)

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, a major win in a match we know next to nothing about.

The fascination of the late 1940s in football in general is the recovery from wartime and the continuing appetite for entertainment.  Football attendances were never as big before or since this period, and indeed the year after the game we look at today, the Deres’ crowd record was set.  And it was not until 1947-48 that the last Forces-based players returned after being demobbed: Pat O’Hara took charge of the reserve team, while Johnny Clements returned to the left wing to be the season’s top scorer.  Also on the scoresheet was Bill Bowers, who while serving with the RAMC in the Middle East had played alongside Tom Finney.

We had a more than decent season, finishing 3rd in the 14-team Corinthian League, and enjoying an 8-game winning streak in October and November which has been matched but never beaten since.  In the league cup competition, the Corinthian League Memorial Shield, we won 2-1 at Grays in the first round, 3-1 home to Slough in the second and 2-0 home to Maidenhead in the semi-final on 7 February.  However, in the two months between this and the final, there would be major developments – all beginning with a red-letter day for our right-half.

John McCullough was described as “a 90 minute terrier”.  His strength of character can be judged by the fact that at the age of 15 he left his native Workington to take up a job at Fraser and Chalmers of Erith, staying in digs in Barnehurst some 250 miles from home.  He served with the Navy during the war, eating rotten food and representing the Navy in a tournament at Trincomalee, Ceylon (Sri Lanka).  Now, still only 26, “Jock” was accorded an honour unique in E&B’s history: a place in an Olympic trial.  The trial, a match between an FA Amateur XI and the Universities Athletic Union, took place at Ashton Gate, Bristol, on 18 February.  The team assembled under the clock at Platform 1, Paddington Station, at 8.30am and reached Bristol by noon.  McCullough takes up the story:

“Bert Tann, the Deres’ manager, was a fully qualified FA coach, and travelled with me to join the Football Association party.  The party consisted of (FA Secretary) Sir Stanley Rous and Mr Walter Winterbottom, team manager, plus Bristol City and Bristol Rovers officials.  Before the game we players were allowed a light lunch, and the FA party adjourned for a much larger meal.  It was at this meal that Bert was offered the post of team coach at Rovers.”

Tann, a former Charlton player, was Deres’ first post-war manager and had steered us to two successful seasons.  His appointment at Bristol Rovers was announced in March, and he left Park View to take up his post on 5 April.  In February 1950 he was appointed manager at Eastville, and held that position until April 1968, when he became general manager.  Curiously, for seven of those seasons, his rival at Bristol City was Fred Ford, another E&B old boy, who was also Tann’s successor at Rovers.

Tann and McCullough’s last game together with Deres was the Corinthian League Memorial Shield final at Grays on 3 April, where McCullough scored the winning goal against Edgware after ten minutes.  Unfortunately that is all we know about the game!  The line-up in the Kent Amateur Cup Final the following month is the best guide we have to what the line-up might have been:

Jack Nunn; Ron Bevan, John Smith; Bill Bowers, Arthur Warboys, John McCullough; Vic Ansell, Jim Cullum, Jack O’Brien, Harold Gurr, Johnny Clements.