Today I'm going back 10 years to 2011 and Sheffield FC's FA Trophy 2nd Qualifying round tie against Romulus. We've come across Romulus before (type in Romulus as a search in my blog if you don't remember) and I know that there's at least one of you who is wondering when are Romulus going to play Remus in the Roman mythology derby? Almost ranking on a par with such a fixture however was a visit to the World's oldest club: Sheffield FC.
Sheffield FC are officially the World's oldest club and have been recognised as being such by FIFA. They were originally formed in 1857 closely followed by cross city rivals Hallam FC in 1860. It's a puzzle as to who Sheffield actually played in those first three years of their existence if no opponents existed and I can only assume that it was either their own reserve side or possibly scratch opponents pulled together on the day of the match on a one-off basis.
The club was formed by members of Sheffield Cricket Club and the new Football Club didn't play a game outside of Sheffield until 1865 when they met Nottingham FC (who later became Notts County). Staunchly amateur Sheffield were left behind following the introduction of professionalism in 1885 and have always competed thereafter in the lower echelons of the English game. 2007 was a momentous year for the club, it being their 150th anniversary year and they played friendlies against the likes of Ajax and Internationale in celebration. These days Sheffield can be found plying their trade in the Northern Premier League Division 1 South East (at the eighth tier of the English football pyramid). Remarkably the club doesn't currently have a ground in South Yorkshire and, if you want to go and watch them as I did, their home, the Coach & Horses Ground, is just over the county border in Dronfield, Derbyshire. However, earlier this year, plans were revealed to take the club back to Sheffield to a 4,000 capacity stadium which will commemorate the club's place in the football universe.
Sheffield FC were obviously formed before either Sheffield United or Wednesday and so ought to be everyone in Sheffield's second favourite club. I'd certainly expect them to feature at a higher level in the football pyramid if their new ground comes to fruition. In the game that I attended Sheffield won 2-0 in front of 231. Sadly they crashed out of the competition in the 3rd Qualifying Round 0-4 at home to Nuneaton Town. Happily for all York City fans, this was the season when City would go to Wembley and win the FA Trophy 2-0 against Newport County as part of their Wembley Twice magical eight days in May 2012.
CRB Match No. 1849
Comments
Post a Comment