Pre-League

The Turning Point

In the library at Lancaster Gate, a minute book of the Football Association confirms that on 12th December 1898, the modern Fulham Football Club was born. It was on this date that the group which began as a church side, St Andrews of West Kensington 19 years earlier, joined the fast-growing ranks of the professional game. This historic move was marked by the club's first-ever professional signing the same day, J H Love from Trowbridge. With days, A E Lewis from Grays United and J McKie from Cowes were also signed. Little is known about these three, and none stayed very long at the Cottage or made much of a contribution to the club.

The advent of professionalism put the club on a more formal basis and brought to an end the rather leisurely progress that had been made up to that point. Not everyone was pleased with the change of status, however. In particular, the Shrimpton brothers, whose tireless work off the field as well as play on it helped establish the club in West London, became disenchanted and left. The efforts of the Shrimptons and the other founding fathers had taken Fulham from a park side playing ad-hoc fixtures to the verge of the Football League but, for many of these Victorian gentlemen, the fun went with the loss of amateur status.

Like most small clubs of the era, Fulham had a nomadic existence in their early days. Many of the grounds they used are now built up (such as Roskell's Fields next to Parsons Green Station and the Ranelagh Ground close to the Hurlingham Club) before they settled at Craven Cottage in 1894. The site was, however, in such a state of disrepair that no football could be played for two years. The first match took place on 10th October 1896, a London Senior Cup tie against Minerva which Fulham won 4-0.

Fulham's early competitive matches were in cup competitions, starting with the London FA Cup in October 1885. They were thrashed 0-9 by Hendon. The following season came the first taste of success, beating St Matthew's 2-1 in the final of the West London Cup. In August 1887, Fulham played their first game against a club they would later meet in the Football League, Millwall Rovers. Fulham were winning 2-1 when the game was abandoned at half time after three balls had burst. The next success came in the West London Observer Cup in April 1891. Billy Mugford scored a hat-trick when they beat local rivals Stanley 5-3 in a replay. The match was played at the Half Moon, Putney, a properly enclosed ground where gate money could be charged. The following season, Fulham made this their home, sharing it with Wasps rugby union club.

By this time, Fulham had dropped the St Andrew's from the club's name. This decision had been taken in December 1888, as they wanted to be seen as more than a church side. In 1891-2, they appointed their first secretary (Arthur Newport from St Mark's College, Chelsea) and entered the Middlesex Senior and London Senior Cups, but with little success. At the end of this season, in April 1892, the club went on its first tour outside London, visiting Dorchester and Yeovil.

The First Trophy

Tired of meaningless friendly matches, Fulham sought regular competition and in 1892-3 joined the West London League and won it at the first attempt, although they missed out on a double, losing 2-3 to QPR in the final of the West London Observer Cup. The match attracted a large crowd to the Kensal Rise National Athletic Ground and confirmed the two clubs as the biggest in West London.

Just before turning professional, in 1896-7, Fulham entered the Second Division of the London League. Their colours in those days were red shirts with white sleeves and shorts, a clear imitation of Woolwich Arsenal, then the only London club playing in the Football League. With crowds regularly around the 2,000 mark, the Cottagers had a dismal debut at this level, finishing next to bottom. The following season, strengthened by some new signings, they were unbeaten but had to settle for runners-up spot. Barnet pipped them to the title after a goalless draw at the Cottage. Although still officially an amateur club, there were rumours of players being paid. In the line-up at that time were L J Moon (later a famous cricketer) and J Cox, both of whom were in the armed forces, prolific scorers Billy Ives and E H Freeman (who finished with 36 goals in all competitions), Henry Shrimpton, Jimmy Taylor and Sammy Aylott.

League Ambitions

A year later, the club took the major step of becoming members the Southern League. The First Division of the Southern League at that time was generally regarded as the premier competition outside the two divisions of the Football League and by joining, albeit only the Second Division, Fulham gave notice of their longer-term ambitions. When the decision to become professional followed a few months later, the Cottagers were struggling near the foot of the table, and success at this level did not come quickly.

There was a need for the club to cast its net wider for players than immediate locality. As a result, crowd favourites like George Tutthill arrived from Wellingborough whilst George Sherran and Hoppy Hopkinson were signed from the army, although both were despatched to South Africa and the Boer War shortly afterwards. Billy Ives was another popular player of the day but, in October 1898, he emigrated to New Zealand. Almost 90 years later, his London League medal found its way back to the club by a very circuitous route. A year or two later, Tommy Meade, another free scoring forward, was signed from Woolwich Arsenal and Ken McKay was recruited from Sheffield United.

Fulham's play-off jinx began at the turn of the century, when promotion and relegation was decided by end-of-season Test Matches. In 1899-1900, Fulham finished runners-up to Watford, but were denied promotion when they lost the Test Match 1-5 to Thames Ironworks (later West Ham). Despite being Second Division champions in both 1901-02 and 1902-03, the Cottagers again missed out on the First Division. The 2-7 play-off defeat at the hands of Brentford in April 1903 was all the more remarkable because they had conceded only seven goals during the entire League campaign.

A Major Step Forward

This was not as impressive as it sounds since Fulham had played only ten league games to win the title. The Second Division of the Southern League was becoming increasingly a competition for reserve teams and a club with aspirations to become a serious force in football had to look elsewhere. Despite losing the Test Match in 1903, the Southern League authorities recognised Fulham's potential and told them that if they could raise a first class team by the end of May 1903, they would be admitted to the First Division, effectively the Third Division of the Football League.

To raise the necessary money, the club committee decided that Fulham needed to become a limited liability company and issue shares to the public. The committee thus became the board of directors, and local personalities like John Dean and Henry Norris appeared on the scene. With the extra funds, the club signed a clutch of well-known players, such as goalkeeper Jack Fryer, who had played in three FA Cup finals for Derby, Harry Fletcher, Billy Orr, Ted Turner and Jock Hamilton. Henry Jackson, as secretary, effectively ran the club until his tragic suicide.

A year later, Fulham brought in their first full-time manager. In Harry Bradshaw, they appointed someone with a wealth of experience, most recently with Woolwich Arsenal, who took the Cottagers the final mile to the Football League within three years. His tenure was marked by a huge turnover of players, a major rebuilding of the ground (including the Cottage itself and the Stevenage Road stand) and considerable playing success, in particular, reaching the quarter and semi finals of the FA Cup and twice winning the Southern League.

Champions…And The Football League

Bradshaw's teams were built around a wonderful defence in which the consistent and highly regarded Fryer was supported by two Harrys at full back, Ross and Thorpe. The backbone of the side was a magnificent half back line which served the club well for several seasons. The powerfully-built Scot Billy Morrison was the pivot and on either side of him was the debonair 'Prince' Arthur Collins and the taciturn Scot Billy Goldie, who had won a League championship medal with Liverpool before joining Fulham. So mean was the defence that only 15 goals were conceded in 34 League games in 1905-06, the first of the two title wins. Up front, the Cottage fans were treated to the skills of Bobby Hamilton for one season, the trickery of wingers Freddie Threlfall and Mark Bell for rather longer and the fire power of Willie Wardrope and Alex Fraser, both previously with Newcastle.

With two Southern League titles under their belt, Fulham applied with confidence to the Football League in 1907, and it was no surprise when they replaced Burton United. The adventure, which began on park pitches less than 30 years earlier, now moved on to the national stage.

Leading Southern League Appearances

Rank	PLAYER	Career	Games
1	Jack FRYER	1903-10	123
2	Billy GOLDIE	1903-08	120
3	Harry ROSS	1904-09	98
4	Billy MORRISON	1904-09	91
5	Albert SOAR	1903-06	71
6	Harry THORPE	1904-07	70
7	Alex FRASER	1904-08	69
8	Arthur COLLINS	1905-14	63
8	Fred THRELFALL	1905-07	63
10	Wiilie WARDROPE	1904-06	58
10	Mark BELL	1904-07	58

Leading Southern League Scorers

Rank	PLAYER	Career	Goals
1	Willie WARDROPE	1904-06	29
2	Alex FRASER	1904-08	19
3	Harry FLETCHER	1903-05	14
4	Fred THRELFALL	1905-07	13
5	Walter FREEMAN	1905-09	12
6	Robert HAMILTON	1906-07	11
7	Harry ROSS	1904-09	9
7	Fred WHEATCROFT	1905-07	9
9	Billy MORRISON	1904-09	7
10	Albert SOAR	1903-06	6
10	Mark BELL	1904-07	6
10	Frank EDGLEY	1903-07	6