With the present troubles in Eastern Europe, it is hard to imagine that there is any football being played in that region. In Britain, on 1st Sept 1939, at the beginning of WW2 and during the 1939-40 season, the FA Cup competition began in earnest, with an Extra Preliminary Round, which was soon curtailed when the War took precedence.
In that round, Amble beat Chopwell Colliery 8-4; Wealdstone beat the Old Johnians 7-3, Egham lost to Woking 0-12. The Cup resumed in 1945-6 and Woking beat Epsom 8-1 away, Amble lost 3-1 away at Newburn and St Albans drew 2-2 with Wealdstone but lost the replay 3-0. There was no competition through 1940-1 to 1944-5.
War time football, of sort, however, was evident in Britain during the Second World War.
The 1939-40 football league season was the 65th season of competitive football in England. In September 1939, shortly after World War 2 was declared, most football competitions were abandoned as the country's attention turned to the war effort. Regional league competitions were set up instead as there was a 50 mile limit for travelling implemented by the government during this time. Appearances in these tournaments do not count in players' official records. A few leagues, such as the Northern League, did manage to complete a season, but more than half of the teams were unable to fulfil all their fixtures and resigned. Many footballers signed up to fight in the war and as a result, many teams were depleted, and fielded guest players instead – Crystal Palace FC fielded 186 different players during the seven wartime seasons. The FA Cup was resumed for the 1945–46 season and The Football League the following season.
Inevitably, the peace that followed the War saw a boom in attendances up and down the country. The FA Cup competition was based on two leg ties from Round One. (The four qualifying rounds were straight forward one off games.) Teams that entered into the 1939-40 competition, except by special permission of the "Cup Committee". The entry fee was Ten Shillings (50p today!) which mostly had paid to enter the 1939-40 cup. Several clubs had folded during the war and Hull City and New Brighton were unable to enter the cup. (p.s. The FA Cup rounds returned to one leg ties the following season)
At Hull, building materials were hard to come by in the post-war years for something as "frivolous" as a football stadium in the heavily bombed city. This and the state of the pitch meant that the Boothberry Park ground was still not in a usable state by the 1945–46 season, so the club was forced to return to playing its matches at one of its former homes, the Boulevard, the then home of Hull Rugby League club.
New Brighton's ground was Sandheys Park, on Rake Lane, which was badly damaged during a bombing raid in 1942. After the war, the club moved to the Tower Athletic Ground (below), the former home of New Brighton Tower. The club remained in the Third Division North until 1951, when they were voted out of the Football League after finishing bottom and replaced by Workington.
In these last years, the Rakers set one final record. On 15 March 1947, manager Neil McBain was forced to play in goal at Hartlepools, becoming the oldest player, at 51 years and 120 days, to feature in a Football League match. Rakers were beaten 3–0.
At Bolton's Burnden Park Ground on March 9th 1946, 65,419 were officially present to see Stanley Matthews and his Stoke City side play Bolton for a place in the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Unofficially probably 85,000 got into the ground and in circumstances that had many similarities to what would happen at Hillsborough 43 years later tragically 33 fans died in the crush with many more (500+) suffering serious injuries. Amazingly, after a short break, the match was played to a finish. The result seems unimportant.
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