Sheffield F.C.

History

In 1855, members of a Sheffield cricket club organised informal kick-abouts without any official rules. Subsequently, two members, Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, formed the Sheffield Football Club.

The inaugural meeting of the club took place on 24 October 1857 at Parkfield House in the suburb of Highfield. The original headquarters was a greenhouse on East Bank Road lent by Thomas Asline Ward, father of the first club president Frederick Ward, and the adjacent field was used as their first playing ground. Initially, Sheffield FC games were played among club members themselves and took the format of "Married v Singles" or "Professionals v the Rest".

Creswick and Prest were responsible for drawing up the club's rules of play, which were decided upon at the club's AGM on 21 October 1858, and published the following year. They were referred to as the Sheffield Rules, and were the first detailed set of rules of football to be published by a football club (as opposed to a school or university). At the time, before the formation of the Football Association (FA), many different kinds of football were popular in England. For example, each of the various public schools played football according to their own individual rules, and these varied widely. The Sheffield Rules were later adopted by the Sheffield Football Association when it was formed in 1867.

Sheffield's near neighbour, Hallam, was formed in 1860 and in the same year the two clubs first met each other in a local derby that is still contested. By 1862 there were 15 clubs in the Sheffield area.

They became members of The Football Association on 30 November 1863 but continued to use their own set of rules. On 2 January 1865, the club played its first fixture outside Sheffield against Notts County, then known as Nottingham Football Club, at the Meadows Cricket Ground; the match was played eighteen-a-side under "Nottingham Rules". Sheffield won by a goal to nil.

By this time the club had decided to play only teams outside Sheffield in order to seek a bigger challenge. On 31 March 1866, Sheffield played a "London" team under FA rules at Battersea Park. The game, played as an eleven aside, was won by London by 2 goals and four touches down to nil. However the matter of rules remained a problem with Sheffield clubs continuing to play by their own rules. A number of rule proposals by the club were rejected by the FA in February 1867 and the London Committee were reluctant to commit to further fixtures over Sheffield's refusal to play strictly to FA rules. Sheffield clubs finally adopted the FA rules in 1878.

Grounds

Sheffield have played at a number of grounds near Sheffield. Initially they played at Strawberry Hall Lane Park. However, like all of the early grounds they played at, it was not owned by the club. In the following years they would play at Old Forge ground and a ground near Hunter's Bar on Ecclesall Road.

There was much reluctance from the owners of Bramall Lane to see the pitch used for football. They did not relent until a charity match between Sheffield and Hallam was suggested in late 1862. The ground was used by Sheffield for its more important fixtures but relations with the owners remained strained. They collapsed altogether in 1875 when the club vowed never to play at the ground again.

In 1921, Sheffield settled at the new Abbeydale Park ground. They moved to Hillsborough Park in 1988, then to Owlerton Stadium and Don Valley Stadium. In 1999, Richard Tims got involved with Sheffield FC when he was invited to a home game in Don Valley Stadium. He noted that the club was struggling as they were playing in a rented stadium. He took over the club and helped it secure its own ground, the Coach and Horses Stadium in Dronfield, Derbyshire.

The club bought the Coach & Horses ground in Dronfield in 2001, which was previously the home of Norton Woodseats, a notable football team who reached the semi-finals of the FA Amateur Cup in 1939. It was the first time the club had owned its own ground. The ground has a capacity of just over 2,000 with 250 seats in the stand behind the southern goal.

In March 2019 it was revealed that Sheffield F.C. was in talks with the Sheffield Transport Sports Club (STSC) to move the club back to its home city after plans to move to the Olive Grove sports ground in the Heeley district of Sheffield fell through in 2016.

In March 2021 plans for the new stadium based at the STSC facility in the Meadowhead area of Sheffield were revealed. The proposed 4,000 person capacity stadium features a heritage centre celebrating the city's role in football history.

Historic grounds

The club has played its FA Cup games at the following grounds:

Managers

Players

Notable former players

Famous players from the club's early days included Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, who founded the club. Four Sheffield players have appeared for England – Charles Clegg, who played in the first international game against Scotland in 1872, John Owen, in 1874, Thomas Sorby, in 1879, and Jack Hudson, in 1883.

In addition to the above, the following have played in the Football League either before or after playing for Sheffield:

Records

Best FA Cup performance: 4th round, 1877–78, 1879–80

Best FA Amateur Cup performance: Winners, 1903–04

Best FA Trophy performance: 3rd qualifying round, 2007–08, 2011–12, 2013–14

Best FA Vase performance: Runners-up, 1976–77

Record attendance: 2,000 vs. Barton Rovers, FA Vase Semi-Final, 1976–77