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Season
1925-26. Manchester League Brawling at the Butchers' Arms. Local Press December 1925. "One deprecates the somewhat remarkable lack of sportsmanship exhibited by a certain section of the crowd attendant on the occasion of Droylsden's home matches. Nearly every home match is marked by heated arguments, brawls, and even fisticuffs. People do not visit the Butchers' Arms ground to witness crude and scurrilous exhibitions of pugilism, and the distraction suffered by lovers of football due to these psuedo-enthusiasts calls for some sort of repression. Such tomboys - or tomcats, whichever phrase is deemed suitable - should be singled out and refused admission. One man on Saturday had actually divested his jacket and was fighting 'hammer and tongs' with another spectator, who had blood dripping from a burst lower lip. We repeat, something should be done!" Droylsden commenced the 1925-26 season by renting their ground - on alternate Saturday's - to local club Moorside, who played in the Openshaw Amateur League. However, the arrangement was short lived, as the Butchers' Arms pitch, which had often been described as a quagmire, couldn't take the strain of 'weekly' football. Droylsden's season finished with the club near to the bottom of the league table, and the highlight of the season came in reaching the semi final of the Gilcryst Cup, which Droylsden lost 2-3 in a replay after drawing the first match 3-3. One game of note was a home league match against Debdale, where conditions were so fogbound the spectators couldn't see the players on the field. And as the game progressed the fog became ever more dense. Towards the end of the match the fog was so thick the players were having trouble seeing each other, and it was then that a Droylsden player 'stole' away and scored a goal. Nobody cheered because nobody knew anything about it. However, the referee allowed the goal to stand and Droylsden won the match by that solitary unseen goal.
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