page_title: 1893–94 Small Heath F.C. season
section_title: November
hierarchical_section_title: 1893–94 Small Heath F.C. season / Review / November
caption_attribution_description: English: Advertisement for forthcoming association football match between Middlesbrough Ironopolis and Small Heath in the Football League Second Division to be played on 25 November 1893
context_page_description: The 1893–94 season was the 13th season of competitive association football and second season in the Football League played by Small Heath F.C., an English football club based in Birmingham. In 1892–93, the inaugural season of the Football League Second Division, Small Heath had won the divisional championship but failed to gain promotion via the test match system. This year, they finished as distant runners-up in the League, eight points behind Liverpool, but were successful in the test match, defeating Darwen 3–1 to confirm their place in the First Division for the 1894–95 Football League season. The club struggled financially during the season, and there were suggestions that it might have disbanded had promotion not been secured.
  Small Heath entered the 1893–94 FA Cup in the first round proper, and lost in that round for the second consecutive year, this time to the eventual losing finalists, Bolton Wanderers of the First Division. In local competitions, they were eliminated by Midland League club Loughborough in the first round of the Birmingham Senior Cup and by Wolverhampton Wanderers in the semi-final of the Mayor of Birmingham's Charity Cup.
context_section_description: While most of the Second Division clubs were involved in FA Cup qualifying ties, Small Heath, who had received a bye to the first round proper, lost a friendly match against Everton's reserve team by five goals to nil. Everton's near neighbours Liverpool complained to the League that the game adversely affected the attendance at their home fixture with Newcastle, but the League confirmed that Everton were within their rights to arrange the match. "Better forward play [had] rarely been witnessed at Lincoln than that shown by Small Heath" in a 5–2 defeat of Lincoln City, whose defence failed to cope with the industry and creativity of Teddy Jolley feeding the "light but nimble" forwards, Mobley in particular. The next weekend, numerous matches were postponed or abandoned because of the weather. Although the Small Heath and Crewe Alexandra players were changed and ready to play, the referee would not start the game because the "blinding snowstorm would prevent him from having a proper sight of the play".
  Advertised as a "Grand League Match" in the local paper – vying for attention with the forthcoming Sailors' Bazaar, a Boys' Brigade band concert and a clearance sale of squirrel-tail fur boas – Small Heath's visit to Middlesbrough Ironopolis failed to live up to the billing. A storm that cost hundreds of lives at sea had left the Paradise Ground with damaged railings and grandstand blown down, and only a few hundred spectators stood in the pouring rain to see the home side produce a surprise victory by three goals to nil on a sodden pitch. The Leicester Chronicle feared "that last year's second division champions are far from being what they were", having dropped as many points already as in the whole of the previous season.
caption: Classified advertisements, North-Eastern Gazette, 24 Nov 1893
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