More on the info confirming James Lang was first paid footballer

Football historians have confirmed that a Sheffield Wednesday player Jimmy Lang was the first man to be paid. 

Glasgow-born Lang made the journey from his home town in 1876 to Sheffield to answer the promise of a better life. He made his debut in November 1876 for our club.

By being paid he broke a FA regulation that was regarded as sacrosanct by the Public School old boys who had first formulated the laws of the game. Victorian sport was the preserve of gentlemen amateurs.

Football though was being transformed by the northern working classes – with the help of a band of naturally talented Scotsmen such as Jimmy Love and Fergus Suter  who recently featured in the recent 'The English Game’ Netflix series. The two Scots were tempted away from Partick in 1878 by the mill-owning benefactor of Lancastrian club Darwen.

Two years earlier in February 1876, Lang had represented a Glasgow representative team that had beaten Sheffield and Hallam 2-0 in an annual challenge match played in front of a 6,000 crowd at Bramall Lane. He also performed with distinction when playing for Clydesdale in a pre season friendly against The Wednesday at the start of the 1876/77 season. 

Lang, who was 25 when he joined The Wednesday, was from humble stock.

He lost an eye in an industrial accident while working in the Clydeside shipyard of John Brown and Co in 1869. Yet five yers later he was in the Clydesdale team beaten 2-0 by Queen's Park in the first-ever Scottish FA Cup final.

Lang had already won the first of two Scotland caps, scoring a goal in the 4-0 win over Wales in Glasgow, before making the 250-mile steam train journey to settle in Sheffield.

He was put on the payroll of a knife-making firm on Garden Street owned by Wednesday official Walter Fearnhough and made his debut for the club on November 25, 1876.

Newspaper reports confirm that Lang set up the Wednesday goal in a 1-1 draw with Hallam Fc for Tom Butler, describing him as “the celebrated player who has come to reside here.. we believe he will assist the Wednesday team in their cup tie against Kimberworth on Saturday next.” 

Lang played a very good game against Kimberworth with frequent match references to his dribbling skills. Wednesday won 1-0. Lang’s side was to reach the final of the newly formed competition on 10 March 1877 at Bramall Lane. Wednesday, 3-0 down at half time, eventually won 4-3 in extra time in a game of great excitement. Fans celebrated afterwards their club becoming the first winners of the Sheffield Challenge Cup. Wednesday was becoming the most successful one in the Sheffield area.

Earlier in the 1876/77 season Lang played - and scored - for the Sheffield FA side that walloped Manchester FA 14-0 on 24 February 1877. 

Lang was given considerable freedom to concentrate on his football rather than knife making.

He was even allowed to return to Scotland to play in another Scottish Cup final when his Third Lanark side were beaten 1-0 by Vale of Leven in 1878.

Lang helped The Wednesday to win the Sheffield Challenge Cup two  more times and was also in the team that played in the club's first-ever FA Cup tie.

Later, he played for Attercliffe, Sheffield Zulus and Northwich Victoria.

According to club historian Jason Dickinson, Lang was “a skilful and energetic attacker.” 

Confirmation by football historians that Lang was the first paid player comes after extensive research into the background and career of Peter Andrews, another Scottish international, who also played in the same Glasgow FA side as Lang that beat the Sheffield FA in 1876.

Andrews, aged 30, played for Heeley FC, which existed from 1862 to 1899, against Thursday Wanderers on Thursday 2 November 1876 in the Challenge Cup and he was almost amongst the side that later lost in the final against Wednesday. On 30 December 1876 Andrews, listed as a forward, represented Sheffield away to London in another inter-association encounter. 

Research by football historian Graham Curry in his book A Crucible of Modern Sport has though revealed that Andrews was in a stable, more financially rewarding occupation. He was listed in the 1879 Sheffield Trades Directory as an agent for the Scottish Legal Insurance Company. This shows he had money to spend on advertising and as such had much higher standing than Lang. Other recently unearthed correspondence from this period would also appear to confirm that Andrews was not paid to play football. 

Football historian Martin Westby said: “Peter Andrews did play before Lang but I am convinced by research done by fellow historian Graham Curry that Andrews was a middle-class man working close to the Heeley FC ground.

“On the balance of probabilities this is a man who had no need for payment to play the game he loved and moved south for work reasons.

“This is opposed to ex-shipyard worker Jimmy Lang, who in my opinion, travelled from Glasgow to Sheffield purely for football and remuneration reasons.”

Mark Metcalf, co-author of FLYING OVER AN OLIVE GROVE: the remarkable story of Fred Spiksley