Newcastle United 1910 FA Cup photos go on display
Mar 3 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal
THE photos tell of football glory a century ago, of Newcastle United beating Barnsley in 1910 to lift the FA Cup for the first time.
Restored and enlarged by photographic artist Jan Radwanski, it is as if the years, along with the grime and blemishes, have fallen away.
There’s Albert Shepherd walloping the ball past the hapless Barnsley goalie on a pitch at Goodison Park, Liverpool, which today might be described as waterlogged.
It was April 28, 1910 and this was the replay. The two teams had played out a 1-1 stalemate a few days earlier at Crystal Palace, London.
So clear are Jan’s images, which are to be displayed at Newcastle Theatre Royal next month, that you can savour the atmosphere and see clearly what has and hasn’t changed.
Twenty or 30 years ago, the Newcastle players – Lawrence, Carr, Wilson, McWilliam, Higgins, Howie, Rutherford, Veitch, McCracken, Low and the aforementioned Shepherd – might have looked dated.
These days, with hair mostly worn short and shorts long, the long gone sporting heroes don’t look too different from today’s wearers of the Magpie stripes.
Body language appears to have been immune to the passage of time.
Shepherd, as he strikes, seems to be yelling in triumph. One of his team-mates is already celebrating.
What’s different is the almost exclusively male crowd, shown in another shot tightly packed, the front rows seated on the grass at the edge of the pitch.
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