Fixtures 1869-70

A fixture list of metropolitan matches from Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle (27.11. 1869). No distinction is made between the codes. In an exoticism sadly lost from the Association game,  Wasps, Owls and Flamingoes  feature alongside Pirates, Gipsies and Gitanoes.
Several of these clubs featured in the early years of the FA Cup. The legendary Wanderers were playing their home fixtures at The Oval cricket ground ( courtesy of Mr Alcock). CCC (Civil Service), Barnes and Royal Engineers still play. The Crystal Palace name survives, but it is an entirely different club. 

Sport-Magazin - August 1935

 Ferencváros lost  to Sparta in the Mitropa Cup final the month after this magazine appeared. They were runners up in the Hungarian league in the 1934-35 season, and won the Magyar Kupa.
This was the team, consisting of  11 Hungary internationals, that lined up in the semi final of the Mitropa Cup against Austria Vienna. 
Kronenberger was also known as Lajos Korányi. 
I really like József Háda's goalkeeper's jersey.

Alcántara for Spain

Paulino Alcántara first represented Catalunya as an 18 year old in 1915. He also represented the Philippines in the 1917 Far Eastern Games. It is likely that he played in all 3 of the Philippines' games, the last of which was abandoned due to fighting.
On returning to Europe he continued to represent Catalunya.
He would have been expected to represent Spain when they made their entry into international football at the 1920 Olympics, but he was unavailable due to his medical studies.
 Alcántara made his Spain debut in 1921. He played 5 internationals, scoring 6 goals:

09.10.21	Spain	2	0	Belgium	Bilbao
Alcántara captained Spain on his debut and scored both goals (55 & 80 min)
18.12.21	Spain	3	1	Portugal	Madrid
Alcántara scored Spain’s 2nd and 3rd  (23 & 50 min)
20.04.22	France	0	4	Spain	Bordeaux
Captain for the 2nd time, Alcántara scored the 2 opening goals (20 & 27 min)
04.02.23	Belgium	1	0	Spain	Antwerp
16.12.23	Spain	3	0	Portugal	Seville
Alcántara was captain, Español’s Zabala scored all 3 goals.

A humiliation that staggered the football world: Swansea Town v Blackburn Rovers- 1915

On Saturday Swansea City travel to Blackburn Rovers in the 4th round of The FA Cup.
When the 2 met in January 1915 for a first round FA Cup tie, the outcome was one of the biggest upsets in the history of British football. 
Blackburn Rovers were a big, big club. Established 40 years previously they were founding members of The Football League. The previous season Rovers had won the Championship (their 2nd title).  They had won the FA Cup 5 times. At the time of this match (09.01.15) they were 5th in Division 1.
Their line up featured 4 England internationals ( Crompton, Bradshaw, Latheron and Hodkinson) and 1 Scottish international ( Aitkenhead).
Crompton had played for England a remarkable 41 times ( a record which stood for 38 years), captaining on 21 occasions. 
Rovers offered Swansea a large sum to switch the match to Ewood Park but the offer was declined and 16,000 people were at the Vetch to see the League champions. 
Swansea Town were in the second division of the Southern League. They had only come into existence in 1912. Their line up that day was light on stars. Club captain Thomas Hewitt had played for Wales 8 times (1911-14). Captain for cup matches that season was Joe Bulcock The man who became a hero that day was a 16 year old Rugby player. Benny Benyon was only playing 'soccer' because Rugby was suspended during the war. 
Blackburn attacked relentlessly from the outset, but in the 20th minute Swansea broke out of defence in a move, started and finished by Beynon, that covered the length of the pitch and gave the Swans an unlikely lead. 
At half time Swansea were reduced to 10 men when Lock was injured. 
Rovers bombarded the Swans goal in the 2nd half. They were awarded a penalty but remarkably Billy Bradshaw, who had scored with 36 consecutive spot kicks, shot wide. Harry Read went off injured and Swansea had to hold out for the last quarter of an hour with just 9 men. 
It was, according to  contemporary newspaper reports: A humiliation that staggered the football world.
As the photograph shows, Swansea Town were unique in having a strip in which jersey and knickers were of the same colour.
Benny Beynon returned to Rugby after the war and played for Wales, but in a ruling that highlights the stupidity of the way in which that game was administered, he was banned for professionalism on account of his Association football exploits. He went to Oldham as a Northern Union player.
Joe Bulcock (Town) and Eddie Latheron (Rovers) were both killed in the war.

Swansea Town		Blackburn Rovers
Hurst	GK	Alf Robinson
Tom Hewitt	RB	Bob Crompton
Joe Bulcock	LB	Tommy Suttie
John Duffy	RH	Bert Walmsley
Lock	CH	Percy Smith
Anderson	LH	Billy Bradshaw
Harry Read	OR	Alex McGhie
Brown	IR	Wattie Aitkenhead
Benny Beynon	CF	Johnny Orr
Gilboy	IL	Eddie Latherton
Amos Lloyd	OL	Joe Hodkinson

Associação de Futebol de Lisboa - Brazil 1913

Some team photographs of the Portuguese XI taken during their visit to Brazil. 

In 1913 Botafogo moved into their new ground, Estádio General Severiano. The first game at the stadium was played on 13.05.13, a 1-0 win over Flamengo with a goal from Mimi Sodre.
Botafogo were keen to celebrate the acquisition of their new home with a special eve. This is what prompted them (in 1912) to invite the Football Association of Lisbon to send a touring party to Rio. The arrangements were handled by journalist Duarte Rodrigues of Lisbon's Tiro e Sport magazine.
Football in Portugal was amatuer and the trip required a large commitment in terms of time and expense. 
Several players who would have featured on merit were unavailable. The Football Association of Lisbon assembled the following squad for the tour: 

GK	Eduardo Luís Pinto Basto (secretary)	Internacional
HB	Boaventura Belo	Internacional
F	João Bentes	Sporting
D	Henrique Costa	Benfica
D	Amadeu Cruz	Sporting
HB	Cosme Damião  (captain)	Benfica
F	José Domingos Fernandes	Benfica
D/HB	Carlos Figueiredo	Benfica
F/ HB	Álvaro Gaspar	Benfica
F	Artur José Pereira	Benfica
F	Cândido Rosa Rodrigues	Sporting
GK	Augusto Paiva Simões	Benfica
F	Carlos Sobral	Internacional
F	António Stromp	Sporting
F	Francisco Stromp	Sporting
F	Luís Vieira	Benfica

Cosme Damião 

Liga Metropolitana XI ('Brazil') 17.07.13

Botafogo 1913

13.07.13	British XI (Rio Cricket/ Paysandu)	3	1	Portugal XI	Estádio General Severiano, Rio de Janeiro
14.07.13	Combinado Carioca	1	0	Portugal XI
17.07.13	Brazil XI (Liga Metropolitana de Sports Atléticos)	0	0	Portugal XI
20.07.13	Botafogo	0	1	Portugal XI
24.07.13	Palmeiras	2	2	Portugal XI	Velódromo de São Paulo
25.07.13	Mackenzie	5	1	Portugal XI
27.07.13	Paulistano	0	1	Portugal XI

P	W	D	L	F	A
7	2	2	3	6	11

Goals: Artur José Pereira (3), Carlos Sobral (2) , António Stromp (1) 

Botafogo vs Portuguese XI

Paulistano 27.07.13

Vieira

Benfica's Luis Vieira stayed on in Rio and  played for Botafogo, their first overseas player.

He remained in Brazil until 1916.

Ray Braine

Up until 1930 the way in which Belgian clubs got around the strict amatuer rules was to set their players up as cafe owners. Ray Braine, who had won 4 championships with Beerschot (Antwerp), scoring 141 goals in 142 games in his 8 year spell at the club, followed this route. The Belgian Federation then introduced a  rule that banned players from being cafe proprietors unless their parents had been in the business for 5 years.  
In 1930 Braine decided to try his hand abroad in order to earn money from football without resorting to subterfuge, He was set to join London club Clapton Orient, but the British government operated a very strict control on foreign labour, and would not consider allowing a foreign national to enter the country to work as a professional footballer. 
Braine turned instead to Czechoslovakia, joining Sparta Prague. He was very successful in Prague, winning 2 league championships and a Mitropa Cup. The Czechs offered him a small fortune to adopt Czech citizenship, but he declined, returning to Belgium in 1936.
He made 54 appearances for the national team, scoring 26 goals. 

Football Post

Nottingham Evening Post, 1905

Finland 1912

Up until 1917 the Grand Duchy of Finland (Великое княжество Финляндское) was a part of the Russian Empire. The Head of State was the Emperor of Russia (Nikolai II), under the title Grand Duke of Finland.  Finland did, however, enjoy a certain amount of autonomy.
In the sporting domain Finland joined FIFA in 1908 (though they didn't play an international until 1911) and Russia joined in 1912.
Finland had played 2 friendlies prior to the 1912 Olympics, both heavy defeats (5-2 and 7-1) to Sweden in October 1911 and June 1912. 
2 days after the defeat to Sweden in Stockholm Finland played their first competitive international. Their opponents were Italy (7 previous internationals and 1 victory). 
Watched by a modest crowd of 600, the match was refereed by Herr Hugo Meisl. 
20 year old Jarl Öhman put the Finns ahead in the 2nd minute. By the 25th minute Italy had taken a 2-1 lead. Eino Soinio, Finland's 17 year old captain, equalized in the 40th minute.There were no goals in the 2nd half. Extra time saw a Bror Wiberg goal (105') secure the win for Finland.
Next up was a 2nd round match with Russia, played the following day (30.06.12) at 10:00 am! Finland made only one change, and even Wickström, who had missed the 2nd half of the Italy game with an injury, played less than 24 hrs later.A crowd of 2-300 saw goals from Wiberg and Öhman give Finland a 2-1 win.
This set up a semi final against Great Britain (England Amateurs)- an unenviable prospect as England Amateurs had only lost 1 game in the previous 6 years and routinely posted double figure scores.
Finland fell behind to a 2nd minute own goal. Bradford City's Harold Walden added a 2nd goal in the 7th minute. Finland then put in a respectable appearance and it wasn't until the 77th minute that Walden scored a 3rd. Inevitably Vivian Woodward got a goal as Great Britain won 4-0. 

Jarl 'Lali' Öhman

 Eino Soinio

This left the Finns with one more game to contest- a play off for the bronze medal against The Netherlands.
Netherlands were coached by England veteran Edgar Chadwick, There was no scoring in the first quarter, but then Netherlands, and Jan Vos in particular, ran riot. It was 4-0 at the break and Netherlands ran out 9-0 winners, with Vos getting 5.

Finland only played one more international before the outbreak of the war in 1914, losing 4-3 to Sweden in Stockholm (24.05.14).

The Welsh Football Academy: T.E.Thomas and Chirk AAA

 Chirk is a village between Wrexham and Oswestry close to the England Wales border. In 1891 the population was 2,272.
 Between 1884 and 1907 the village club, Chirk Amateur Athletic Association Football Club, provided 20 Welsh internationals , whilst another 4 natives of Chirk were capped whilst playing for other clubs. 
The club also won the Welsh Cup 5 times between 1887 and 1894. 
The success of the small mining community as a breeding ground for top class footballers is largely due to the efforts of one man, T.E. Thomas.

T.E. Thomas

Thomas was born in Ystalafera, South Wales in 1853. He was a schoolmaster at Chirk National School. 

In 1876 when the locals decided to form a club, Thomas was appointed secretary (he also played for the club, alongside employees of the local coal mines).

Thomas indoctrinated his pupils in the importance of accurate passing, ball control and keeping the ball on the ground. These were very progressive ideas at the time. 

In 1890 Thomas became became president of the Football Association of Wales.

Chirk AAA's Cup Winning teams: 

1886-87	1887-88	1889-90	1891-92	1893-94
E Povey				J Morgan
T Wynne		E Roberts	G O Postle	E Powell
'Di' Jones		J Mates
H Owen	J Jones	J Rogers	W P Jones	J Williams
J Owen	Wise	J Davies	R C Jones	G Williams
J Jones			E Morris	H Morgan
Billy Owen
P Griffiths			E James
T Williams		J Butler		W H Meredith
G Owen		H Morris	G Owen	H Roberts
G Griffiths			W Egan	A Lockley

Chirk AAA players in the Welsh International XI:

17.03.84	Wales 0 England 4 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Charles Conde (1) Peter Griffiths (2) Billy Owen (3)
29.03.84	Scotland 4 Wales 1 (Cathkin Park, Glasgow)	Charles Conde
11.03.85	Ireland 2 Wales 8  (Ballynafeigh, Belfast)	Billy Owen
26.02.87	England 4 Wales 0 (The Oval)	Billy Owen
12.03.87	Ireland 4 Wales 1 (Oldpark Avenue, Belfast)	George Griffiths (4)
04.02.88	England 5 Wales 1 (Nantwich Road, Crewe)	Peter Griffiths Billy Owen
03.03.88	Wales 11 Ireland 0 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Di Jones (5)
10.03.88	Scotland 5 Wales 1 (Easter Road, Edinburgh)	Di Jones George Owen (6)
23.02.89	England 4 Wales 1 (Victoria Ground, Stoke)	Billy Owen
15.04.89	Wales 0 Scotland 0 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Billy Owen
27. 04.89	Ireland 1 Wales 3  ( Ballynafeigh, Belfast)	Billy Owen
08.02.90	Wales 5 Ireland 2 (Old Racecourse, Shrewsbury)	Peter Griffiths Billy Owen
22.03.90	Scotland 5 Wales 0 (Underwood Park, Paisley)	Peter Griffiths Billy Owen
07.02.91	Ireland 7 Wales 2  (Ulsterville, Belfast)	Peter Griffiths Jack Mates (7) Joe Davies (8) Billy Owen
07.03.91	England 4 Wales 1 (Newcastle Road, Sunderland)	Billy Owen
21.03.91	Wales 3 Scotland 4 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Billy Owen
05.03.92	Wales 0 England 2 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Billy Owen
26.03.92	Scotland 6 Wales 1 (Tynecastle, Edinburgh)	Billy Owen William Egan (9)
13.03.93	England 6 Wales 0 (Victoria Ground, Stoke)	Edward Morris (10) Edwin James (11) Jack Butler (12)
18.03.93	Wales 0 Scotland 8 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	George Williams (13) Edward Morris Billy Owen Jack Butler
08.04.93	Ireland 4 Wales 3  (Cliftonville Ground, Belfast)	Edward Morris Billy Owen Jack Butler George Owen Edwin James
24.02.94	Wales 4 Ireland 1 (St Helen’s Swansea)	Edwin James
12.03.94	Wales 1 England 5 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Edwin James
24.03.94	Scotland 5 Wales 2 (Rugby Park, Kilmarnock)	George Williams Edwin James
16.03.95	Ireland 2 Wales 2 (Solitude, Belfast)	George Williams
18.03.95	England 1 Wales 1 (Queen’s Club, London)	George Williams
23. 03.95	Wales 2 Scotland 2 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	George Williams
20.03.97	Wales 2 Scotland 2 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Jack Mates
29.03.97	England 4 Wales 0 (Bramall Lane, Sheffield)	Jack Mates
19.02.98	Wales 0 Ireland 1 (The Oval, Llandudno)	John Morris (14)
		George Williams
		Albert Lockley (15)
19.03.98	Scotland 5 Wales 2 (Fir Park, Motherwell)	Edwin James
28.03.98	Wales 0 England 3 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Edwin James
04. 03.99	Ireland 1 Wales 0 (Grosvenor Park, Belfast)	Edwin James
03.02.1900	Scotland 5 Wales 2 (Pittodrie, Aberdeen)	Charlie Morris  (16) Sam Meredith (17)
24.02.1900	Wales 2 Ireland 0 (The Oval, Llandudno)	Charlie Morris Robert Morris (18)
02.03.01	Wales 1 Scotland 1 (Racecourse, Wrexham)	Sam Meredith
18.03.01	England 6 Wales 0 (St James's Park, Newcastle)	Sam Meredith
23.03.01	Ireland 0 Wales 1 (Solitude, Belfast)	Sam Meredith Robert Morris
15.03.02	Scotland 5 Wales 1 (Cappielow Park, Greenock)	Robert Morris
28. 03.03	Ireland 2 Wales 0 (Solitude, Belfast)	William Wynn (19)
23.02.07	Ireland 2 Wales 3 (Solitude, Belfast)	Arthur H Hughes (20)

The rise of professionalism in the 1880's saw an increased movement of players away from the villages of North East Wales into the North West of England and the Midlands. Examples among the players listed are Joe Davies, who moved on to Everton, and Di Jones, later of Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City. 

In addition to the 20 players above, the following Chirk players gained international honours whilst playing for other clubs: 

Jack Owen (Newton Heath) brother of Billy Owen, 1 cap (1892).

Hugh Morris (Chirk, Ardwick, Sheff Utd, Manchester City, Grimsby Town) 3 appearances for Wales (1894–97).

Billy  Meredith (Chirk, Northwich Victoria, Manchester City, Manchester United) 48 Wales caps (1895–1920).

Lot Jones (Chirk, Druids, Manchester City) 20 Wales caps  (1905–20).