1886–87 St. Mary's Y.M.A. season
| 1886–87 season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Canon Basil Wilberforce | ||
| Secretary | George Muir | ||
| Ground | Southampton Common | ||
| Top goalscorer |
League: N/A All: Ned Bromley (5) |
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1886–87 was the second year since St. Mary's Y.M.A. (now Southampton Football Club), based in Southampton in southern England, started playing association football. This was a year of consolidation before the club entered its first local cup tournament in the following season. All the matches played during the season were friendly matches.
There were few changes to the Y.M.A.'s squad of players from the previous, inaugural season, with the most notable newcomers being J. L. Sommerville and Mullens, while Charles "Ned" Bromley replaced A. A. Fry as team captain. The players continued to play in white knickerbockers and white shorts with a red sash being sown diagonally across it.
The club played their "home" games on Southampton Common although a practice match on 2 October 1886 was played in the grounds of the Deanery, opposite St.Mary's Church. This is the only match known to have been played by the club in the parish of St. Mary's.
The club played 13 known friendly games of which nine were won and two were lost. Two matches were played against Handel College producing the biggest victories of 4–0 and 5–1. The most difficult opposition were Bannister Court, who inflicted one of the two defeats, and Southampton Harriers, who defeated the Y.M.A. 2–0 in the final match of the season, after two previous draws. Other matches were played where the results have been lost, including matches at Cowes and Winchester.
In the summary of the season, the St. Mary's Parish News claimed that the football club were "winning golden opinions throughgout the town and neighbourhood (for being) victorious all along the line."
The results of those matches that are known were as follows:
Apart from the opponents listed above, the other major association football club in the Southampton area was a team from Woolston Works, who played at Woolston Park, across the River Itchen from the town. The works team comprised employees of the Oswald, Mordaunt & Co. shipyard in Woolston, which later became part of Vosper Thorneycroft. Many of the workers had been recruited from the north of England and Scotland who had previously played football in their home towns.
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