Birth of the beautiful game
RELIVE A DRAMATIC FINAL
WHEN Downton Abbey meets football tonight, the posh toffs in top hats draw 5-5 with the northern ruffians in flat caps.
They are destined to meet again at the Kennington Oval where, just months after the birth of cricket’s Ashes legend following Australia’s first Test win on English soil, the 1883 FA Cup Final became a watershed moment for English football.
When Blackburn Olympic beat Old Etonians 2-1, it was the first time a workingclass team playing an expansive game had triumphed over public school ‘rushing’ – like the stampede for the last toilet rolls in Tesco.
At first, the southerners came out on top by resorting to rough tactics.
Think of Chelsea captain Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris wiping out Leeds winger Eddie Gray in the FA Cup final 50 years ago, or Crazy Gang ringleader Vinnie Jones introducing himself to Liverpool’s Steve Mcmahon at Wembley in 1988, with the ball in a different postcode.
Without wishing to spoil the plot, the best player on the pitch eventually joins Blackburn for a £100 signing-on fee and £6 a week.
And his best mate marries their widowed landlady. For those who are missing football, ‘The English Game’ – a six-part show released on Netflix today – might fill a gap.
The series is another period drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, and although Branson the chauffeur doesn’t fall in love with Lady Sybil, it captures an era when professional football, as we know it, was born.
With a generous helping of artistic licence, Fellowes tells the tale of Scottish missionary Fergus Suter – the original Fergie – and his migration south of the border to become the first professional when he is signed by a Darwen mill owner to play for the town’s football club.
Suter brought passing, movement and tactical flexibility to a game whose origins made Wimbledon’s Bash Street Boys look like the Bolshoi ballet.
“He really did change the game,” Fellowes said. “He brought the passing game down into England. Before, football was much nearer rugby, and they played quite violently. In the show, when you are watching them play at the beginning, you think, ‘My God, this wouldn’t be allowed for five seconds now.’
“I think football fans will learn an incredible amount. It’s a massive education.”
The cast involved in action scenes on the pitch were taught how to make their movements look authentic at Manchester United’s Carrington training ground by England futsal international Mike Delaney, the football choreographer.
Suter, played by Kevin Guthrie, tells his attentive flock in Darwen: “The best way to bring folk together is to win the FA Cup for them.”
The good people of Wigan and Portsmouth – apart from Everton, the only clubs from outside the so-called Big Six to lift the trophy in the last 30 years – might agree.
One last spoiler: When the Old Etonians meet their nemesis from Lancashire, it’s not really filmed at The Oval. It’s a park in Altrincham.
■ The English Game, on Netflix from today.