Wanderers F.C.

Early years (1859–1871)

The club was initially formed as Forest Football Club in 1859 by a number of former public school pupils, primarily recent Old Harrovian school leavers who wanted to continue to play the sport. The founding members included Charles W. Alcock, who had just left Harrow School, his brother John F. Alcock, J. Pardoe and brothers A. and W. J. Thompson. Several Old Foresters also played for the Forest club, as Forest School was located less than a mile north of the ground. Forest's home ground from 1859 to 1865 was at Forest Place on Leyton Flats, a part of Epping Forest by the Whipps Cross Road between Snaresbrook and Leytonstone. For the first two years of the club's existence, the players organised matches among themselves at Forest Place. The first match against another club took place on 15 March 1862, and resulted in a victory over Crystal Palace (not the modern club of the same name). Both this match, and a return fixture between the two teams the following month, involved fifteen players on each team. At the time, the rules of association football had not been codified, and many variants existed, differing in the number of players per team, whether players were permitted to play the ball with their hands, or the method of scoring goals. The club's rulebook from 1861 was based on the Cambridge rules of 1856 with a small number of additions. In a September 1862 newspaper advertisement, the club sought opponents for matches "on the rules of…

The club won the first FA Cup, won three in a row and appeared in the FA Cup Final five times, winning each time. Wanderers hold the joint record for most consecutive wins with Blackburn Rovers and A. F. Kinnaird holds the record for appearances in a Final with nine. Wanderers are tied for ninth place with Everton and West Bromwich Albion for the most FA Cup wins.

FA Cup Winners: 1871–72, 1872–73, 1875–76, 1876–77, 1877–78