The World’s First Inter City Match
On 2nd January 1865 a party from Sheffield FC boarded a train at the old Wicker based Midland Station Sheffield to travel to Nottingham. The purpose of the trip was to play a game of football against the newly formed Nottinghamshire club.
The Nottinghamshire club, who later became known as Notts County, had been officially created at The George Hotel in Nottingham on the 7th of December 1864. Sheffield’s Harry Chambers had an interest in its formation and was likely the reason why the two clubs decided to play each other less than a month after the new club’s inception.
The early Nottinghamshire County Club was made up of many well-known cricketers and so it’s no surprise the match took place at Nottingham’s Meadows Cricket Ground.
This match is notable for two reasons. It was the very first football match in the world to take place between clubs from two different towns or cities. It is also a match which by being played outside of Sheffield was reported on by none Sheffield based newspapers whose reporters noted Sheffield’s impressive passing and formation-based style of the game. Some of our earliest reports of passing in football therefore come from this match.
Sheffield won the game 1-0, a goal scored by James Wild. After meal at The George Hotel in Nottingham, the victorious Sheffield players returned to Sheffield. The disembarked their train at The Wicker and celebrated by kicking the match ball all the way through the town and up to Broomhill. John Charles Shaw reportedly ended up with the ball from this historic game. I wonder where that historic ball is today?
Do you have more information about this that we could add? Are any of the facts wrong? Please get in touch if so.
