FOOTBALL’S FIRST BRUTE

Victorian football was a tough game, played in hobnail boots on cabbage patch pitches with balls heavier than horses. There were plenty of tough characters – but the hardest was surely Nick Ross, the Preston North End defender known as the “demon back”, who intimidated opponents with his fearsome features, and then used his boots to kick them.

“His teeth were discoloured, almost green near the gums, and he hissed through them as he played,” recalled pioneering reporter Jimmy Catton. When Aston Villa’s Denny Hodgetts had the audacity to challenge Ross for a 50-50 ball, Ross’s violent response made newspaper headlines. An “unseemly fracas” ended with the “pugnacious” Ross being dragged away by umpires while yelling “dire threats”.

But Ross was not just a brute. He was a clever player, with a piledriver shot that allowed him to score his fair share of goals. Catton regarded him as “the most brilliant back of his day, if not of all time.” And he captained one of the 1880s’ greatest teams, although he missed out on the Preston Invincibles’ Double-winning 1888-89 season – Ross had negotiated a transfer to Everton, for a wage of £10 per month (huge at the time). But the move lasted only a season, with Toffees secretary Alex Nisbet saying Ross was “often an unfair if not cruel player, and more liable to bring disgrace than honour to his team”.

Ross returned to Preston and resumed kicking lumps out of opponents, benefitting greatly from the fact that penalty kicks wouldn’t be introduced to the game until 1891. But, as tough as he was, Ross couldn’t beat one of the terrible epidemics of the Victorian era. Forced to retire from the game early due to illness, he died of tuberculosis, aged just 31.