When Preston beat Hyde 26-0
By Mike Pavasovic (follow him on Twitter @charliebunyan)
IF you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, perhaps you shouldn't judge a football club by its most notorious scoreline.
When Hyde FC lost 26-0 at Preston North End in 1887 — a score which remains an FA Cup record after 138 years — they were most certainly outclassed and destroyed. But they were no bunch of hapless cloggers. The cause of their reverse wasn't so much a shortage of skill or ability as an excess of ambition. They paid dearly for getting ideas above their station.
At their own level, Hyde were highly effective. After the Preston tie, they barely suffered another defeat that season getting the better of Derby County, Bury and Wigan. On April 30, they drew 1-1 with another upstart team, Newton Heath, in a match the now defunct North Cheshire Herald promoted as a play-off for the championship of Manchester.
Their ambition echoed that of the town they represented. At the start of the 19th century, Hyde was a scattering of properties — Red Pump Street — on what is now Manchester Road. But thanks to coal, engineering and cotton it expanded rapidly and by 1881 had become a borough with a mayor. The town hall that opened soon after was a bold statement of confidence
Hyde FC were founded four years later. Backed by some of the town's industries they immediately set their sights on matching their northern rivals, and that included entering the national cup competition.
Yet there were people who could see Hyde were biting off far more than they could chew. Rover, the North Cheshire Herald's football correspondent, summed up his feelings about the Preston tie by writing: "I once heard of a pig talking, which was a wonder. If I hear of Hyde winning, I shall say 'bravo' and throw my hat away.”
His comments are just about the only reference to the infamous 26-0 tie you'll find in Hyde's local press. Perhaps the Herald found it too difficult to get a journalist to make the 50-mile journey into central Lancashire using Victorian public transport. Or perhaps the humiliation was too much to bear.
Added to this, Preston had a point to prove. The team, who were soon to become known as the Invincibles after winning the first Football League championship (1888-89) undefeated (picking up the FA Cup in the process without conceding a goal), had actually endured something of a bad patch. West Bromwich had beaten them in the semi-finals of the previous year's competition and the supporters were not happy. Neighbouring clubs made no secret of revelling in their disappointment.
Consequently, Hyde were to feel the full force of what Harry Berry describes as the cold, ruthless edge of North End's professionalism in his book "100 Years at Deepdale". He adds: "The players had never been reluctant to humiliate the opposition and now not the slightest advantage would be missed in furthering the Preston cause. They knew well that more than one town would glory in their slightest failure and were determined never to allow them any reason to take delight at Preston's expense."
The Football News and Athletic Journal added: "When they have met small fry before, the North Enders have always thought it a favourable opportunity to indulge in a lot of amateur clowning and to fool about generally, to the disgust of a long-suffering crowd. But to their credit be it said that they honestly laid themselves out to do something sensational on this occasion."
The game took place at Deepdale on October 15 in what was termed as fine, favourable weather. Preston gave Hyde no quarter and were 12-0 up at half time. Almost 50 years later, appearing as part of an FA Cup discussion with Dixie Dean on the BBC's flagship radio programme "In Town Tonight", Hyde centre-forward Jimmy Wood recalled: "I only kicked the ball 27 times in that match. Once to kick-off and 26 times after Preston had scored."
When a game is won 26-0 — effectively one goal every 3½ minutes — reports become pointless. For the record, the Preston scorers were Jimmy Ross 7, Gordon 5, Thompson 5, Dewhurst 3, Drummond 2, Goodall, Graham, Jack Ross and Russell.
The tie may, albeit unofficially, have been the first football match to feature a substitute. After the third goal, which was scored in the 17th minute, Hyde centre-half Harry Bowers left the field with an arm injury and didn't return. There are reports that a replacement came on at the break, unnoticed by referee RG Barlow. Preston, who weren't exactly known for their goodwill, allowed play to go on. Perhaps the 12-0 lead had mellowed their attitude.
Programme to remember the 100th anniversary of the match
Somehow, Preston's star striker, John Goodall, didn't find the net until the 26th goal. As Berry puts it: "What might history have said about a centre-forward who failed to score in a 26-0 win?"
Hyde seem to have had a single chance, once getting near enough to Addison that he was forced to "clear his citadel".
Incredibly, the man of the match was Hyde keeper Charlie Bunyan. It's reputed that even though he was beaten 26 times he was still able to save 76 shots and was winded three times.
The Preston Guardian wrote: "It would be folly to enter into a comparison of the play of the two teams, but it is only fair to the Hyde custodian to say that had he been a less able man there is no telling what the score might have been. Times innumerable he stopped shots which brought forth cries of 'through' and was repeatedly cheered right lustily."
For his part, Bunyan said of Preston: "I have never set eyes on any 11 who had such a conception of what football should be and such talent to realise their ideals on the field."
In Hyde, local legend has it that he was carried shoulder-high from the field by his team-mates and that they clubbed together to buy him a suit.
North End made it all the way to the final where they lost to their old nemesis West Bromwich. The following season they finally achieved their dream with the first FA Cup and league double. Aston Villa repeated the feat in 1897, and then it took 64 years for Tottenham to win the next one. In the days before the rotation of huge squads, it was a colossal achievement.
Having been once bitten in the FA Cup, Hyde became painfully shy. They didn't enter the competition again until 1911 when they were members of the Lancashire Combination. It wasn't until the 1950s that, as Hyde United, they reached the first round again, losing 5-1 to a Workington team managed by Bill Shankly.
For several years after the Preston defeat Hyde remained ambitious. They even copied Preston in offering large amounts of money to import players from Scotland. Among these was Jim McLuggage who, in 1891, became the first footballer to score a penalty. Hyde built a stand and even sold photos of the players.
Such lavish spending could not be maintained and Hyde folded in 1894. Local licensee Charlie Barber soon revived the club and after it folded again in 1917, as a result of what was termed war fatigue, it came back as Hyde United two years later.
