Early Kings of World Football
November 7th 1861
‘Pitsmoor cricket club announce their intention to form a foot ball club’ Despite a name indicative of a mining village, in 1861, the year of foundation, Pitsmoor (named after the mining of iron ore, not steel) was a pleasant village to the North of Sheffield when the football club was founded by gentlemen cricketers in 1861. As late as 1906 it was described as an ‘eminently respectable, and languorous and soothing suburb’. By 1868 the club had 264 members, a 2s 6d subscription and no entrance fee to watch games according to the secretary Thomas Clarke of 52 Harvest Lane, Sheffield.
Pitsmoor were not only one of the earliest clubs, but they were also probably the finest football team in the world in 1863. Playing in a kit which was later immortalised by the Preston Invincibles and copied by Tottenham Hotspur, they defeated all the best teams in Sheffield, and their reserves were just as dominant. If the Youdan Cup had been invented in 1863 then they would almost certainly have been the first winners. Pitsmoor were Sheffield Club’s nemesis after 1861 and may have played a part in Sheffield FC’s decision to eschew local competition in favour out of town challenges. It did not take the villagers from North Sheffield long to get the measure of their more illustrious opponents. In their first season Pitsmoor challenged the eminent gentleman from the city and beat them 1-0. By 1863 they comfortably had the ascendancy winning all three games against Club and also beating Hallam at home.
They also defeated Sheffield FC in 1866. This was the year when Club travelled down to London to represent the city and only lost narrowly ( and when the press reported that Sheffield FC had decided to only play teams outside Sheffield to seek a bigger challenge). The loss to Pitsmoor, by one goal and two rouges to one goal, must have been especially galling for club because the game was reported in the national press and watched by ‘many gentlemen and players of various clubs in Sheffield’. Would Pitsmoor have given London a tougher game in 1866? Almost certainly. Would a combined team representative of the best teams in the city have been victorious even at this early stage? -I believe they would. Pitsmoor are an extremely important part of the story of early Sheffield football because their success demonstrates that the real strength of Sheffield football was not represented in this first experimental game against London. Even when the Association team was formed it was elitist and selected from a narrow group of teams who were rarely the most successful.
So how can Pitsmoor’s remarkable rise to football pre-eminence by explained? They were a strong and well-established cricket club and players brought some transferable skills (athletic ability, knowledge of the importance of the leadership from a captain and positional play) but this was common to many clubs. Perhaps the fact that it was a village North of Sheffield, close to an area where there was a long tradition of folk foot-ball and inter village football was significant. (see anecdotal recollection below) They also adopted a professional attitude and calls for the players to gather for practice can be seen in the local press.
Unfortunately, evidence of the tactics deployed by Sheffield’s most dominant club in 1863 remain elusive. We know that strong, but lesser clubs like Sheffield Norfolk were deploying passing at this time, experimenting with positional play and manipulating the ball, and it seems logical to assume that Pitsmoor were also technically innovative. Perhaps the secrets of their success will be revealed if we discover old minute books at some point in the future. Sadly, Pitsmoor never played in the FA Cup and the Youdan cup emerged too late to catch them at their peak. Unlike Sheffield FC, Garrick, Wednesday, Sharrow Rangers they did not export their prowess to other towns and cities. They continued to play until 1887.
