How Palace reached the FA Cup's first-ever semi-final – 153 years ago

Palace fans who have followed the early history of our club will know that we were founder members of the Football Association in 1863, and one of the four clubs, along with Forest, the N.N. Club and Barnes to push through the new rules of Association Football, or ‘soccer’ as it came to be known, against strong opposition from the ‘rugby’ rules-based teams.

Following the victory of the soccer clubs, the rugby clubs withdrew from the FA, leaving a much smaller FA, consisting of just nine soccer-based clubs, of which Palace was one.

The FA’s existence was fragile during its first decade, but Crystal Palace kept its close active involvement going, with the club captain always having a place on the FA’s governing committee and even, in 1864, in the form of James Turner, club captain and FA Treasurer, chairing the FA’s Annual General Meeting.

The rugby clubs didn’t go away and eventually copied the FA, forming their own Rugby Football Union in1 871.

In response, the FA needed a new challenge to widen the appeal of soccer and meet this challenge so, in 1871, the dynamic Secretary of the FA at the time –and future Palace player – Charles Alcock came up with the idea of a national Challenge Cup.

The idea was eagerly accepted by the governing FA Committee members, which included the Crystal Palace captain of the time, Douglas Allport. It was resolved unanimously at an FA Committee meeting in July 1871, at which Allport was one of the seven members present, ‘that it is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association for which all clubs belonging to the Association should be invited to compete’ and 'the Secretary was instructed to communicate this resolution to the several clubs, and to invite subscriptions towards the purchase of the cup.'

The Football Association Challenge Cup, which we now know as the FA Cup, was born – and would become the world’s first and oldest national knockout cup competition.

Allport would almost certainly have been at the meeting at which the draw for the first round of the inaugural FA Cup was made. It is not known how the draw was made; it was almost certainly not with numbered balls from a velvet bag, but more likely to have been on slips of paper, maybe drawn out of a hat.

Crystal Palace were one of 15 clubs to enter and were drawn in the third tie to play a team they had never played before, Hitchin.

The match was one of four played on Saturday, 11th November, 1871 and kicked off at 3 o’clock – so Palace were one of the first teams to play in any FA Cup game. This was one of a number of unique Palace firsts that emerged from this competition.

In drizzling rain, Palace battled out a 0-0 draw at Hitchin, the only drawn game of the day and the first-ever drawn cup tie. Under the rules at the time both clubs went through to the second round.

Palace’s second-round tie was at home to Maidenhead on the notoriously muddy Crystal Palace pitch which “was not at all in a good state for football, being very heavy from the recent thaw.” Maidenhead held firm for an hour but with three goals in 20 minutes, Palace ran out easy winners and qualified for the quarter-finals.

Palace drew the Wanderers next, for a quarter-final match on Clapham Common on January 20th, 1872, and Palace fielded a very strong side that included current England international, Charles Chenery, and two future England internationals, Frederick Chappell and Cuthbert Ottaway.

The press reported that the Wanderers had the better of the play, but were held back by excellent goalkeeping from Palace’s Scotland and England international (yes, he uniquely played for both countries, but that’s another story) Alex Morten, and the match ended 0-0.

Although it was a 0-0 draw, it was decided a replay wasn’t necessary at an FA meeting, because the Scottish team, Queens Park, had reached the semi-final without playing a match!

Through happenstance, they had been given a bye in every round, so, both Palace and the Wanderers went into the hat for the semi-final draw, with Queens Park and the Royal Engineers, being the other semi-finalists.

At the same FA meeting, a sub-committee of Charles Alcock; Palace’s Douglas Allport; and Alfred Stair of Upton Park was set up to choose and purchase the first FA Cup trophy, which was eventually bought from the Sheffield, silversmiths, Martin, Hall & Co. for the modest sum of £20.

Crystal Palace drew the Royal Engineers for their semi-final. Their match, the first FA Cup semi-final in history, took place on 17th February 1872 (the other semi-final was on 5th March) at the Kennington Oval.

Palace were again able to field their strongest side, including Chappell and Ottaway, but they were up against very fit military men who had not lost a game all season. Palace gave the Sappers a good game, however, with Ottaway and England international Charles Chenery creating chances up-front and the defence holding out at the back.

At full-time the score was 0-0, so the match would have to be replayed! The first ever semi-final replay.

Palace looked sluggish in the replay at the Oval, playing against fit, young soldiers and without Ottaway. The Engineers employed very different tactics this time around, playing a very physical game, targeting Palace’s goalkeeper, Morten, who was “severely mauled” several times.

Palace were unable to stem the tide this time and the fitter Royal Engineers cruised to a 3-0 win to dash Palace’s hopes of appearing in the first FA Cup Final.

In the other semi-final, Wanderers reached the Final having won only one match in the four preceding rounds. In the semi-finals, they drew with the Scottish club Queen's Park in their first match, but reached the final when the Scots withdrew from the competition – as they could not afford to return to London for a replay. Wanderers went on to beat the Royal Engineers 1-0 in that first Final.

Palace’s adventure in the very first FA Cup had ended with their semi-final defeat but, along the way the club, and particularly its captain, Douglas Allport, had been involved in many milestone moments in that first competition.

So, here we are now, 153 years on, with Crystal Palace in the semi-finals again.

Those early Palace players will no doubt join Oliver Glasner's team in spirit on 26th April to see if today’s team can go one better than they did, reach the Final – and maybe ultimately score another Palace ‘first’ in lifting the Cup!

With continued thanks to Peter Manning.