1901

Newton Heath at the turn of the century were indeed at their lowest ebb, after a decade in the Fottball league all they had to show was two years in the top flight (both years finishing at the bottom) and eight years in the second.

It was decided by the directors that new players had to be bought, but there were no funds available so a Bazzar was arranged by the club to attempt to raise cash. The event was to start on Wednesday 27th Feb and run for 4 days, the Manchester Evening News reported that the Northern military and Bess-o'th-barn Brass bands would be playing.

The Bazzar ended on Saturday evening but after paying off the cost of renting the hall it was found that the event had hardly been a success and the funds needed still had not been found.

The Club's fortunes then took a strange twist, Harry Stafford the Newton Heath captain owned a St Bernard dog, he had taken the dog to the Bazzar and tied a collecting box around its neck, the dog escaped from the hall and was found wandering the City by a Pub landord, who showed it to a Mr Henry Davies who was then a managing director of the Manchester Brewers. Davies took a fancy to the dog and immediatley bought it off the landord. Feeling guilty Davies decided to trace the dog's owner and soon found out that it belonged to the Newton captain, after meeting with Stafford the businessman decided to help and made a financial contribution to the club, and made further promises of help for the future. Stafford did not forget that promise!