1878 FA Cup final
Event | 1877–78 FA Cup | ||||||
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Date | 23 March 1878 | ||||||
Venue | Kennington Oval, London | ||||||
Referee | Segar Bastard | ||||||
Attendance | 4,500 | ||||||
The 1878 FA Cup final was an association football match between Wanderers F.C. and Royal Engineers A.F.C. on 23 March 1878 at Kennington Oval in London. It was the seventh final of the world's oldest football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (commonly known in the modern era as the FA Cup). Wanderers had won the Cup in the previous two seasons and on four previous occasions in total, including the first FA Cup final in 1872, in which they defeated the Engineers. The Engineers had also won the Cup, having defeated Old Etonians in the 1875 final.
The Wanderers, who were considered firm favourites to win the Cup for the third consecutive season, took the lead after only five minutes through Jarvis Kenrick, but the Engineers quickly equalised. The Cup-holders regained their lead before half-time and added a third goal after the half-time interval to secure a 3–1 victory. Under the original rules of the competition, the Cup was retired and presented to the club on a permanent basis to mark their third consecutive win, but the Wanderers returned it to the Football Association on the condition that it never again be won outright by any club.
Background
The Football Association Challenge Cup (commonly known in the modern era as the
In the
Route to the final
The
The Engineers' scheduled first round opponents were
Match
Summary
Like the semi-final, the final was played at Kennington Oval. The match drew a crowd estimated at 4,500 spectators, the highest yet recorded for an FA Cup final.
The Cup-holders immediately dominated the game and Kinnaird quickly had a shot on goal which was kept out by Lieut. William Morris with his head.[33][34] After only five minutes Henry Wace crossed the ball from a wide position and Jarvis Kenrick kicked the ball past the Engineers' goalkeeper Lieut. Lovick Friend to give the Wanderers the lead.[32][33] Immediately after falling behind, according to a report published in the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, the Engineers "charged desperately on the opening goal" and their opponents "had rather a rough time of it".[32] Approximately ten minutes after the opening goal, Kirkpatrick suffered a broken arm during a tussle on the goal-line, but he managed to keep the ball out of the goal and went on to play the remainder of the match despite his injury.[28] Had he left the game, his team would not have been able to replace him as the concept of substitutes did not yet exist.[35] In the 20th minute of the game, the Engineers' pressure paid off as they scored an equalising goal.[32] Some modern sources state that Morris scored the goal,[7][36] but contemporary newspaper reports state that Morris took a throw-in which led to a "scrimmage" (a contemporary term for a group of players all struggling to gain possession of the ball, now usually referred to as a "goalmouth scramble") in front of the Wanderers' goal, out of which the ball was forced over the goal-line, making the actual scorer of the goal unclear.[37][38]
Towards the end of the first half, the Wanderers were awarded a free kick after a handball offence by the Engineers. Kinnaird took the kick, which led to a second goal for the Cup-holders. Modern sources list Kinnaird as the goalscorer,[7] but some contemporary reports suggest that, following his free kick, another goalmouth scramble ensued in front of the Engineers' goal before the ball was forced over the line, again making the actual scorer unclear.[34][39] Shortly before half-time, Charles Wollaston took a shot for the Wanderers but it went wide of the goal; at the break his team held a 2–1 lead.[34][40] Shortly after the half-time interval, Hedley appeared to have brought the scores level once again, but the goal was disallowed due to an infringement of the offside rule.[40] After around twenty minutes of the second period, Heron of Wanderers made a run down the left side of the pitch and crossed the ball into the centre; Morris missed the ball and Heron regained control of it and passed it to Kenrick, who scored his second goal of the game, giving the Wanderers a 3–1 lead.[34][32] The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent report praised Heron for his performance in the second half, stating that his dribbling was "excellent". During the remainder of the game, the Engineers again made a number of attacks on the Wanderers' goal but their opponents were able to deal with them. The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent report stated that during the latter stages of the game "the only chance seemed to be of the Wanderers increasing their lead".[32] Despite this, no further goals were scored and the final result was a 3–1 victory for Wanderers.[34]
Details
Wanderers | 3–1 | Royal Engineers |
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Kenrick 5', 65' Kinnaird (unconfirmed) 35' |
Morris (unconfirmed) 20' |
Wanderers[12]
|
Royal Engineers[12]
|
|
|
Post-match
As was the norm until 1882, the winning team were not presented with the trophy at the stadium on the day of the match, but later in the year at their annual club dinner.[41] Under the original rules of the competition, if a team won the Cup three times in succession, it would be retired and become their "absolute property". The Wanderers' committee, however, returned the Cup to the FA on the condition that the rule be removed and no other team permitted to win the Cup outright.[42] As of 2024[update], the only other team to win the Cup in three successive seasons is Blackburn Rovers, who won it in 1884, 1885, and 1886.[43][44] On that occasion the club was presented with a commemorative shield.[45] The trophy which the Wanderers won in 1878 continued to be used until 1895, when it was stolen and never recovered; a new trophy of identical design was made to replace it.[42]
Three weeks after the Cup final, the Wanderers played the winners of the 1877–78 Scottish Cup, Vale of Leven, at Kennington Oval. The match between the winners of England and Scotland's national football competitions generated significant interest, but the size of the crowd was impacted by very bad weather. In a game played in very poor conditions, the Wanderers were defeated 3–1.[46] Neither the Wanderers or the Royal Engineers would appear in the final of the FA Cup again after 1878.[11] Wanderers' fortunes declined rapidly, partly because many of the team's leading players opted to play instead for the clubs set up specifically for the former pupils of individual schools. The team last took part in the FA Cup in the 1879–80 season,[47] and by the mid-1880s the Wanderers club had ceased to play matches altogether.[12][48] The officers of the Royal Engineers continued to enter the FA Cup until 1883, after which the focus was instead placed on teams open to all ranks representing individual battalions within the corps; these teams took part in the FA Amateur Cup and army-specific competitions.[12][23]
References
- ^ Soar & Tyler 1983, p. 12.
- ^ Collett 2003, p. 16.
- ^ a b c Soar & Tyler 1983, p. 19.
- ^ a b Collett 2003, p. 17.
- ^ Soar & Tyler 1983, p. 154.
- ^ Warsop 2004, p. 40.
- ^ a b c d Barnes 2009, p. 132.
- ^ a b c Collett 2003, p. 755.
- ^ Soar & Tyler 1983, pp. 154–155.
- ^ a b Collett 2003, p. 754.
- ^ a b Soar & Tyler 1983, p. 24.
- ^ a b c d e Warsop 2004, p. 20.
- ^ a b c d e f g Soar & Tyler 1983, p. 156.
- ^ a b c Collett 2003, p. 630.
- Newspapers.com.
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- ^ Warsop 2004, pp. 84–85.
- ^ a b c Collett 2003, p. 528.
- ^ "Football – Review of the football season of 1877–8". The Athletic World. 5 April 1878. p. 11. Retrieved 3 March 2024 – via Google Books.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Warsop 2004, pp. 40–48.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Warsop 2004, p. 48.
- ^ Warsop 2004, p. 10.
- ^ Collett 2003, p. 754–755.
- ^ Warsop 2004, p. 122.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Warsop 2004, p. 35.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ Bateman, Peter (18 September 2015). "Fifty years of substitutions in football: from necessary novelties to tactical tools". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
- ^ Gibbons 2001, p. 51.
- ^ "The Association Challenge Cup". The Field. 23 March 1878. p. 39. Retrieved 1 March 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ Warsop 2004, p. 36.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ Warsop 2004, p. 53.
- ^ a b Soar & Tyler 1983, p. 20.
- ^ "FA Cup winners list: The results and teams from every final". The Daily Telegraph. 15 May 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ^ "Manchester City 2–1 Manchester United". BBC Sport. 3 June 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
- ^ Soar & Tyler 1983, p. 160.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ Collett 2003, p. 19.
- ^ Buckley, Will (30 October 2009). "The forgotten story of ... the first ever FA Cup winners". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
Works cited
- Barnes, Stuart, ed. (2009). Nationwide Football Annual 2009–2010. ISBN 1-89980-781-0.
- Collett, Mike (2003). The Complete Record of the FA Cup. ISBN 1-89980-719-5.
- Gibbons, Philip (2001). Association Football in Victorian England – A History of the Game from 1863 to 1900. Upfront Publishing. ISBN 1-84426-035-6.
- Soar, Phil; ISBN 0-002-18049-9.
- Warsop, Keith (2004). The Early FA Cup Finals and the Southern Amateurs. SoccerData. ISBN 1-89946-878-1.