Royal Engineers AFC
The football club of the Royal Engineers (officially: Royal Engineers Association Football Club ) is a in 1863 by Major Marindin established English football club . The Army Group of the Royal Engineers - also known as " The Sappers " - had in the 1870s, their successful time and won in 1875 the FA Cup .
The club joined the Football Association ("FA") , which had been founded six years earlier, in 1869 . Four years later, the Royal Engineers were one of the first teams to tour the country, appearing in Nottingham , Derby and Sheffield . In the FA Cup, the oldest national football competition in sporting history, launched for the 1871/72 season, the Royal Engineers made it to the final straight away and lost 1-0 to Wanderers FC . After another defeat in the final two years later (0-2 against Oxford University ), the third attempt was successful in the following year.
The team that won the FA Cup in 1875 was set up as follows:
| Major W. Merriman |
| Lieutenant GH Sim |
| Lieutenant G. Onslow, Lieutenant RM Ruck |
| Lieutenant C. Wingfield-Strafford, Lieutenant A. Mein, Lieutenant Pelham Grenville von Donop, Lieutenant CK Wood |
| Lieutenant Henry Renny-Tailyour, Lieutenant H. Rawson, Lieutenant RH Stafford |
The first game ended against the Old Etonians with a 1-1 draw (Renny-Tailyour scored the goal for the Royal Engineers) before goals from Renny-Tailyour and Stafford decided the replay 2-0 for the Sappers.
The team, which was to be in the final one more time in 1878 (and lost 3-1 to Wanderers FC), was considered the first team to develop a combination game instead of concentrating on individual dribbling skills which, according to Sir Frederick Wall , secretary of the FA between 1895 and 1934, also had its origin there.
Up until the end of the 1880s, the Engineers were on a par with the emerging professional teams from the Football League and were considered to be one of the last bastions of the "gentleman teams" made up of amateur players. After the beginning of the 1890s, the team withdrew further and further from top English football and since then has usually only competed against other army selection teams.
Web links
- Article about winning the FA Cup 1875 ("When the Sappers won the FA Cup 1875")
- Royal Engineers website
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://spartacus-educational.com/Fhistory.htm "The Encyclopedia of British Football - History of Football" (Spartacus Educational)
- ↑ http://www.army.mod.uk/royalengineers/sport/football/history.htm "Royal Engineers Association - Football Club History" (www.army.mod.uk)