FA Cup
£25 OLD FA CUP FETCHES £760,000 TO SELLER
BY DUNCAN MACKAY
The second edition of the Football Association (FA) Cup trophy, which cost £25 ($33/€28) to make, has been sold on Tuesday at auction for nearly £760,000 ($977,000/€834,000).
The historic silver trophy formed as a two-handled cup and cover, surmounted by a figure of a footballer with a football at his feet, was awarded to the winning team in the oldest national football competition in the world between 1896 and 1910.
The trophy had been up for sale by West Ham United co-owner David Gold.
Gold had bought the trophy in 2005 at auction for £478,000 while chairman of Birmingham City, claiming at the time he was preserving the piece of history for the country.
The final price at Bonhams was £759,062 (£976,080/€833,014), including the buyer’s premium.
The trophy, which is 50.7 centimetres high with the plinth, bears the winners’ names from 1872 onwards, including Wanderers, winners of five of the first seven finals, including three in a row.
The team based in Upper Norwood in London were then presented with the trophy in perpetuity only to apply the “Corinthian” spirit of the amateur game at the time and return it to The FA – ironically, they never won it again.
Other amateur teams who won it during this period included Oxford University, Royal Engineers, Old Etonians, Clapham Rovers and Old Carthusians before the southern stranglehold on the trophy was broken in 1883 by Blackburn Olympic, leading to the dominance of clubs from Northern England and the Midlands.
The first winners of the new trophy in 1896 were Sheffield Wednesday, who beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 in the final to claim their first major honour.
First-time winners of this actual trophy included Manchester City, Manchester United, Everton, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United.
In 1897, Aston Villa defeated Everton 3-2 in front of 65,891 spectators at Crystal Palace to become only the second team ever to win “the Double” of the Cup and Football League First Division Championship in the same season.
Two-time winners of this trophy included Bury, who lifted it in 1900 and 1903.
Last August the club were expelled from the English Football League, having been members since 1894, because of financial difficulties.
The trophy was retired in 1910 after Newcastle’s 2-0 victory over Barnsley and presented the following year to Lord Kinnaird by The FA to mark his 21st anniversary as President of the national governing body.
Kinnaird had played and scored a goal in the second-ever FA Cup final in 1873 when Wanderers defeated Oxford University 2-0.
He went on to play in a further eight finals for either Wanderers or Old Etonians and ended up on the winning side on five occasions in total between 1873 and 1883.
His record of playing in nine FA Cup finals is one that stands to this day.
Kinnaird’s record of five wins in the competition stood until 2010, when it was broken by Ashley Cole, who played for Arsenal and Chelsea.
-insidethegames
Arsenal survived a genuine scare in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday as they edged past spirited third-tier Mansfield Town 2-1, with Eberechi Eze’s thunderbolt sending the Premier League leaders into the quarter-finals.
Noni Madueke gave Arsenal the lead going into halftime at Field Mill, but Will Evans equalised for Nigel Clough’s Mansfield before Eze scored in the 66th minute to ensure the top-flight side progressed to the last eight.
“Happy to score. I had the space and the opportunity to shoot. So I took it,” Eze told TNT Sports.
“It was a difficult environment to play in. But we did what we had to do and we are through to the next round, which is the important thing.”
Mikel Arteta named a much-changed side, starting teenagers Max Dowman and Marli Salmon, as Arsenal became the first Premier League side to start a competitive game with two players aged 16 or under in any competition.
However, Arteta’s changes nearly backfired as the hosts, feeding off a raucous home crowd, gave Arsenal a genuine fright with aggressive pressing and infectious energy that clearly unsettled the visitors.
“Before the game, the gaffer said, ‘Have a go. We were not expected to win the game, so have a go and enjoy it,” Mansfield forward Rhys Oates said.
“We created more chances than we thought we could, and we have given them a game.”
Dowman, Arsenal’s youngest-ever FA Cup player at 16, emerged as a lively attacking threat as the top-flight side gradually found their rhythm before Madueke broke the deadlock in the 41st minute.
Madueke, who had an initial shot saved, curled a powerful finish into the far corner to give Arsenal their 100th goal of the season in all competitions.
Clough brought on Evans for the second half, and the Welsh striker made an immediate impact, netting five minutes after coming on.
The 28-year-old wrong-footed a second-guessing Cristhian Mosquera before finishing past Kepa Arrizabalaga in Arsenal’s goal.
“It’s typical, isn’t it? For me to have a league goal drought and then come on for a half against Arsenal and have a goal against them,” Evans said.
Arsenal were rattled but recovered and found the winner when substitute Eze made space for himself and fired a powerful shot from the edge of the box to silence the crowd at Field Mill and keep Arsenal’s quadruple bid on track.
-Reuters
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Chelsea’s Alejandro Garnacho and Joao Pedro struck in extra time to secure a nervy 4–2 win over second‑tier Wrexham and reach the FA Cup quarter‑finals on Saturday as the Premier League giants escaped from the Racecourse Ground after a tough battle.
Garnacho volleyed home from close range in the 97th minute with such force that the ball ricocheted off the back stanchion to give Chelsea the lead for the first time on the night.
Wrexham — who lost George Dobson to a 93rd-minute red card — thought they had equalised deep into added time in the extra period when Lewis Brunt headed home, but he was offside. Pedro then sealed Chelsea’s win with a fine goal in the 125th minute.
Sam Smith had put the Championship side ahead in the 18th when he sprinted onto Callum Doyle’s long pass, took a touch and fired past Robert Sanchez. Chelsea equalised with a huge slice of luck when George Thomason’s attempt to clear Garnacho’s shot struck goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo and rolled in.
Wrexham went back in front after 78 minutes when Doyle diverted the ball past Sanchez after Ryan Longman fired it back into the area from a corner. But Josh Acheampong equalised soon after with a blistering shot into the roof of the net after Dobson slipped to send the game into extra time.
-Reuters
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Arsenal will visit League One Mansfield Town, while Manchester City travel to Newcastle United in a mouth-watering all-Premier League tie following the FA Cup fifth round draw on Monday.
Third-tier Mansfield stunned top-flight strugglers Burnley 2-1 at Turf Moor on Saturday and have been rewarded with a clash against 14-time winners and Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Pep Guardiola’s City face Newcastle in a repeat of one of this season’s League Cup semi-finals, while Premier League bottom side Wolverhampton Wanderers host Liverpool.
Brentford head to West Ham United after an own goal away to sixth-tier Macclesfield, who stunned holders Crystal Palace in the last round, giving them a 1-0 win on Monday.
Championship side Wrexham welcome eight-time winners Chelsea, while Fulham entertain Southampton and Leeds United host another second-tier side in Norwich City.
Sunderland face a second successive away trip after being drawn against Port Vale or Bristol City, whose fourth-round tie has been postponed until March 3 due to a waterlogged pitch.
FA Cup fifth round draw
- Fulham v Southampton
- Port Vale or Bristol City v Sunderland
- Newcastle United v Manchester City
- Leeds United v Norwich City
- Mansfield Town v Arsenal
- Wolverhampton Wanderers v Liverpool
- Wrexham v Chelsea
- West Ham United v Brentford
Matches to be played over the weekend of March 7–8
-Reuters
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