St. Helens Town Vice-President Jim Barrett recently unearthed a copy of the club’s accounts and balance sheet for the year ended 31st May 1963. They provide a fascinating insight into the financial side of the club going back over 50 years ago and were of added significance, given that this marked the first full operating year of the long lamented Social Club at the Town Ground in Hoghton Road, Sutton.

The football club had been re-formed in 1946, when a lease was taken out of the former Sutton Cricket Club near St. Helens Junction railway station and had begun playing in the Liverpool County Combination at the beginning of the 1947/48 season. Fifteen seasons later, the social club, which was the place to be seen in downtown Sutton. At its height, the main room seated over 800 and the bingo sessions and Friday and Saturday concerts were legendary, pulling in far bigger crowds than watched the football. At the end of its first full year of operation, the social club donated a net sum of £1120, which dwarfed the football profit of just over £381.

Town played in the Second Division of the well-regarded Lancashire Combination in 1962/63 and finished the season half way up the table in 10th place, winning 16, drawing 6 and losing 16 of their 38 fixtures. They had won through to the third qualifying round of the FA Cup, winning at Earlestown and beating South Liverpool at home before going out at Hoghton Road to Altrincham, a leading light in the equally prestigious Cheshire League, which included Macclesfield and Wigan Athletic and that season’s champions Runcorn among its membership. Back in those days, there was no sponsorship of the competitions and gate receipts for 19 home league games amounted to barely £72, whereas the three FA Cup ties brought in £125. Donations, other than from the social club, amounted to nearly £3,300, the Christmas raffle netted £23 and programme sales contributed just £8.

On the expenditure side, match expenses for the first team were £1347 and £360 for the reserves, referees and linesmen cost £90, the manager, trainer and groundsman cost £386, ground repairs £155 and travelling expenses amounted to £177. Playing kit cost £136, printing and advertising £36 and telephone expenses worked out at nearly £52. The secretary was awarded an honorarium in the princely sum of £50.

Looking at the Balance Sheet, the value of the ground was stated to be £905, building (presumably the social club) £6,435 and the grandstand £1100, with fittings £150 and cash in hand and at the bank amounting to £283. Among the club’s creditors were Burtonwood Brewery £3,040, Forward Trust Ltd. £435 and the curiously named Trinidad Lake Asphalt Co. £80. The Notes to the Balance Sheet stated that the loans to Burtonwood and Trinidad Lake had been taken over by the social club.

Put into context, today’s players are not paid, whereas over 50 years ago, the club paid out £1,700 over the season. These were momentous times, as the Football League had only just abolished the maximum wage of £20 per week to leading clubs’ players, season tickets at Everton were available in the “best seats” for £9, admission to Goodison and Anfield in the standing enclosures was 20p or 25p a game and programmes cost 4d at Liverpool and 6d at Everton. Liverpool had just been promoted back to the First Division and Everton won the Championship. Littlewoods Pools were offering total payouts of £500,000 every Saturday and men over 5’8” between the ages of 19 and 29 could join Liverpool City Police and earn £1,000 per year.

They were the days!

by Glyn Jones