Financial problems coincided with their descent and the team finished bottom of the Football League at the end of the 1933–34 season and were forced to apply for re-election.
[2][3] The newly formed club committee levied an annual membership fee of a half crown and adopted a kit consisting of chocolate and amber quarters,[4] an unusual combination at the time,[1] with black shorts and socks.
[5] The club had missed the deadline to join the Cardiff & District League in its first season and instead played friendlies against local sides at its Sophia Gardens ground.
Improvements made to Sophia Gardens, including the installation of gas and water resulted in increased memberships and the club merged with nearby Riverside Albion in 1902.
It took a further three years until the club won its first trophy, the Bevan Shield, a local competition organised by the South Wales and Monmouthshire Football Association (SWMFA).
To combat this, they arranged to join the South Wales Amateur League in 1907 and the following year they were granted permission to change the name of the club to Cardiff City.
Ton Pentre, Merthyr Town and Aberdare were all accepted into the new division but Cardiff were denied the opportunity due to the poor standard of facilities at their Sophia Gardens ground,[8] including the lack of turnstiles and inadequate conditions for spectators.
[1][9] Encouraged by the response generated by the fixtures, Wilson and the club's committee opened talks with the Bute Estate, one of the major landowners in the city, in the hope of finding a suitable site for the construction of a new ground.
[15] The side finished a creditable fourth in their first season but the club's committee believed a more experienced manager was required and decided to replace McDougall.
[1] The club placed an advert in the Athletic News and eventually appointed Fred Stewart, who had experience of managing in the Football League with Stockport County.
[17][18] Hardy and fellow new arrivals Patrick Cassidy and Kidder Harvey formed a defensive partnership that led to the trio being dubbed the "holy three" by fans.
[22] On the cessation of hostilities, Cardiff spent one final season in the Southern League, finishing fourth in the First Division, and won the Welsh Cup for the second time.
[23] Stewart looked to strengthen the squad by signing thirteen new players, most of whom had previous Football League experience, including paying £750 for The Wednesday forward Jimmy Gill.
[26] On 30 August 1920, Cardiff played their first Football League match at Ninian Park, where 25,000 supporters watched a scoreless draw with Clapton Orient.
In their first season, the side issued a strong showing, winning promotion to the Football League First Division after finishing as runners-up to Birmingham on goal average.
[28] Their rivals eventually beat their opponents on the day, Nottingham Forest by a scoreline of 3–0, meaning Cardiff needed a victory over Birmingham to claim the title.
The Bluebirds then travelled to Meadow Lane in the third round where they defeated Notts County 2–0 before a quarter-final tie against Leicester City was decided when Cardiff's Willie Davies scored directly from a corner with the last kick of the game.
After a dour final played out in front of 91,763 fans, the game was decided by England international Fred Tunstall who capitalised on a mistake by Harry Wake to score the only goal in a 1–0 victory for Sheffield United.
"[32] The 1925–26 season got off to an inauspicious start when Jimmy Nelson received the club's first red card in the Football League after being sent off against Manchester City on the opening day.
[33] Having led 2–0 thanks to goals by Sam Irving and Len Davies, Cardiff allowed Chelsea to get back into the fixture, and soon after half-time the scores were once again level at 2–2.
[30] Captain Fred Keenor received the FA Cup trophy from King George V only seven years after Cardiff had entered the Football League and six seasons since they had been promoted to the top division.
[37] Cardiff went on to add two further trophies soon after; the side also won the Welsh Cup defeating Rhyl 2–0, and would go on to win the Charity Shield after beating the Corinthians 2–1 at Stamford Bridge.
However, he was unable to turn the club's fortunes around by the end of the season; meaning Cardiff City were forced to apply for re-election after finishing bottom of the division.
[46] In January 1937, the Grandstand at Ninian Park was destroyed by fire after thieves broke in an attempt to steal gate receipts from a recent FA Cup fixture against Grimsby Town.
[48] Spiers instead decided to use the time to develop the club's youth structure, setting up a nursery side nearby to attract the most talented local youngsters.
Billy McCandless was appointed in his stead and, despite suffering defeat against Spiers' new side Norwich City in their opening game,[49] they were crowned as champions of Third Division South after finishing nine points clear of their nearest rivals.
Spiers had pushed for Ford's arrival, which was eventually granted, although Merrett resented the £30,000 transfer fee which he claimed "reduced the club's working profit by half".
A number of players joined Cardiff from Torquay, the most successful being goalkeeper Phil Joslin, winger Mike Tiddy and forward Tommy Northcott.
Despite the Torquay chairman willing to let him return to Cardiff for £2500 several members of the club's board decided to block the move until a higher price was agreed.
[53][page needed] Spiers' replacement was his assistant Trevor Morris, a former player whose career had been ended by a broken leg in a wartime fixture for Cardiff.