Bert Bliss

Tottenham Hotspur's Bert Bliss with an overhead kick in the 1921 FA Cup Final. Bliss was an inside forward who made 215 appearances for Tottenham (106 goals). He later played for Clapton Orient and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic. His one appearance for England (vs Scotland) came 2 weeks before this FA Cup Final.
Tottenham's opponents in the final at Stamford bridge were Wolverhampton Wanderers. 20 year old winger Jimmy Dimmock scored the winner in the 55th minute.

A Review of the 1897-98 Season

Chirk AAA v Darwen

Cricket and Football Field 29.01.87

This article tells us so much about the state of football in 1880s. Professionalism was legal, organized competition in the form of the FA Cup and the county cups had firmly taken root in the public imagination. The provinces, particularly the north west and the midlands, had a thriving football culture and there was a railway network that facilitated affordable travel for teams and their supporters. 

Darwen travel to Chirk in north east Wales for an FA Cup tie.

Darwen feature the old English internationals Marsden and Rostron, while in goal they have Hugh Mcintyre, formerly of Blackburn Rovers and Glasgow Rangers.  A versatile player indeed, he had represented Scotland at centre half, moving back into goal as his age increased (he was 31).

GK	McIntyre
FB	Marsden
	Leach
HB	Hamilton
	Ashton
	Thornber
F	Haresnape
	Broughton
	Rostron
	Shorrock
	Slater

Chirk was a village but they boasted 4 internationals in their line up : William Owen,  Di Jones (later of Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City),  George Owen (later of Newton Heath) and  George Griffiths. In  April 1887 this same XI won the Welsh Cup for the first time, and  retained it the following season.

GK	E Povey
FB	T Wynne
	Di Jones
HB	H Owen
	J Owen
	J Jones
F	P Griffiths
	W Owen
	T Williams
	G Owen
	G Griffiths

That Ruabon people had travelled  the five miles south to support Darwen against their local rivals (an exclusively Welsh team) is a delightful detail.  

FA Cup Final, 1889

Here is a programme for the 1889 FA Cup Final between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Preston North End's Invincibles (the Cup version, with Mills- Roberts in the place of Trainer).
Major Marindin would undoubtedly have been rooting for Wolves' English XI (including 7 internationals).  Wolves had finished 3rd in the League,  conceding 9 goals across the 2 meetings with Preston.
Dewhurst, Ross and Thomson were the scorers as Preston won 3-0 to secure the Double. 

1904 FA Cup Final

The first all Lancashire Final.
Billy Meredith scored in the 23rd minute, beating his countryman Dai Davies with a left footed shot. In the illustration Davies (who had played for Swinton in the 1900 Northern Union Rugby Challenge Cup Final)  looks almost like a disinterested bystander.

FA Cup Winner's Parades

Athletic News 04.04.83

Manchester United, 1909

Blackburn Rovers, 1928

As the first non-metropolitan team to triumph in the FA Cup it is unsurprising that Blackburn Olympic were also the first to be feted on their return 'home'.

The tradition endures, although the brake pulled by a team of 4 greys is sadly no longer a feature. 

King George V

Burnley 1914

1923

 Arsenal 1930

Manchester City 1934

King George V was the first reigning monarch to attend an FA Cup Final (1914). He put in a number of appearances during his 26 years on the throne.

His presence at the Wembley fiasco in 1923 was said to have contributed to the relative restraint demonstrated by the 200,000 plus crowd. 

FA Cup Final 1903

This is one of those records that I don't think we'll see beaten; the most onesided FA Cup Final.
It was a case of one game too many for Derby, who were hampered by injuries. Most significantly Steve Bloomer was absent, whilst  Fryer, Morris and Goodall all came into the final carrying knocks.
The relative strengths of these two sides can be judged from the fact that they finished the 1902-03 League season level on points (in 8th & 9th places)
Bury reached the final without conceding a single goal.

Derby Daily Telegraph

Both teams wore change colours, Bury sky blue and Derby County red.

Derby goalkeeper Fryer sustained a further injury in the 1st half and was incapacitated altogether soon after the break. Bury's 2nd goal in the 49th minute was a significant turning point. Fryer went off after colliding with Sagar as the latter scored. Morris went into goal and Derby played 1-3-5. Under the rules of the day this created an effective offside trap, but Bury soon overcame this inconvenience. Fryer returned with the score at 3-0  but conceded twice in rapid succession and left the field permanently after the 5th goal.
The Sheffield Independent described the match as '(the) worst final. tame and dull', commenting on the  subdued atmosphere in the 1st half, the pessimism of the Derby fans and the fact that thousands of spectators were leaving the ground after 70 minutes.

Other accounts portray Derby as being anxious, lacklustre, and showing poor ball control. 

Fryer

This was Fryer's last game for Derby, who signed Grimsby Town's Walter Whittaker the week after the Final. It was ultimately Harry Maskrey, however, who became Fryer's long term replacement, going on to play 223 matches for County.
Fryer, a big man for the times at  6 ft 1 and  15 st (1.85, 95kg) moved to Fulham that May.

Southampton & Sheffield United, 1902

April 19th, 1902.
Sheffield United were to face Southampton at Crystal  Palace and The Sporting Life was jam packed with statistics on the Cup Final teams.

	Age	Weight		Height
Foulke	25	21 st	133 kg	6 ft 2 1/2	1.89
Thickett	28	14 st 7	91 kg	5 ft 8 1/2	1.74
Boyle	25	12 st 7	79 kg	5 ft  9	1.75
Johnson	24	12 st  5	78 kg	5 ft  9	1.75
Wilkinson	22	10 st 9	67 kg	5 ft 5 1/2	1.66
Needham	29	11 st 3	71 kg	5 ft  6	1.67
Bennett	28	13 st 3	84 kg	5 ft  7 1/2	1.71
Common	21	13 st	82 kg	5 ft 9	1.75
Hedley	24	12 st 5	78 kg	5 ft 11	1.80
Priest	27	12 st 12	81 kg	5 ft  8	1.72
Lipsham	24	11 st 5	72 kg	5 ft  9	1.75

	Age	Weight		Height
Robinson	32	13 st 7	85 kg	5 ft 11	1.80
Fry	20	13 st	82 kg	5 ft 10	1.77
Molyneux	23	11 st 13	75 kg	5 ft 10 1/2	1.79
Meston	31	11 st 11	74 kg	5 ft 9	1.75
Bowman	30	11 st	69 kg	5 ft 7	1.70
Lee	23	13 st	82 kg	6 ft	1.82
A Turner	25	11 st 11	74 kg	5 ft 9	1.75
Wood	34	13 st 1	83 kg	5 ft 10	1.77
Brown	23	11 st 8	73 kg	5 ft 11	1.80
Chadwick	32	10 st 11	68 kg	5 ft 6	1.67
J Turner	29	11 st 5	72 kg	5 ft 7	1.70

The game finished 1-1, Harry 'The Wolf' Wood (playing in his 5th Cup Final) scoring a controversial equalizer for Southampton in the 88th minute. Wood was in an offside position when the ball came to him, reportedly tying his bootlace. The referee, Mr Kirkham, adjudged that the ball had come off a United player. Then followed the  legendary incident in which a naked Foulke berated Mr Kirkham who had to hide in a cupboard to escape the goalkeeper's attentions.

Sheffield Wednesday At The Seaside

The seaside preparation paid off as Wednesday beat Grimsby Town 5-1 at Owlerton on 16th January, David McLean scoring 4.
The clubs official name was The Wednesday Football Club up until 1929, but the press often referred to them as Sheffield Wednesday.

Major trophy wins by region

London was the dominant region in football until the advent of professionalism.
The North and the Midlands then dominated the game.
After Blackburn Olympic's triumph in 1883 no southern team would win the  FA Cup  until 1901.
It was 54 years before a southern team won the First Division championship.
For the purpose of this post I have divided England into 5 broad areas:

The South
Lancashire
North East
Yorkshire
Midlands

And the period under consideration, from the introduction of competitive football in 1872 up until 1937, I have divided into the pre Football League era and the Football League era.

Pre Football League era 1872-1888

FA Cup winners:
The South- 11*
Lancashire-  4
Midlands-  2

* From 1872-1883 the FA Cup was won exclusively by southern teams. 

The Football League Era 1888-1937

FA Cup Winners:
Lancashire- 15
Yorkshire -10
Midlands-10
North East -4**
The South -4
Wales -1

Football League Champions:
Lancashire-16
North East -9**
Yorkshire-8
Midlands- 7
The South -4*

*Exclusively Arsenal- it was 54 years before a southern team won the First Division championship
** Although the North east is traditionally a football heartland, only Newcastle United and Sunderland have won major honours.


FA Cup winners
Football League Champions

Season	Lancashire	Midlands	North East	Yorkshire	The South
72					Wanderers
73					Wanderers
74					Oxford University
75					Royal Engineers
76					Wanderers
77					Wanderers
78					Wanderers
79					Old Etonians
80					Clapham Rovers
81					Old Carthusians
82					Old Etonians
83	Blackburn Olympic
84	Blackburn Rovers
85	Blackburn Rovers
86	Blackburn Rovers
87		Aston Villa
88		West Bromwich Albion
88-89	Preston North End Preston North End
89-90	Preston North End Blackburn Rovers
90-91	Everton Blackburn Rovers
91-92		West Bromwich Albion	Sunderland
92-93		Wolverhampton Wanderers	Sunderland
93-94		Aston Villa Notts County
94-95		Aston Villa	Sunderland
95-96		Aston Villa		The Wednesday
96-97		Aston Villa Aston Villa
97-98		Nottingham Forest		Sheffield United
98-99		Aston Villa		Sheffield United
1899-1900	Bury	Aston Villa
1900-01	Liverpool				Tottenham Hotspur
01-02			Sunderland	Sheffield United
02-03	Bury			The Wednesday
03-04	Manchester City			The Wednesday
04-05		Aston Villa	Newcastle United
05-06	Liverpool Everton
06-07			Newcastle United	The Wednesday
07-08	Manchester United	Wolverhampton Wanderers
08-09	Manchester United		Newcastle United
09-10		Aston Villa	Newcastle United
10-11	Manchester United			Bradford City
11-12	Blackburn Rovers			Barnsley
12-13		Aston Villa	Sunderland
13-14	Blackburn Rovers Burnley
14-15	Everton			Sheffield United
19-20		West Bromwich Albion Aston Villa
20-21	Burnley				Tottenham Hotspur
21-22	Liverpool			Huddersfield Town
22-23	Liverpool Bolton Wanderers
23-24			Newcastle United	Huddersfield Town
24-25				Huddersfield Town
25-26	Bolton Wanderers			Huddersfield Town
26-27			Newcastle United		Cardiff City*
27-28	Everton Blackburn Rovers
28-29	Bolton Wanderers			The Wednesday
29-30				Sheffield Wednesday	Arsenal
30-31		West Bromwich Albion			Arsenal
31-32	Everton		Newcastle United
32-33	Everton				Arsenal
33-34	Manchester City				Arsenal
34-35				Sheffield Wednesday	Arsenal
35-36			Sunderland		Arsenal
36-37	Manchester City		Sunderland

* Wales