what could have been

Albion’s rivalry with Crystal Palace is well documented and we have now played them 90 times. However, if circumstances had been different, Croydon Common could have become our closest rivals. They joined the Southern League in 1907 but did not re-appear after the Great War. Because of this, Albion’s visit to Croydon on 27th March 1915 was one of the last few matches ever played by Croydon Common. The programme consisted of 16 (mainly advert) pages. An interesting snippet and sign of the times in the editorial reads: “A platoon of the Footballers’ Battalion, with Captain Scotland (who is well known in Croydon) in command, will pay a visit to-day, and will endeavour to secure recruits”. We don’t know how successful the recruiting drive was, but the records show that a crowd of 5,000 saw Croydon win 1-0