By Dave P
September 10 2005

Once upon a time there was a player, an outside left, called Harry Bradshaw who played for Liverpool for five years during which time he won two League Division Two titles, played twice for the Football League and gained a full England Cap whilst scoring 54 goals in 138 games. Once upon a time there was a player, an outside left, called Harry Bradshaw who played for Liverpool for five years during which time he won two League Division Two titles, played twice for the Football League and gained a full England Cap whilst scoring 54 goals in 138 games. He became a Spurs player in May 1898 and in his one season at Spurs he scored 18 goals in 69 matches. Born in Liverpool in August 1873 he represented Northwich Victoria before moving to Liverpool in 1893. Whilst at Spurs he also represented the United League, played for the South in a South v North international trial, and played for an England XI in a charity match. After leaving Spurs in May 1899 he joined Thames Ironworks (Now West Ham) but was taken ill and he died of pneumonia on Christmas Day 1899 aged just 26.

Now I reckon that Harry Bradshaw must have been one of Liverpools earliest players if he joined them in 1893 because Liverpool FC are not as old as Spurs having been formed in 1892. How many of you know that Everton are responsible for the formation of Liverpool FC. In fact it was Everton that used to play at Anfield. It was only when they left Anfield in a dispute over the rent that chairman John Houlding (The man responsible for getting Everton into the inaugural Football League in 1888) stayed behind with just three players and a few supporters and formed Liverpool AFC. They went on to win their first Football League Championship in 1901, the same season that we won our first FA Cup but it was not until 13th November that we played a competitive match against the Merseysiders when they travelled to White Hart lane for an encounter won by the Spurs by one goal to nil. Bert Middlemiss scoring the only goal of the game and in scoring he became the first Spurs player to score against both the Merseyside clubs. Liverpool got their revenge in the return match on 26th March 1910 at Anfield when they won 2-0.

That league match was not however the first time we had played a team from Liverpool. A side calling themselves Liverpool Casuals travelled south to Tottenham for a friendly as early as April 1895 when a match was played at our old Northumberland Park ground and we won the game rather convincingly. Six – 0 in fact with goals coming from Wilkinson, Laycock, Hunter (2) and McElhaney (2).

The 1910/11 season saw us do the double over Liverpool for the first time with a 2-1 away win in October (Percy Humphreys and Billy Minter scoring) and a 1-0 home win in March (Billy Minter again). This was a feat we repeated in the 1911/12 season winning 2-0 at home in November 1911 and 2-1 away in March 1912. Little did we know then that that game in March 1912 was to be the last game we would win at Anfield for 73 years (Hands up all those who were there when Garth Crooks finally laid that ghost to rest on 16th March 1985 in a famous 1-0 victory.)

Over the years there have been many fine encounters between these two famous old clubs in many competitions including a UEFA Cup Semi Final in 1972/73. A tie we only lost on the away goals rule but I would ask both sets of supporters to think back to the very early days and raise a glass in memory of Thomas Henry (Harry) Bradshaw who served both sides in their formative years and who died at such a young age in 1899.