On this day in 1888, twelve clubs put their names to a fixture list and the world's oldest league competition got going with six kick-offs across England. No goal nets yet — those arrived a few years later, so a ball through the posts had to be argued for by honest men squinting from the touchline. No penalty kicks either, not until 1891. And still they filled the grounds!
My favourite line in the whole box score: Preston North End beat Burnley 5-2 that afternoon and then simply refused to lose all season. Eighteen wins, four draws, twenty-two matches, nobody beat them. They took the FA Cup too. The Invincibles, and the nickname was earned honestly rather than handed out. Everton, Aston Villa, Wolves, Derby, Bolton, Stoke, West Bromwich, Accrington, Burnley, Blackburn, Notts County — every one of those twelve turned up and made a season out of nothing but a shared idea.
Spare a thought for the unsung crew, though. Somebody wheeled the chalk barrow round those pitches at dawn. Somebody stitched the bladder, pumped the leather, hung the crossbar tape, took the gate money in a biscuit tin. Volunteers, mostly, who never got a line in the paper. The lithograph below shows a Preston group of fourteen — players in white shirts and long socks, officials in suits, a leather ball parked on the grass in front of them. Surnames in small type along the bottom, which is about as much glory as anyone asked for in 1888.
Toby, the crowd walking to those grounds bought hot pies and baked potatoes off street barrows, plus roasted chestnuts once the weather turned. Cheap, portable, and warm enough to hold in both hands through ninety minutes of squinting at the posts.
Toby, 1888 crowd noise was wooden rattles and a brass band on the touchline, and both of those travelled a good deal better than the away side did. A cornet player can be heard over five thousand men in caps; a full-back cannot.