1927 FA Charity Shield

The FA Charity Shield was founded in 1908 as a successor to the Sheriff of London Charity Shield. It was a contest between the respective champions of the Football League and Southern League, and then by 1913 teams of amateur and professional players. At a Football Association Council meeting on 22 April 1927, it was decided that the following season's Charity Shield match should be played between the winner of the 1926–27 FA Cup and the amateur team Corinthians. This would mark the first occasion Corinthians would play in the competition, they had previously won the Sheriff of London Charity Shield on three occasions. Cardiff City qualified for the 1927 FA Charity Shield as winners of the 1926–27 FA Cup. They defeated Arsenal by one goal to nil, with the only goal of the game coming from Hughie Ferguson. It was the club's first FA Cup victory, and the only time that the trophy had been won by a club outside of England. A few months after Cardiff's victory, the match between them and Corinthians for the FA Charity Shield was set to take place at Stamford Bridge on 12 October. Corinthian announced their team a few days prior to the game, though goalkeeper Benjamin Howard Baker was subsequently replaced by A.M. Russell, who normally played for Cambridge University A.F.C. Due to an injury to Tom Watson, Billy Hardy was switched to the other wing in defence for Cardiff City. ==Match==

Summary The Corinthians gained a corner kick early on, and Cardiff cleared. This was followed up by a further attack by the amateurs, but R.G. Jenkins' shot went straight to Tom Farquharson in the Cardiff goal. Cardiff attacked twice in quick succession; both chances were squandered. A.H. Chadder, Frank Hartley and Jenkins moved up-field for Corinthian with some passing movement and played the ball through for Claude Ashton, but he shot wide of the post. Three corners followed for Cardiff, which were each stopped by Russell in goal for Corinthian stopped each chance. A few minutes later Len Davies headed the ball down to the feet of Ferguson, but the Cardiff player fired the ball wide of the goal despite being only a few feet away from the goal line. Just before half time, Cardiff won a direct free kick; Fred Keenor hammered the ball into a wall of Corinthian players. ==Post-match==

The match raised money for several charities. King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers received £210; National Institute for the Blind, £52 10s; Newspaper Press Fund, £52 10s; National Institute of Journalist's Orphans, £52 10s; London Lock Hospital, £52 10s; Prince of Wales General Hospital, £52 10s; Sheffield Royal Infirmary, £52 10s; Railway Benevolent Institution, £25; and the Surgical Aid Society received £25. A further sum of £210 was given to several Welsh based charities. Corinthian never played in another FA Charity Shield, although they would later be runner-up in a resurrected Sheriff of London's Charity Shield, first to Arsenal in 1931 and in 1932, and then to Tottenham Hotspur in 1934. The club ceased to exist in 1939, when they merged with fellow amateur team Casuals to form the Corinthian-Casuals, which still plays today. The format of the FA Charity Shield changed several further times over the following decades, and in 1974 it was moved to August to become the opening match of each year's Football League season, and played between the winner of the FA Cup and the most senior league, now the Premier League. Cardiff City is yet to return to the FA Charity Shield, which was renamed the FA Community Shield in 2002. However, between 2001 and 2006, the match was held at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium while the new Wembley Stadium was under construction. ==See also==