Jon's Page

By Jon_Davey

The oldest football trophy in the world

Went along to Musselburgh Racecourse for the draw for the third round of the Scottish Cup. At this stage the 'big teams' are still not involved, so while there were a number of interesting ties drawn out of the bag/plastic bowl, not quite the 'magic of the cup' with lowly-placed teams drawing a trip to one of the Old Firm.
Although the English FA Cup started a couple of years earlier than the Scottish FA Cup, the original English trophy was stolen making this one, dating back to 1873, the oldest football trophy in the world. I had fun looking at the inscriptions for all the past winners - looking for Dundee United's two relatively recent wins, and Hibs' much less recent victories. And the consecutive years in the 1890s when St Bernard's in 1895 and then Hearts in 1896 both brought the cup to Edinburgh. In fact the 1896 final took place in the capital, with Hearts facing Hibs at Logie Green, the home of St Bernard's. The only time the final hasn't taken place in Glasgow. And with St Bernard's beaten by Hearts in the semi-final Edinburgh had three of the last four teams in the competition. Arguably Edinburgh's best footballing times ever.

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