Chairman H. Jason-Saunders Stadium Griffin Park FA Cup First round | Secretary Manager Fred Halliday Southern League Division One 15th | |
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Top goalscorer League: Boyne (13)
All: Boyne (13) | ||
During the 1919–20 English football season, Brentford competed in the Southern League Division One. In the first season of competitive football since the end of the First World War in November 1918, Brentford consolidated with a mid-table finish. It was the club's final Southern League season, as 21 of the 22 Division One clubs would be voted into the new Football League Third Division in May 1920.
Contents
Season summary
Despite talk that Brentford would seek election to the Football League after the London Combination title success of the previous season, the directors of the club decided to remain in the Southern League. As it was, with the resumption of the Southern League after the First World War, Brentford, Merthyr Town, Swansea Town and Newport County were elevated from Division Two to Division One by virtue of Division One having been expanded to 22 clubs, with West Ham United (voted into the Football League) and Croydon Common (resigned) having left the Southern League.
Four years of war meant that secretary-manager Fred Halliday needed to rebuild and expand his squad, with prolific forwards Henry White and guest Jack Cock having left the club, in addition to full backs Jack Peart, Dusty Rhodes and half back Bill Stanton. The only survivors of Brentford's final pre-war squad to make an appearance during 1919–20 would be goalkeeper Ted Price, half back Tom McGovern and outside left Patsy Hendren.
New centre forward Reginald Boyne ensured Brentford got off to a good start to the season, with Boyne scoring six goals in six matches. Once his goals dried up, the team was robbed of potency in attack and would go 10 matches without a win, which ended when the team went on a five-match unbeaten run through November and December. While manager Fred Halliday was able to field a more or less a settled XI, numerous players were tried in the centre forward position before the arrival of Bert Spreadbury in February 1920. Despite four goals in his first five matches, Spreadbury failed to help the team gain any consistency and Brentford finished the season in 15th position.
League table
1 The system of using goal average to separate two teams tied on points was used up until the 1976–77 season.
2 The points system: 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for losing.