WE have another historic football photograph taken from the book The Cup 1883-1932, 50 Years of English Cup Finals, a copy of which has been kindly loaned to us by Rob Griffin of Halesowen. It shows the first West Bromwich Albion cup-winning side of 1887-88.
The late 1880s were particularly good years for the Baggies as they proved themselves hard to beat, especially at their sloping Stoney Lane ground, and they were particularly adept at reaching FA Cup finals. They appeared in the final three years in succession, losing to Blackburn Rovers in 1886 and to Aston Villa in 1887 (see Bugle 1013) but in 1888 they triumphed 2-1 against Preston North End, widely acknowledged to be the best team in the land. The following season Preston became the “Invincibles”, winning the inaugural 1888-89 Football League without losing a game and the FA Cup without conceding a goal, with largely the same team that lost to the Albion in the FA Cup final at the Oval on 24th March, 1888.
The Albion’s victory was described as follows: “Preston North End, who were credited with being the finest exponents of the game at this period, and had an unbroken succession of victories during the season, were naturally superconfident of playing this Final to their credit. They are reputed to have asked permission from the referee, Major Marinden, to have their photograph taken with the Cup before the match, only to be met with the brisk response, ‘Had you not better win it first?’
“Although the Albion had fought their way to the Final for the third year in succession, their prospect of winning the Cup against their redoubtable opponents seemed as far off as ever. Inspired by W. Bassett, a mere youth at that time and destined to become on of the most famous forwards who has ever lived, they, however, played the game of their careers.
“Breaking away from the regulation methods of short passing and combination adopted by Preston, the Albion went in for a policy of long passing and dashing runs, completely upsetting the more calculated moves of their opponents, who, while possibly having the better of the game, could do everything but score. The game was an extremely fast one, vigorous and well contested. Bayliss scored the only goal in the first half for the Albion, Goodall equalising for Preston early in the second half. Then a nice pass by Bassett produced a goal from the foot of spry Woodhall and the Albion triumphed at the expense of the greatest combination the football world has known. The sympathies of the crowd described as ‘enormous’, were unmistakably on the side of the winners, who in the two previous years had made plucky but unsuccessful attempts to lift the Cup.
“The Albion eleven were also all Staffordshire lads, with a total wage list of £5.10s. per week, whereas Preston were all highly paid ‘professors’ of the art.”
Playing for Albion that day were: Albert Aldridge, Billy Bassett, Jem Bayliss (captain), Harry Green, Ezra Horton, Tom Pearson, Charlie Perry, Bob Roberts (goalkeeper), George Timmins, Joe Wilson, and George Woodhall.
Lined up for Preston were: Fred Dewhurst, George Drummond, John Goodall, Jack Gordon, Johnny Graham, Bob Holmes, Bob Howarth, Dr Robert Herbert Mills- Roberts (goalkeeper) Jimmy Ross, Nick Ross (captain), and David Russell.
Although Albion were a capable side their victory over Preston was considered an upset. Some argued that the referee Major Francis Marinder, a former FA Cup winner himself and expresident of the Football Association, was biased in Albion’s favour because their team was made up entirely of Englishmen, while Preston fielded six Scots, a Welshman and only four English players, one of whom had Scottish parents and had grown up north of the border.
Preston themselves put their failure down to their pre-match preparation; they had been so confident of winning that they had gone to watch the University Boat Race, held the same day, and had grown cold, tired and hungry on the banks of the Thames.
The Preston players were not at their best as Albion legend Billy Bassett said: “Jack Ross lost his cool that day. That was the key. I managed to keep my cool and the cooler I kept, the rasher Ross got.” Some years later Bassett said, “I have seen all the best sides in football but I have never seen a side that compared to Preston North End at their best. We beat them but I do not pretend for a moment that we deserved to beat them.”
Preston’s form in progressing to the final was certainly impressive; they scored 49 goals and conceded just three.
In the first round Preston slaughtered Hyde 26-0, still a record victory in the FA Cup. Albion knew how to score too, beating their neighbours Wednesbury Old Athletic 7-1.
In the second round PNE took on Bolton Wanderers, winning 9- 1, while Albion had a trip to Birmingham to play Mitchell St George’s for a 1-0 victory.
The third round saw home fixtures for both clubs; Preston beat Halliwell 4-0, and Albion faced rivals Wolves, winning 2-0.
Both Preston and West Bromwich received byes in the fourth round and in the fifth round Preston beat Aston Villa 3-1 and Albion beat their bogey team of the modern era, Stoke, 4-1.
In the sixth round Preston travelled to Sheffield to play The Wednesday FC, as they were then known, beating them 3-1, while Albion entertained a team of amateur ex-public schoolboys, Old Carthusians, winning 4-2.
In the semi-finals Preston beat Crewe Alexandra 4-0, while Albion took on Derby Junction and won 3-0.
As was traditional back then, the winners of the FA Cup played the winners of the Scottish Cup to decide who were the unofficial champions of Great Britain. However, that year it was also claimed that the winners would be “world champions” and a trophy was up for grabs. Albion played Renton FC, from Dunbartonshire, on 19th May, 1888, at the “second” Hampden Park in Glasgow.
The game was played in terrible conditions in the aftermath of a thunderstorm that killed four people. Albion asked for the game to be postponed but Renton insisted it be played, and ran out winners, 4-1, in front of a crowd of around 6,000.
Renton were a very good side, they also beat Preston North End that year and eight of their players represented Scotland.
The Albion may have missed out on being crowned world champions but they were one of the top teams in England and so were a natural choice to be invited to be one of the 12 founding members of the Football League in 1888.
Our picture shows Albion’s first cup winners and on the back row are Aldridge, Perry, Horton, Roberts, Timmins and Green; on the front row Woodhall, Bassett, Bayliss
