FA Cup 1901

The win saw them progress to the Second Round where they were visited by Bury, also from Division One and the holders of the FA Cup from the previous season.  Tottenham managed a 2-1 win with Brown scoring both goals and then a draw in the next round away at Reading, brought about another tie at Tottenham, thanks to Sandy Tait getting away with a handball on the Spurs goal-line without the referee seeing it.  Brown got another brace in the Third Round replay 3-0 win over the Biscuitmen and there was now a semi-final against West Bromwich Albion to look forward to.

For this match, Tottenham travelled to Villa Park and despite being almost on home turf for the Midlands side, Brown bagged all four goals to see off the Baggies.  So, non-league Tottenham Hotspur had made it to the Final of the FA Cup for the first time and would play First Division Sheffield United, who had won the Cup in 1899 and the League in 1898, finishing second in the 1899-1900 season.  Among their players was wing half “Nudger” Needham, Fred Priest, who had scored in three FA Cup finals and the infamous “Two Ton” Fatty Foulke – a goalkeeper so large, that it would take a Roberto Carlos free kick to get the ball around him.  However, Tottenham had a few star names of their own to pose the Northern side problems.

People flocked to the game at Crystal Palace.  In fact, 114,815 fans were reported to have paid to see the game that warm day of April 20^th, although the official attendance was somewhat smaller at 110,000 !!  Coming from all over London to join the thousands who made the trek down form Yorkshire in 75 trains forming the early version of the “football specials” accounting for 75,000 of them.  The crowd were mostly in place by midday – some three and a half hours before the match was due to start, but amazingly, although the crowd vied for the best view, they were well behaved and seemed to be generally good natured even though a reporter felt that “hooting of the referee … not to be commended, but fortunately it did not take the form of personal violence.” !!  Despite the visiting fans being quite confident, the majority of the fans seeking a Spurs win, the swaying of the crowd reminded one observer of a field of corn, while bowler-hatted gents climbed trees for a better vantage point.

A newspaper report of the time said that there were “2,500 sandwich loaves each weighing 8 lbs; 1,000 bread and butter loaves each weighing 5lbs; 1,000 household loaves; 12,000 batons; 21,000 rolls; 120,000 slices of bread and butter; 30,000 pats of butter; 45,125 portions of best cake; 16,000 portions of lunch cake; 1,000 sponge cakes; 1,000 pieces of shortbread; 20,000 French pastries; 10,000 bath buns; 10,000 plain buns; 24,000 scones; 6,000 sixpenny (2½ p) pork pies; 2,000 smoked sausages; 1,728 gallons of milk; 200 rumps of beef; 250 chines of mutton for chops; 150 best ends of mutton for cutlets; 60 fore-ribs of beef each weighing 40 lbs; 40 whole lambs; 300 quarters of whitebait; 500 lbs of soles; 22,400 lbs of potatoes; 2,000 cabbages and cauliflowers; 200 ducks and 120,000 bottles of mineral waters”.  And that was only “Fatty” Foulkes’ half time snack !!  The fans at the final were well catered for.  Spurs’ current catering contractors – Christopher and Letherby – would have been put to shame, as the food here was needed to feed more than the five thousand !!

Sheffield United skipper Needham won the toss and defended the southern end of the ground and with the advantage of the sun and wind in their faces.

The match itself started at a brisk pace under the control of referee Mr. Kingscott, who was not to have his best day on a football field.  Defender Harry Erentz had to deny George Hedley as he closed in on goal in the opening minutes, but as Tottenham settled down, John Kirwan and David Copeland worked a neat opening on the wing and Sandy Brown knocked down the cross for John Cameron, but he was given offside by the linesman.  Goalkeeper George Clawley was required to make a save and Erentz used his heading ability to clear two dangerous United attacks.

Sheffield United took the lead after 11 minutes with a daisy-cutter from Fred Priest who put the pass from Field past the unsighted Clawley.  Despite being under pressure for most of the first half hour, Spurs got control of the game and Brown headed home an equaliser just after the 30 minute mark.  Sheffield’s Harry Thickett brought down Kirwan and from the free kick from a wide position, Sandy Brown rose to put his header past United goalkeeper William “Fatty” Foulke.

Both teams struggled to get a lead to take into half time, with Lipsham shooting over when well placed and Foulke producing a one handed save from Tom Smith.  Spurs restricted United to long range shots, which did not trouble Clawley in the Tottenham goal, while Tottenham created the better opportunities with their close passing, although they did not get them on target.

The Times said that Brown’s goal five minutes after the interval was the best thing about the match, as a move involving all the Tottenham forwards saw them lead with a rising shot.  The move had seen Kirwan release Cameron and as this attracted the attention of a Sheffield United defender, it left Brown free to shoot Cameron’s pass quickly into the net off the underside of the crossbar.  So it was 2-1 to Tottenham, but there was more controversy to come just a minute later.

An offside looking United winger Lipsham putting the ball into the area, a goalmouth scramble ended with United’s Bennett barging the Spurs goalkeeper, but Clawley knocked the ball away and then grabbed at the ball, seizing it at the second attempt and was ready to kick the ball up-field, but to his and most other peoples horror, he saw the ref (some distance behind the play, it must be said) pointing to the centre circle for a goal !!  There was some debate about whether the ball had gone out for a corner, but nobody ever thought it had gone over the goal-line.  The poor referee might have been the first victim of trial by television, although this time it was film, as the match had been recorded for posterity and his error was there for all to see with the ball a clear foot away from the line, but only some time after the game was over.  The linesman had indicated that Clawley had saved and the ball had gone out for a corner, but Kingscott, who was a controversial character, failed to consult him and ran back to the halfway line with the score at 2-2.

The remainder of the match produced no further scoring, as Tottenham were shocked by the decision and Sheffield United seemed sheepish about it too.  While Sheffield had the territorial superiority, Spurs again had the better openings to win the Cup, with Brown missing a good chance and Kirwan dwelling on the ball, giving Thickett time to dispossess him.  In the last ten minutes, United had the better of the play, but Clawley was equal to everything that the Northern side could throw at him.

A replay was arranged to be played at Bolton’s Burnden Park a week later.  There had been problems over agreeing terms to play at the Palace again and Liverpool objected to Goodison Park being used, even though it was probably the best ground in the country at the time., because the Reds had a game scheduled for the same day.

• Teams did not wear numbers on their shirts in 1901.
• Sheffield United’s goalkeeper Bill “Fatty” Foulke, weighed 18 stones and was believed to be the heaviest player at the top level.
• The game was the first FA Cup Final to be filmed by Pathe News.
• Spurs had prepared for the match by staying at the Royal Forest Hotel in Chingford the night before.   They travelled to the game by taking a train from Chingford to Liverpool Street station and then made their way from there to Sydenham by a four-in-hand coach.
• The home tie against Bury in the Second Round produced a new ground record attendance.
• For the Final, Thomas Cook offered a conducted drive visiting places of interest in London in connection with excursion trains run by Midland Railway.  A Meat breakfast on arrival, a drive around London and dinner at the Crystal Palace was available … all for 6/6 (32½p).

This time Tottenham had the wind behind them in the first 45 minutes and Spurs took the game to Sheffield United, with Needham intercepting to stop a move by Copeland and Brown developing into anything dangerous.  Thickett broke up another move and Harry Johnson took the ball off Copeland’s toe just as he was about to shoot.  Much as in later years, Spurs were trying to walk the ball into the net and this allowed the Sheffield defence to prevent “Fatty” Foulke being troubled with many shots.

The physical approach that United adopted was criticised by many, but they found it was the only way to prevent Spurs carving out chances.  Jack Jones made a late intervention to stop a good United attacking move and Johnson shot over the top when well placed.  Needham was taking control of the midfield and it was his break forward on 40 minutes that put in Lipsham to feed Fred Priest, who once again gave the Blades the lead, as the Tottenham forward play was too intricate and the team got hit on the break.  It knocked the stuffing out of Spurs and in the remaining five minutes of the half, it was backs to the wall defending by Clawley, Erentz and Sandy Tait that kept the score down to 1-0 at the break.

Spurs continued to play their own game and in the second half, John Cameron instituted some changes, with the midfield tucking in and the players making the most of space between the midfield and the defence giving Tottenham the dominance for the first ten minutes causing Foulke to make a couple of good saves to maintain United’s lead.

After 55 minutes, John Cameron himself equalised following Tait’s interception and pass, when the forward eased past Thickett and played a one-two before giving it wide to Smith and raced into the end of his pass to crash the ball pass the United goalie bringing the score level at 1-1.

Twice Sandy Brown could have put the game beyond the Blades, but Foulke’ considerable bulk stopped his first shot and the second went agonisingly wide.  With 75 minutes gone, Needham failed to sufficiently clear Cameron’s shot in the Sheffield box and Tom Smith seized on the mistake, firing home to give Tottenham the lead and then Sandy Brown sealed the FA Cup victory for Spurs with an 83rd minute headed goal from a corner.  It meant that he had scored in every round of the FA Cup – the first man to do so.

With seven minutes left, Spurs might have added to their score, as they pushed forward and Sheffield United appeared to accept that the Cup was going to London for the first time.

The match itself was seen to be a righting of the wrong in the first match as Tottenham ran out 3-1 winners to take the Cup out of the League for the first and only time.  Whilst Tottenham had struck a blow for the South in the game dominated by Northern teams at the time, the Spurs team consisted of five Scots, two Welshmen, one Irishman and only three Englishmen – and they were all from North of the River Trent.

The Tottenham fans present could not contain themselves and ran onto the pitch, thus holding up the Cup’s presentation by the FA’s Lord Kinnard to Spurs captain Jack L. Jones with coloured ribbons on, tied there for the first time by Spurs – a tradition continued to the present day.

On their return to London, the party arrived at 01:00 a.m. at South Tottenham station and around 30,000 people gathered to welcome the FA Cup to the ground with fireworks set off to mark the occasion.  The Tottenham Town Band played “See, The Conquering Hero Comes” as the team arrived at the ground with the trophy.

So, the little non-league club from Tottenham had won the FA Cup and even today, remain the only side from outside the league to do so.

• Tottenham became the first, and only, non-league side to win the FA Cup.
• Spurs players received a £24 bonus for winning the FA Cup.
• The wife of the Spurs director, Morton Cadman, took some navy blue and white ribbons to the match and tied them to the trophy before it was presented to Tottenham, thus starting the long held tradition in Cup competitions in this country.
• Sandy Brown’s 15 goals in the competition (playing many fewer rounds than teams do today) still stood as a record number of goals scored in an FA Cup campaign at the time of writing in 2008.
• Because of the amount of food left over because of the low attendance, the game was named “The Pork Pie Final.”.
• Tottenham were the only side from the South to win the FA Cup in the next twenty years, when they repeated the feat in 1921.
• One of the reasons that the attendance was low was because Bolton station was being re-built and the cost influenced the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway to refuse to offer reduced prices to travel to the game.