| Full name | Wanderers Football Club | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1859 | |
| Dissolved | 1887 | |
| Ground | Lillie Bridge, Battersea Park, possibly others (Capacity: n/a) |
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The Wanderers Football Club were an amateur football club based in Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, and were one of the leading clubs in English football in the 1860s and 1870s. They are most notable for having won the first ever FA Cup final, in 1872, and the competition another four times during the rest of the 1870s. For their influence on the game of football the Wanderers were considered as early as 1870 to be the MCC of football[1] According to C.W. Alcock "The success of the Wanderers is so closely identified with the success of Association football in its earlier days that it is impossible to dissever the Club from any attempt to follow closely the various stages which have marked the growth of the game"[2]
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History
The club was initially formed as Forest Football Club (not to be confused with former European champions and FA Cup winners Nottingham Forest) in 1859 by Old Harrovians (old boys of Harrow School) and played in Epping Forest (Snaresbrook).[3] Due to their proximity to Leytonstone they were soon called Forest-Leytonstone. A number of the players also played for another team that was made up of Old Harrovians, No Names of Kilburn. Forest-Leytonstone were a founder member of The Football Association in 1863. They adopted the title of Wanderers a year later, after "wandering" across London to Battersea Park. The team was captained by Charles Alcock, who was also chairman of the FA from 1870 to 1895 and the original proponent of the FA Cup. He described Forest as the first team to attempt "to extend football on any definite fixed system".[3] Other members included A. G. Guillemard, the "father" of the Rugby Football Union.
They are chiefly noted for winning the first-ever FA Cup final, held at the Kennington Oval, London, on 16 March 1872. They beat the Royal Engineers 1-0, the winning goal scored by Morton Betts, under the pseudonym A.H. Chequer. In all they won the cup five times in its first seven seasons, between 1872 and 1878, and even as of 2007 the club remains equal eighth in the list of all-time winners of the FA Cup. Though Wanderers never had a permanent home ground (as their name suggests), they are known to have played at Lillie Bridge and Battersea Park.
The club's last regular season was 1880/81, by which time individual schools had set up their own clubs (such as Old Etonians and Old Carthusians). However, although the club effectively disbanded at that time, it continued to play an annual match each December against Harrow School at the Oval. The final match was on 20 December 1887, which Harrow won 3-1.[4]
According to CW Alcock "the success of the Wanderers is so closely identified with the success of Association football in its earlier days that it is impossible to dissever the Club from any attempt to follow closely the various stages which have marked the growth of the game"[5]
Notable players
Between 1872 and 1880 the club supplied fifteen England internationals, who are listed below, with the number of caps won in parentheses:[6]
- Charles Alcock (1)
- Francis Birley (1)
- Alexander Bonsor (2)
- Frederick Green (1)
- Francis Heron (1)
- Hubert Heron (3)
- Leonard Howell (1)
- William Kenyon-Slaney (1)
- Robert Kingsford (1)
- William Lindsay (1)
- Alfred Stratford (1)
- Henry Wace (3)
- Reginald de Courtenay Welch (1)
- Charles Wollaston (4)
- John Wylie (1)
Arthur Kinnaird made one appearance for Scotland. Quintin Hogg made two appearances for Scotland in the unofficial internationals of 1870 and 1871.
John Hawley Edwards, who made his only international appearance for England in 1874 whilst registered with Shropshire Wanderers, and scored for Wanderers in the 1876 FA Cup Final, played for Wales against Scotland a week after the Cup Final.
W G Grace played for the Wanderers on several occasions although he did not feature in any of their FA Cup-winning teams.[7] He lived at Earl's Court from February 1875 until October or November 1877, then at Acton from about Sept 1878 until the end of 1879, so he was available between the end of the 1874–75 season and the middle of the 1879–80 season.[8]
Honours
Legacy
Many clubs have adopted "Wanderers" as a suffix in their name, directly or indirectly inspired by the Wanderers FC name.
- For a list of clubs with "Wanderers" in their name, see the disambiguation page at Wanderers
Reformation
Wanderers Football Club have been reformed, as of February 2009, with the support of descendants of C.W. Alcock and UNICEF UK"[9].
References
- ^ "The Sporting Gazette" of Saturday 12 March 1870, see account of international match of 5 March 1870
- ^ Association Football, article in the English Illustrated Magazine, 1891, page 284
- ^ a b Adrian Harvey, Football, p127, (Routledge, 2005)
- ^ reported in The Times, 21 December 1887
- ^ Association Football, chapter by CW Alcock, The English Illustrated Magazine 1891, page 284
- ^ Club Affiliations - Wanderers
- ^ Cavallini, p.37.
- ^ Eric Midwinter, W G Grace, George Allen & Unwin, 1981, p.54 and p.73.
- ^ Wilson, Mark. [1], Wanderers Football Club website, September 27 2009
Bibliography
- Rob Cavallini (2005). The Wanderers F.C.: Five Times F.A. Cup Winners. Dog N Duck Publications. ISBN 0-9550496-0-1.
External links
- "1871-72 FA Cup Final". http://www.innotts.co.uk/soccer/books/kw3.pdf.
- "History of Association Football". http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22194.
- "Wanderers Football Club". http://www.originalwanderers.com.
- Wanderers at the Football Club History Database
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