On September 2nd 1905, the new football season kicked off, the Baggies taking on Burnley in a home fixture in the Second Division, our second campaign in the then basement of the Football League. Just over 7,000 people turned up for this big day out, for new season optimism was thin on the ground after the club had endured one of the most horrific seasons in its history the previous year. 

Albion had been expected to bounce back into the top flight at the first time of asking but instead slumped to a miserable 10th  place in the second tier, as well as losing 5-2 in the FA Cup to Leicester Fosse.

If things were pretty terrible on the field, they were none too clever off it either as the club continued to sell its best players as the position at the bank continued to worsen. We had only been at our new Hawthorns home for five seasons and the main accommodation for supporters took the form of “Noah’s Ark”, a stand which had been transferred, brick by brick, from the Stoney Lane ground. On Bonfire Night 1904, it burnt to the ground, having perhaps been hit by a misguided firework – suggestions that it had come from the direction of Wolverhampton were never substantiated…

With the club losing money hand over fist, the players took a 50% cut in wages to try to help out, but in spite of that, the bank came close to foreclosing on the club, only being pacified when the entire board resigned and Harry Keys returned to take the chair, Billy Bassett joining as a director, earning the club valuable breathing space. Even so, things were so bad that other clubs took pity on us and even the Villa sent round a cheque for £50 to help out. The club continued to look at new ways of raising fresh funds to fight the good fight and £401 was raised locally through a variety of means including billiard evenings, but a more regular source of additional revenue was needed. 

And so it came to pass that it was that “The Albion News & Official Programme” was born 100 years ago. And the board saw that it was good…