Shrewsbury F.C. was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

, England. The club is recorded as playing its home games at Monkmoor Lane,

History

The club was formed in 1868 and its first match was on 22 January that year, a 3–2 defeat at a side from Whitchurch. The club seems to have gone into abeyance, as it was re-founded in 1875 with 30 members. By 1879 the club had 80 members. The club's captain from 1876 to 1880 was

John Hawley Edwards John Hawley Edwards (21 March 1850 – 14 January 1893) was an English footballer who made one appearance for England in 1874, before going on to play for Wales in 1876. He was a member of the Wanderers team that won the 1876 FA Cup Final. Ca ...

, who also played for

Shropshire Wanderers Shropshire Wanderers F.C. was an amateur association football club based in Shrewsbury, England. The club was active during the 1870s and once reached the FA Cup semi-finals. History The club was founded out of the Shropshire Wanderers cricket ...

and Wanderers. The club was an early member of the

Birmingham Football Association Birmingham County Football Association, also simply known as ''Birmingham County FA'' or ''BCFA'', is a football governing body covering the historic county of Warwickshire (including Birmingham) and the Black Country region, England. The count ...

and first came to prominence in 1877 by beating Stafford Road F.C., who had reached that season's Birmingham Senior Cup final, in a friendly. The following season, the club won both the Birmingham Senior Cup and the Shropshire Senior Cup. Shrewsbury beat two Wednesbury clubs to win the Birmingham cup;

Wednesbury Old Athletic Wednesbury Old Athletic, often referred to as W.O.A.C., was an English association football club based in Wednesbury, West Midlands (Staffordshire at the time). There were three clubs that had this name. Original club The first began life as t ...

in the semi-final and Wednesbury Strollers F.C. in the final, both by 2–1, the latter played at Aston Villa's Wellington Road ground in front of 5,000 spectators. Shrewsbury came from 1–0 down at half-time, the equalizer being scored from a Wace corner "cannoning off" Shrewsbury half-back A. T. Ward, and forward J. E. Sprott scoring the winner after Shrewsbury had struck the bar - an early use of the crossbar. The Strollers protested (unsuccessfully) that Wace was not a genuine resident of Shrewsbury. In the Shropshire competition, the club beat

Oswestry F.C. Oswestry Town Football Club was a football club from Shropshire, playing at Victoria Road. They joined the Birmingham League in 1924 and switched to the Cheshire County League in 1959. In 1975 they made the move to the Southern League before ...

3–0 in a semi-final replay, Oswestry wearing black armbands after their player A. F. Jones had died in a match the previous Saturday, and beat Wellington Parish in the final, 1–0, thanks to a shot from distance from half-back W. H. Holt that passed just under the tape. Despite the success, the club seems to have dissolved around 1880, as Edwards retired through injury, and other clubs in the region emerged. The club never defended its Birmingham Senior Cup crown, the town's representative for 1878–79 being the Shrewsbury Engineers club, who lost to the W.O.A.C. in the first round. The club shared its shirt colours, ground, and a number of players with

. The Wanderers entered the national competitions while the town club entered the local.

Colours

The club's colours on re-founding were scarlet and royal blue jerseys, stockings, and cap, with white knickers, but by 1878 were all white.

Honours

*Birmingham Senior Cup **Winners (1): 1878 *Shropshire Senior Cup **Winners (1): 1878

Notable players

* Henry Wace – 1877 and 1878 FA Cup winner with Wanderers and winner of three England caps

References

{{Reflist Sport in Shrewsbury Defunct football clubs in Shropshire Defunct football clubs in England Association football clubs disestablished in 1880 Association football clubs established in 1868 1868 establishments in England