Saturday, September 5, 2015

5 September 1910 - A Bright Day For Brighton & Hove

On 5 September 1910, Brighton & Hove Albion won their first and only national silverware, beating Aston Villa 1-0 in the Charity Shield.

England's Football Association began the Charity Shield in 1908 as a competition between the previous season's Football League and Southern League champions. For the first two years, the Football League claimed the honors. In 1910, Brighton and Hove Albion took up the Southern League standard against defending Football League champions Aston Villa.

The teams met at Stamford Bridge in London, where a crowd of 13,000 assembled to watch them engage in a defensive stalemate. With 18 minutes left in the match, Albion inside left Charlie Webb scored the match's only goal, giving his side the 1-0 win. While Brighton & Hove would go on to win four more lower division titles and advance to the 1983 FA Cup Final, the Charity Shield win remains their only national title.

In 1913, the Charity Shield format changed to amateurs against professionals, leaving Albion as the only Southern League team to win it. The format changed again over the years, so that the competition - now known as the Community Shield - currently pits the Football League winners against the FA Cup holders.

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