The Twelve Original Football League Grounds.

Of the 12 teams that took part in the inaugural season of the Football League 10 are still playing League football , and Stoke, reformed in 1908, did their very best to carry on seamlessly where the original club left off.
So, how many of those 11 grounds have hosted League football for 127 years? And what has become of the grounds of 1888 which are no longer used for football?

Accrington - Thorneyholme Road
 Thorneyholme Road was a cricket ground when Accrington FC was formed. It is still in use as a cricket ground, and the area where the football pitch was is now tennis courts. The last League match at the ground was played on April 15th, 1893.

Aston Villa - Wellington Road (Perry Bar)
Villa acquired the ground, then undeveloped, in 1876, It remained their home ground until 1897. Wellington Road hosted 2 FA Cup semi finals and an England international, but the playing surface was poor and Villa wanted a more commodious stadium.  The last League match was played at Wellington Road on 22nd  March 1897. The land was built over and no trace of the old ground remains. 

Blackburn Rovers - Leamington Road
Rovers moved into this, their third ground, in 1881. Leamington Road hosted 2 England internationals. The last League game played there was on January 4th 1890, after which the club moved to Ewood Park. The Leamington Road ground was built over and is now the site of rows of charming red brick houses.

Bolton Wanderers - Pikes Lane
Bolton's first regular home venue. The club remained at Pikes Lane from 1880 until 1895, the last game being played on 13th April 1895. The ground was reputedly unpopular with players and spectators alike due to the bumpy pitch and poor facilities. It is now the site of terraced housing. 

Burnley - Turf Moor
Burnley moved into Turf Moor in 1883 and remain there to this day.

Derby County - The County Ground
The County Ground (aka The Racecourse) is still a County Cricket Ground (no longer used for horse racing!). Derby County played there until 1895 when they moved to the Base.ball Ground. The County ground was the first provincial ground to host an FA Cup Final (1886) and also staged an England International.

Everton - Anfield
Anfield is still a League venue of course, but with different tenants.  Everton played their last match there in 1891 before moving into their grand purpose built stadium at Goodison Park.

Notts County - Trent Bridge
Continuing the theme of cricket grounds. Trent Bridge hosted Notts County matches in the 1860s, but it was the primary venue for Nottingham Forest until 1883. Forest relocated and County moved in, staying until  1910, when they moved to Meadow Lane. 

Preston North End - Deepdale
 North End was primarily a cricket club when they first leased the land on Deepdale Farm in 1875. Their winter game was Rugby football. Association was first played at Deepdale in 1878, and it remains the home of Preston North End to this day.

Stoke- The Victoria Ground
Football was originally played in Stoke at the Victoria Cricket Club, but this was not the same venue. Stoke moved across the road from Sweetings Field to the Victoria Ground in 1878. At the time it was still known as The Athletic Club field, but was later named after a pub built on the Sweetings Field  that Stoke had vacated. The Victoria Ground was the home of Stoke and their successors until 1997.
The site is now wasteland.

West Bromwich Albion -Stoney Lane
Stoney Lane was Albion's 5th ground. It was their home from 1885 until 1900. The site is now a housing estate.

Wolverhampton Wanderers - Dudley Road
Home to the Wanderers from 1881- 1889, the last match being played on 2nd  March 1889. Now a housing estate. 

The Dooley Fitba' Club

Fitba' is a Scottish colloquialism for 'football'. 
Within 25 years of the foundation of the Football Association, our game had evolved into a form of mass entertainment in which millions of Britons engaged to some degree, Historians often measure football against Music Hall in order to gauge lucrativeness, economic, social and cultural impact.  Music Hall was a phenomenally successful source of mass entertainment in the pre cinema era.
Music Hall and Popular Culture were synonymous.
It is not surprising that football found its way onto the Music Hall stage.
The above song is an example (according to some sources, the first). It is a Scottish dialect number concerning fanatical devotion to the game, and survived into the modern era in the form of Football Crazy, recorded by Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor in 1960, often played on Ed Stewart's Junior Choice when I was a boy.


 James Curran ( aka Currin) was a popular humorous songwriter. An alcoholic, he died in poverty. 

 Music Hall legend Harry Lauder described J.C McDonald as 'the leading comedian in Scotland and a tremendously popular personage throughout the length and breadth of the land'. 
Patter (where the performer addresses the audience in a spoken aside- a staple of Music Hall performances).

English High School AC

Alexander Watson Hutton

When the Scottish educationalist Alexander Watson Hutton became aware that the Saint Andrew's Scots School (Buenos Aires) of which he was director, had insufficient funds to promote sporting activities he resigned and established his own institution - The Buenos Aires English High School.
Watson Hutton was such a strong believer in the importance of sports in education that he even 'imported' a Scottish football coach- a certain William Watters of whom I can find no further information. The claim that Watters brought the first footballs to Argentina is spurious, as games were played as early as the 1860s.  

 In February 1893, Watson Hutton was responsible for the foundation of a second incarnation of The Argentine Association Football League.

English High School won its first title in 1900. That year also saw English High School awarded the Herald Trophy. This was an award by the Buenos Aires Herald newspaper based on a readers' vote for the most popular team in Buenos Aires.

The result was :

English High School AC - 6,942 votes
Quilmes - 3,467 votes
Belgrano Athletic - 3,358

In 1901 the Association rules were changed- it was stipulated that teams must not have the names of schools. Consequently the club members chose a new name- Alumni AC (alumni is Latin for former pupils).
Alumni dominated Argentinian club football for the following decade. 

Football In Many Lands

Nottingham Evening Post 23.05.30

Jack Thomas

Jack Thomas was born in County Durham.
He played for Brighton and Hove Albion in the Southern League before joining Newcastle United for the 1911-12 season.
He made one first team appearance, playing at inside right in a 1-1 draw away to Manchester City.
Thomas then returned to Spennymoor United, the Northern League club where his career began.
Pretty unremarkable.
During the 1914-18 War however Jack Thomas was involved in a series of remarkable exploits.
Captured by the Germans he was involved in attempt to tunnel out of the prison camp. He eventually escaped and made use of a compass smuggled in a cake to return to Britain. He was then sent back to Europe to work as a spy.

Credit

The Great Victory

I have seen all the best sides in Football but I have never seen a side that compared to Preston North End at their best. We beat them but I do not pretend for a moment that we deserved to beat them.
Billy Bassett

The FA Cup Final, 1888. Preston North End were strong favourites to win the match. From September 1887 to March 17th 1888 they had won every game. On March 17th they had drawn 1-1 with Crewe Alexandra.

 In the eyes of  the FA president and match referee Major Marindin Preston North End were a Bad Thing- he disapproved of their supposed reliance on Scottish imports. Now the Preston players incensed him further by asking to have a team photograph with the cup before the match. 

Anecdotally West Bromwich Albion players refused to bet with their Preston North End counterparts on the outcome of the match. The team featured the majority of the players that would go on to feature in the Invincibles squad the following season. Add to that impressive pool of talent the name of  Nick Ross, probably the best defender of his era.

West Bromwich Albion		Preston North End
Bob Roberts	GK		R.H Mills-Roberts
Albert Aldridge	RB		Bob Howarth
Harry Green	LD		Nick Ross*
Ezra Horton	RH		Bob Holmes
Charlie Perry	CH		David Russell*
George Timmins	LH		Johnny Graham*
George Woodhall	OR		Jack Gordon*
Billy Bassett	IR		Jimmy Ross*
Jem Bayliss	CF		John Goodall
Joe Wilson	IL		Fred Dewhurst
Tom Pearson	OL		George Drummond*

* Scottish players. Mills-Roberts was Welsh. Mills-Roberts and Dewhurst were amateurs. The majority of the  West Bromwich players  were born in that town, with others from nearby Walsall, Tipton and Handsworth. 

Contemporary reports condemn the Preston forwards for their profligacy. Each of the 5 North End forwards was guilty of at least one serious error in front of goal, and Nick Ross was reported as having said at half time 'our forwards will cost us this match',

Preston North End

Bayliss put Albion ahead in the 20th minute, shooting home from a Bassett cross. Dewhurst equalised in a scramble 7 minutes into the second half, and after Jimmy Ross had hit the post West Brom got a winner with just over 10 minutes left to play. 

Modern references credit the winning goal to Woodhall, but most contemporary

newspaper reports I have read give the winning goal to Bayliss, heading in after Woodhall had shot against the post. Another account has a shot by Woodhall being deflected in off Bassett's knee. The Birmingham Daily Post infers that Woodhall was responsible for the goal.  Such was life before the action replay.

Bayliss

Woodhall

Società Ginnastica Andrea Doria

Società Ginnastica Andrea Doria was founded at Genoa's Swiss College in 1895. They were named after a great Genoese admiral and warlord of the 16th century. The main focus of the club was gymnastics, but informal games of football were played from the outset, and a football section was formally instituted in 1900.
The club first participated in the  Campionato Federale di Football in 1902, their debut being a 3-1 defeat at the hands of neighbours Genoa.

The colours were blue and white

Andrea Doria were winners of the Federazione Ginnastica Nazionale Italiana's Campionato Italiano di Calcio on 3 occasions (1910, 1912 &1913) and shared the title once (1902).

1924

Under the fascist regime Società Ginnastica Andrea Doria underwent an enforced merger with Società Ginnastica Comunale Sampierdarenese to form a short lived team called L'Associazione Calcio La Dominante (1927-1930).

Referees and Umpires- England v Scotland

Deerstalkers were popular with referees.

When the Football Association’s Laws of the Game were drawn up in 1863 there was no mention to referees, umpires or any arbiters. However, by the 1870s it was common for association matches to be overseen by two umpires and a referee. This practice is traditionally ascribed to the advent of competitive football with the introduction of the FA Cup in 1871. Of course most football was still played by the class of men who would never knowingly seek to gain unfair advantage or deliberately transgress.
In the Alcock Internationals we see the casual approach to officialdom in keeping with the 'scratch' nature of the matches, the personnel being:
Match 1-No mention  made of Umpires and Referees, the assumption being that disputes were settled by the captains.
Match 2-Umpires - Morton Peto Betts (England) and Alexander Morten (Scotland)
Match 3-Umpires - Robert Barker (Hertfordshire Rangers, England) and William Wallace. (Wanderers, for Scotland) Referee - Charles Mansfield Tebbut (Wanderers).
Match  4- Umpires - Alfred Stair (Upton Park, England) and Gilbert Kennedy (Wanderers, for Scotland).
Match 5-Only one Umpire known - Alexander Morten  (taken from Andy Mitchell's First Elevens).

  In practice each side would nominate an Umpire to whom the captains could appeal regarding any situation that arose during play. This situation was usually adequate, although the Umpires were later described in the press as 12th men on each side who could harass the Referee with pleas and arguments.
One Umpire operated in each half of the field (or more accurately each side of the field- for this purpose the field was divided lengthwise). The Referee could operate from the sidelines, but was often to be found on the field of play.

If we look at the officials involved in the England  vs Scotland internationals during the Umpire / Referee era we see a veritable Who's Who of Victorian football.  Prominent football administrators and international players past, present and future fulfilled the roles.

	Referee	Umpires
		England	Scotland
1872	William Keay (S) (Hon. Treasurer- Queen's Park)	C.W. Alcock* (Wanderers & Hon. Secretary FA)	H.N. Smith (President - Queen's Park)
1873	Theodore Lloyd (E) (Crystal Palace)	C.W. Alcock* (Wanderers & Hon. Secretary FA)	Archibald Rae (Queen's Park)
1874	Archibald Rae (S) (Queen's Park)	Alexander Morton* (Crystal Palace)	William Keay (Queen's Park)
1875	Alfred Stair (E) (Upton Park)	Major Francis Marindin (President - FA)	J.C. Mackay (Hon. Sec.- SFA)
1876	William C Mitchell (S) (Queen's Park)	J. Turner (Swifts)	Robert Gardner* (Clydesdale)
1877	Robert A.M.M Ogilvie (E)* (Clapham Rovers)	Hubert Heron* (Wanderers)	William Dick (Hon. Sec.- SFA)
1878	William A Dick (S) (Hon. Sec.- SFA)	G. Turner (Edinburgh University)	R.B. Colquhon (Vice-President- SFA)
1879	Charles Wollaston (E)* (Wanderers)	A. F. Kinnaird* (Treasurer- FA)	R.B. Colquhon (Vice-President- SFA)
1880	Capt. Donald Hamilton (S) (Vice-President- SFA)	W. Pierce-Dix (Hon. Sec.- Sheffield FA)	J. Nicholson (Vale of Leven)
1881	Major Francis Marindin (E) (President-FA)	E.H. Bambridge* (Swifts)	Capt. Donald Hamilton (Vice-President- SFA)
1882	John Wallace (S) (Vice-President- SFA)	Segar  Bastard* (Upton Park)	Thomas Anderson (Renfrew)
1883	John Sinclair (I)* (Hon. Treasurer- Irish FA )	J.C. Clegg*  (President -Sheffield FA)	Thomas  Lawrie  (President- SFA)
1884	John Sinclair (I)* (Hon. Treasurer- Irish FA )	Major Francis Marindin (President-FA)	Thomas Lawrie (Vice-President -SFA)
1885	John Sinclair (I)* (Irish FA)	M.P. Betts* (Old Harrovians)	J. E. McKillop (Scottish FA)
1886	Alexander Hunter (W)* (Secretary-Welsh FA)	N.L. Jackson (Corinthians & Hon. Sec.- FA)	Alexander Stuart (Vice-President- SFA)
1887	John Sinclair (I)* (Irish FA)	R.P. Gregson (Sec- Lancashire FA)	R. Browne (Queen's Park FC)
1888	John Sinclair (I)* (Irish FA)	M.P. Betts* (Old Harrovians)	A Mc Kennedy (President- SFA)
1889	John Sinclair (I)* (Irish FA)	J.C. Clegg*  (President -Sheffield FA)	J.A. Crerar (Third Lanark FC & President -SFA)
1890	John Reid (I)* (Irish FA)	R.P. Gregson (Sec- Lancashire FA)	Charles Campbell* (President- SFA)
1891	William J Morrow  (I) (President- Irish FA)	S.W. Widdowson* (Nottingham Forest)	T.R. Park (SFA)

*denotes an international player.

The inauguration of the British Home Championship in 1883 saw the introduction of neutral referees.
The 1891-92 season saw the Umpires rendered obsolete- replaced by linesmen whose powers were relatively limited, the Referee, by now, having become at least in theory, omnipotent.

Germany v England 1930

It was 1930 before England fielded a full international side against Germany. Between 1899 and 1901, prior to the formation of a German national team, there were five unofficial international matches between  teams representing the 2 nations  (the English  sides won all 5 with an aggregate of 52-4) . Between 1908 and 1913 the England Amateur XI had played Germany  4 times (3 wins, 1 draw , for 19, against 3) By 1930 however, the British were beginning to acknowledge the advances made by continental sides and were prepared to meet them on an equal footing, a fact borne out by The Football Association selection committee's decision to field the XI that had beaten Scotland in April for the friendlies against Germany and Austria. 

In the days leading up to this match the German media took the stance  that Germany would not capitulate to the English, and that if they approached the match with self belief that they could win.  

The match was played at Berlin's Grunewaldstadion (Deutsches Stadion) watched by a crowd of 50,000. Germany played in red jerseys and England wore their usual white. 

Germany			England
Willibald Kreß	Rot-Weiß Frankfurt	G		Harry Hibbs	Birmingham
Franz Schütz	Eintracht Frankfurt	RB		Roy Goodall	Huddersfield Town
Hans Stubb	Eintracht Frankfurt	LB		Ernie Blenkinsop	Sheffield Wednesday
Conny Heidkamp	Bayern Munich	RH		Alf Strange	Sheffield Wednesday
Ludwig Leinberger	SpVgg.Fürth	CH		Maurice Webster	Middlesbrough
Hugo Mantel	Eintracht Frankfurt	LH		Billy Marsden	Sheffield Wednesday
Josef Bergmaier	Bayern Munich	OR		Sammy Crooks	Derby County
Josef Pöttinger	Bayern Munich	IR		David Jack	Arsenal
Ernst Kuzorra	Schalke 04	CF		Vic Watson	West Ham United
Richard Hofmann	Dresdner SC	IL		Joe Bradford	Birmingham
Ludwig Hofmann	Bayern Munich	OL		Ellis Rimmer	Sheffield Wednesday

Joe Bradford gave England the lead in the 11th minute. Richard Hofmann leveled 10 minutes later, only for Bradford to restore England's lead after 25 minutes. 

Marsden suffered concussion, and did not come out for the second half.  With England reduced to 10 men Hofmann netted twice (49th and 60th minutes) to complete his hat trick. David Jack headed the equaliser 8 minutes from time. 

Hofmann

Hofmann was a prolific scorer: 24 goals in 25 Internationals. In September 1930 he surpassed Gottfried Fuchs' record (15). The hat trick against England was his third. He scored 5 international hat tricks in successive seasons (1928-32).