Wolves were told they couldn’t have the cup they’d just won
A new site with eight acres of grounds was chosen – to the rear of Molineux House
He had started up a tobacconist shop in Dudley Street and was soon advertising a ‘Wanderers’ Special’ cigar exclusive to his store, at a cost of threepence each. He even described his establishment as the ‘Wanderers’ Cigar Depot’.
On the field in September 1888 Jack led Wolves into the first season of the Football League as one of its twelve founder members. It was the idea of Aston Villa director, William Mcgregor, who on 2nd March that year had approached eleven other clubs, including Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion, to join his team in playing home and away fixtures in the 188889 season.
First goal
Wolves’ first league game was at Dudley Road against Mcgregor’s Villa on 8th September 1888 and resulted in a 1-1 draw. Their first goal was an own-goal conceded by visiting full-back Gershom Cox. Walter White took the honour of being the first Wolves player to score a league goal when he netted a brace in a 4-1 home win over Burnley a fortnight later.
The Wanderers enjoyed a decent first league season, finishing in third place behind Aston Villa and unbeaten champions Preston North End, who won 18 of their 22 games and finished 11 and 12 points clear of their nearest challengers. Wolves also reached the 1889 FA Cup final, seeing off Old Carthusians, Walsall Town Swifts, The Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers along the way. However, they could not prevent the ‘Invincibles’ of Preston from winning the trophy and completing the Double by triumphing 3-0 in front of 25,000 people at Kennington Oval, the home of Surrey County Cricket Club.
Quite a start though for the new manager – a first ever FA Cup final appearance for the club and third place in the top division!
On 1st April 1889, just two days after the FA Cup final, the town of Wolverhampton was given County Borough status, and local worthies, along with many associated with its football team, felt that it was time for the Wolves to move away from the increasingly inadequate facilities at Dudley Road to a new ‘stadium’ befitting the town’s new title.
The chosen site was the eight acre grounds to the rear of Molineux House, built around 1720, that took its name from ironmaster and banker Benjamin Molineux. In the 19th century what had been a private garden was turned into a pleasure centre by Mr Brewster and was often used for public events. These included the South Staffordshire Industrial and Fine Arts Exhibition of 1869, and bicycle races in the location of what was to become the football ground.
Before it could be used for a different sport a huge amount of clearance work was needed, including the removal of a bandstand and play equipment, tree felling and filling in a large lake.
Work was completed in August for the official opening of the football ground on 2nd September 1889 with a friendly match against Aston Villa. Notts County were the visitors five days later for the first league game, a 2-0 win for the Molineux men. With the move to a new ground and the adjacent Molineux Hotel to offer changing rooms and a club headquarters, Wolves began to flourish in the 1890s. First in 1891 they were incorporated under the Companies Act with two thousand £1 shares being offered to the public as they became a limited company. But two years later Wolves won a first major trophy.
As the 1880s gave way to the 1890s Wolves had enjoyed a fourth-place league finish and an FA Cup semifinal defeat to Blackburn Rovers. Fourth, sixth and eleventh places followed in 1891, 1892 and 1893, with cup progress in those first two years stalling at the third-round stage.
Although the 1892-93 campaign did feature their heaviest loss in competitive football, 10-1 to Newton Heath
(as Manchester United were then known), March 1893 saw Wolves reach their second FA Cup final. They overcame Bolton Wanderers (after a replay), Middlesbrough, Darwen and Blackburn Rovers to earn the right to take on Everton at Fallowfield, the ground of the Manchester Athletic Club, on the 25th of the month.
The Merseysiders were firm favourites to take the cup, having finished eight places above Wolves in the final table as well as having completed the league double over the Molineux men just a week earlier.
Police
Although the official attendance was 45,067, some estimates put it at 60,000, especially after fans overwhelmed the police force of 170 to break down the barriers to gain entrance. Against all the odds, Harry Allen scored the only goal of the game. There was uncertainty at the time with some crediting Billy Malpass, David Wykes or Dick Topham. A spectator describes the clincher: “From near midfield Allen kicked the ball high in the air and it descended as a dropping shot towards goal. It was brilliant sunshine, and as the Everton goalkeeper looked for the ball the sun dazzled his sight so that the ball fell beside him into the net.”
There was controversy at the end of the match when Everton protested about the crowd encroachment on the pitch as many people had lined the touchlines. At its conclusion Wolves
waited to be presented with the trophy only to be told by officials that it would not be handed over as Lord Kinnaird had gone home. After a vehement protest the Wanderers were handed their first FA Cup. A huge crowd welcomed Wolves home to the Victoria Hotel, but that wasn’t the end of the celebrations.
It was after the 1893 win that the victorious Wolves were remembered for posterity. In commemoration the Fallowfield plaque was erected above numbers 329 and 330 Dudley Road, near the Fighting Cocks, to give a permanent reminder of their achievement.
Later, a road nearby was named Wanderers Avenue and its villas bore the names of 1893 cup winners Allen, Baugh, Butcher, Rose, Griffin, Kinsey, Malpass, Topham, Swift, Wood and Wykes, as well as early Wolves’ stalwarts like Brodie and Mason.
Replica cup
Percy Young recorded: “A builder, running up terraced houses along the Dudley Road – on the site of the old (Wolves) ground – was enthusiastically marking Fallowfield Terrace with a symbolic stone replica of the FA Cup, set above numbers 329-30 and christening the houses in Wanderers Avenue after the celebrated players of the team.”
On its demolition in 1973 the stone replica was saved and given to the Wolves Supporters Club. Where is it now?