53
crowd and they let the Fulham
team know what they thought
of them. What was even worse
was that Arsenal illegally loaned
their star player Jock Rutherford
to Chelsea for the game, and he
scored two of the goals. Fulham,
you might say, were hoist by their
own petard. Salt was rubbed into
their wounds by the fact that
Norris’ wife Edith presented the
trophy to the Pensioners.
Arthur Bourke, writing in
the Islington Daily Gazette,
thought the result was suitable
recompense for Fulham’s
unsporting behaviour in the
Quarter-Finals. He also noted
a lot of anti-Fulham feeling at
the match, in the crowd and in
the press room. He did feel that
Fulham had been the better team,
though, until a sudden hailstorm
seemed to shake Chelsea out of
their lethargy.
The Victory Cup was never
contested again, although the
London Combination morphed
into the well-known competition
for reserve teams that survived
for another 93 years. Life slowly
returned to normal; Fulham went
back to Division Two, finishing
sixth, and waited 76 years to
reach another Final, when they
got to two in the same year - the
FA Cup Final and the Anglo-
Scottish Cup Final. And Norris?
He was later discovered to have
pocketed £125 from the sale of
the Arsenal team bus and banned
from football for life.
It’s interesting to ponder what
London life might have been
like if Norris hadn’t stuck his
interfering nose into football.
Well, there’s a parallel universe
out there somewhere, where Mr
Norris changed trains and met an
untimely end in the calamitous
Slough Rail Accident of 1900.
And today in that universe,
Chelsea don’t exist, Fulham,
playing at Stamford Bridge,
are one of the powerhouses of
Europe, perennial winners of the
Premier League and Champions
League, Woolwich Arsenal are
a struggling League Two side
in Plumstead, and Tottenham
are looking forward to their
upcoming North London derby
with fellow top-flight side Barnet.
Thank you Mr Norris.
crowd and they let the Fulham though, until a sudden hailstorm
for reserve teams that survived
for another 93 years. Life slowly
returned to normal; Fulham went
back to Division Two, finishing
sixth, and waited 76 years to
reach another Final, when they
got to two in the same year - the
FA Cup Final and the Anglo-
Scottish Cup Final. And Norris?
He was later discovered to have
pocketed £125 from the sale of
the Arsenal team bus and banned
from football for life.
London life might have been
like if Norris hadn’t stuck his
interfering nose into football.
Well, there’s a parallel universe
out there somewhere, where Mr
Norris changed trains and met an
untimely end in the calamitous
Slough Rail Accident of 1900.
And today in that universe,
Chelsea don’t exist, Fulham,
playing at Stamford Bridge,
are one of the powerhouses of
Europe, perennial winners of the
Premier League and Champions
League, Woolwich Arsenal are
Cup Tales
The Victory Cup
Action from the defeat to Chelsea
FFC-050-Victory Cup.indd 53 04/01/2018 12:20