Find out Crystal Palace’s first recorded results from the 1860s

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21 Apr 2020

With established links showing the club to be the world's oldest club still playing professionally, find out how Crystal Palace fared in their most significant, earliest matches from the 1860s.

The games shown below are all amateur occasions - for more information on the club's 19th-century roots, click here now.

15th March, 1862: Forest 1-0 Crystal Palace, Leytonstone

Palace: Allport, Bell, Cutbill, P.Cutbill, Day, Head, Jackson, R.Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, Medwin, Phelps, Sharland, Turner, Urwick.

In their first recorded game of football, Crystal Palace travelled east to face Forest F.C., which was founded in 1859. Some of the members of the new Crystal Palace Football Club were old boys of Forest School in Walthamstow. Through this connection, most notably the Cutbill brothers, Crystal Football Club had links with Forest F.C.

Both Crystal Palace and Forest F.C. would become founder members of the Football Association in 1863, making this the first match between two teams who founded the FA.

1861 teamsheet latest.jpg

5th April, 1862: Crystal Palace 0-4 Forest, Crystal Palace

Palace: W.Allport, F.Bevington, W.Cutbill, E.Cutbill, F.Day, T.Jackson, T.Lloyd, H.Lloyd, H.Lloyd Jr., W. Noakes, Sharland, J.Turner, T.Urwick, H.Wood, A.Wood.

It is known that Crystal Palace played Forest again in 1863, however the score, date and lineups are unconfirmed.

21st March, 1863: Forest 2-1 Crystal Palace, Leytonstone

The lineups for this match are not known.

11th April, 1863: N.N.’s 3-0 Crystal Palace, Kilburn

Palace: T.Lloyd, G.Dry, H.Cutbill, G.Cutbill, A.G.Barber, J.Turner, F.Allport, H.Head, W.Allport, D.Allport, F.Collins, G.Gross, W.Farquhar, T.Paine.

This is the first recorded match between Crystal Palace and a team other than Forest F.C. It was a 14-a-side game against the No Names Club in Kilburn. The N.N.’s team included Alexander Morten who had played cricket for Crystal Palace in the summer of 1862.

Shortly afterwards, Morten became Crystal Palace’s goalkeeper for the next 10 years and gained the unique distinction of playing international football for both Scotland and England.

27th February, 1864: Barnes 2-1 Crystal Palace, Barnes

Palace: J.Turner, Desborough, Sharland, Cutbill + 11 unknowns

Crystal Palace's first recorded match using association football rules, which the club helped to push through as founding members of the FA.

The first official match using association football rules was played in Battersea Park in January 1864, and Palace supplied three footballers for the game between the President's and Secretary's teams.

4th March, 1865: Barnes 1-2 Crystal Palace, Barnes

Palace: W.Allport, F.Allport, F.Collins, E.Cutbill, Irons, F.Lloyd, Rhode, D.Allport, E.Abraham, W.Cutbill, Grose, H.Lloyd, F.Morris, J.Sharland, J.Turner.

Following four more matches after their first recorded game using association football rules in February 1864, Crystal Palace secured their first victory: a 2-1 win over fellow FA founder members, Barnes.

11th November, 1871: Crystal Palace 0-0 Hitchin

Crystal Palace face Hitchin in the first FA Cup round.

With thanks to Peter Manning for the information used above. His book, Palace at the Palace, can be purchased via the Club Shop.

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