(here pictured in 1891) was the match venue In the final, played at
Kennington Oval on 25 March 1882, the
Old Etonians met
Blackburn Rovers, who were the first team from outside London and the
Home counties to appear in an FA Cup final. Blackburn included
England internationals,
Fred Hargreaves and his brother,
John, and
Jimmy Brown. Owing to the clash of the club's regular colours, Rovers wore "something very much like" the
Darwen hoops in dark blue and white, while the Etonians wore their light blue and white colours in a "harlequin" (i.e. quartered) design. The Old Boys dominated the early stages of the match but Rovers defended well until, according to the match report in Gibbons' "Association Football in Victorian England", "following an expert through ball by
Dunn,
Macaulay steered the ball between the Blackburn goalposts to secure a well-deserved half-time lead". However, a tribute in
The Times (1937) states Macaulay was fond of recalling he outpaced the Blackburn players and helped towards the goal, without claiming to have scored it. Other reports identify the scorer differently: ''
Bell's Life in London, The Field and The Times stated it was Anderson, the first two detailing the ball had been successively passed to him by Macaulay and Dunn, while The Sporting Life'' stated the ball was centred "to the front of the posts" by Novelli before it was kicked "out of a brief and loose bully" (i.e. a scrimmage) by an unnamed player. Also varied is the time at which the goal was reportedly scored: eight minutes from the start by ''Bell's Life
, ten minutes by The Sportsman'', and "a quarter of an hour's play" by
The Sporting Life. The Old Etonians were able to prevent Blackburn from scoring in the second half, thus claiming the cup for the second time in three years. ==Match details==