After narrowly avoiding the drop last time around, Leyton needed to step things up for their third season in Division One of the Southern League.
For any improvement, new signings were paramount. As it turned out, the club made several important acquisitions including Sandy Tait, the former Tottenham Hotspur captain of their cup-winning team of 1901. Also signed was fellow-Scot, David Buchanan from Clapton Orient.
Buchanan (pictured, right) was a real character who always wore a cap whilst playing. Charlie Buchan used to say that he never once saw it knocked off during a game. The reason for the cap was supposedly that he lost all his hair in a bizarre accident when bitten on the forehead by another player. After hanging up his boots, Buchanan managed clubs in England, Wales and Scotland. In 1913 he was appointed secretary-manager at Merthyr Tydfil and in 1922 he managed for a season at Hamilton Academical. In 1928 he began three years in charge of Thames AFC, with the notable achievement of taking the east London club into the Football League (Division Three South) in 1930.
Leyton had a disastrous exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Southend United. Earlier in the competition, they had been fined for not playing a full-strength squad against Romford. They beat Romford 1-0, but lost to Luton Town in the Southern League on the same day. Only Pepper Renneville played in both games.
Tragedy struck in October, at the home game with Exeter City. Leyton won the game 4-2, but any thoughts of football disappeared when one of the 5,000 in attendance ‘dropped dead’ during the game. A benefit match was held later that season against London Caledonians to raise money for the family of the deceased.
In the league, they held their own, ending up in thirteenth place. Scoring goals proved difficult again though, with only two clubs scoring fewer than Leyton’s 52.
Champions were Northampton Town, despite losing 10 games of their 40. They won the league by six points from Swindon Town. Of the teams in Division One of the Southern League that Season, 11 of the 21 are in, or have played in the Premier League. Leyton (now Walthamstow) are the only club not playing professionally.
The most impressive win of the league season came in March, when Portsmouth were beaten 4-0. Kingaby, Seeburg, Renneville and Ryder all scored a goal each, in a game played in heavy snow.
20,000 people piled into Osborne Road for the home game with West Ham, which, while historical records are not the most accurate - probably remains the club’s biggest ever home attendance. The 120,000 plus for the 1952 FA Amateur Cup final against Walthamstow Avenue somewhat dwarfs this though. Leyton beat West Ham 1-0 on that day, thanks to a goal from Pepper Renneville on his 21st birthday. He no doubt found it hard to buy a drink in the Leyton part of East London that evening.
There was a bit of good form in one of the cup competitions, with Leyton reaching the final of the London Challenge Cup. Unfortunately, Millwall were 2-0 winners. The two sides would meet again in the 1928 final, Millwall this time winning 6-3. The club reached the final two more times, but lost them both - 3-2 to Bromley at Millwall’s New Den (as it was known then) in 1996, and 1-0 in a replay after a 3-3 draw at Fulham’s Craven Cottage in 1997.
With thanks to David Chapman.
