In modern football, tossing a coin is used on plenty of occasions to decide who has initial possession or use of the home dressing room.
But back in 1873, a shiny penny coin made history when the result of an FA Cup match was left to lady luck.
A toss of that coin created two interconnected world firsts: the first team to be tossed out of the FA Cup as the result of the coin, and the first team to progress to the next round as a result of the coin.
The fortunate team in that game of chance was no stranger to world-firsts: Sheffield FC, the world’s oldest football club.
They’d entered the relatively new FA Challenge Cup, as it was known then, for the first time and had drawn Shropshire Wanderers in the first round.
The teams first faced each other in front of a 600-strong crowd at Bramall Lane on 30th October 1873 which ended in a goalless draw.
A few weeks later, the Sheffield team headed down south for the replay at Shrewsbury Racecourse. Despite Sheffield FC going down to nine men, Shropshire still couldn’t get one over the line and the replay ended in another 0-0 result.
So who should go through to the second round against North London’s Pilgrims in just five days’ time? It would be almost a hundred years before penalty shoot outs were introduced.
The only way to split the teams was to leave it to chance.
Both teams went out for a post-match dinner at the Raven Hotel in Shrewsbury where the opposing captains decided to toss a coin to decide who would progress in the competition.
Sheffield FC won the toss and subsequently reached the third round where they got knocked out by Clapham Rovers.
The following season, Shropshire had more success where they reached the semi-finals, losing out on a place in the finals to the Old Etonians.
To mark this unique moment, a striking new piece of public art is set to be unveiled this March after nearly a decade in the making.
Head or Tails has been created by Sheffield-born artist and sculptor David Westby in honour of his late brother, Martin, who was one of the city’s most respected football historians.
Martin passed away in 2020 aged 63 after being diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. Before his death, he’d published two football history books and was a founder member of Sheffield Home of Football.
Sadly, Martin didn’t live to see the organisation become a registered charity. However, his fellow members have continued with his lifelong dedication of documenting Sheffield’s role as the birthplace of modern football.
This new sculpture takes the form of three coins suspended in mid-spin. Its shape incorporates both a figure two, symbolising the two competing teams, and the letter S for Sheffield.
And much like a coin, it also has a double meaning. The coins spinning upward represent the FA Cup coin toss, but also the ‘brass’ disappearing from Sheffield’s pockets.
When researching the date of the FA Cup tie – the same year printed on the coin – the Sheffield Home of Football team discovered that it held a significant place in the city’s most turbulent economic periods.
In 1873, there were a multitude of events that impacted Sheffield’s industrial history.
Rail production, once a booming local trade, had shifted to Dronfield. The coal essential for steelmaking was increasingly sourced from Barnsley. And steel rail output collapsed from 320,000 tons in 1872 to just 2,000 tons in 1873.
Together, these factors plunged Sheffield into what became known as the Long Depression which swept across Europe.
At the same time, the Duke of Norfolk was renegotiating the 99-year land leases originally granted under the Enclosures Act of the 1770s, further destabilising local industry.
And as if economic hardship weren’t enough, the Great Hurricane of 1873 also struck the city.
The sculpture has been cast in bronze with a stainless steel frame by the team at Shiregreen-based foundry C.H Howard.
It has been erected on the walkway between the Millennium Gallery and the Central Library, home to Martin’s renowned football history collection. A public unveiling is taking place on Friday 13th March at 11am with South Yorkshire Mayor, Oliver Coppard, doing the honours.
For more information about the work Sheffield Home of Football does, visit www.sheffieldhomeoffootball.org
