The Norfolk Football Club of Sheffield, named after the Duke of Norfolk could have evolved into the major rivals of the Wednesday Club. Had they survived the onset of the professional era and embraced the future as the Wednesday club did and entered the FA Cup, then they could conceivably have become the principal Bramall Lane football club.In 1867 they reached the final of the world’s first knock out football competition, the Youdan Cup, losing to Hallam FC in the final.
Bramall Lane was built on Norfolk’s land and Norfolk enjoyed the support and patronage of some of the biggest names in Sheffield football history including Michael Ellison, and the Norfolk cricket club had been part of the United Cricket Clubs of Sheffield at Bramall Lane since 1857. They used Bramall Lane for a game against Chesterfield in 1873, and remarkable crowds of 7-8,000 attended their annual athletic events at Bramall Lane where John Charles Shaw acted as starter. If Norfolk had become the principal tenant of Bramall Lane, there may have been no need to invent a new club in 1889.
Michael Ellison gave Norfolk FC permission to play football at Norfolk Park and it is listed in the football annuals as the club’s ground from 1868-1880. The current consensus is that the club was formed in 1862. The first external match reports dating from 1863.
As we know a curious feature of Sheffield football is that during the period of exponential growth between 1857 and 1875 when 188 clubs were formed in the city, the best players were in huge demand and players appear to have enjoyed representing and probably joining different clubs.
The reasons for this are unclear but it may be that being a member of multiple clubs was a sign of social status. This was certainly the case for gentlemen in London. A desire to participate in the biggest events of the season, the annual athletics meetings at Bramall Lane in the spring and summer may also have been a factor. Players also guested for other clubs to maintain the prestige of the city in games against teams from Glasgow, Nottingham, Leeds, Derby etc.
Norfolk were successful on the pitch from the beginning and they had 270 members in 1869 and 1870. They were one of the most influential of the pioneer clubs, playing games against Chesterfield, Leeds and Nottingham Forest and they were technically innovative. Many of our recent discoveries relating to the unique early football culture in Sheffield come from reports of Norfolk games before 1870.
These games were extremely important in spreading the association style game to two other centres, Nottingham would go on to host European football champions, and were it not for a chronic injustice, Leeds would have done the same.
In a trial match at Leeds a tactic of strategically kicking the ball from player to player (passing) to outflank the Leeds’ players is first recorded. In addition, this may be the first time gate money was taken at a football match not associated with a chartable cause. 3d was charged at the gate of the ground in Leeds Royal Park. The game concluding at 4.30 pm.
A game against Nottingham Forest in 1870 is especially lucrative in providing insights into the rapid tactical development of Sheffield football between 1865 and 1870. Games in 1868 and 1869 had both been tight with Norfolk winning by a solitary rouge in both, with JP Donovan the stand out Norfolk player of this era.
In 1870 it was a different story. On a day when Norfolk loaned players to the Wednesday club for their game against Derby St Andrews and to the Surrey Club for their game against Rotherham (games which both resulted in victories for Sheffield clubs) Norfolk FC overwhelmed Nottingham Forest 5-1. They retained the services of some of the best players in Sheffield at the time, GH Sampson, JC Clegg, WE Clegg, and J Roberts who was captain.
With Harry Sampson, ‘the little lion’ of Sheffield football, possibly the first player to think of heading the ball as an offensive tactic, and WE Clegg demonstrating their ‘screw kicks’ and ‘brilliant dashing play’, working the ball forward in tandem, Forest struggled to compete.
Norfolk’s apparent demise in 81/82 is probably due to a reluctance to engage with the hybrid amateur/professional culture. They also had extremely close links with the Wednesday club, operating joint athletic events so they may have been slowly subsumed by their more ambitious sister club.
