Sheffield Steal

As relegation-haunted Albion head to Sheffield United in search of three vital points, Steve Carr looks back on a controversial trip to Bramall Lane - and it's not the one you might be thinking of.

Had events worked out better for us three weeks ago, we would have been looking forward (with much trepidation!) to a day out at Elland Road in the FA Cup 5th Round this weekend. Instead we have yet another visit to Bramall Lane, where the infamous ‘Battle’ of 2002 is still fresh in the minds of many of us. It’s a ground which Albion and countless supporters have visited many times over the years, and in our current predicament Saturday’s encounter is arguably as important as that game from 24 years ago.

The FA Cup link takes us back to Albion’s first visit to Bramall Lane some 139 years ago in the last 16 stage of the tournament, albeit in those days labelled the 2nd Series, 1st Round, for a game played on 29th January 1887. Back then, Bramall Lane was primarily a cricket ground and home to the Sheffield United Cricket Club, but it was already regularly hosting important football games such as County Cup ties for various Sheffield-based clubs, on the basis that it was an enclosed venue where a ‘gate’ could be taken.

It also hosted Inter-Association games (such as Sheffield FA v Birmingham FA), and was due to host its first international game a week later. It is worth pointing out that Sheffield United FC was not formed until 1889, and Albion’s opponents on this occasion were the unlikely sounding Lockwood Brothers, one of the leading cutlery and tool manufacturers in Sheffield at the time. The idea of a company football team reaching such an advanced stage of the FA Cup in the 21^st century is unthinkable, but back then it was not unknown. Indeed, in the previous round Albion had overcome Mitchell’s St Georges, a club which had close ties to Mitchell’s Brewery in Cape Hill, and played its home games on the company’s own sports ground.

Lockwood’s had progressed this far by taking advantage of the absence of a professional club in the town (Sheffield did not become a city until 1893), as Wednesday were still amateur, and United had not yet been formed. In addition, Wednesday had forgotten to submit their entry to that season’s FA Cup in time, so Lockwood’s took advantage of this by registering five of Wednesday’s best players to represent them in the FA Cup!

Apart from the previous season’s Final at Kennington Oval in London, this was the furthest Albion had travelled to fulfil an FA Cup tie up this point of the club’s history. It wouldn’t have been a straightforward journey, requiring the players and officials to catch one train from West Bromwich to Birmingham (a choice between the Great Western Railway or the London & North Western Railway services), before catching the Midland Railway main line service to Sheffield. It was considered too risky to travel on the morning of the game, and such was the importance of the occasion, the WBA party took the unusual step of travelling up to Sheffield on Friday.

There are no contemporary reports of any Albion supporters making the journey to Sheffield in 1887, which is hardly surprising as most blokes had to work on Saturday mornings back then. Away travel in the 1880s would have been mainly limited to the most local of derby games, maybe walking or cycling to important Cup ties in places such as Cape Hill, Perry Barr, Walsall or Wednesbury, and certainly not costly, long-distance train journeys to far away places, unless it was the Final itself. Taking these factors into account, it is highly likely that the players taking to the field at Bramall Lane that day were confronted by a partisan crowd of anything between five and ten thousand locals (reports of the ‘attendance’ vary significantly!)

Albion were at full strength for the tie (none of that squad rotation nonsense back then, whilst claiming to be ‘respectful to the competition’), but the game was a struggle for The Throstles, with Lockwood’s having much the better of the play in the first half, and they probably edged the second half too. Full backs Albert Aldridge and Harry Green both played tremendously well, keeping Albion on level terms, and when the game went into extra time, Albion’s extra class and experience finally shone through, with George Woodhall scoring what proved to be the only goal of the game.

Both the 1887 game and the 2002 game ended in controversy! Lockwood’s subsequently raised a protest, on the grounds that Bob Roberts had been behind the line when making a save in normal time. Unlike the ‘Battle of Bramall Lane’ in 2002, when the result was allowed to stand, Albion’s first victory at Bramall Lane was overturned, as the FA incredibly upheld the protest and ordered the game to be replayed - so much for the referee’s decision being final! Thankfully, the replay was staged in neutral Derby and Albion won more comfortably than the 2-1 scoreline suggested, to progress to the Quarter Final, and ultimately the Final for the second successive season.