SHEFFIELD UNITED v TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

Date : -  Saturday 20th April 1901

Venue : -  Old Crystal Palace

Crowd : -  110,820

Weather : - 

Referee : -  A. G. Kingscott (Derby)

Score : -

Goalscorers : -                     Priest 11, Bennett 51                                                         Brown 23, 50

Sheffield United : - Foulke; Thickett, Boyle, Johnson, Morren, Needham; Bennett, Field, Hedley, Priest, Lipsham.

Tottenham Hotspur : -  George Clawley; Harry Erentz, Sandy Tait, Tom Morris, Ted Hughes, John L. Jones; Tom Smith, John Cameron, Sandy Brown, David Copeland, John Kirwan

1900 Southern League champions Spurs had started their campaign in the trophy with a draw against Preston North End of the First Division.  The competition was delayed until February as the death of Queen Victoria had brought the country to a standstill.  “The Invincibles”, who had won the first “Double” twelve years earlier, were held in London and defeated 4-2 in the replay at Deepdale.  Sandy Brown started his run of scoring in each game in the Cup run by getting the home goal and a hat-trick in the replay. 

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 contractors - Christopher and Letherby would have been put to shame, as the food here was needed to feed more than the five thousand !! 

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.  Sheffield United took the lead after 11 minutes with a daisy-cutter from Priest and despite being under pressure for most of the half, Spurs got control of the game and Brown headed home an equaliser just before the break.  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, but there was more controversy to come just two minutes later. 

Winger Lipsham put the ball into the area and a goalmouth scramble ended with United's Bennett barging the Spurs goalkeeper, but Clawley grabbing at the ball and seizing it at the second attempt, cleared upfield.  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 !!  Some thought it may have gone out for a corner, but never 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.  The linesman had indicated that Clawley had saved, but 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 and 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.  

• Tottenham became the first, and only, non-league side to win the FA Cup.
• 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)

SHEFFIELD UNITED v TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

Date : -  Saturday 27th April 1901

Venue : -  Burnden Park, Bolton

Crowd : -  20,470

Weather : - 

Referee : -  ()

Score : -

Goalscorers : -                             Priest 40                                                       Cameron 55, Smith, Brown 82
 

Sheffield United : - Foulke; Thickett, Boyle, Johnson, Morren, Needham; Bennett, Field, Hedley, Priest, Lipsham.

Tottenham Hotspur : -  George Clawley; Harry Erentz, Sandy Tait, Tom Morris, Ted Hughes, John L. Jones; Tom Smith, John Cameron, Sandy Brown, David Copeland, John Kirwan

Originally, the match had been scheduled for Goodison Park, but with Liverpool at home to Nottingham Forest that day, they made a successful objection and the match was moved to Burnden Park.  Spurs travelled North for the FA Cup Final replay to Bolton and the home club expected a bumper attendance after the size of the crowd for the first game.  Unfortunately, the gate was disappointing - only 20,420 - mainly due to the cost of travelling to the game.  The caterers at the match had overdone the number of pies for the day and were left with so many over they had to give them away.  This has lead to this day being known as Pie Day in Bolton for that very reason !!

Spurs took the game to Sheffield United, but Fred Priest once again gave the Blades the lead, as the forward play was too intricate and the team got hit on 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.  Cameron himself equalised and Tom Smith gave Tottenham the lead after a goalmouth scramble and then Sandy Brown sealed the FA Cup victory for Spurs with an 83rd minute headed goal.  It meant that he had scored in every round of the FA Cup - the first man to do so.  

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 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 - by the FA's Lord Kinnard. 

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 a league to do so.  

• 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, the game was named "The Pork Pie Final."
• Tottenham were the first side from the South to win the FA Cup in the next twenty years, when they repeated the feat in 1921.