28.05.88

It would appear as if the newly-formed Glasgow club, the Celtic F.C., has a bright future before it. At any rate, if the committee can place the same eleven in the field as opposed the Rangers last Monday evening, or an equally strong one, the Celtic will not lack for patronage and support. 

The Scottish Umpire 05.06.88

Celtic played their first match on 28th May 1888. The opponents, a team called The Swifts, were a Glasgow Rangers XI. Celtic won by 5-2. 
The club had assembled a team that comprised both young Lanarkshire talent and established players of some repute. Professionalism was outlawed in Scottish football, but some of these players were undoubtedly paid to play and rewarded for signing on. The 11 featured 3 players who had previously represented Scotland (Kelly, McCallum and Dunbar ) . 7 were born in Scotland, 2 in Ireland and 2 in England. The average age was 22.
 Here is the line up:

Goalkeeper:  Mick Dolan (Drumpellier) 19
Dolan joined the newly formed club from Coatbridge's Drumpellier FC . The town of Coatbridge is noted for its strong Irish connections. Most of Dolan's career with Celtic was spent in the reserve team.

Right back: Eddie Pearson (Carfin Shamrock) 25
Pearson returned to Carfin Shamrock shortly after the establishment of Celtic. 

Left back: James McLaughlin (Hibernian) 23
McLaughlin became Celtic's first choice goalkeeper during his 2 years at the club. He was later a top class referee.

Right half: Willie Maley (Cathcart) 20
Willie Maley, a legend in the game, joined Celtic  by chance. A party  went to the Maley family home in Cathcart to ask Tom to join the new club. Tom was visiting his girlfriend,  Willie was at home. The visitors (Brother Walfrid was present) suggested that  Willie should also join Celtic.  Willie was at Celtic for 9 seasons as a player, winning 3 Scottish League Championships (1892-93, 1893-94, 1895-96) and the Scottish FA Cup (1892). He made 2 international appearances for Scotland in 1893. He then managed the club for 43 years, winning 30  trophies.

Centre half: James Kelly (Renton) 22
Kelly was Celtic's big signing. One of the leading players of his day and a World Championship winner with Renton. Controversy surrounded his signing, as inducements and payments were undoubtedly involved.  Kelly went on to play 139 games for Celtic, winning the Cup and League in the process. He was also capped by Scotland. He later served as a director and as chairman of the club.

Left half: Phil Murray (Cambuslang Hibs) 22
Murray was an Englishman who later emigrated to the United States. 

Outside right: Neil McCallum (Renton) 19
The Shadow scored Celtic's first ever goal. Another Renton star lured to the club.He later played for Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest as well as guesting for Glasgow Rangers. 

Inside right:  Tom Maley  (Cathcart) 23
Handsome Tom was another coup signing. A player (and all round athlete) of great repute. He later enjoyed some success in management. 

Centre forward: John 'Jake' Madden (Dumbarton) 22
Jake 'The Rooter' Madden, a shipyard worker and professional footballer (though no such thing existed officially in Scotland at the time) appeared in the inaugural celtic game in transit from Grimsby Town back to his hometown club, Dumbarton. In 2 spells with the Celts he played 118 games and scored 49 goals. He was capped twice by Scotland, scoring 5 international goals. 
Madden then made a huge contribution to the evolution of football in Czechoslovakia, coaching Slavia Prague for 25 years. 


Inside left:. Mick.Dunbar ( Hibernian ) 24
Capped for Scotland in 1886 when he was with Cartvale. Was at Celtic for 5 years, making 32 first team appearances. 


Outside left: Charlie Gorevin (Govan Whitefield) 24
An Irishman who later emigrated to the USA where he played both Gaelic and Association football.



Celtic's scorers were McCallum, Kelly and Tom Maley (3).

Working class hero?

 The focus of early Association football was exclusive- the preserve of young men, likely ex Public Schoolboys and university men of independent means. 
According to our research 27 players represented England before a 'working man' was included in the line up.
The schools/clubs/university affiliations of most of the players from the early days reveal their upper class backgrounds. Further insight is gleaned from their father's occupations and the professions that the players themselves pursued (often later than their footballing careers). Let's see:

Game		school or college
1	Robert Barker	Westminster
	Father was a rector, he was a civil engineer.
1	Harwood Greenhalgh
	Father Lace Manufacturer, he managed a cotton factory.
1	Reginald Courtenay Welch	Harrow
	Followed his father into the law.
1	Frederick Chappell	Marlborough, Oxford University
	Followed his father into the law.
1	William J Maynard
	Legal clerk.
1	John Brockbank	Shrewsbury, Cambridge University
	Actor.
1	Charlie Clegg
	Solicitor.
1	Cuthbert Ottaway	Eton, Oxford University
	Son of a surgeon, Ottaway became a barrister.
1	Charles Chenery
	Articled to solicitors.
1	Kirke Smith	Cheltenham College, Oxford University
	Father was a solicitor and farmer- he was at Oxford University and went into the church.
1	Charles John Morice	Harrow
	Stockbroker, as was his father.
2	Alexander Morton
	Member of the stock exchange.
2	Leonard Howell	Winchester College
	Malt Factor.
2	Lieut. Alfred G Goodwyn	Royal Military Academy
	From a military family and an officer in the Royal Engineers.
2	Walpole Vidal	Westminster, Oxford University
	Went into the church.
2	Lieut. Pelham von Donop	Royal Military Academy
	An officer in the Royal Engineers.
2	William Clegg
	Solicitor.
2	Alexander Bonsor	Eton
	A brewer by trade, a director of Combe & Co., the family business.
2	Hubert Heron
	Commercial clerk.
2	William Kenyon-Slaney	Eton , Oxford University
	From a military family, an officer in the Grenadier Guards. His proper title in later life- The Right Honorable Colonel William Slaney Kenyon-Slaney MP.
3	Robert Ogilvie	Brentwood School
	A member of Lloyds.
3	Alfred Hugh Stratford	Malvern College
	No occupations recorded.
3	Francis Birley	Winchester College, Oxford University
	Barrister.
3	Charles Wollaston	Lancing College, Oxford University
	Solicitor.
3	Robert Kingsford	Marlborough College
	His father was a solicitor, Robert lived on independent means.
3	J Hawley Edwards
	Solicitor.
3	John Owen	Oxford University
	Schoolmaster and clergyman.

What a profusion of lawyers! And then, in England's 4th international (06.03.75) William Henry Carr was one of six new 'caps' (an anachronism here). 

4	William Carr
	A Metalsmith.
4	Edward Haygarth	Lancing College
	Solicitor.
4	William Rawson	Westminster, Oxford University
	Oxford schoolmaster, Electrical Engineer.
4	Charlie Alcock	Harrow
	Sports journalist and administrator.
4	Herbert Rawson
	An officer in the Royal Engineers.
4	Cpt.Richard Geaves	Harrow
	An army officer.

Carr played for a number of Sheffield clubs and also represented the Sheffield Association. He was with Owlerton when he made his only international appearance, in which he came on 15 minutes late! He is described variously as A Metalsmith, a white metal smith and later a silversmith.  

Carr's fellow Sheffielder Billy Mosforth (one of seven who became the 43rd players to represent England in match #6, 03.03.77) is often cited as being England's first working class player, and he was undoubtedly a professional footballer. However, Jimmy Forrest is generally regarded as being the first professional footballer to represent England, although he was 'among others' from the leading Lancashire clubs who were representing England during the period when professionalism was sanctioned by the FA.

Tiverton Preedy

Thanks to the philosophy of Muscular Christianity and the missionary attitude that many Victorian Christians had towards the proletariat, churches and chapels were often the focus of football clubs in industrial cities and towns.
Bolton Wanderes and Everton were examples amongst the original members of the Football League; Manchester City can trace their origins to a church team.

Barnsley

Barnsley are another club who owe their existence to a man of the cloth.
Tiverton Preedy had direct links with the Muscular Christianity ethos. He studied at Lincoln Theological College - an institution founded by a former Rugby Schoolmaster, Edward Benson.

Rev. Preedy took his belief that sport was a useful means of providing moral education to Barnsley in 1887.  Barnsley was  predominantly a Rugby town, and  Rev. Preedy originally  played Rugby, but when he left the Rugby club in protest at their playing a match on Good Friday, he turned his attentions to Association. 

Rev. Preedy was a curate at St Peter's, and the club he formed carried the name of the church. The fixture lists of the north of England at this time are full of Saints and Holy Trinities. 

A generous friend to the poor...

Having graduated through the Sheffield and District League and the Midland League Barnsley were elected to The Football League in 1898.
They reached the FA Cup Final in 1910, losing to Newcastle United. In 1912 Barnsley lifted the FA Cup, beating West Bromwich Albion 1-0 in a replayed Final at Bramall Lane. The club presented the match ball to Rev. Preedy. 

Sarah Briggs from Barnsley Council and Arthur Bower, Barnsley FC historian, with the match ball from the 1912 FA Cup Final.

  Barnsley Chronicle 08.06.13

101 years previously- the same ball is booted away by Barnsley's Dick Downs. 

Liverpool

Liverpool Football Club was officially founded in 1915, although its roots go back to 1908 when a group of students at a Capuchin Catholic School in the Nuevo París area of Montevideo decided to form a team. They followed the trend, current at the time, of having an Anglicized name for their club. As one of the principal ports of  the United Kingdom Liverpool had strong links with Montevideo, and this is said to have influenced the choice of name as the students looked at a map of England for inspiration.

Despite the choice of name, blue was adopted as the club colours, later evolving into blue and black stripes. 

Liverpool first played in the Primera División in 1920.

Cads of the most unscrupulous kidney

1891 pitch markings

It is a standing insult to sportsmen to have to play under a rule which assumes that players intend to trip, hack and push their opponents, and to behave like cads of the most unscrupulous kidney. The lines marking a penalty area are a disgrace to the playing fields of a public school.
C B Fry (1907)

 By the beginning of the 20th century the Public Schools' influence on Association Football had declined markedly. Old Etonians had been the last 'Old Boys'' club to reach the FA Cup Final in 1883, Queen's Park (1885) the last amateur club to achieve the feat.
England's international XIs were becoming increasingly professional in make up.
The FA Amateur Cup, a knockout tournament for amateur teams affiliated to the FA, was introduced in 1894, but again teams from industrial, northern areas tended to prevail. In the first 10 seasons of the Amateur Cup Old Carthusians (twice) and Old Malvernians were the only Old Boys' clubs to lift the trophy. The Old Boys' clubs then resorted to instituting a competition exclusively for the Public Schools. This was the Arthur Dunn Cup, named in honour of the Cambridge University, Old Etonians, Corinthian and England player who had first proposed such a competition but had died before any action was taken.

ATB Dunn

The Committee formed at the inaugural meeting features many eminent names from this particular sphere:
President: Lord Kinnaird (Eton).
 Vice-Presidents: R C Guy (Forest), R C Gosling (Eton)
 Committee: R T Squire (Westminster), G O Smith (Charterhouse), W J Oakley (Shrewsbury), C Wreford-Brown (Charterhouse), R E Foster (Malvern), W M Cowan (Brighton), J R Mason (Winchester). 
Hon Secretary: N Malcolmson
The trophy was donated by Cunliffe Gosling, traditionally held to be the richest man to ever play football for England. 

The reactionary nature of these privileged amateurs is illustrated by the fact that a decade after the introduction of the penalty kick the concept caused such an affront to their notion of fair play that, given their own competition to govern, they effectively ignored the penalty kick rule. They also used unregistered referees. These two issues brought the Public Schools into conflict with the FA and led to the Public Schools being granted representation on the Council of the Football Association (in the person of Mr Malcolmson).