The West Ham second string opened their programme in this tournament on the Swindon ground before 1,500 spectators. The home side had the better of the opening play, and Wheatcroft turned a centre from Sanderson into Cotton’s hands. Following even play, Franks tested Dyson, but most of the passing was done by Swindon, and Cotton had to concede a comer to Sanderson. Eventually Weatcroft opened the scoring as the result of smart bit of combination the part of the home forwards. The outstanding feature of the game up the interval was the aggressiveness of the Swindon front men and the good defence of the visitors, Cotton effecting good clearances from Wheatcroft, Sanderson, Archer, and Pugh. At the interval the score was;- Swindon Reserves, 1; West Ham Reserves, 0.
The re-opening exchanges saw Swindon continuing to hold the upper hand, Cotton handling from Wheatcroft, while Fair come to the rescue when Down was nearly through. After Dixon had stopped a long-ranger from Brunton J. Poppitt, ran through and scored Swindon’s second goal. In the next minute Brown headed past Colton from a capital centre by Wheatcroft. The visitors responded pluckily, and were unfortunate in S. Smith being off-side, after Allen had put in a good run. Subsequently Archer kicked away from A. Smith, West Ham kept up the pressure, and Franks swung across the ball for Mercer to net in a clever fashion. This point was speedily neutralised by another to Swindon, J. Poppitt drawing out Cotton, and giving the ball to Wheatcroft, who made the most of an open goal. A penalty was awarded to Swindon, but J. Poppitt missed, and the result was SWINDON RESERVES 4 WEST HAM RESERVES 1