Mexborough F.C. was an English

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in

Mexborough Mexborough is a town in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. Situated between Manvers and Denaby Main, it lies on the River Don close to where it joins the River Dearne, and the A6023 road runs through the town. It is contiguous ...

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

. The club's name was often given in the form Mexbro' or Mexboro.

History

The club was formed in 1876. The club won the prestigious

Sheffield Senior Cup The Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup is a county cup competition involving teams within the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Football Association. Originally named the Sheffield Challenge Cup, it is the 5th oldest surviving cup competition i ...

for the first time in 1885-86 when beating

Heeley Heeley is a former cluster of villages. Which all now form a suburb in the south of the City of Sheffield, England. The village has existed at least since 1343, its name deriving from ''Heah Leah'', ''High Lea'' then ''Hely'', meaning a high, w ...

Bramall Lane Bramall Lane is a association football, football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which is the home of Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United. The stadium was originally a cricket ground, built on a road named after the Bramal ...

. The same season the club entered the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

for the first time, drawing 1-1 with

Staveley F.C. Staveley F.C. was a football club in Staveley, a village in Derbyshire, England. History The club was founded in 1875 and originally played under the Sheffield rules. The first known matches for the club were in 1876. Key players for the club ...

at the neutral Kilnshurst Ground in the first round. However Mexbro' was forced to scratch from the replay as the Sheffield Senior Cup tie with Owlerton F.C. took precedence and the Sheffield FA refused to grant an extension of time to play the Owlerton tie. The club remained amateur in a professional era, the players - all locals - being paid expenses or "beer money", although many of the team were Methodist teetotallers. In 1891 they were founder members of the Sheffield & District League. In 1893 they finished as league runners-up, and a year later they went one better, beating

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

reserves in the league's play-off final.Mexborough
Football Club History Database During the same season they also won the

Sheffield Challenge Cup The Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup is a county cup competition involving teams within the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Football Association. Originally named the Sheffield Challenge Cup, it is the 5th oldest surviving cup competition i ...

League. In 1896 they won the

Wharncliffe Charity Cup The Wharncliffe Charity Cup was an invitational cup competition organised by the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Football Association from 1878 to 1984. The competition took its name from the Earl of Wharncliffe, who sponsored the event, and w ...

League, and the following season they entered the

Midland League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History Th ...

, finishing 13th in their first season. The 1897–98 campaign was the most successful in the club's history, winning the Midland League title as well as finishing runners-up in the Yorkshire League and reaching the 5th Qualifying Round of the

. They decided to revert to more local football in 1899, joining the

Sheffield Association League The Sheffield Association League was an English association football league based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. History The league was founded in 1897 to fill the void left by the disbandment of the Sheffield & District Football League, which ...

, but the fans' interest wained and the club seems to have wound up for financial reasons at the conclusion of the 1899-1900 season.

League and cup history

* League play-off winners

Colours

The club's colours were red and white, probably in a plain shirt as it registered no pattern.

Honours

League

**Champions: 1897–98 * Yorkshire League **Runners-up: 1897–98 *

League **Champions: 1893–94 *Sheffield & District League **Champions: 1893–94 *

League **Champions: 1894–95

Cup

**Winners: 1885–86, 1895–96

Records

*Best

performance: 5th Qualifying Round, 1897–98

References

{{Reflist Defunct football clubs in South Yorkshire Sheffield & District Football League Midland Football League (1889) Yorkshire Football League Sheffield Association League