1927 AND LINKS

It has been a fraught few days with my Google account disappearing into the airwaves and having to rely on my "Editor", W.D.Rogers, who managed to get an odd post published without me going anywhere near the Blogger account. The mystery of the airwaves! and thanks to Bill, I can carry on.

So today what about a mention of the frustrated Everton fans who will stage a walkout protest against the club’s board during their game against Arsenal at Goodison Park tonight. Anger and disappointment has been building steadily among supporters during a winless run which has seen the Toffees slip from the European places to just five points above the relegation zone. The final straw came on Wednesday night when Rafa Benitez’s side were embarrassed by bitter rivals Liverpool, on home soil, Everton losing 4-1 on a chaotic evening during which the Toffees' director of football Marcel Brands became embroiled in a heated argument with a furious fan neat the Directors' Box. A number of Everton fan groups have now come together to announce their intention to protest during the club’s next fixture, with a mass walkout planned for the 27th minute.  It is 27 years since Everton won a major honour., the FA Cup in 1995.

In 1927, Everton came 20th out of 22 in the First Division. Newcastle Utd were Champions. Leeds Utd and WBA were relegated. Cardiff City, a First Division  side, surprisingly won the FA Cup beating Arsenal 1-0, their first and only FA Cup title. The very "un-Welsh" named, Hughie Ferguson, scored the only goal.

Hughie Ferguson, born 2 March 1895, died 8 January 1930. Born in Motherwell, he played for Parkhead at junior level and was one of the most sought after young players in Scotland before signing for his hometown club, to begin his professional career. He established himself as a successful centre-forward, finishing as the top goalscorer in the Scottish Football League, on three occasions between 1918 and 1921. His 284 league goals remains a record at the club and, by 1925, he was the highest scoring player in the history of the Scottish League.

In 1925, he moved to Football League team Cardiff City, for £5,000. He was the club's top goalscorer for four consecutive seasons and scored the winning goals in both the 1927 FA Cup FInal and the Charity Sheld, in a 2–1 victory over amateur side Corinthians. Both results made Cardiff the only non-English team to have ever to have done this double. Despite his prolific scoring record, finishing his career with a goal average of 0.855 per game, he was never selected to play for Scotland, but did represent the Scottish League XI, on three occasions.

He returned to Scotland with Dundee in 1929, but struggled to reproduce his goalscoring exploits. Six months after his arrival, he had lost his place in the team and committed suicide on 8 January 1930 at the age of 34. He is one of only seven men in the history of the English and Scottish Football Leagues to have scored 350 league goals.

Cardiff also won the Welsh Cup for the 5th time. Manchester City and Chelsea came 3rd and 4th in Division Two. South Shields and Clapton Orient came 19th and 20th in the Second Division.

The Home Championship was shared by England and Scotland, although England had beaten the Scots in their head to head with the prolific Dixie Dean scoring twice. Dean had played in three other nternational and scored 3 against Belgium beating them 1-9 on England's European tour. This was followed by 3 against Luxembourg (2-5) and 2 v France (0-6). He scored 18 goals in 16 games for England.

Needless to say, Dean played for Everton and in his career he notched 350 goals in 400 games!

In international football, Peru played Uruguay in their nation's first ever international match on November 1st, 1927 in Lima losing 0-4. Uruguay was one of thre first successful international nations to come out of South America-due mainly to the colonial links with Europe and their massive trade routes.