Manchester United remain the most successful side in the history of the Community Shield with 21 victories from 30 attempts. In fact, the Reds were the first-ever winners of what was then called the Charity Shield.
The one-game ‘tournament’ was renamed from the Charity Shield in 2002 when it was found that the FA had broken regulations in their distribution of the money raised. Essentially, ticket holders were not told how charities would benefit from the funds.
Prior to 1908, a professional club took on an amateur club each year in the Sheriff of London Shield. This tradition ended after a dispute between amateur clubs and the Football Association in 1907. A new ‘Amateur Football Association’ had been founded and the two were at war.
United had been crowned League champions only days before when they rushed down to London - having already played eight games in April - to take on Queen’s Park Rangers, winners of the Southern League. This was the new Charity Shield.
The two title holders played at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium and could not be separated. Billy Meredith, the maverick Welsh winger, scored a stunning long shot which cannoned in off one post and into the opposite side netting, but it wasn’t sufficient for victory. Unlike on Sunday, a 1-1 scoreline led not to extra time or penalties, but to the shield being shared. Well, that’s what was thought at the time.
All that was left to do was share out the funds raised from the game. Unlike in 2001, the FA did this transparently and at a pace. Several London hospitals benefitted a great deal, as well as the Metropolitan Police Orphanage, the Surgical Aid Society and the Press Benevolent Fund.
And then, over the summer, it was decided to replay the game, with all players and staff giving up their time for free to do so. By the time a date could be found, United had been on their first European tour and been chased out of Budapest by stone-throwing hooligans. You’ll have to read the book for that story.
The events in Austria-Hungary had no impact on United’s success, for the Reds romped to victory in London at the second time of asking.
They travelled feeling like champions, having dined at club President JH Davies’ Alderley Mansion a couple of days before, receiving their League winners’ medals. They took a Friday evening train to Bedford, rested for the night and then boarded a morning service to St. Pancras. In a 4pm kick-off back at Stamford Bridge, United ran out 4-0 winners thanks to Scottish forward Jimmy Turnbull’s hat-trick.
Billy Meredith, again, was on fine form, assisting several with his unerringly pinpoint crossing.
“Meredith’s twisted legs and pinched face caricature one’s idea of what figure of a man the athlete should present. He is fleet of foot - he is something more than a mere sprinter - makes the ball completely sensitive to his touch, and in these times, when our footballers seem to be no sort of individualist at all, he proves the efficacy of dribbling, the most fascinating of all the arts of forward play.”
London Evening Standard, 31 August 1908.
Meredith’s starring performances in London fixtures such as these ones endeared him and United to many local Cockneys. And this, I believe, is how the first Cockney Reds came about. (Again, more in the book)
United collected the first-ever Charity Shield, and a medal each, and £1,304 was raised for charity. Some of this, on this occasion, went to Mancunian charities upon JH Davies’ request. United would normally play two matches for charity in Manchester each pre-season, but because of their duties down in London could only play one, and so the FA acceded to his request. That’s the story of the first Charity Shield and United’s first trophy in London. Nine months later, they were back again, to win the FA Cup amidst enormous tension in the football world.
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