Tuesday evening’s ‘On this day’ feature kicked off with a 9-0 win, and today’s is the same. This time, Brentwood were the poor souls on the end of a hammering. Spare a thought though for Old St Stephen’s who were beaten 16-0 a week later. Leyton were off to a screamer, and it would only lose one league game on their way to the South Essex League title.
In 1903, Leyton began their London League Division 1 season with a 8-0 hammering of Wandsworth, with H Richman (pictured above) contributing three, and J Wootten two. The good form on this day couldn’t go on forever though, and in 1914 Leyton were beat 9-0 by Swansea Town. It was a sign of things to come, as Leyton lost their next four league games without scoring a goal, and were kicked out of the Southern League due to non-payment of guarantees by mid-November.
In recent years, the 12th of September has played host to some ‘lesser’ cup competition matches. In 2000, Leyton Pennant were beaten 4-0 by Hampton & Richmond in the Isthmian League cup, and six years later, Fleet Town were the visitors in the same competition. This time it was one goal worse for Waltham Forest, who were beaten 5-0. There was some success in 2018 though, as goals from Craig Pope, Billy Jones, Jack Leachman and Samrai Gebrai helped Walthamstow to a 4-1 Gordon Brasted Trophy win over Sporting Bengal United (pictured below).
For all the lesser cup competitions though, we have played four FA Cup ties on this day. In 1953, Tilbury were beaten 2-1 in the preliminary round, but Leyton’s advances were stopped by Ilford in the next round, 1-0.
In 1987, the club now known as Leyton-Wingate drew 1-1 with Stevenage Borough. Progress was better this time around though, with Wingate winning the replay 3-2, and going as far was the 4th qualifying round, when Atherstone United needed a replay to get through to the first round proper.
Five years later, Lowestoft Town were beaten 4-2 in a run that would again end at the 4th qualifying round, this time missing out to Sutton Coldfield Town.
Our most recent FA Cup game on this day came in 2009, when Waltham Forest were narrowly beaten 1-0 by Boreham Wood.