Stories from the beautiful game past and present - All written by James M. Gowland. From amateur to professional, from home and abroad. Particularly, but not exclusively, German football and also a bit of groundhopping. (twitter @jimmylad86)
'Maybe a university degree is the perfect passport to soccer success' wrote Bob Rodney in the Daily Mirror the Monday after the 1953 FA Amateur Cup final and this was certainly true for the students of Oxford and Cambridge who had battled together on the pitch. Pegasus Association Football Club, a joint venture between Oxford and Cambridge Universities had just won their second Amateur Cup in three seasons. A year before Bishop Auckland and Crook Town battled it out in that mammoth final I wrote about recently it was a rather more unique side who put their name on the trophy for a second time - This is a brief look at their story.
Although in much later years the players of Pegasus were not solely university students, the side included a lot of ex-servicemen, when the club was originally set up its players were either Oxbridge students or ex-students who had left university the previous year and this was generally the case during their two FA Amateur Cup wins. Formed in 1948, the club was an amalgamation of the Oxford and Cambridge University football teams. Harold Warris Thompson, a professor at St. John's College, Oxford, who would later become chairman of the Football Association was the main man behind the creation of the club along with Ken Shearwood who would later write a book about the team. The name Pegasus came from the winged horse of the same name in Greek mythology and symbolised the union of the Centaur horse on the Oxford crest and the Falcon on the Cambridge crest.
Vic Buckingham, Joe Mercer, Bill Nicholson, and Arthur Rowe all famous names in the footballing world were involved in coaching the Oxford and Cambridge University teams at one point or another with all three having all previously played for Tottenham Hotspur and Rowe also going on to manage them. Unsurprisingly then Pegasus often tended to play with the same push-and-run style football that eventually helped Spurs win the league championship in 1951 under that man Rowe. Indeed playing that same style of football actually brought Pegasus Amateur Cup success in that same year with none other than Buckingham at the helm.
Pegasus would fold in 1963 when they decided to no longer play matches but interestingly during their 15 years of existence they did not play in a league of any sort. Alongside friendlies and tours, the only competitive matches they played in came in varying cup competition's which, of course, included the Amateur Cup. They entered the competition in their very first season with regular Amateur Cup followers wondering quite who this new team were. 'Pegasus are the mystery club of the F A. Amateur Cup competition,' wrote David Williams in the Daily Herald before continuing 'As a club they have not kicked a ball, so there's a mystery in why they have been exempted until the final qualifying round,' The Football Association were seemingly not forthcoming with an answer to this question but Pegasus proved their worth by reaching the quarter finals before losing 4-3 at home to Bromley.
In 1949-50 Willington defeated Bishop Auckland 4-0 in the Amateur Cup final with Pegasus knocked out early on but the following year, however, it was Pegasus who won the competition. With the team being based in Oxford there was a bumper crowd in attendance when they faced city neighbours Oxford City in the quarter finals where they ran out 3-0 winners to set up a semi-final tie with Hendon. In the semis, a 1-1 draw at Highbury was followed by a 3-2 replay win at Selhurst Park.
In the 1951 FA Amateur Cup final, Pegasus would face Bishop Auckland, that great amateur side who would go on to win in total a record ten Amateur Cups having won several already, but pre-match some in the media were already talking about a potential Pegasus victory and the historic nature of it. 'Who outside the writers of cheap fiction, could visualise such a romance as a club winning on of the games chief trophies in its third year of existence thus fulfilling one of the very objects for which the club was formed,' wrote Eric Stanger for the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, for example.
The crowd of around 100.000 in attendance was a record for the competition and saw a Pegasus performance that 'smacked of the old Corinthian spirit and Spurs' skill combined,' at least according to Stan Halsey of the Sunday Mirror. Halsey, however, was not the only man to compare Pegasus to the old Corinthians amateur side that promoted sportsmanship and fair play as many others also romanticised the Pegasus story, his comments were just one of many examples.
In the final itself, Pegasus' Henry Potts who also played first class cricket with Oxford University saw a tame effort saved just before the break as the sides went in 0-0 at half-time. Just five minutes into the second-half and Pegasus were in front, however, and it was that man Potts who got the goal with a powerful header. Nine minutes from time great link up play saw John Tanner put Pegasus two up. Tanner went on to make 305 appearances for Huddersfield Town playing First and Second Division football and also made seven first-class appearances for the Oxford University cricket team. Bishop Auckland would pull one back but Pegasus held on to win their first FA Amateur Cup trophy just three years after their formation - an incredible story.
Pegasus spent much of their time playing against representative sides such as the Coventry Football Combination and the Leeds and District FA for example, two teams they played in 1951 and 52 respectively. There was even a match against a team of Dutch players that took place in Hull. Inbetween touring the country, however, Pegasus would twice win the Oxfordshire Senior Cup with those two Amateur Cup triumphs inbetween the second of which came in the 1952-53 season.
The club had failed early on in the previous season's competition but this time around coached by George Ainsley, an ex-Leeds United and Bradford Park Avenue forward, they had no such problems as they made it all the way to Wembley once again. In the earlier rounds, their third round tie was considered by some easily the tie of the tournament as they faced Corinthian Casuals in what Laurie Burills of the Daily Herald said 'could well be the greatest amateur game of the past 25 years.' Corinthian Casuals, a team formed thanks to a merger between the two great amateur teams Casuals FC and that earlier mentioned Corinthians FC side, were favourites to win the competition whilst Pegasus were not far behind. Burills considered them evenly matched, however, claiming there was 'nothing distinguishable in strength or stamina' and that 'a clear cut result seems unlikely,' In the end, it was, as predicted, a close run thing but Pegasus ran out 1-0 winners. Slough Town were beaten next in the quarter finals before in the semis a 1-1 Highbury draw with Southall was followed by a 2-1 replay win at Craven Cottage.
In front of another 100,000 crowd, Harwich & Parkeston of the Eastern Counties Football League would be Pegasus' opponents in the final and Pegasus produced what Bob Rodney of the Daily Mirror described as 'the most devastating show seen in a cup final for twenty-one years since Dulwich Hamlet beat Marine 7-1'. Winning by the same margin as Dulwich Hamlet had done, Pegasus ran out 6-0 winners scoring three in each half. There were five different scorers for Pegasus with the pick of the goals coming from Donald Carr who controlled the ball expertly before firing a low drive into the corner of the net.
That sublime performance would be the high point of Pegasus' 15-year existence, however. In the following season's Amateur Cup Pegasus lost in quarter finals which was followed by a semi final defeat a year later. But after in the few years that followed during their short existence, they never came anywhere near close to winning the cup again.
"Pegasus came and went like a shooting star. But in their short life they shed a light on the game as a whole. They were something different," wrote Geoffrey Green of The Times in his forward to Shearwood's earlier mentioned book on the club. Just like the FA Amateur Cup, which as mentioned in my earlier piece on the 1954 final is no longer in existence, Pegasus are also long gone. Gone is the era of amateur football, and the idea of a team such as Pegasus gaining such prominence would nowadays seem a little far fetched. Those were definitely different times!
This article was written with information obtained from the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) and the British Library Board.
These services are not free and incur a fee. For said fee I was allowed to view a set number of newspaper pages and have almost used up my quota. For more articles like this that will involve me paying more money to view further newspaper pages please contribute by donating/supporting me via my Patreon page www.patreon.com/inlovewithfootball.
The great thing about the DFB-Pokal is that all teams enter at the same point. No mammoth qualifying runs for the minnows just to get a glimpse of a semi big name side when you can draw a top flight team right from the word go! Of course, with only sixty four teams entering what is Germany's premier cup competition places for amateur or semi-professional sides are limited. But for those who are allocated a place a dream tie against a big name professional side is a real possibility, especially as the draw is seeded. At the beginning of the year, I wrote a feature about the fascinating Coupe de France and, perhaps a little slow off the mark, having followed with interest the opening round of cup fixtures in Germany just the other weekend I thought I'd take a look at another interesting domestic cup competition where as the saying goes, Der Pokal hat seine eigenen Gesetze (the cup has its own rules).
This season’s DFB-Pokal got underway the weekend before last with the sixty four entrants comprising of last seasons Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga sides, the top four teams from last season’s 3.Liga, and other selected teams including mostly the winners of Germany’s Verbandspokal the various regional cup competitions which are usually open to teams from the third tier and below. As well as the draws being seeded the lower-ranked teams in each tie are given home advantage as they vie for a place in the cup final played at Berlin's Olympiastadion each year. In this year's first round the most entertaining tie was newly promoted 2. Bundesliga side Eintracht Braunschweig's 5-4 win over Bundesliga team Hertha BSC whilst the biggest shock of the round came when fourth tier Regionalliga West club Rot-Weiss Essen defeated newly promoted Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld 1-0.
Teams from the Regionalliga and below, who are in many cases semi-professional or even amateur, defeating a top flight side as Essen did is nothing new. For many of these clubs just being in the competition is a big deal as many rarely get to enter. So when they do enter they have to savour the moment and this has brought over the years some shocks that even the FA Cup and Coupe de France, both famed for their upsets, would struggle to produce.
In the 1990s FC Bayern München, the country's most successful side of all-time, twice lost to amateur sides in the Pokal. On 4 August 1990, Just over 8,000 spectators crammed into FV Weinheim's Sepp-Herberger Stadion to see the minnows from the Baden-Württemberg region face the might of FC Bayern and, hoping for an upset, they weren't to be disappointed. The home side took the lead from the penalty spot on 26 minutes after a rash challenge saw Bayern down to ten men but even the most optimistic of supporters would not have expected them to hold on for the win. Hold on the did though and Weinheim were through to the next round where they would sadly lose to Rot-Weiss Essen whilst four years later there was an even bigger shock in store for the Bavarian giants of Bayern.
On 14 August 1994, TSV Vestenbergsgreuth were the opposition when Bayern suffered another humiliating defeat against amateur opposition in what goalscorer Roland Stein called "the perfect day". The team from a village with a population of at the time just 350 were live on primetime terrestrial television channel ZDF with almost 7.5m people watching and they would soon be the talk of the nation. Lothar Matthäus, Oliver Kahn, Thomas Helmer, the Brazilian world champion Jorginho and the striker Jean-Pierre Papin, these were just some of the star names in the Bayern line-up. Managed by Franz Beckenbauer they were a formidable side but in this cup tie they were well and truly shown up.
"And there is the goal. There is the goal" was the cry the commentator on ZDF when on 43 minutes Wolfgang Hüttner found Stein who headed home to put the hosts into dreamland. 1-0 up at the break, Vestenbergsgreuth still had to survive the second-half and at times they were clinging on for dear life in the match that had been moved Nuremberg to allow more spectators in. They did hold on, however, although late stoppage time drama where Bayern hit the post nearly saw an equaliser. Hearts in mouths. Vestenbergsgreuth and Stein had their moment in the sun but after defeating FC Homburg in the next round lost to VfL Wolfsburg on penalties and such is the glamour of amateur football that Stein nowadays works as an elevator fitter.
There have been numerous other upsets in the pokal down the years. When Hamburger SV lost 2-1 at amateur side VfB Eppingen in 1974 it was called Die Mutter aller Pokalsensationen (the mother of all cup sensations). With amateur and semi professionals clubs having only been allowed to enter the competition for the first time that season it was easily the biggest shock in the history of the competition up to that point. A little over four years later another amateur side called TuS Langerwehe beat Hertha BSC 2-1. In those days the lower ranked sides were not given home advantage, that rule came into force a few years later, and Langerwehe drew 0-0 (aet) away at Hertha with that 2-1 win actually coming in a replay, something that is no longer used with all ties now settled on the day. Hamburg were on the wrong end of a shock again in 1984-85 some ten years after that 'mother of all cup sensations' when they lost 2-0 to SC Geislingen of the Amateur-Oberliga Baden-Württemberg. Fastforward to 2000-01 and 1. FC Magdeburg versus FC Bayern is also worth a mention as the former East German side who won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1974 were playing fourth tier football when they defeated Bayern on penalties. Also of interest is Berliner AK 07 setting a new scoring record for a fourth tier side against a Bundesliga club when they defeated 1899 Hoffenheim 4-0 in the opening round of 2012-13. There are too many other upsets to mention them all but before we finish we must look at 1. FC Saarbrücken's run to the semi finals last season and then the curious tale of Hertha BSC Amateure which is a story definitely worth telling.
Four years after then third tier side Energie Cottbus lost to VfB Stuttgart in the final another third tier side in unfancied 1. FC Union Berlin defeated two Bundesliga sides en route to the final in 2001. 1. FC Union lost to FC Schalke 04 in the final, but arguably more remarkable was fourth tier Saarbrücken's run to the semis last season. Round two saw Saarbrücken defeat Bundesliga club FC Köln 3-2 in what was a pulsating match with Köln coming back to draw level from 2-0 down before Saarbrücken hit back with a 90th minute winner. Fortuna Düsseldorf, another top flight side, were defeated on penalties in the quarter finals before the dream ended at the semi final stage where diluted home advantage thanks to a post-COVID lockdown behind closed doors match did not help as they lost 3-0 to Bayer Leverkusen. En route to that semi final loss, Saarbrücken had also defeated two second tier sides along the way.
Another fascinating tale from the Pokal, perhaps the most captivating of all, comes from the 1992-93 season and involves Hertha BSC Amateure, who are nowadays known as Hertha BSC II, the reserve side of Hertha BSC. Rule changes in the 2000s mean reserve sides can no longer enter the pokal but once upon a time lower league reserve sides of top flight clubs were a regular feature in the pokal. Whilst Hertha BSC were knocked out just before the quarter finals their reserve side managed to progress all the way to the final something the first team have yet to manage. Second tier Lokomotive Leipzig, then known as VfB Leipzig were defeated in a seven goal thriller before Hertha Amateure beat second tier Hannover 96 who only a year earlier had become the first side outside the top flight to win the cup. Victory over Hannover set up a quarter final tie with Bundesliga outfit 1. FC Nürnberg.
1-0 up after a first-half goal, Hertha BSC Amateure saw their visitors from Nuremberg draw level in the 89th minute but responded by immediately going up the other end and retaking the lead to win 2-1. Things were now getting serious and Hertha Amateure's part-time coach Jochem Ziegert quit his day job as a tax officer to concentrate on Hertha with the big semi final looming. Second tier side Chemitzer FC would be the opposition. The star of this Hertha Amateure side was a young Carsten Ramelow who would later go on to play for the German national team at the 2002 World Cup and it was he who opened the scoring after just five minutes. Hertha Amateure were soon 2-0 up and leading 2-1 at the break ended up winning the match by that same scoreline to reach the final. It was an excellent performance that impressed many including Kicker magazine who wrote: "The success of the amateurs was well deserved against the higher-class guests who appeared without ideas." For the final there was a sell-out crowd at Berlin's Olympiastadion most of whom were supporting local side Hertha but, unfortunately, the fairytale ended and they lost 1-0 to Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.
Above are some of the intriguing stories the DFB-Pokal brings to life each season. The unique structure of the competition means only a handful of clubs that might be considered 'minnows' get to enter each year. But the ones that do well they have a decent chance of drawing one of the big guns in their very first match and with David v Goliath ties extremely common and David always getting home advantage a famous cup upset is, as we've seen, never far away. As they say in Germany, the cup has its own rules.
It took a mammoth 330 minutes but eventually, a victor was found. In scenes that would seem incredulous today, almost 200,000 spectators over the course of three matches saw two Northern League amateur sides from County Durham battle it out for glory in a tale that gripped the region and indeed much of the nation. Bishop Auckland v Crook Town in the 1954 FA Amateur Cup final had a script that even the greatest of movie writers could not have come up with up but, having said that, if similar drama had occurred in America's favourite past time of baseball then Hollywood would have surely made the story into a feature-length film.
Those of the younger generation may not be familiar with the FA Amateur Cup, after all, the 1974 final was the competitions last. With many non-league clubs no longer strictly amateur and more accurately semi-professional, and many past winners having arguably been not as amateur as they seemed, the competition's eventual demise was hardly surprising. In 1969 the FA Trophy was introduced as a new competition aimed at those non-league clubs who could no longer class themselves as amateur and although it did not have the prestige of the Amateur Cup it would essentially soon replace it. When five years later the Football Association abolished the distinction between amateur and professional or semi-professional status the Amateur Cup was finally discontinued. The Trophy and a new competition for smaller clubs known as the FA Vase would together take on the mantle as the national cup competitions specifically for non-league sides, a position they both still hold today.
In the 1954 Amateur Cup Bishop Auckland scored 26 goals in their five games en route to the final and this included a 5-0 win over Hallam, and a 5-1 semi-final victory over now defunct Briggs Sports of Essex that took place in front of 54,000 spectators at St. James' Park, Newcastle. Their final opponents Crook Town were not far behind in the scoring charts, however. Crook had defeated Hitchin Town 10-1 in the quarter finals having also won 5-0 at home to Walton & Hersham earlier in the competition but needed a replay at Roker Park, Sunderland, in front of another bumper crowd, to beat Walthamstow Avenue in the other semi-final.
Based five miles apart in County Durham, Bishop Auckland and Crook were very much part of the Durham coalfield. Crook was a pit village whilst Bishop Auckland also saw many employed in the many collieries dotted about the surrounding areas. There was also large scale employment in the local ironworks. Life was tough but a work hard play hard attitude saw football play a key role for many locals in their spare time. Amateur football in the region was big and the local Northern Football League regularly drew four figure crowds that its clubs could nowadays scarcely dream of.
Despite their amateur status, however, it was believed that players at some of these clubs actually earned more money than some at professional sides. This had been particularly noticeable at both Bishops and Crook over the years and brought with it a bitter rivalry that stemmed back to what was known as the 'Crook Town Affair'. In 1928 Bishop Auckland reported Crook Town to the Durham FA for the illegal payment of players. This started a chain of events that saw Crook booted out of the league and a widespread investigation that saw in total 341 players from numerous clubs suspended. By 1954 things were not always so obvious and as Harry Pearson notes in his excellent book The Farther Corner players at supposedly amateur clubs might have the club foot the bill when their wives or mothers went to the butchers to buy meat for the Sunday roast or have them help out financially when they needed a new suit. Having said that, some players still did, however, privately take illicit payments often referred to as boot money. In his book Up There - The North East Football Boom & Bust, Michael Walker also tells the story of a goalkeeper playing for Bishop Auckland who was offered the going rate of £15 a week to sign for Middlesbrough only for said 'keeper to laugh and say he was getting £20 a week at supposedly amateur Bishops. Yes, despite the Crook town affair, almost thirty years later such practices were still seemingly rife and, indeed, a colleague of mine recently suggested to me that BIshop Auckland and Crook used to be the two most corrupt football clubs in the country. Who knows...
Bishop Auckland were seemingly favourites for the 1954 final and after Crook's semi final win the verdict from the Sunderland Echo was that it 'will take a more skilful, harder fighting Crook Town to stand a chance against Bishop Auckland.' Another local newspaper the Shields Evening News, meanwhile, were also predicting a Bishops win and when previewing the local football for the weekend of the final they ran with the headline 'It's Bishop Auckland to win the FA Amateur Cup at Wembley, Newcastle and Sunderland in desperate league struggles,' With Bishops having beaten Crook 3-1 and 4-1 in the pairs two Northern League meetings earlier that season their favourites tag was probably justified and the Evening News continued by saying 'The Bishops are in an all conquering mood this season and the way they have disposed of previous Amateur Cup opponents this year suggests Crook's visit to Wembley will be in vain.'
When the Amateur Cup final of 1954 finally came around, 20 special trains and 250 coaches would take fans from the North East down to Wembley and a crowd of 100.000 would be in attendance. Whilst for those who couldn't attend, there were BBC radio updates from Raymond Glendenning in-between commentary on that afternoons France v England rugby union match on the Home Service and live second-half BBC television coverage with a young Kenneth Wolstenholme behind the microphone. An electrical shop in Bishop Auckland, meanwhile, won permission show the match via 'projection tv' in what was basically an early version of the beam-back.
Harry Pearson, in his aforementioned book, describes the Bishop Auckland side of the 1950s as the Real Madrid of amateur football and indeed such was the stature of the club there was even a Bishop Auckland Subbuteo set. Many of the club's star players during that decade actually joined after the 1954 final, however, but they still had a few notable names that year. Wing-Half Bob Hardisty had captained the Great Britain side coached by Matt Busby at the 1948 London Olympics and 1952 edition in Helsinki and was by many considered the finest amateur player of his generation whilst Corbett Cresswell was the son Warney Cresswell a star player in the 1920s and 30s who was previously the world's most expensive player when Sunderland signed him from South Shields for £5,500 in 1922. Carlisle born inside left Seamus O'Connell was another Bishops star in 1954 but whilst others stars would soon join he would be on his way out leaving to play professionally with Chelsea shortly after the final.
In charge of Crook Town was a young manager called Joe Harvey an ex-Newcastle United player who would famously go on to manage his former club to European glory in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969. Arguably their best player was Jimmy McMillan a winger who had previously turned down offers from Chelsea and Newcastle United to play professionally so he could train to be a government planning officer.
There's always a genuine excitement around Wembley Way on the day of a cup final and those expectant fans from Bishop Auckland and Crook Town would not be disappointed. Ken Wolstenholme described it as the best two hours sport of 1954, 'Thrill packed toughest ever Wembley final' was how the Sunderland Echo described it, and 'as thrilling and hard thought a match as could be desired' was the view of the Journal & North Mail. The Northern Echo, meanwhile, said that if the North East's top clubs, Newcastle, Sunderland, and Middlesbrough, had shown the same courage and never-say-die spirit throughout the season as Bishops and Crook did in the final then all three might not be in danger of relegation (In the end it was only Boro who went down).
The match had drama right from the off when just minutes into game Bishops half back Jimmy Nimmins slid into a tackle and never got up. Nimmins was stretchered off having fractured his leg. In the days before substitutions Bishops would have to face the remainder of the game with only ten men, a tough ask. Bishops fans had seen their side lose on each of their previous three Wembley appearances but this time the disadvantage of being one man short did not seem to bother their team and they soon found themselves in front. Picking up the ball after a free-kick was crossed into the box, Les Dixon smashed the ball past Fred Jarrie in the Crook goal and the Bishops lead 1-0. Crook responded almost immediately, however, and in the blink of an eye the match was all square when Ronnie Thompson fired a low drive past 'keeper Harry Sharratt and into the bottom lefthand corner.
Despite Crook's one man advantage, it was the Bishops who scored next to retake the lead whilst for Crook an injury to Ken Williamson soon saw him hobbling around the pitch for the rest of the match so really their advantage was arguably at best half a man anyway. Bob Watson, a railway worker by day, found Ray Oliver on the edge of the box and the ex Whitley Bay Athletic forward from Cullercoats darted past several players before blasting the ball into the top corner. Bishop Auckland back in front.
2-1 Bishops at the break and by all accounts they had been the better side but in the second-half Crook equalised on 55 minutes when a Bill Jeffs cross saw Eddie Appleby smash the ball home. That equaliser was the final goal of the 90 minutes so the match would head to extra-time.
The match report in the Sunderland Echo heavily emphasised Crook's man advantage and the writer referred to only as D.W. claimed that 'Bishop Auckland even with a man short, held their own for most of the normal playing time and were still able, in the last five minutes extra time, to give the Crook goal such a pounding that they might have had three more goals,' They did not, however, get three more goals, in fact, they did not get any. Extra-time came and went with no further goals and in the days before penalty shoot-outs, of course, there would have to be a replay.
There had been plenty more praise for Bishops in the following day's papers. Laurie Burills of the Daily Herald wrote: "Bishop Auckland's tremendous fighting spirit against their Northern League rivals, Crook Town, in the FA Amateur Cup final at Wembley, was one of the greatest displays I have ever seen,' Meanwhile, Bobby Rodney of the Daily Mirror who suggested 18-year-old wing-half Barry Wilkinson would replace the injured Nimmins for the replay was impressed enough by Bishops performance to say Wilkinson 'will probably end his year by winning the Amateur Cup.'
There would be a nine day wait for the replay. April 19, an Easter Monday evening, would see the pair battle it out again this time at St James' Park, Newcastle. A few days before said replay both clubs suffered league defeats but their minds were set firmly on the Amateur Cup. It was a 25-30 mile trip up the road from County Durham and 56,008 spectators made the short journey - a record attendance for an amateur match outside the capital. Supporters paid between 2/6d and 12/6d for a ticket it which I work out to be roughly between 10p and 60p in modern currency though probably a lot more with inflation.
Despite being considered favourites by most once again, it was a horrendous start by Bishop Auckland who found themselves 2-0 down within four minutes. Both goals came from Ken Harrison, a schoolmaster from Annfield Plain, a small village north west of Durham city, who'd scored a hat-trick in Crook's semi final replay win. The first goal came just 15 seconds into the match when Wilkinson was robbed of the ball by Ronnie Thompson who then passed it to Harrison and the goalkeeper was left helpless. His second came when the ball fell to him after the Bishops defence were unable to properly clear it. The drama continued in the early stages that followed with sitters missed at both ends in what had been a pulsating opening salvo.
Crook Town defended well and Bishops struggled to break them down but, 2-0 behind at the break, Bishops did eventually find their way back into the game with a goal on 79 minutes. Oliver eventually bundled the ball home to make it 2-1 after a free-kick was hit into the box. The match did not stay a 2-1 for long either as within minutes Bishops were level. It seemed these two sides could just not be separated. Oliver fired the ball home to grab his second and the replay, like the first match, was heading for extra-time. In the extra two periods, O'Connell headed over for Bishops from six yards out and this was the closest we came to a winner as like the first match the replay also finished 2-2.
It was a match that the Shields Evening News reckoned 'could have gone either way' although they were particularly impressed by Bishops goalkeeper Sharratt. The Northern Echo meanwhile were getting accusations of favouritism with a small number of readers writing in to complain of bias towards Bishop Auckland in their coverage of the first two matches.
The outcome Amateur Cup final could not be settled by a replay so a second one would be needed. It was decided, however, that if a third draw occurred then the trophy would be shared. The two sides would hold the cup for six months each and who held it first would be decided by the toss of the coin. When the pair were to meet again at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough, three days later it would be the final act of what had been so far a thrilling drama.
Kicking off at 6pm on a Thursday one can assume that many supporters might have found it difficult getting out of work early enough to have made the match but that did not stop some 36,727 from getting into the ground. Those who did not make it would have to make do with second-half radio commentary. With BBC reporters having already sat through 240 minutes of the football and commentated on large parts of it the Shields Evening News suggested that 'The BBC must be wondering when the final is really going to end,' before adding 'Never in the history of broadcasting has so much been said about two amateur football teams.'
In this second replay, Oliver rose to head home from a Jack Major corner midway through the first-half and Bishop Auckland thought they had the lead. Referee Alf Bond, a one-armed man who Bishops supporters would refer to as the 'one armed bandit', had other ideas, however, penalising the centre forward for a foul in the build-up. Shortly afterwards Oliver should have found the net again but fired over, a chance he would especially rue missing when Crook Town took the lead four minutes before half-time. It was Harrison who scored and as described in the Sunderland Echo he 'used the sole of his boot to guide the ball past the advancing Sharrott,'
It was 1-0 at the interval but could there be one final twist? After what had happened in the two previous matches surely there would be more drama in store? Or maybe not? Those watching would soon find out. In the second-half Bishops played with a more direct style of play but it was an attack minded Crook side who were the better of the two teams. Bishops did force Jarrie to make what was the save of the match, however, punching away an Oliver header. In the end, though, Crook held on and after a mammoth 330 minutes, they had won the FA Amateur Cup final of 1954.
At full-time jubilant Crook Town fans ran onto the pitch to celebrate before their captain Bobby Davison, himself a former Bishops player, was handed the trophy by the Mayor of Middlesbrough. Ken Williamson whose leg was in a plaster having hobbled around injured for most of the first match was helped onto the pitch to join in the celebrations. Joe Harvey's men would then board a special train back home where 15,000 people from Crook and the surrounding pit villages were there to greet them. There was not much time to celebrate, however, as many of the players had work the next day followed by a league match at West Auckland Town in the evening before a rearranged Northern League Challange Cup semi final with Shildon the day after.
The Sunderland Echo attributed Crook Town's win to what they called 'H plan', they dubbed it 'Crook Town's secret weapon' and it involved inside left Johny Coxon marking Hardisty out of the game which they claimed worked a treat. The paper was also wowed by the performance of Davison who they said was 'given the ball to keep after the match' before suggesting 'They should have struck a special medal for the number of times he pulled the defence out of trouble,'
With almost 200,000 spectators in total, 196,727 according to the Yorkshire Post, having passed through the turnstiles over the course of the three games both sides each received £11,650 from the £46,000 gate receipts. This would have been a huge sum of money for the two clubs.
Bishop Auckland would make up for their defeat by winning all of the next three Amateur Cup finals whilst three more Crook Triumphs would follow in the years after. Before 1954 Bishops already had seven Amateur Cup final wins to their name, the first occurring in 1896, the last in 1939. Ten in total for Bishop Auckland was more than anyone else ever managed in the competition's history and five more than Crook Town who were joint second with Clapton in terms of wins.
1954 may seem a lifetime ago but hopefully, the stories will continue for years to come. Of all the Amateur Cup finals the 1954 one was definitely the longest. Three matches and four halves of extra-time completed a monumental tie that saw huge crowds watching amateur football in scenes the modern football fan would scarcely believe. These scenes came in an era before violence and tragedy paved the way for all-seater stadia and wall to wall Sky Sports coverage and it may at times seem alien to the modern reader. But if there was ever a golden age for football then this was surely it and the 1954 FA Amateur Cup final surely its crowning glory.
This article was written with information obtained from the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) and the British Library Board. These services are not free and incur a fee so for more articles like this please contribute by donating/supporting me via my Patreon page www.patreon.com/inlovewithfootball.
FC Barcelona 2-4 Crook Town is probably not a scoreline you've heard before and, to be fair, unless you are a keen follower of North East non-league football then Crook Town are probably not a team you have heard of either. As for FC Barcelona, well they are a world-famous side and as one of the biggest clubs in the world their major trophy haul is seemingly endless - If you haven't heard of them there is clearly something wrong with you. The following story linking the world-renowned Catalan side who describe themselves as més que un club and a little known once amateur nowadays probably just about semi-professional side from County Durham is one rarely told but one that is nonetheless fascinating and worthy of being covered on this here blog.
For those unaware of Crook or its football team, Crook is an ex mining village in County Durham and its football club currently plies its trade in the tenth tier of English football, step six in the non-league pyramid. Nowadays relatively unknown, even by many within the region, Crook Town AFC have had a slightly more illustrious past compared to many non-league sides having five times won the old FA Amateur Cup. Those previous successes are all relative, however, as even in their heyday the club were still small fry in terms of English football. They did, as mentioned, however, play on numerous occasions against one of the biggest names in the world football and even beat then. Ten times they faced FC Barcelona to be precise, with their first tour to Barcelona coming in 1913. Although football was still in its infancy in Spain at the time and Barcelona were not the big force that they are now, anything but, it is still amazing to think that a little known non-league team from the North East once beat them. It is an interesting story and to tell it we must first start with the story of Jack Greenwell.
Jack Greenwell, born 2 January 1884 in Crook, was the son of a miner and would become one himself whilst playing amateur football as a wing half for Crook Town before leaving in 1912 to join FC Barcelona. In an era when travelling to the next town or village along was probably considered an adventure such a move was somewhat astonishing and how it came about is a little unclear. There is, however, one possible explanation and that is the suggestion that Greenwell made contacts in Spain thanks to partaking in a football tournament in Italy. Greenwell made several guest appearances for another local side Weast Auckland Town when they played in a competition held in 1909 and 1911 known as the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy. Held in Turin and considered by many as the original World Cup as it included teams from several different countries, West Auckland won the competition both times it took place. One issue with the theory that his move to Catalunya came about thanks to connections made during his time in Italy, however, is that Barcelona never actually participated in the tournament. Italian giants Juventus did and West Auckland beat them 6-1 in 1911, but not Barcelona.
As a player at FC Barcelona, Greenwell would win two Campionat de Catalunya titles (A national league championship was not introduced in Spain until 1929) before then going on to manage the club. As manager, with his side playing a passing style of football that was very much uncommon at that time, the club won a further five Campionat de Catalunya's as well as two Copa del Rey's. His managerial career, however, extended beyond Barcelona and in fact beyond even Europe. As well as being Barcelona's second longest serving manager of all-time behind Johan Cryuff he also had spells at crosstown rivals RCD Espanyol and then Valencia CF before moving to South America. During his short spell at Espanyol, Greenwell won both the Campionat de Catalunya and the Copa del Rey whilst at Valencia he won the Campeonato de Valencia. In South America, he had spells coaching in a Peru and Colombia and coaching the Peruvian national team he won what is now known as the Copa America, the country's first and to date only one of two such triumphs (the second came in 1975).
In 1913 it was arranged, with the help of Greenwell, for his old side Crook Town to come to Barcelona and play several matches against his new club. Part of the reason for inviting an English side over was that Barcelona at that time wanted to help increase the popularity of the game of football in their homeland. The sport did not have the popularity it nowadays has and it was hoped through bringing across a team from the country that invented the game they could help increase its stature. Being not so popular, however, was perhaps an understatement as in fact the sport was actually despised by many in the middle and upper classes who thought it morally reprehensible. Despised to the point that when King Alfonso XIII announced he would attend some of the matches against Crook there was mass outrage from many and even death threats issued to him. One such death threat came from Sancho Alegre who was a prominent Catalan anarchist at the time. In the end, having weighed up his options, King Alfonso decided not to attend the matches but others did turn up and watch. Three matches took place and although only 2,000 spectators bore witness to the first the second saw that figure increase to 7,000 before reaching 10,000 for the final match of the tour.
All played at Barcelona's then Camp de la Indústria home, there is little information forthcoming about the actual matches themselves. Although one thing that is noted about the games was the use of substitutions by the hosts. Making substitutions was something that had become common in Spain but was still a long way off in England where the idea of using substitutes was unheard of. Crook won the first match 4-2 and ended the tour unbeaten with draws of 1-1 and 2-2 in the other two matches. To this day a pennant from their trip still hangs in the clubhouse at their Sir Tom Cowie Millfield ground.
There were two further tours to Spain for Crook which involved a further seven matches against FC Barcelona. The tours of 1921 and 1922, however, saw Crook face a much improved Barcelona side that included the legendary goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora who currently lends his name to the La Liga goalkeeper of the year trophy (although it is believed he made a guest appearance for Crook in one of the games). This improved Barça side won four times against Crook with two draws and one sole win the for the visitors. These results included wins of 4-1, 5-1, and 8-1 for the hosts whilst the final match of the 1922 tour saw Crook run out 3-1 victors.
In between and after those three trips to Barcelona, Crook continued back home as a small town amateur non-league side although for a short while in the 1930s they played professionally in the old North Eastern League which included the reserve sides of Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, and Sunderland. In 1931-32 the club reached the third round of the FA Cup but lost 7-0 First Division Leicester City and, of course, there were those aforementioned Amateur Cup wins whilst in 1976 they became the first-ever English side to tour India. Currently, Crook Town play in the Second Division of Northern League which as mentioned earlier in the piece is the tenth tier of English football. Crook's average league attendance last season pre-COVID was 156, FC Barcelona's was 72,472.
