Sheffield FC up for the FA Trophy in their 160th season
Sheffield FC play Frickley Athletic on the 7th October in the FA Trophy and if they can win then they will be through to the ‘First Round Qualifying’ to meet Ashton United. Winning those two games would generate a very welcome £6,250.00 for Sheffield FC. You can see from the table below that the money provided by the F.A.’s Prize Fund can soon mount up if a club goes on a good run.
Preliminary Round winners (64) £3,000
First Round Qualifying winners (72) £3,250
Second Round Qualifying winner (36) £4,000
Third Round Qualifying winners (40) £5,000
First Round Proper winners (32) £6,000
Second Round Proper winners (16) £7,000
Third Round Proper winners (8) £8,000
Fourth Round Proper winners (4) £10,000
Semi-Final winners (2) £20,000
Final runners-up (1) £30,000
Final winners (1) £60,000
(Amounts are per club in each round. Numbers in brackets represent the number of winning clubs per round.)
The FA Trophy was introduced in the 1969/70 season for semi-professional clubs to run alongside the Amateur Cup, but with the abolition of amateur status in 1974 the better teams of the Amateur Cup turned their attentions to the FA Trophy whilst the teams from the lower levels entered the new FA Vase tournament. From 2008 it was opened up to all clubs in pyramid levels between five and eight.
The original FA Amateur Cup was first suggested as an idea by Sheffield FC back in 1892 and such was their strength of feeling about the surge of professionalism taking over the game they even offered to pay for the actual cup. The FA initially resisted but the idea was instigated in the following year and the first winners were the Old Carthusians FC.
Sheffield FC’s finest hour came in the 1903/04 season when they won the trophy for the first and last time by beating Ealing by 3 goals to one. It was appropriate that Charles Alcock who knew all about Sheffield FC’s enormous contribution to Association football presented the trophy that day. In his speech he said:
‘I can only say that it is a personal pleasure to hand the cup to the Sheffield club, especially when I recall its long and unique history in association football. When it was formed in 1855* there was no other football club existing in England and when, in 1872, the Football Association Cup was instituted, and the ‘old pot’ was fought for, Sheffield club as I can testify made up a considerable power in the competition. It has always been actuated by the highest principles in football and in amateurism and has always been intensely loyal to the association.’
It would certainly be a good way for Sheffield FC to celebrate their 160th season if they could replicate their victory from 113 years ago and win the cup a second time; starting with a victory over Frickley Athletic on Saturday. Whilst we are being nostalgic about Victorian football how about if the that final victory could be over the Corinthian Casuals FC at Wembley stadium on the 20th May 2018?
With the international break interrupting the Championship fixtures of United and Wednesday, why not get over to Coach and Horses and shout for your home town team this coming Saturday?
*Alcock had a habit of getting the foundation date of Sheffield FC wrong throughout his career.
New book out now : A History of Sheffield Football 1857-1889 : Speed, Science and Bottom http://bit.ly/2qYw0r0
Martin Westby author of A History of Sheffield Football 1857-1889 is giving a talk as part of the Off the Shelf Book Festival at the Creative Lounge at the Showroom Cinema, Paternoster Row on Wednesday 25 October 7.30pm. Tickets £6.00 (£5.00 concessions) http://bit.ly/2g3vkNi
