The open embrace of professionalism in 1885 provided the impetus for the lavish expenditure in 1887 on a new ground by The (Sheffield) Wednesday, the club that, in a drive to win more matches, had in 1876 become the first to secretly pay a player, Scotsman Jimmy Lang.
It proved to be money well spent. Over the following 12 seasons The Wednesday (Sheffield not being officially added to the name until 1929) were to sweep away all their local rivals, when after winning the 1889-90 Football Alliance League – set up as a rival to the Football League – the club secured a place in the Football League at the very top level in 1892-93. They then became the first Yorkshire side to win a major trophy when, after losing in the final in 1890, they captured the FA Cup in 1896, by which time a fierce rivalry had been formed with Sheffield United.
Between 1887 and 1899, when Wednesday moved to Hillsborough, Olive Grove was a fortress. This was especially true in the FA Cup, and this success meant players such as George Waller, Billy Mosforth, Fred Spiksley, Alec Brady, Jimmy Massey, Ambrose Langley and Tom Crawshaw became revered household names across Sheffield, the surrounding districts and the rapidly expanding football world.
2024 marks the 125th anniversary of the last match on 15th April 1899 at Olive Grove and the first at Hillsborough on 2nd September. This extensive book on Olive Grove retains the original material of the first edition published in 2017 and expands on the written content on a ground where Sheffield Wednesday enjoyed a glorious 12 years.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
In 2017, Sheffield Wednesday celebrated their 150th anniversary and invited Clive Nicholson, a descendant of Gainsborough-born Spiksley, and Metcalf, a Sunderland fan with an extensive knowledge of football prior to WWI, to organise a special night for Wednesday fans keen to discover more about their club during the Victorian era. The success of this event and the popularity of the first edition of the Olive Grove book, which is now out of print, prompted this second edition.
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