FA Cup Final 1884

Queens Park

Queens Park was invited to participate in the 1883/1884 FA Cup , despite being a member of the Scottish Football Association ^[1] . Prior to this, Queens Park played several times in the FA Cup, starting with the 1871/72 season ^[2] , but always withdrew from the tournament. Especially successful seasons were the draws of 1871/72 and 1872/73 seasons, when the club reached the semifinals before withdrawing ^[3] . In the future, the Scots were removed from the tournament, without having played a single match ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]} .

The first game in the Cup of England season 1883/84 "Queens Park" held October 6, 1883 away from the club " Crew Alexandra ." In this first round match, which was attended by 2 thousand spectators, the Scots defeated the opponent with a score of 10: 0 ^[9] . In the second round match, which was held on December 1 at the team’s home stadium in front of 6,000 spectators, Queens Park defeated Manchester FC with a score of 15: 0 ^[10] . This was the first time that the FA Cup match was held in Scotland. The advantage of Queens Park over the opponent was so great that the ball never hit the goalkeeper of the Scottish team ^[11] .

In the third round, the Scots away won against the Welsh with a score of 7: 1. In the fourth round, Queens Park was drawn with a draw with Aston Villa , but it turned out that this match was to be held in the same place and at the same time as the Queens Park home match against Hibernian in Scottish Cup . However, Queens Park and Hibernian decided to postpone the match two weeks later ^[12] . This situation aroused interest in the match among the residents of Birmingham , because of which three special trains to Glasgow were organized. 1,200 Birmingham people came to play in Scotland. Only about 10 thousand people came to the stadium and saw how Queens Park defeated Aston Villa with a score of 6: 1 ^[13] . In the quarter-finals, Queens Park set its “anti-record” of the season in terms of performance when they beat 1-0 at the Kennington Oval Stadium in London ^{[10] [14]} . In the semi-final of Queens Park on a neutral field in Nottingham , the Blackburn Olympic club defending the title won 4-1 and reached the final ^{[10] [15]} . Later, Olimpik filed a protest with the Football Association because spectators ran out onto the field to, in Blackburn’s opinion, upset the team’s mood for the game. The Blackburn protest was rejected ^[16] .

Blackburn Rovers

“Blackburn Rovers” also began its journey from the first round, where in the home game beat with the score 7: 1 ^[17] . In the second round, the Rovers was drawn by a draw with the from Blackpool , which was defeated at home with a score of 7: 0 ^[18] . Next, “Blackburn” won two home games in a row: in the third round, 3: 0 ^[19] , in the fourth round - with a score of 5: 1 (in front of 3 thousand spectators ) ^[20] .

In the quarter finals, Rovers won again; this time at a party at 3-0. In that match, despite the final score, the game was double-edged, and the first half ended in a goalless draw, but Blackburn won thanks to the goal of and the “double” of Joe Lofthouse in the second half ^[21] . In the semifinal, played on a neutral field in Birmingham, “Blackburn” beat “ Notts County ” in the semifinals with a score of 1: 0 ^{[10] [15]} . Like Blackburn Olympic, the Notts County filed a protest with the Football Association. The club was unhappy that Rovers had announced for the match Inglis, a player from Glasgow playing for the Glasgow Rangers who, according to the Notts County, was declared by Blackburn only to improve his Cup results. In turn, Blackburn Rovers wrote a letter to the Football Association, which said that Inglis left the Rangers, as he himself wanted to play for Blackburn. Notts County sought to replay the match without Inglis ^[22] , but the Football Association rejected the offer ^[16] .

Before this match, Queens Park and Blackburn Rovers met three times; all three matches ended in a draw ^[23] . Queens Park was considered the favorite of the match, being the most successful club in Scotland at that time and using a short-pass style of play atypical for England at that time ^[24] . This season, Queens Park has already won the Scottish Cup after the refused to play in the finals due to the illness of their players, which disabled most of the team ^[25] .

On the other hand, many believed that Blackburn Rovers would be able to repeat last year's success of the Blackburn Olympic club, which was defeated by Queens Park in the semi-finals of this season ^{[10] [16]} . Prior to this, “Blackburn Rovers” reached the finals in 1882 , where they lost to the Old Itonians club ^[26] . During the week before the match, the Blackburn Rovers players trained hard and ran long crosses. They arrived in London by train the day before the match; a large crowd of fans came to the station to greet their favorite team and wish her good luck ^[23] . The team stayed overnight in Richmond and arrived in the city on Saturday afternoon ^[26] .

For the second year in a row, special trains were organized for Blackburn fans. However, due to the fact that fans of Olimpik destroyed tea houses on the way to the stadium last year, all the bars and cafes were closed at and near the station ^[27] . Additional stands were built at Kennington Oval, as most of the main stands ( Gasometer and Pavilion) were occupied by members and fans of Cricket Club, which was the owner of the "Oval" ^[26] .

The main referee of the match was Major Francis Marindin of Royal Engines , who at that time was president of the football association of England . His assistants were of the Wanderers and C. Crump of the . According to initial estimates, from 10 to 12 thousand spectators attended the match ^[28] , thereby breaking the record of attendance of football matches in London. This was a surprise, due to which the small stadium staff could not stop the crowd rushing into the stadium past the turnstiles ^[26] . The weather was “bright and seasonal” ^[28] . Queens Park won the coin toss and chose the gate on the east side. Blackburn Rovers started the match with a ball from the center of the field, but the game very soon went under the dictation of Queens Park, whose players created the first two dangerous moments in the match. The game of and Joe Sowerbutts allowed Rovers to quickly seize the advantage, but after about a quarter of an hour the game “Queens Park” earned a free kick due to the game player “Blackburn” hand. The ball flew into the gate of Blackburn, without touching any of the players, because of which the goal was not scored. A few minutes later, “Rovers” earned a corner, but could not score after his rally ^[28] .

Soon, Queens Park made another attack, as a result of which organized a dangerous pass, but managed to intercept the ball. At the 30th minute of the game, Hargreaves gave a pass to , who opened the scoring. Soon, the Queens Park player played with his hand, thereby giving Blackburn the right to break the free-kick. James Brown hung from the flank into the center of the penalty area, from where struck the “nine” goal of the Scots, setting the score 2: 0. In response to these two goals, Queens Park increased the number of attacks on the Blackburn goal, one of which ended with Christie's goal shortly before the break ^[28] .

At the beginning of the second half, Queens Park seized the initiative and made a number of dangerous attacks. The Scots could not score Blackburn due to teamwork between goalkeeper and defender . Rovers began to play defensive football. Soon the Scots earned a corner, but shot flew above the goal. Soon after, the Queens Park player was awarded a penalty for a hand game, after which James Brown struck above the goal. Queens Park continued to create attacks, which did not prevent Blackburn from launching a counterattack, completed by Brown's strike. The ball crossed the goal line before the Scottish goalkeeper caught the ball. However, the Blackburn players did not report this referee, as a result of which the goal was not scored. “Blackburn” dominated the field in the last five minutes of the game, and the match ended with the score 2: 1; all three goals were scored in the first half ^[28] . Before the match, it was planned that Prince Leopold ^[26] would hand out the medals and the winning trophy, however, due to the death of the prince the day before the final ^[29] , the prize-giving ceremony was held not publicly ^[26] .

Match Details

После матча главный арбитр Фрэнсис Мэриндин признался, что мяч, возможно, пересёк линию ворот «Блэкберна», но поскольку игроки «Куинз Парк» не заявляли о взятии ворот, гол не был засчитан ^[26] .

Вскоре после победы в Кубке Англии «Блэкберн Роверс» сыграл против «Блэкберн Олимпик» в финале Большого кубка Ланкашира , где «Роверс» выиграл со счётом 2:1 ^[30] . Трофей 1884 года положил начало гегемонии «Роверс». Команда выигрывала Кубок Англии на протяжении послеследующих двух сезонов ^[31] : в 1885 году опять был обыгран «Куинз Парк» (2:0), а в 1886 году — « Вест Бромвич Альбион » (0:0, 2:0) ^{[32] [33]} . Эта серия закончилась в сезоне 1886/87 , когда «Роверс» играл против другой шотландской команды, . После гостевой ничьи со счётом 2:2 была назначена переигровка ^[34] , в которой «Рентон» одержал победу ^[35] .

«Куинз Парк» был и остаётся единственной шотландской командой, дошедшей до финала Кубка Англии ^[36] .

• Match report on fa-cupfinals.co.uk