The History of Manchester United 1872 - 1902
Manchester United football club was formed in Newton Heath, a district in the city of Manchester, by workers of a local railway yard in 1878. At the time, the club was just a way for the workers to participate in their favourite sport and matches were arranged against workers from other departments or companies. At this time, what was to become the greatest football club in the world was known as Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (Newton Heath LYR) and they played their matches at the “North Road Ground”. The North Road Ground was said to be a “muddy bog” and players had to change in a local pub just up the road before and after matches.
It wasn’t until the 1886/1887 season that the team had their first competitive match; a 2 – 2 draw against Fleetwood Rangers in the first round of the FA Cup in front of a crowd of 2000. Newton Heath insisted the match should have been replayed but the officials decided extra time should decide the winner. Newton Heath refused and the match was awarded to Fleetwood Rangers.
In 1888, the Football League was formed but several applications later; the team had still not been accepted.
The 1891/1892 season saw Newton Heath progress to the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup where they were beaten by Blackpool 4 - 3. On route to the fourth round, Newton Heath LYR had dished out a 5 – 1 drubbing of local rivals Manchester City and the following season were accepted into the Football League.
On 3rd September 1892, in front of 8,000 fans, Newton Heath made their league debut away to Blackburn. Blackburn won the match 4-3. Newton Heath lost four of their opening six games of the season, including a heavy 6 – 0 defeat at the hands of Everton and the remaining two matches were draws. On 15th October 1892, Wolves made the trip to the North Round Ground and Newton Heath served up their first win of the season in a spectacular 10 – 1 victory. The season continued with a number of heavy defeats, and Newton Heath ended the campaign rock bottom with only 6 wins (all at home) out of 30. In the 30 matches, Newton Heath conceded a whopping 85 goals and scored 50.
The first game of the 1893/1894 season was the last home match to be played at North Road and the team marked the occasion with a 3 – 2 victory over Burnley. The club found a new home at Bank Street in nearby Clayton. Despite the bright start to the campaign, the 1893/1894 season was pretty poor. Newton Heath won just 6 games and finished bottom of the pile. Finishing rock bottom this time meant the team would be relegated to the new division 2 for the following campaign.
Newton Heath were more comfortable in the second division and finished the 1894/1895 season in third place behind Bury and Notts County. There were no play offs for promotion, only the top team was promoted. Newton Heath finished 6th in the 1895/1896 season before achieving their highest finish of 2nd in the 1896/1897 season. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, only the top team was promoted but this would change as of the following season when the top two teams from league 2 would win promotion.
Up until the end of the century, Newton Heath would finish 4th in both the 1897/1898 and 1898/1899 seasons and 10th in 1900/1901.
Newton Heath’s last game of the 1901/1902 season was a 2 – 0 victory over Chesterfield in front of only 2,000 spectators. The team finished the season in 15th and Newton Heath as they were known, ceased to exist.
