NOVEMBER 17th: SALOP, SAMUEL, SAN MARINO, SWITZERLAND.

The FA Cup: 17th November 1873-the third time the competition had been held.

The Raven Hotel in Shrewsbury (pictured) was the unlikely setting for a bit of footballing history. The FA Cup 1st Round tie between Shropshire Wanderers and Sheffield FC, at the Shrewsbury Race Course, had ended in 0-0 draw and the replay had also been drawn, with no score, at the Bramall Lane cricket ground (as it was then).  Rather than have a second replay the teams decided during an after-match meal to decide the winners by a toss of a coin. That was the only time an FA Cup tie has been decided by a toss of a coin - Sheffield calling correctly and progressing to the Second Round. 

I'm not sure what surprises me more - that the FA Cup rules were so loose to allow two teams to decide the outcome of a tie in that way, or that the two teams were still friendly enough after a cup tie to eat together! Hey ho, it is a gentleman's game.

Sheffield then beat The Pilgrims in Round Two 1-0, then lost to Clapham Rovers in Round Three (the Quarter-finals) 2-1 on a neutral ground. The Rovers went on to lose to Oxford University in the semi-final 1-0 (also on a neutral pitch) and Oxford then won the Final beating Royal Engineers 2-0.

The Shropshire Wanderers were losing semi-finalists in the next season's competition (1874-5), losing 0-1 to the Old Etonians who then lost to the Royal Engineers 2-0 following a drawn, 1-1, first final.

In 1875-6 The Wanderers gave the Sheffield Club a walk over in the First Round. The Shropshire club did not enter the Cup after the 1877-8 season, having tlost to The druids in the First Round 1-0.

Samuel Llewelyn Kenrick (9 June 1847 – 29 May 1933) was a Welsh solicitor, who played for the Shropshire club and who became the founder of the Football Association of Wales and organised the first Welsh International football match against Scotland in 1876. As such he became the "father of Welsh football".

The World Cup Qualifying: 17th November 1993 A new low for England. In their final qualifying match for the 1994 World Cup finals England needed to thump mighty San Marino in Bologna, to have have any chance of qualifying. Instead after just 8 seconds Davide Gualtieri scored for San Marino! OK England won 7-1 watched by a 2,378 crowd but they failed to qualify for the finals - finishing third in the group behind Norway and the Netherlands - and within a week Graham Taylor had resigned as manager. 

AND also on the same day in 1993....

England might have failed to get to those World Cup finals - as did Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - but at least an English-born manager would be in the USA. Roy Hodgson's Switzerland beat Estonia in their final qualifier to finish in the second qualifying spot in their group behind Italy.