‘The old Foot and Mouth’
Staveley FC England’s Greatest Village Team?
The Sheffield and Hallamshire Football Association, formed by a merger between the old and new Sheffield Football Associations, targeted affiliation from teams within a twenty-mile radius of Sheffield Cathedral. This was to ensure that the association could effectively manage and develop grassroots football in the local area, providing support, resources, and governance to its members.
Sheffield Home of Football is a broad church too recognising the contribution of visionaries, players and officials from South Yorkshire, Northeast Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire that have influenced the evolution of the Sheffield rules and the Sheffield game.
Staveley FC’s contribution to football history from the 1880’s onwards, is exceptional. Two players from what was then a rapidly expanding industrial village in North-East Derbyshire, with strong links to Sheffield through the Staveley Iron and Coal company, had a major impact on the English game.
Sam Raybould, originally an outside right was a Staveley miner who had success with Derby County and New Brighton, before joining Liverpool and becoming a centre forward and a remarkably successful goal scorer. In the 1902–03 season Raybould set a new record of 31 league goals in a single league season. This remained a record for many years.
Ernest ‘Nudger’ Needham was a Staveley player who was even more inspirational. Spotted playing for Staveley against another Derbyshire village that achieved national fame for its football, Heeley, Needham became Sheffield United’s most successful player, ‘the Prince of Half Backs’. He was signed by the Blades after impressing in a match against the Blades.
Needham was a natural captain and leader who thought deeply about the game. He emphasized the importance of accurate and timely passing. He believed that a well-executed pass could break the opposition’s line and create scoring opportunities. He advised players to:
Keep passes simple and direct: Avoid unnecessary tricks and focus on getting the ball to a teammate effectively.
He also espoused learning to use both feet. Being proficient with both feet allowed for more versatile passing options. He was known for anticipating movements. Understanding where teammates are likely to move helped him deliver precise pass
Needham also highlighted the significance of effective tackling in preventing the opposition from advancing. He knew that timing was crucial and that balance and not lunging into tackles was the most effective technique.
Staveley’s Golden Decade
The 1880’s was Staveley’s most successful decade. They had an exceptional goalkeeper in Tom Hay and top-quality players such as HP Marples and RG Barlow, a fine cricketer for Lancashire despite his Derbyshire birth, immortalised in Thompson’s evocative poem.
‘For the field is full of shades as I near a shadowy coast,
And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a ghost,
And I look through my tears on a soundless-clapping host
As the run stealers flicker to and fro,
To and fro:
O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago!’
Staveley were the kings of Derbyshire football in this decade, slightly better than the other Derbyshire village that was known across England, Heeley. Staveley won the Derbyshire Cup for the first time in 1885, and although Heeley won it in 1886, Staveley went on to win it three more times in the first six years.
In the mid 80’s Staveley beat teams of the calibre of Nottingham Forest and Middlesborough in the FA Cup, and defeated Wednesday and Lockwood Brothers-losing 3-1 to a strong Blackburn Rovers side in 1886.
Many of the greatest teams in world football history visited the village recreational ground: Blackburn Rovers, Burnley and Preston North End.
Staveley travelled themselves, testing themselves against some of the greatest teams of their era: Blackburn, Burnley, Bolton and Small Heat, as well as engaging with Grimsby Town, Lincoln and Walsall.
Unlike many of our local teams who faded into obscurity after the dawn of the professional era Staveley remained competitive, eliminating Chesterfield from the FA Cup in the 1920-21 season.
Locally they were sometimes unpopular. Known as ‘the old foot and mouth’ because of the physicality of their approach, their willingness to put the boot in and the aggressive and foul-mouthed nature of their support, they clashed with Sheffield’s established amateur elite. The club’s relationship with the Association’s controversial secretary Pierce, who vowed to stamp out all forms of professionalism and disapproved of their focus on playing to win, was extremely volatile and Staveley eventually switched to the New Association.
When Nottingham Forest were defeated in the FA Cup Staveley had resorted to time-wasting on an epic scale, not just kicking the ball out but launching it as far as possible. Supporters of other teams were known to sarcastically shout ‘play up Staveley’ when other teams indulged in Staveley style tactics.
However, their focus on developing a winning culture was ahead of its time and it was their commitment to victory, as well as the footballing genius of some of their players that enabled them to punch well above their weight and achieve unprecedented success. Staveley played a key part in the emergence of a new era that would see Sheffield and Hallamshire. Association teams achieve success on the national stage.
