9th September 1893 - Middlesbrough Ironopolis

[erimus74]

After losing their opening league fixture at home to Liverpool 2-0 the previous Saturday Middlesbrough Ironopolis, the 'Nops' travelled to Manchester for their first away fixture to face Ardwick (later on in the season became Man City) joined the football league in 1892 finishing 5th, unfortunately the Nops lost this fixture 6-1

[erimus74]

Ironopolis finished in a respectable 11th place, winning one league away game, but decided as the season came to a close they couldn't play a second season in the football league due to financial issues, by December the club were finding money difficult to find travelling to travel to away games & going into debt asking the players to return to amateur status, they fulfilled all their fixtures but decided they couldn't continue & resigned from the football league

The letter they sent to the FA who promised to look favourably on any future application to join the football league, as did Boro in 1899

Ironically the OPs, like the Boro in 1899, lost their opening 3 fixtures

Ironops won only the one away league fixture, unlike the Boro 6 years later who failed to win one away game, the Ops only success on their travels was a 3-2 win at Lincoln City, Boro's first ever opponents in their league debut in 1899 going down 3-0 away

[BoroRedKen]

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