VASE, CUP AND CHAMPIONS

The FA Vase, with a prize money of £2000 for winning clubs, entered the Fourth Round proper this weekend (17^th January) but several games were affected by the harsh weather. Local derby, Worksop Town v Glossop North End was postponed.

Glossop North End, a club that appears in the early football league tables, were runners up in the Second Division in 1898-9, second to Manchester City but were relegated the following season with only 18 points from a maximum of 68 and left the league after the First World War.

Worksop, the Tigers, claim to be founded in 1861 making it the oldest club, but there is no evidence to back this up. There was a record of a game played under Worksop's name in 1873 when 15 men played 15 men from the local church. By 1882 the club added Town to its name and that's where it all begins, joining the Sheffield League and then the Midland League.

Progress in cups has been infrequent although in 1908 they played Chelsea in the 1^st round proper losing 1-9 at Stamford Bridge. In 1923 at White Hart Lane, the club lost 0-9 to Spurs after a 0-0 also at WHL. Over the years, there have also been several financial hurdles that have not been cleared, so the club now shares its original ground with tenants, Handsworth Parramore, a club founded in 2013, now in level 5 of the Football League. Worksop also plays at level 5, in the Northern Counties East League.

Great names linked to the club include, Alan Hodgkinson, a well known Sheffield United and England goalkeeper, Peter Eustace, and the Chapman brothers. Yes, Herbert Chapman was the more famous of the trio, who managed Huddersfield Town, introducing the new WM system and with it his Yorkshire club won the First division championship twice and the FA Cup between 1921-5. By great demand, he then managed Arsenal for ten years, winning the Cup and two league titles also. Arsenal in the 1930s became the leading team in the country. Chapman also championed proper training methods and tactics, floodlighting, European football and numbered shirts but sadly died in 1934, aged only 55 and missed his club's further success before war broke out.