The 1870s : Scottish Dominance

An analysis of matches played between Scottish and English club sides in the 1870s reveals a significant Scots superiority.

	Wins	Goals
Scottish	42	171
English	9	55
Drawn	3

Queen's Park

44% of these matches involved teams representing Queen's Park, and the dominance they enjoyed in Scottish football was extended into their encounters with English sides.

	P	W	D	L	F	A
Queen’s Park	24	21	2	1	85	11

The English teams that played Scottish opponents during the decade represented both the 'gentleman amateurs' (eg: Wanderers, Cambridge University, Clapham Rovers,London Pilgrims, Old Etonians) and the northern and midland clubs that would be at the forefront of developing the professional game (eg: Darwen, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Stoke). 
There was of course no league football in either England or Scotland during the 1870s. Aside from cup competitions the clubs relied on friendlies. 

Darwen

Here is a list of the club fixtures from 1872-79.

04.03.72	Wanderers	0	0	Queen’s Park	Oval
30.01.75	Queen’s Park	6	0	Notts County	Hampden 1
08.03.75	Notts County	1	2	Queen’s Park	Trent Bridge
09.10.75	Queen’s Park	5	0	Wanderers	Hampden 1
06.02.76	Wanderers	2	0	Queen’s Park	Oval
01.04.76	Clydesdale	2	0	The Wednesday	Kinning Park
08.04.76	Alexandra Athletic	1	0	Sheffield Albion	Alexandra Pk
07.10.76	Queen’s Park	5	1	Notts County	Hampden 1
04.11.76	Wanderers	0	6	Queen’s Park	Oval
09.12.76	Queen’s Park	3	0	Cambridge University	Hampden 1
03.11.77	Third Lanark RV.	1	1	Sheffield Heeley	Cathkin 1
10.11.77	Partick	5	0	Darwen	Inchview Pk
17.11.77	Queen’s Park	6	1	Notts County	Hampden 1
08.12.77	Calthorpe	0	8	Queen’s Park XI	Birmingham
10.12.77	Stoke	0	1	Queen’s Park XI	Sweetings F
15.12.77	Queen’s Park	0	0	Cambridge University	Hampden 1
01.01.78	Darwen	3	2	Partick	Barley Bank
01.01.78	Sheffield  Albion	1	2	Alexandria Athletic	Sheffield
02.01.78	Blackburn Rovers	2	1	Partick	Alexandra M.
19.01.78	Notts County	1	2	Queen’s Park	Trent Bridge
09.02.78	Queen’s Park XI	7	0	Calthorpe	Hampden 1
16.02.78	Nottingham Forest	2	4	Glasgow Rangers	Nottingham
18.02.78	The Wednesday	1	2	Glasgow Rangers	Sheaf House
13.04.78	Wanderers	1	3	Vale of Leven	Oval
20.04.78	Glasgow Rangers	2	0	Nottingham Forest	Kinning Park
22.04.78	Ayr Thistle	0	3	Nottingham Forest	Ayr
06.04.78	Manchester Birch	0	6	Queen’s Park	Manchester
21.09.78	Queen’s Park XI	4	1	Stoke	Hampden 1
25.10.78	Clapham Rovers	1	5	Glasgow Rangers	London
26.10.78	Nottingham Forest	0	2	Glasgow Rangers	Nottingham
09.11.78	Partick	2	0	Blackburn Rovs	Inchview Pk
09.11.78	Queen’s Park	4	0	Notts County	Hampden 1
01.01.79	Sheffield Heeley	0	2	Third Lanark RV.	Sheffield
01.01.79	Darwen	0	7	Partick	Barley Bank
02.01.79	Blackburn Rovers	2	4	Partick	Alexandra M.
18.01.79	Nottingham Forest	4	1	Edinburgh University	Nottingham
18.01.79	Stoke	1	4	Queen’s Park XI	Victoria G
20.01.79	Birmingham Select	1	4	Edinburgh University	Birmingham
20.01.79	Aston Villa	1	2	Queen’s Park XI	Perry Barr
01.02.79	Notts County	0	2	Queen’s Park	Trent Bridge
11.04.79	Ayr FC	1	2	Calthorpe	Ayr
12.04.79	Glasgow Rangers	3	0	Nottingham Forest	Kinning Park
12.04.79	Manchester Wrs	0	4	Queen’s Park	Manchester
12.04.79	Mauchline	3	0	Calthorpe	Mauchline
14.04.79	Glasgow University	5	2	Calthorpe	Glasgow
25.10.79	Blackburn Rovers	1	4	Glasgow Rangers	Alexandra Med.
01.11.79	Nottingham Forest	6	1	Edinburgh University	Nottingham
08.11.79	London Pilgrims	0	2	Queen’s Park XI	London
10.11.79	Stoke	1	2	Queen’s Park XI	Victoria Ground
15.11.79	Queen’s Park	4	1	Notts County	Hampden 1
15.11.79	Aston Villa	4	2	Parkgrove FC	Perry Barr
25.12.79	Kilmarnock Ath.	7	1	Nottingham St.James	Kilmarnock
27.12.79	Vale of Leven	5	2	Old Etonians	Alexandria
30.12.79	Edinburgh University	3	4	Old Etonians	Edinburgh

What also began in the latter part of the 1870s was the trickle of Scottish players to join English clubs. Offered sinecure positions in local industries they were tacitly professional.
James Lang (Clydesdale- The Wednesday, 1876), Fergus Suter and Jimmy Love (Partick-Darwen, 1878) and Archie Hunter (Ayr Thistle- Aston Villa, 1878) are early examples. 

Scotland also enjoyed the advantage in the international matches played during the decade.

	Wins	Goals
Scotland	4	23
England	2	15
Drawn	2

30.11.72	Scotland	0	0	England	Hamilton Cres.
08 03.73	England	4	2	Scotland	Oval
07.03.74	Scotland	2	1	England	Hamilton Cres.
06.03.75	England	2	2	Scotland	Oval
04.03.76	Scotland	3	0	England	Hamilton Cres.
03.03.77	England	1	3	Scotland	Oval
02.03.78	Scotland	7	2	England	Hampden 1
05.04.79	England	5	4	Scotland	Oval

Note: the unofficial England Scotland matches of  1870-72 and the Glasgow Sheffield series are not included.

The Jacks

This has got nothing to do with Swansea Town (or City)...

David Jack took a look at the masses of people covering the Wembley pitch on 28th April 1923 and said to his father 'If I don't get a goal in the first five minutes I'm coming off...' 
He got one in the 3rd minute. The first goal ever scored at Wembley. So every football lover should know the name of David Jack.
He was , however, part of a footballing family that shows us a great deal about the game's development in the first part of the 20th century.

Bob Jack

David's father, Bob Jack, was a Scotsman. An outside right, he started playing for Alloa Athletic as a 15 year old. Like many Scottish professionals at the time he moved to England, where he played for Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End before stepping down in class to turn out for Glossop, Plymouth Argyle and Southend United.
He had moved into management whilst still at Argyle (joining them in 1903 he became player manager in 1905) and was player manager during his 4 year stint with Southend (1906-10). On retiring as a player he returned to Plymouth, where he was in charge for 28 years (for a total of 1,093 games). In later life he carried out scouting duties for Southend (when David was managing them).

Bob Jack had three grandly named sons who were all footballers:

David Bone Nightingale Jack was one of the most well known footballers of his era.

An inside forward, he began his career at Plymouth Argyle when his father was the manager. After just one season he moved to Bolton Wanderers in 1920.  He was the club's top scorer for five of the eight seasons he was there, scoring 144 goals in 295 league matches. In 1928 Bolton were facing financial problems. David Jack then became the world's most expensive footballer when Herbert Chapman paid  £10,890  to take him to Arsenal (the previous world record was £6,550).

Rollo

Robert Rollo Jack was an inside right. 3 years younger than David, he began his career with Plymouth Argyle at the age of 20. Having made 15 league appearances he was sold to Bolton Wanderers (where he joined David) for £1500. Rollo was a fringe player at Bolton, and in six seasons  he only made 29 League appearances. In 1929 Rollo joined Clapton Orient and was a regular for 3 seasons. He drifted into non league football before joining Swindon Town in 1934. 


Donald Atrill Jack. Donald didn't reach the level of accomplishment achieved by his brothers. He was a reserve player with Argyle, also turning out for Torquay United.  He joined Bolton Wanderers in 1922, but only played for the reserves. He also served Bradford City, but was not a first team player. 

After giving up football to pursue a career in accountancy Donald played as an  amateur with Finchley. 

Gibraltar

 Gibraltar Football Club 1895

Given Gibraltar's strong association with the British armed forces it is unsurprising that football developed there. Even though the territory is less than 7 km square, it saw an early and healthy development of  the game. 
The Gibraltar Civilian Football Association was founded on May 1st, 1895. There was a small number of civilian teams ( Prince of Wales was founded pre 1892 and Gibraltar Football Club in 1893) and military teams were readily available for fixtures, which was handy as they owned the playing fields.  
A cup competition - The Merchants Cup- was also instituted in 1895.
The first winners of the Merchants Cup were Gibraltar Football Club. The next champions were the Jubilee Football Club (1896 and 1897), the Albion Football Club (1898), the Exiles Football Club (1899) and the Prince of Wales Football Club (1900). 
In about 1902 the military authorities handed over one of its 4 football grounds (North Front) for the use of civilian teams. This meant that local civilian teams could play between themselves on a regular basis.
A league competition was begun in October 1907 (organized by the Gibraltar Civilian Football
Association). It comprised 8 clubs and the first league champions were Prince of Wales FC.