🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Wanderers FC (England)

Wanderers FC (England)

Wanderers FC, or Forest Football Club as they were originally founded as back in 1859, in Leytonstone, England, changed their name to Wanderers FC in 1864, in reference to the fact they had no home pitch at the time. In their early years, they played their home games at Forest Place between 1859 until 1865. It was here where they played friendly matches amongst themselves, until their first match against another club took place on March 1862, versus Crystal Palace. (This isn’t the Crystal Palace that we know today, albeit it has been disputed by historians throughout the years.) Wanderers won the match, which had fifteen payers playing on each side, as football was a much different game back then, with different rules in place.

In 1863 the Football Association was formed and Wanderers were one of it’s founding members. A year later they played their first game under the name Wanderers FC against a club known as N.N Club. The N.N stood for No Name. They dissolved in 1870, playing their last match against Upton Park FC, with only seven players.

Over the next few years, Wanderers played in various venues, including Battersea Park, Lillie Bridge Grounds and Kennington Oval. But it wasn’t their ground hopping that put their name in the history books. It was their cup success.

A club who dominated the early years of Association Football, they won the first ever FA Cup, held in 1872, beating Royal Engineers. The cup, known as the Football Association Challenge Cup at the time was contested by fifteen clubs. Wanderers had gotten a home draw in the first round, where they were supposed to meet Harrow Chequers, a club mainly made up of pupils from Harrow School, however the game never took place, with the away side forfeiting the match, meaning Wanderers went through to the next round on virtue of a walk-over.

They would have to play a match in the second round, coming up against Clapham Rovers FC, beating them 1-0 in December that year. (Clapham Rovers themselves would go on to win the FA Cup in the 1879-80 season with the club dissolving in 1914).

It meant the London side went on to play in the quarterfinals, where they would meet Crystal Palace. The game ended in a 0-0 draw, but with different rules in place back then, both teams progressed to the semi-finals. How? Well, in the rules, it stated that if there was a draw in a cup match then by the discretion of the FA, there could either be a replay or both teams would go through. The later decision was made, and Wanderers went through to face Scottish club Queens Park, while Crystal Palace were to play the Royal Engineers.

The game was played in London, at the Kennington Oval, in which it ended 0-0. A replay was on the cards, however due to financial reasons, Queen Park could not afford to travel from Glasgow down to London for a second time in quick succession and therefore Wanderers were awarded the match and progressed to the final.

The Royal Engineers dispatched Crystal Palace with ease in the other semi-final, winning it 3-0, setting up the first ever FA cup final with Wanderers FC. The game took place on March 16^th, 1872, in front of an estimated crowd of around 2,000 people. It was played at the Kennington Oval and referred by a man named Alfred Stair.

While the Wanderers side was made up of ten English men and one Irishman, Edward Ernest Bowen who was born in Glenmore, Co. Wicklow, the Royal Engineers side had a slightly more international feel to it. They only had four Englishmen playing for them. The other players in the team came from Scotland (Four), British Guiana (One), Malta (One) and Gibraltar (One).

By all accounts the game was a tight affair, with both sides wanting to make history in becoming the first club to lift the trophy for the first time. But it was Wanderers who drew first blood, when Walpole Vidal dribbled through the Royal Engineers defence to slide the ball to Mortan Betts who had the simple task of tapping the ball into the empty net. The first goal in an FA Cup final had been scored in the 15^th minute, and by a man who had originally been signed up to play for Harrow Chequers, the side who couldn’t fulfil their fixture against Wanderers in the first round. Betts would also go on to play one game for the England National team in a match against Scotland in. 1877, where he would play as a goalkeeper.

His goal was enough to win Wanderers the match and the Cup, making history as the first club to win the tournament. But it wouldn’t be the last time the London club would do so.

The next season saw Wanderers get an immediate bye to the final, as this was seen as the way it should be in the FA Cup. The winners of the previous year would await the team who could get through all the rounds that year. Oxford University were the club that had done so that year and fancied their chances against the reigning cup holders.

The match was played at Lillie Bridge, in front of 3,000 people, on March 29^th, 1873. Unlike the previous cup final, it was Wanderers who had more international players playing for them, with seven Englishmen, two Scotsmen, one Irishman and one American playing for them. Oxford University played eleven Englishmen, making them first club to do so in an FA Cup final.

But like the first FA Cup final, Wanderers took the lead, when Scottish forward, Arther Kinnaird scored in the 27^th minute, making history as the first Scotsman to score in an FA Cup final. He would also go on to play in nine FA Cup finals. The lead was doubled in the 80^th minute when Charles Wollaston scored, to seal the win and retain the cup for Wanderers.

It wouldn’t be until the 1875-76 season that Wanderers would lift the cup for a third time. This time it took two matches. The first, was drawn 1-1 with Old Etonians on March 11^th, 1876, at the Kennington Oval. Welshman, John Hawley Edwards scored the first in the 35^th minute, with Old Etonians equalising in the 50^th minute through Alexander Bonsoir. The game went to extra-time and a further 30 minutes was played but neither side could find a winner, and so a replay was required.

The replay took place a week later, on March 16^th, 1876, at the same venue, however the result this time was straightforward. Wanderers ran out 3-0 winners thanks to goals from Charles Wollaston and two from Thomas Hughes. This cup triumph was the start of something special for Wanderers FC.

The 1877 final saw Wanderers meet Oxford City once again in the final, in what would turn out to be a rather bizarre event. The game was played on March 24^th, 1877, but the lineouts looked a little bit different than the previous final, when these two teams played each other. Arthur Kinnaird, the man who had sored the only goal of the last final between the two, was now playing in goal for Wanderers. He had played for Old Etonians the year before as well. Bizarrely, Kinnard would score in a final once again, but this time into his own net, scoring what would be the first own goal to be scored in an FA Cup final. Jarvis Kenrick scored a late equaliser in the 86^th minute, bringing the game to extra-time. William Lindsay would secure the cup for Wanderers in the 97^th minute, meaning the match ended 2-1.

However, Kinnaird disputed his own goal after the match, despite, telling the FA he did not cross line with the ball in his hands. The FA agreed with him and struck off the goal by Oxford University, putting on record that Wanderers won the game 2-0. This has been changed once again in the record books, and despite Kinnard’s best efforts, he is the first person to score an own goal in an FA Cup final.

The 1878 final saw a repeat of the first FA Cup final, when Wanderers were to play Royal Engineers. The game had several factors that made it special. Played on March 23, 1878, it had 4,500 fans watching on at the Oval, which was the highest attendance at an FA Cup final since the tournament had begun. The other amazing incident that occurred in the match was that Wanderers goalkeeper, James Kirkpatrick broke his arm during the match, but the Scotsman continued on playing for the entire game. Finally, Wanderers would run out 3-1 winners, with Jarvis Kennrick scoring two, and Arthur Kinnaird scoring the other, although that goal has been disputed as to whether Kinnard scored it. The man was always in the midst of an FA Cup controversy it seems.

Wanderers became the first club to ever win the cup three times in a row, a feat that has only ever been replicated once, by Blackburn Rovers.

But it would be the last time the club would ever play in an FA Cup final. The 1878-79 season saw them knocked out of the cup in the first round by Old Etonians, 7-2, who went on to win the cup that year, captained by none other than former Wanderers player, Arthur Kinnaird. The next season saw the club do a little better, reaching the third round of the cup, only to be beaten by Old Etonians once again.

It would be the last time the club would play in the FA Cup, as they were forced to withdraw from the tournament a year later, as they were unable to field a team. The club slowly wound down, playing only one fixture a year against Harrow School every Christmas, and by 1184, it was dissolved. There was one report that the club played one more match against harrow in 1887, losing 3-1, but this was seen as a once off.

A club who had won FA Cups, having played in FA Cup finals, and were one of the founding members of the FA, were now gone and wouldn’t return for a long time.

A club with so much history and so many records to their name, Wanderers FC continue today. As of 2009, a club named Wanderers FC, play in the lower leagues of the English pyramid, but wear the crest of the old Wanderers side.