MAY 1st FA CUP FINAL

The 1st of May was the date of the 1937 FA Cup Final, which was contested by Sunderland and Preston North End at Wembley. Sunderland won 3–1, with goals by Bobby Gurneny, Raich Carter and Eddie Burbanks. Frank O'Donnell's strike on 44 minutes had put Preston ahead. It was the first final tie contested in May (all previous finals had hitherto been played in April).

The last survivor from the winning side was Sunderland goalkeeper Johnny Mapson, who died in August 1999 at the age of 82. The last surviving player from the game, Preston's Jimmy Dougal, died two months later at the age of 86.

The 1st of May is often used as a public holiday, apart from the poor souls who are taking our money at car parks, bars and the like. So a few "firsts" for you (but not all in May): The Blackburn Rovers left half (anyone know what that means?) James Forrest, was the first professional to play for England when he was selected to play against Scotland on March 21st 1885. Despite the inevitable protest from the Scottish FA, who had watched all their players head south to earn money by playing for the northern English clubs, the match ended 1-1 at the Oval! Forrest survived complaints from the Scots but had to wear a different "jersey" from the rest of his team! In the next season, professionalism gradually was accepted.

When Liverpool played their first ever league game v Middlesbrough on September 2nd 1893 their team contained TEN Scots and one Englishman Bill McOwen who sounded as though he was a Scot.

In 1892, Lincoln City became the first club to add the suffix "City" to their club name.
The first club to be automatically relegated from the Football League to the Conference was Lincoln City in 1986-7.

Scotland's first defeat against non-home country's opposition was in May 1931 when they lost to Austria 5-0 in Vienna. Their first home defeat against foreign opposition was against Austria on December 13th 1950, for heaven's sake!

The first English club to field a team in a league match that did not include a single Englishman was Accrington Stanley, who in 1955-6 season, fielded ELEVEN Scots in their opening match against Gateshead United in the Third Division North.

The first club to play in all four divisions and the regionalised Third Division North and South was Coventry City.