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Who will be the next team we play for the first time?
Could be Salford if they get promoted
There are six clubs in the Premier League and EFL we’re still to play competitively, of which Salford City is one of course.
Some remarkable names on that list
I think that’s my favourite
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I do think @PhlebasthePhoenician deserves a huge amount of credit for putting that list together.
I for one really appreciate it.
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Genuinely sensational scenes.
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Harrogate
Salford
Everton
Arsenal
Man Utd
Newcastle
I think that’s the six if others were wondering.
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I’ve noticed the admission of Pistoiese and Teramo from the 1976 Anglo Italian cup.
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There may also be an argument to include Cosenza for the renamed Anglo Italian cup, it was now known as the Gigi Peronace Challenge cup. This was a four team contest involving Wycombe, Chelsmford , Consenza and Padova played in 1983.
How did we not play Flackwell Heath until 1986, seems surprising paths never crossed before then.
Impressive bit of work @PhlebasthePhoenician. Do you mind me asking you how long it took to put that all together? Some memories triggered from some of the names when I was a kid. Thank you.
That is somewhat surprising, but apart from a spell in the Great Western combination in the 1950’s and early 1960, The Heatherns played in the Wycombe and district cup, until 1976 and and the B&B intermediate cup.
Cheers @bookertease and others for the kind words. It took me a couple of hours to knock up.
I’ve updated it again as I missed West Ham United! So the running total is now 395.
I’ve used the (much missed) Dave Finch and @StevePeart’s official history book as my source. Therefore the Anglo-Italian Cup tournaments mentioned by @Borgoff don’t count as first-team matches, hence why I haven’t included those opponents.
The Spartan League matches against Leavesden Mental Hospital in April 1921 provide an unlikely (tenuous) link between Wycombe Wanderers and Jack the Ripper! Prime suspect Aaron Kosminski was admitted to Leavesden Mental Hospital in April 1894 and died there in March 1919. One for those interested in trivia and quizzing.
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Nice work. Can you name the five National League clubs we’ve never played?
Dave Finch did have rules for what counted as a first team match for his stats, I will see if I have that printed somewhere.
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I imagine the scene like the Blackadder episode where Dr Johnson realised he’d forgotten to include ‘sausage,’ in his dictionary.
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Just to add that I do remember having a conversation with Dave about the ‘friendlies’ in the early seasons and it was agreed to include those as first team games until the first league season in 1896-97.
Wowsters!! I’m absolutely reeling from the magnitude of that list of clubs from 1888 to 2020. One standout for me was Aylesford Paper Mills in 1938 (the year of my birth) which was about a couple of miles from where we lived in Maidstone until 1952. Uncle Jack (one of my dad’s brothers) was some sort of executive at the paper mill during the ‘fifties and early ‘sixties. The other one was Maidstone United in 1963 by which time I’d moved to a flat a short walk from Lower Mead, home of Wealdstone FC, my obsession from 1961 until 1967.
Fantastic effort @PhlebasthePhoenician. Were you able to ensure that every club was only mentioned once?
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Aye, that was one of the anomaly tasks and some are still open to scrutiny.
For example we played St Leonards United in 1905/06 and then Hastings & St Leonards United in 1906/07. Hastings & St Leonards United were formed in 1906 following a merger of St Leonards United and Hastings & St Leonards FC. I’ve counted them as two separate clubs.
I’ve added the competitions for the first meetings to the list.
Interesting to note that we are currently in the longest spell of not playing a club we’ve never played before (six years).