A trip to the oldest club in the world
When you are interested in football generally, there are certain clubs that hold a certain fascination, no matter which part of the country they are from or what their status is.
Sheffield FC, recognised as the oldest football club in the world, would come into that category. The club was founded in 1857 by two men, Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, who were keen cricketers and wanted an organised sport to keep them fit and occupied during the winter months.
They formed a committee who studied the various rules of football in its various guises at that time, and put together a set of more standardised laws that laid the foundation for the modern game of football as we know it today.
A club steeped in such history would be interesting place for most football followers to visit, and once the draw for the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round gave our sole surviving team in the competition, Bacup Borough, an away draw against the oldest football team in the world, there was only ever going to be one destination for me on the afternoon of Saturday September 27th 2008.
As luck would have it, it turned out to be a glorious afternoon, which meant the trip over the moors and through the Woodhead Pass was one to be enjoyed. In a past life I used to spend a fair amount of time on the road travelling around the country for early morning meetings, and my memories of my trips to the Sheffield and East Midlands areas using that route are of journeys in dark, foggy and wintry conditions. Dodgy at the best of times, and as you focussed on the gloomy conditions through the windscreen, your general state of mind was not lightened or helped by the thought of the horrific crimes associated with the area in the past.
However, on this particular afternoon the glorious views from on high were there to be enjoyed, and as the trip progressed down a few junctions of the M1 followed by a seemingly unending trek along dual carriageway with tramlines (I didn’t know Sheffield had trams like the ones in Manchester), I finally found the Bright Finance Stadium, the home of Sheffield FC since 2001.
The first surprise was that the ground isn’t actually in Yorkshire, it’s in Dronfield, which is just over the border in Derbyshire. Situated on a junction next to a nice pub called the Coach & Horses, parking was a bit limited by the time I got there, but fortunately I noticed that a few locals were parking on the grass verge next to the road so I followed suit and headed into the ground.
After meeting up with Sheffield secretary Steve Hall, who sorted me out with a team sheet, I made my way into the ground and had a look round. All down one side there was a pathway with room for only about two deep standing, but there was a nice stand behind the goal next to the dressing rooms, and a covered enclosure on the far side.
Next to the enclosure was a feature to signal that this was no ordinary club. A large members board listed some of the famous and not so famous names that have signed up to the club’s membership scheme. For a annual fee of £25, you can become a member of the club, which provides a range of benefits including free tickets to a game, a badge, regular newsletters and your name in a plaque on the members board. A glance showed there are some famous names among the membership, and a click on the gallery link will give you the opportunity to spot some from a picture I took.
The membership scheme also supports the club’s registered charity, Boots For Africa. The scheme came about when club Chairman Richard Tims was on a visit to South Africa and saw children playing football in their bare feet on the back streets of a township. With the backing of McDonald’s, the club scheme now encourages participants to fill up a boot bag with old football boots, which are then repaired, cleaned up and sent out to children in Africa. For more information about the very worthy cause, visit www.bootsforafrica.org.
Against this backdrop there was, of course, a football match about to be played, and a quick glance at the team sheet revealed that Bacup were missing some key players. Manager Brent Peters told me later that his preparations had been hampered by key players missing, and five of those ones that were available had experienced travel difficulties in getting to the ground.
I also learned from Bacup Secretary Frank Manning that he had seen a fixture between the two sides before, when Sheffield played their home games at the Don Valley Stadium prior to their move to Dronfield. An after match checking of the record books revealed that the game was in the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup in 1999-00, and was a replay which Sheffield won 4-0 after the match at West View had ended 2-2.
As I wandered round to join the small band of Bacup officials who were gathered next to the dugout, I overhead at least one local confessing that he was not particularly well up on the merits of the opposition. “Where do they come from, this Backup team?”, he asked his neighbour as I passed. Mind you, I suppose he might have chuckled at me being surprised that Sheffield had trams.
Bacup’s less than perfect preparation for a game against a side from the Unibond League Division One South that had taken care of two of our other sides, AFC Fylde and Colne, in previous rounds, didn’t bode well. Once the game kicked off in gloriously sunny conditions, it has to be said that from the off Bacup were on the back foot.
A rather one sided first half ended with Sheffield a goal up. Bacup had fallen behind in the ninth minute when keeper Phil Melville did well to get his hand to a cracking Matt Outram shot from 25 yards, but the ball fell to Sheffield striker Mick Goddard who had the simple task of firing home from close range.
The home side could have gone further ahead when Scott Partridge came close with a glancing header that hit the post with Melville beaten, and Bacup’s sole effort of the first half arrived on 35 minutes when Lee Ellis picked up a loose ball and tried his luck with a 30 yard shot that the keeper gathered comfortably.
At half time, it was time to head into the boardroom for some hospitality, and as I had already sneaked a look through the window at the fascinating collection of trophies and memorabilia that adorn the walls and cabinets inside, there was little chance of paying much attention to the half time scores coming through on the telly in the corner.
It was a real Aladdin’s cave of items. Pictures from the game Sheffield played against Inter Milan for their 150th anniversary, a framed programme from a game against Manchester United for the 125th anniversary, a plaque from a game against Ajax, and also one from Cammell Laird, from when the clubs met in the FA Cup in September 2007, to commemorate Lairds’ 100th anniversary and Sheffield’s 150th.
Pride of place though has to go to the FIFA plaque presented to the club on the 24th October 2007, exactly 150 years to the day that the club celebrated its 150th anniversary. I had to take a picture of that.
After finishing my browse, I had a chat to Sheffield FC committee man Dave Riseley, who gave me some insight into the workings of the club.
“The football club is effectively split in two, with a football side and a limited company side”, he explained. “The committee that look after the football side concentrate on that and deal solely with it, but give direction to the limited company. The limited company look after the finances, the history side of the club, the membership scheme and all the community activities. Chairman Richard Tims oversees both sides of the club.”
Is there a lot of interest in the club because of its history?
“Very much so. The membership scheme is £25 a year and you can subscribe on line, by post, or here at the ground on matchdays. We have over 600 members and that number is growing, and interestingly the vast majority of those members are from outside the area.
“They are obviously general football supporters who want to say they are members of the oldest football club in the world. Full membership includes match tickets, so we get a lot of members coming from far and wide for games, and obviously they take the opportunity to have their photo taken next to the membership board inside the ground.”
What about the locals? Does the club get involved in the local community?
“There are five full time employees working on a range of programmes, which involves general community involvement with the club, coaching at schools and giving talks on the history of the club.
“The club also has junior teams from under 6s right through to youth level. They pay under the name of Dronfield, and become Sheffield FC from youth team level onwards. From there we look for the youth team players to feed into the reserves and obviously from there the first team.”
Like most non league clubs, Sheffield have competition from high profile professional clubs nearby. However, as Dave pointed out, Sheffield FC sits quite happily alongside their fellow citizens who play in the Football League.
“Sheffield United Reserves play at our ground and we have good links with them that we are looking to nurture further. I have to say that both United and Wednesday are very supportive. They come and play pre season games against us every year, and we have also played games at Bramall Lane against Sheffield United too.
“However, at this stage we at Sheffield are looking to just establish ourselves at a good non league standard, short term we are not looking at fast tracking up to Football League status, so neither United or Wednesday consider us a threat as such and seem happy to help.
“The same seems to apply to some supporters too. It’s quite noticeable that our home crowds always drop when Sheffield United are at home on the same day, so it’s pretty obvious there are some supporters who watch both clubs.”
It was so fascinating talking to Dave, listening to stories about the club while surrounded by such impressive football memorabilia, that I missed the start of the second half and emerged just in time to see the second Sheffield goal from Paul Smith hit the back of the Bacup net.
From then on, it was always going to be an uphill battle and two more Sheffield goals in the space of four minutes put the game beyond Bacup’s reach.
On 71 minutes Daz Winter fired a low shot into the net from Steve Woolley’s cross, and then Mick Goddard grabbed his second of the game with a shot on the turn from the edge of the box.
To their credit Bacup kept going and pulled a goal back in the 77th minute, when Warren Collier beat the offside trap to race through unchallenged and beat Sheffield keeper Leigh Walker with a delicate chip from 20 yards.
The game ended with no further scoring, and after ringing the result in to our results co-ordinator Andrew Moffatt at Frank’s request, I caught up with Sheffield secretary Steve Hall again and asked him for his thoughts on the three teams from our league that his club played in successive rounds of the FA Cup.
Steve said: “The game against Bacup turned out to be the easiest of the three. I thought we played well right from the start and deserved to win. Against Colne we lost an early goal, but got ourselves 3-1 up, then gave away a late goal which made for a nervous last few minutes.
“The most impressive team of the three has been AFC Fylde. Although we beat them 4-0 in the replay at our ground, we were a bit fortunate to get a draw at their ground in the first game. I think they really should have beaten us, they played some good football and are obviously a very good side who will do well this season.”
After a quick word with Brent to get his after match comments for publication on the league website, it was time to head for home. As I made my way out of the ground, I was left with the feeling that the future of the world’s oldest football club is in extremely good hands.
It’s a club that is run in the proper manner by people that cherish its tradition, who are focussed on maintaining good solid footballing principles, and who use it as a launch pad to raise publicity for worthwhile causes within and beyond their local community.
To give two further examples of the good work they do, I learned that in mid-October they hosted an 11-a-side against a team from Liverpool involving cerebral palsy sufferers, as a pilot for the FA who are looking at the possibility of full sided games for people with disabilities. They have also launched special shirts bearing an embroidered poppy which will be sold at an auction to raise funds for the 2008 Royal British Legion Poppy Day Appeal.
Before I visited, I’d hoped that I’d find a club that conducted itself in a manner befitting the world’s oldest football club. I am very pleased to say that I was not disappointed.
For more information about Sheffield FC and their history, visit the club website at www.sheffieldfc.com. Click the button on the left of the page for some pictures from the Bright Finance Stadium.
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