Although war was declared on August 4th, 1914 the season went ahead as planned. Southport experienced a disastrous year finishing next to botrom with just 26 points. Stringfellow, with seventeen goals, was leading scorer for the third successive season while Billy Caulfield, although transferred to Blackburn Rovers in the February, notched a further fifteen.
The club decided to charge soldiers half price, with wounded soldiers and sailors admitted free. On September I9th, 1914 after the match with Liverpool Reserves the crowd was addressed by the Mayor, Dr Limont, who appealed for recruits for the forces. Tebay, formerly of Croston and a valuable member of the team, joined the Liverpool Scottish just after Christmas and Anderson, the goalkeeper, also responded to his country’s call. By November 1915 no fewer than nineteen ex-Central players were in the forces, About this time Private Jack Flynn the former goalkeeper, wrote to Secretary Edward Clayton asking for a football His letter was a touching one: 'We returned from the trenches after having had a bit of a rough time. We have had plenty of rain and it’s been very cold with it” Mr Clayton duly complied with his request and helped out again several months later when Flynn wrote to ask for a second ball “the other having been kicked to death”