Rare picture emerges of the best team in Darlington

This splendid picture of the Saints in the 1904-05 season has just re-emerged from a dusty corner of our office and is published, we think, for the first time. It shows the players in their Chesnut Grove stadium which was beside the River Skerne in Valley Street – the ground got its name because it was accessed via Chesnut Street, off High Northgate.

The Grove could hold 5,000 spectators, and the players are pictured in front of the wooden press box.

The club was formed in 1883 around Darlington’s Catholic church, but in March 1889 it was considered too “small fry” to be among the 19 largest clubs in the North East invited to a meeting to discuss forming the first league. However, as only seven of those 19 agreed to join the league, St Augustine’s were invited to make up the numbers.

They bulked out the local Catholic talent by hiring in Scottish professionals and won the title by the narrowest of margins ahead of Newcastle West End (which in 1892 united with Newcastle East End, who finished fourth that season, to form today’s Newcastle United).

Both the Saints and West End won 12 of their 18 matches and lost four and so were equal on 26 points, but West End had scored 44 goals and conceded 24, giving them a goal difference of +20, whereas the Saints had scored 39 and conceded just 17, so their goal difference of +22 won them the title.

The Saints must have thought that God had moved in mysterious ways that season to help them to the championship.

For example, in November 1889 at Chesnut Grove as they led their match against East End 1-0, everyone in the crowd saw the Newcastle players get the ball in the net for a late equaliser.

Everyone, that is, except the referee, Mr Philips from Northumberland.

"He disallowed a goal because he was too far away to see it," said The Northern Echo in disbelief. “But if a referee will not exert himself to keep up with the players, it is adamantine parallelograms –indeed, hard lines."

He awarded a goal kick and the Saints won 1-0.

Still, though, they were behind West End as the season neared its end, but in their last three matches they beat Birtley 5-0, hammered West End 4-1 at St James’s Park and then beat South Bank 5-2. Even so, West End only needed a draw to win the title in their last match but travelled to play Darlington FC at Feethams with only 10 men and lost 3-0, so the Saints ascended to the top of the table.

A very battered picture of the Saints from the 1890s. It is taken in a very similar position at Chesnut Grove to our rediscovered image, although on this one you can see the words "Press" above the box behind the players 

But God does indeed move in mysterious ways because the following season, the Saints failed to win a match as they plunged into financial difficulties and their Scottish pros deserted them. They finished bottom of the table with just three points and were booted out of the league.

They returned to the Northern League in 1893 and this time behaved themselves, both in terms of finances and in terms of results. They usually finished in the bottom half of the table, allowing the big clubs of Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland to compete for the title.

Darlington St Augustine's FC in 1901. George Gilfellon is fifth from the left on the back row, and John Anwyll is on the back row in a bow-tie

They had their moments, though. In 1896, they held Darlington to a scintillating 5-5 draw at Chesnut Grove and in 1903 were Middlesbrough A’s first opponents at their new ground of Ayresome Park.

Our newly rediscovered picture of Darlington St Augustine's FC in 1904-05. Back row from the left: JW Gannon (honorary secretary), T Rodgers (captain), G Adams, P Murphy, H Sheardown, I Rule, R Guthrie, W Heslin (trainer). Front: J Prior, E Hanlon, W Birbeck, J Shackleton, J Payne, J Walton, F Seal, W Gannon (honorary treasurer). Do any of these names feature in your family tree? We'd love to know if they do

In 1904-05, the team in our photograph were mediocre and finished 10th out of 13 in the league but at Chesnut Grove on October 22, 1904, they pulled off one of the shocks of the season, beating Sunderland A 2-0, with goals from Shackleton and Payne, who are both on the front row.

The Saints bumbled along near the foot of the table until the First World War broke out. With many players signing up, all clubs struggled to put out teams in late 1914, but the Saints were boosted by the arrival of an evacuee from Belgium, Georg Isherwood, 17, who scored on his home debut with a stunning drive against Stockton.

The publicity around his wondergoal reached the ears of Edgard Heyligen, 18, an evacuee who had been taken in by kindly people in Woodland Road. He had played for Racing Club de Malines in the second Belgian division and he, too, came to play at Chesnut Grove.

Even with their foreign talent, the Saints finished second bottom that season and the league was then abandoned for the rest of the war.

The Saints did not reappear in peacetime. Chesnut Grove became over-run by industrial units, although one corner of the wooden stand survived as Darlington Arena, which included a boxing ring, until 1975.

Now one of the few items that remain of this team that was once a giant in North East football is a photograph that has been hidden for decades in a dusty corner of the Echo archive.