The Ancient History of Middlesbrough Football Club. Selected newspaper reports from 1876 up to 1899 when Middlesbrough commenced battle in the Football League.

Match reports, some long some short!

SACC = Sheffield Association Challenge Cup.  

CC = Cleveland F.A. Challenge Cup

FAC = F.A.Cup

NL = Northern League

From the Press

Club Meetings

1876-77

Tees Wanderers H

1876-77

1877-78

Loftus H     Tyne A

1877-78

1878-79

Tyne H     Redcar H     Redcar A

1878-79

Poetry, team review, and a Paper Chase!

1879-80

Hunslet A (SACC)

Sheffield Exchange H (SACC)

Redcar A     Loftus H

Tyne A     Sheffield H

1879-80

Press advert, Player supply

29 August 1879

1880-81

Tyne H

1880-81 Look back at the 1876 formation of Middlesbrough F.C.

10 September 1880

1881-82

Rangers (Newcastle) A

Sheffield Albion H     Tyne H

Guisborough A (CC)     Redcar H (CC) Final

Redcar H (CC) Final replay

Partick Thistle H

1881-82

Charging!, Another look back.

12 September 1881

1882-83

Attercliffe (Sheffield) H,   Dumbarton H,  Tyne H,  Redcar (CC Final),  Acton (London) H.

1882-83

1 May 1883

1883-84

Tyne A,  Staveley H (FAC - First game),  Thurlstone  A (SACC),  Lockwood Bros. A (SACC semi-final),  Redcar A (CC Final)

1883-84

A new stand, Winning the Cleveland cup

6 May 1884 and Annual Dinner 9 May 1884

1884-85

Newark H (FAC),  Pyebank (Sheffield), Old Etonians A (FAC),  Redcar N (CC Final), Cleveland.

1884-85

14 May 1885 AGM

1885-86

Notts County H,  Lockwood Bros.,  Great Lever (Bolton) H,  St. Johns (H)

1885-86

14 May 1886 AGM

1886-87

Stockton H, Bishop Auckland Church Institute A (FAC), Aston Villa A, Lincoln H and A(FAC)

1886-87

12 May 1887 AGM

1887-88

Hallam H (FAC), Whitburn (FAC), Sunderland H & A (FAC), Crewe Alexandra H (FAC)

1887-88

14 May 1888 AGM

1888-89

Sunderland H, Stockton H, Ecclesfield H (FAC)

1888-89

Finances

14 May 1889 AGM

1889-90

Birmingham St. George H, Sunderland A.

Newcastle East End H (NL), Stockton (CC)

Ironopolis (Charity Cup final x2)

1889-90

Introduction of professional players

October 1889 - Special General

17 May 1890 AGM

1890-91

Scarborough, Record 11-0 win, Darlington (FAC), Newcastle East End H (NL) Stockton (CC)[long]

1890-91 Season Preview, – Middlesbrough disqualified from the FA Cup. - Boys Out for a Lark. Season Review.

27 May 1891

1891-92

Birmingham St.George, Luton A (FAC) Preston H (FAC) Ironopolis CC final N

1891-92

Players awol. Middlesbrough Football and Athletic Company established.

1891-92

30 May and 13 June 1892 - AGM

1892-93

Ardwick A and H, Newcastle A  Royal Arsenal H

1892-93

MIDDLESBROUGH FOOTBALL CLUB Require TWO first-class FORWARDS (inside right and left), and TWO HALF-BACKS, for next Season. Good terms to good men.     Applications, with full particulars, which will be treated in confidence, to be sent at once to A.BORRIE, 99, Linthorpe- road,  Middlesbrough.

October 1892 - General

Nov. 1892 - Shareholders

1893-94

Tow Law (FAC),  Gateshead (FAC),

Preston North End H, Darlington (NL),    Newton Heath (FAC)

1893-94

Half and Full year reports

Match v Bishop Auckland

3 May 1894 - Dinner and Presentations

1894-95 F.A. Amateur Cup, Follow the Winners!  Road to the Final -

Bishop Auckland 3-2 – Darlington 1-1, 1-1, 2-0 - Old Brightonians 8-0, King’s Own Lancashire Regiment 4-0.

Old Carthusians 1895 Amateur Cup final

1894-95, Other games

Scottish Borderers

24 May 1895 AGM

1895-96

Darlington (NL), Royal Artillery (Amat.Cup), Saltburn Swifts (CC).

28 May 1896 AGM

1896-97

31 May 1897, Annual Meeting

1897-98

Uxbridge 1898 Amateur Cup final.

1898-99

1898-99 Entry to the Football League.

February and March 1899

Directors, Shareholders, and a Public Meeting - AGM

1899-1900

Practice match, Whites v Stripes.

1899-1900

A supporter’s letter

Northern League tables. 1889-90 Inaugural Season up to 1898-99.

This web site is free of adverts, except for the following that is. And even then it’s for free! If you have come this far then just maybe you will be interested. It’s for a book covering the FA Cup’s earliest years, 1871 to 1901. In view of the content I am happy to promote availability of the book.

The following from Niall Kennedy

===========================

The first ever FA Cup final was played in 1872 between Wanderers and Royal Engineers - two teams of Victorian amateur gentlemen. The FA Cup has changed enormously in the years between then and now. Contemporary reports of that historic period have been few and far between ... until now!

This is your opportunity to own a copy of a rare, almost forgotten 100+ year old collectible booklet covering the teams that won the English FA Cup in its first 30 years, available again after many years - an incredible insight into the way the game was played. The echoes of a bygone age showing how football developed from its amateur roots to a professional future.

Excerpt from page 3: "The final-ties in these early years were fought out with tremendous vigour. The first final of all, in 1872, between the Wanderers and the Royal Engineers, at Kennington Oval, provided an historic struggle. They were the two most powerful clubs of the day, and the meeting between them excited great interest. The Engineers, owing to the more limited extent of their resources, were favoured by popular sympathy: indeed, they were considered to have the better chance of winning, on the supposition that they were fitter and had better combination. It is curious to note that even in these early days, when the force of individual play was paramount and combined tactics had been reduced to no sort of system, the idea of the advantage of combination was present to the minds of critics. The Wanderers, however, whose forwards were rather heavier and faster than those of the opposing club, had much the best of the play, and won by one goal to none."

First published in 1902 in the auspicious Strand magazine, The Teams that Won the World's Greatest Football Competition 1871 - 1901 is a classic reprint of one of the earliest historical reference materials of the early years of the FA Cup and gives football historians and supporters the opportunity to own a really important historical account of the world's greatest football competition.

This classic reprint is available for just £12.47. For further details and to order a copy please visit

http://www.cinneide.net/facup