Are these the first six matches played under FA rules (or close to)?
1️⃣19/12/63 Barnes 0 Richmond 0
2️⃣2/1/64 President (Pember's) XI 2 Secretary (Morley's) XI 0
3️⃣23/1 Barnes 2 Mr Greaves's XI 1
4️⃣27/1 Charterhouse 1 Dingley Dell 0
5️⃣30/1 NoNames Kilburn 3 Barnes 0
6️⃣3/2 Charterhouse 3 Civil Service 2
1863/4 Match #6
📅3/2/64
⚽️Charterhouse 3 Civil Service 2
🚩Charterhouse
🗞️Field
The school scores late to win - their first goal involved pushing the Civil Service players who were lying on the ball in a scrimmage inside their own posts.
1863/4 Match #5
📅30/1/64
⚽️NoNames Kilburn 3 Barnes 0
🚩Kilburn
🗞️Bell’s Life
NNs score after 1hr playing up hill. Despite Morley’s “pretty play” a 2nd followed, “a little more alacrity on the part of the Barnes goal keepers might have rendered this chance less certain” A 3rd on the break made sure.
The FA Cup's Centenary Final
#OnThisDay in football, 31 March
1866 - a London XI played @sheffieldfc.bsky.social in Battersea Park, testing new rules 🏴
1883 - Blackburn Olympic stun Old Etonians to win the FA Cup, the first working-class and northern team to win
1913 - Portuguese FA founded 🇵🇹
2001 - We lost David Rocastle 🏴
1863/4 Match #4
📅27/1/64
⚽️Charterhouse 1 Dingley Dell 0
🚩Charterhouse
🗞️Field
Pearson's goal wins a "hard contest" for the school with Dingley Dell's pressure to equalise "driven off by the goal-keepers."
The school's captain MacKenzie "led his side in a most praiseworthy manner"
1863/4 Match #4
📅27/1/64
⚽️Charterhouse 1 Dingley Dell 0
🚩Charterhouse
🗞️Field
Pearson's goal wins a "hard contest" for the school with Dingley Dell's pressure to equalise "driven off by the goal-keepers."
The school's captain MacKenzie "led his side in a most praiseworthy manner"
Fascinating piece which debunks the fabricated 'official' Crystal Palace version of its own football history, covering the date of formation and the role of Hermann Hurni. www.holmesdale.net/page.php?id=...
#OTD 27 March 1871, Scotland v England in the first rugby international at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh. A few years back I discovered the only known illustration of the match: www.scottishsporthistory.com/sports-histo...
#OTD 13 March 1873 the Scottish Football Association was founded at Dewar's Temperance Hotel in Glasgow, where eight clubs resolved to 'form themselves into an association for the promotion of football according to the rules of the Football Association'. www.scottishsporthistory.com/sports-histo...
#OnThisDay in football, 22 March
1888 - Aston Villa director, William McGregor🏴, wrote to various other clubs to propose the creation of a football league competition, which led to... the Football League 🏴
1889 - Members of the Sheffield United Cricket Club agreed to form a football arm 🏴
1863/4 Season Match #3
📅23/1/64
⚽️Barnes 2 Mr Greaves's XI 1
🚩Barnes
🗞️Field
Barnes come from behind to win in front of "many of the fair sex". Hay "touched down behind the adversary's goal, being by the new rules entitled to a free kick from 15 yds punted the ball very neatly between the posts"
Is this the first mention of an association football dressing room? Thanks to Mr Mellish the participants in Match #2 used The Albert Tavern to get changed for the game.
1863/4 Season
Match #2
📅2/1/64
⚽️President (Pember's) XI 2 Secretary (Morley's) XI 0
🚩Battersea Park
🗞️Sporting Life
Witnessed by "a large muster of spectators, attracted by... the novelty of proceedings"
Post match featured "a capital dinner and excellent wines" rather than ice baths.
So, are we all set for the thrills and spills of the 1863/64 season?
Match #1
📅19/12/63
⚽️Barnes 0 Richmond 0
🚩Barnes
🗞️Sporting Gazette
The FA rules provide "very little difficulty...their simplicity preventing disputes" but no goals. Pre-season training clearly hasn't gone well for Barnes.