England National Football Team Match No. 5

Scotland 3 England 0
* please note that there is no half-time score

Saturday, 4 March 1876

Match Summary and Report

One of the earliest known England team photographs [courtesy of YouAndYesterday.com].
See notes at bottom of page.
Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, circa 4 March 1876 - Ten of the team that faced Scotland.
Standing - Field, Buchanan, Smith, Green, Maynard.
Sitting - Savage, Turner (Umpire), H. Heron, Bambridge, F. Heron.
Front row - Jarrett.
Absent player is Cursham, presumably taking the photo;
 

Match Summary

Not known.

Scotland Team

No official ranking system established; 2nd in Elo world ranking both before and after 1st this match.

Scotland Lineup

2-2-6

McGeoch -
Taylor, Hunter -
McNiel, Herriot, McKinnon, Miller, Ferguson, Baird..

England Team

No official ranking system established; 1st in Elo world ranking both before and 2nd after this match.

Scotland Lineup

2-2-6

Savage -
Field, Green -
Bambridge, Jarrett -
H. Heron, Buchanan, Maynard, Smith, F. Heron, Cursham.

Match Report

Source Notes

The grainy photograph of the England football team above has never before been 'published' in the modern era.  Prior to its posting on this website the 1876 image has been entirely unknown to the modern generation of football lovers in general and sports academics in particular. Even the in-house historian of the Football Association had no knowledge of the picture's existence.  So You & Yesterday may proudly claim a 'world exclusive' - a veritable football 'scoop' - for this is the earliest image of an England football team yet discovered.  As such it extends the photographic time-line of international football history by quite some years, for prior to this the earliest England team pictures known to exist dated only from the early 1890s. 

From the Soho Square headquarters of the Football Association, the organisation's official historian David Barber said:  "We have a number of books on the history of the England team and the earliest picture I have ever seen dates from the early-1890s - certainly nothing like 1876. So yes, this is a major find."

A 'feather in the cap' then for the newspaper archive of Derby Local Studies library, for it was discovered in a 1920s edition of the Derbyshire Football Express which the library holds on old microfilm - hence the rather poor quality of the copied image.  Notwithstanding that, the picture demands to be shown for its historical rarity alone. Not least because no images of some of the players have hitherto been known. So at last faces are being put to names for some of the very first men to wear 'three lions on their shirt'. 

The photograph was taken in Glasgow on 4 March 1876 on the occasion of only the fifth ever international football game -that between England and Scotland played at the West of Scotland Cricket Ground, Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow.  Scotland emerged victorious by 3 goals to 0 - the photograph shows ten of the vanquished England side plus the 'umpire' - the early appellation for the match controller we now know as a referee.

The original photograph had been sent to the Derbyshire Football Express - at that time the 'Football Special' edition of the Derby Telegraph - for inclusion in a 'Bygones'-style feature. Yes, even then the 'heritage business' was flourishing!  The correspondent was 71-year-old Edgar Field - one of the England players in the photograph - who was living in Littleover, Derby, at the time.

Edgar Field was born in Wallingford, Berkshire, on 29 July 1854. He was educated at Lancing College at a time when 'association football' - born in 1863 - was not yet a decade old. He was a member of the school's football XI in 1870-71.  After leaving Lancing he played first for Clapham Rovers and later for Reading, the former at that time one of the foremost association sides in the country. Field had the singular honour of playing in two FA Cup Finals with Rovers - their 1-0 defeat by Old Etonians in 1879 and a 1-0 victory over Oxford University in 1880.

He was 'capped' twice for England at full-back - the photograph was taken on his 1876 debut day when he was aged 21. His second and final game came 5 years later on 12 March 1881. That too was against Scotland, this time in England - but yet again the Scots prevailed......by a healthy margin of 6 goals to 1.  Several sources credit Edgar Field with having scored an own goal in that game - if that is so, he claims the rather dubious honour of becoming the first player to score an own goal in an England match.  His serious football career spanned the years 1871 to 1888 and he never received anything more than 'expenses' for playing.  None of the players in the picture were 'professional footballers' - payment for playing was not officially sanctioned until 1885. So all were unpaid 'amateurs' - literally 'lovers' of the game, for those who recognise their Latin roots.

By profession Edgar Field was an accountant - he practised initially in London, before coming to Derby in 1913 just prior to the First World War. He joined the Land Agents Messrs Shaw and Fuller of College Place, Derby, where one of the partners Mr. Fuller was his brother-in-law.  When he submitted his 'Bygones' piece in 1926, Edgar Field was living in Warwick Avenue, Littleover, still healthy, very active and continuing to attend the office.

He later moved to 7, Fairfield Road, Derby, where he died aged 79 on 11 January 1934. No doubt the current occupant of that modest home - not far from Normanton Park and Littleover village - has no idea that a pioneering England international footballer once lived there!  In his 'Bygones' interview Edgar Field gave a fascinating insight into the very early days of association football. Of himself he said: 'I was hard as nails in those days and thought nothing of walking for miles. I was almost six feet in height and scaled 13 and a half stone. I never looked my weight, although opponents at different times agreed that I felt more'.

So there it is - an evocation of a bygone age when an early England football player mingled with the good people of Littleover.  Yet the picture may have lain undiscovered for all time, for it was only by chance that Derby-based author and sports historian Peter Seddon came across it.  He had been looking for material on the Rams and England star Steve Bloomer in connection with his latest book - 'Pickles the World Cup Dog and Other Unusual Football Obituaries' - and had not expected the England 'bonus'.

Peter said of the discovery: "When I saw the England picture I knew instantly from my knowledge of football history that it was a significant find. What made it better still was that the photograph had a direct provenance - a personal link with one of the players who had appeared in the game, and a citizen of Derby to boot".  The discovery is proof positive too that the 'heritage industry' has valuable secrets yet to yield. In this case a significant addition to the England football archive - and the earliest picture of any international football team yet discovered. - YouAndYesterday.com

Sources

FA.com
Scottish Football Association
London Hearts
original newspaper snippet
The Sun newspaper, London
YouAndYesterday.com

CG