IT'S THE FA CUP-136 so far

 

This is Morgan Betts, of Wanderers FC, who played the Royal Engineers in the first FA Cup Final, on March 16th 1872, at The Oval. He scored the goal for the Wanderers in their 1-0 win  (not with the cricket bat in hand). He appears as A.H.Chequers, in the team sheet, which some say comes from his pseudonym from his "gentleman's club", The Harrow Chequers. This was a club put together by old boys of Harrow School, who played their home matches at The Oval, Kennington. 

Charles W. Alcock, was an Old Harrovian, who "formalised" the FA Cup, based on the "House" competition at Harrow School, a knock out competition, played between the boys' boarding houses. These were always taken very seriously, since the boys organised their teams and the competition. The winning team became "Cock House". The first FA Cup committee meeting was held on July 20th 1871, when the FA breathed life into the new idea, The FA Challenge Cup.

The FA Cup competition kicked off in 1871 with 15 teams: Round 1 was as follows (was fairly complicated):

Barnes v Civil Service 2-0, Hampstead Heathens had a Bye, Maidenhead v Marlow 2-0, Hitchin v Crystal Palace 0-0...both clubs given a Bye, Queen's Park (Glasgow) got a bye v Donington School (S. Lincolnshire), Royal Engineers had a walk over v Reigate Priory, Upton Park v Clapham Rovers (0-3) and Wanderers walk over v Harrow Chequers. Queen's Park donated a guinea (£1 and 1s) to the cost of the cup and engraving. The weekly wage was under £1.

In Round 2: still quite complicated

Barnes  and Hampstead Heathens drew 1-1 with the Heathens winning the replay 1-0.                  Crystal Palace beat Maidenhead 3-0                                                                                                  Hitchen lost to Royal Engineers 0-5                                                                                                  Queens Park had a walk over BYE to Donnington School...who wouldn't travel to Glasgow!    Wanderers beat Clapham Rovers 3-1 

Round 3: slightly complicated

Queens Park BYE  (NOTE they were given a bye through to the semi-final to help them with travel expences): Royal Engineers beat Hampstead Heathens 3-0: Wanderers v Crystal Palace 0-0 both given BYES to the next round.

Semi-Finals:

Royal Engineers v Crystal Palace 0-0 then 3-0: Wanderers drew with Queens Park 0-0 then had a walk over with QP not being able to afford to travel!

Final: Wanderers 1-0 Royal Engineers

There were no shirt numbers, players wore club caps/socks to distinquish their "colours", the throw in was one handed taken by the team that touched the ball first after it had left the field...hence "touch line". There were no field markings inside the touchlines, the cross bar was a length of rope, much of the game was based on "dribbling", passing was very unusual.

In the first 12 seasons, the four winners of the "little tin idol" (below) were:- the Wanderers (5 times out of the first 7), Old Etonians (6 finals 2 wins), The Royal Engineers and Oxford University (4 finals 1 win each). It was a competition of pride NOT financial gain. The finalists were all from the south. Sheffield were the first "northern" club to join in 1873-4 with the Shropshire Wanderers.

In 1876-7 Queen's Park (Glasgow) and Sheffield again joined in, there was a Manchester included the following season with Notts County, Nottingham Forest and Grantham. 

In 1879-80 Blackburn Rovers entered the competition with Aston Villa, Birmingham, Darwen and gradually more "professionals" signed up for the cup. The Rovers lost to the Old Etonians in the 1881-2 final 1-0, but from then the professionals, including Fergus Suter, took over (See "The English Game" TV series-Netflix-see link below.) The Old Etonians were the last "amateurs" to reach the final, losing to Blackburn Olympic, the first northern club to take the cup away from the south. Have a look at Fergus Suter (below) and his mates from the TV series as Blackburn Olympic and then Blackburn Rovers win the next four finals. Suter was a cup winner in 1884-5-6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2m6v0KlbSI