Thames Ironworks completed their march to the Southern League Division Two (London) title with a record 10-0 victory over Maidenhead on 15 April 1899.
Formed just four years previously in June 1895, Thames Ironworks had played friendly fixtures in their inaugural season, then entered the London League for the start of the 1896/97 campaign, finishing as runners-up to 3rd Grenadier Guards.
The team went one better in 1897/98, losing just one of their 16 London League matches to finish a point ahead of Brentford and win their maiden league championship.
The Club’s application to join the Southern League was successful and Thames Ironworks joined the Second Division for the 1898/99 season.
The summer of 1898 saw the Club turn professional for the first time, with the change in status being followed by the influx of a succession of new players, including goalkeeper Tommy Moore from local rivals Millwall Athletic, outside left Patrick Leonard from Manchester City and centre forward David Lloyd from 3rd Grenadier Guards.
All three new boys, alongside young Scot Roddy McEachrane, who worked at the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company, were important members of the squad which fired the Club to their second consecutive league title.
Stoke-on-Trent-born Moore started 21 of 22 matches in goal, Scotsman Leonard scored seven goals in ten Southern League appearances, Hackney native Lloyd netted 12 times in just eleven games, and Inverness-born McEachrane was an ever-present at half-back.
All four were in the team when Thames Ironworks welcomed Maidenhead to the Memorial Grounds for their final game of the regular season on Saturday 15 April 1899.
The Londoners were on a 14-match winning streak, while Maidenhead had won just three of their 20 league matches and were cast adrift at the bottom of the 12-team table.
As such, what happened when the game kicked-off should have come as no surprise to the season-high 3,000 supporters in attendance, particularly as Maidenhead could only field ten players, too.
According to a report in The People newspaper the following day: ‘The visitors were a man short and Ironworks, who kicked off, at once penned them in their quarters’.
Leonard scored inside five minutes, before fellow Scotsman James Reid netted twice, meaning Thames Ironworks were three goals up by half-time.
Things only got worse for Maidenhead after the break as Lloyd made it 4-0 on 55 minutes, R.Henderson scored a fifth, then Leonard completed his hat-trick with the sixth and seventh Ironworks goals.
Lloyd completed his own treble with two goals of his own before the visitors missed a penalty, compounding their misery, and Leonard scored his fourth goal and the hosts’ tenth late on.
The win not only confirmed Thames Ironworks as league title winners, but qualified them for a ‘Decider’ against Division Two South-West champions Cowes, from the Isle of Wight, and a promotion/relegation Test match against Kent-based Sheppey United, who had finished 12th in the 14-team Division One.
An editorial in the Morning Leader on Tuesday 18 April was full of praise for Ironworks: ‘My warmed congratulations to the Canning Town men for finishing at the top of the metropolitan section, nine points ahead of any other team. The deciding honour now lies between the Works and Cowes, and although the latter secured a 1 to nil victory in a friendly recently, the Thames are confident of wiping out the defeat in the more important match for the championship of the Second Division.’
That confidence was well-founded as Lloyd, Henderson and Leonard scored in a 3-1 victory over Cowes at Millwall Athletic’s East Ferry Road ground on Saturday 22 April.
Thames Ironworks then drew 1-1 with Sheppey United in the Test match, with Lloyd again on target. Before a replay could be staged, the Southern League was restructured and Division One enlarged to 19 clubs, including both Ironworks and Sheppey.
