Page:Football, the Rugby game.djvu/58

48 1888. West Bromwich Albion and Preston North End.

1889. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Preston North End.

Is it not significant that since the year 1883, no English amateur club has succeeded in getting into the final tie? In this competition the preliminary ties are classified into districts, so that it is only in the later ones, where the survivors in the different districts are pitted against each other, that a line of comparison can be drawn.

Taking the year 1887-88, I find that in the fifth round, which was the first one in which the victors in districts were shuffled, the Old Carthusians are the only amateur club who qualified for the sixth round as against twelve or thirteen professional clubs.

The victors in the sixth round were the same amateur team and seven professional; the final tie was left to be fought out between two professional elevens.

I find, moreover, that, except the Old Carthusians, not one of the amateur clubs, whose names appear above, has succeeded in more recent years in getting into the semi-final ties.

I find that the most powerful club in England at the present time is Preston North End an eleven almost entirely composed of professionals, and that the only amateur team which can be pitted against it with any reasonable hope of success is the Corinthians, an eleven composed of the cream of amateur talent, skimmed from a number of clubs.

I find that since the admission of professionalism, numberless clubs have not only sprung into being, but have forced their way into the front rank, displacing their amateur predecessors.

I find that, coincident with their progress, there has been a corresponding decadence of the gentlemen, and that so