James Henry Forrest (24 June 1864 – 30 December 1925) was an English footballer whose career spanned the transition from amateurism to professionalism in English football in the 1880s and 1890s. He played most of his club career for Blackburn Rovers, whose early embracing of professionalism enabled them to become one of the major teams in English football, and with whom he appeared on the winning side in five FA Cup finals. He was the first professional player to appear for England for whom he made eleven appearances, as a half-back.
Playing career
Blackburn Rovers
Early days Forrest was born in Blackburn and began playing football at school. By the time he was twelve, he was captain of local side Imperial United. He was first spotted by Blackburn Rovers when playing for Witton in 1880. By now he had left school and was working as a tape sizer in the cotton trade. After moving on to play for King's Own Blackburn, he was eventually persuaded to join Rovers in January 1883.
At this time there was no organised league system, and Blackburn were restricted to friendly matches and cup tournaments, especially the Lancashire Senior Cup and the FA Cup, in which they had been finalists in 1882.
In his first season with Rovers, they reached the FA cup final with easy victories in the early rounds over Southport Central (7–0), South Shore (7–0), Padiham (3–0) and Staveley (5–1), before meeting Upton Park in the fifth round. This match was won 3–0 and was followed by a 1–0 semi-final victory over Notts County, thus setting up a final appearance against Scottish club Queen's Park, who had defeated Rovers' local rivals, and cup holders, Blackburn Olympic in the semi-final.
Forrest was called up for his first England cap for their final match in the inaugural British Home Championship against Wales on 17 March 1884, still aged only 19, replacing Notts County's Stuart Macrae at left half. According to Philip Gibbons in "Association Football in Victorian England", "the Welsh had few answers to the skilful England forwards" and England won by four goals (including a pair from William Bromley-Davenport) to nil.
In the cup final, played at the Kennington Oval on 29 March, Rovers lined up against a Queen's Park side, most of whom were Scottish internationals.Ironically, Scotland faced Wales in their last match in the 1884 British Home Championship on the day of the cup final and were forced to field a reserve eleven. After half an hour of play in the final, Forrest (who was playing at right-half) "delivered an excellent pass" to Jimmy Brown who rounded two defenders prior to crossing the ball into the Queen's Park goalmouth. The goalkeeper, George Gillespie, was unable to clear the ball which fell to Joe Sowerbutts who had only to apply the gentlest touch to help the ball between the posts. Shortly after, William Anderson thought he had scored for the Scots but the goal was disallowed for offside by referee Francis Marindin. Forrest then scored Blackburn's second goal – after the ball was partially cleared by Gillespie it fell to Joe Lofthouse who returned it into the goalmouth where Forrest was waiting to put the ball in the net. Forrest was almost certainly offside but, in the absence of an appeal by the Scots, Mandarin allowed the goal to stand. By half-time, Queen's Park had pulled a goal back through Christie. In the second half, both sides had goals disallowed for offside, but there was no further score, and Blackburn Rovers took the cup for the first time.
Forrest was aged 19 years and 277 days when he scored his first FA Cup final goal, making him the youngest FA Cup Final scorer at the time, a record he retained for 75 years, until Dicky Dorsett scored for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1939 FA Cup Final.
In the 1884–85 FA Cup, Blackburn again came through the early rounds without difficulty, with a victory over Rossendale (11–0) before meeting local rivals, Blackburn Olympic in the second round. Rovers won the derby match 3–2 in a tight game with a brace from Howard Fecitt and a third from Joe Sowerbutts. Rovers then easily went past Forrest's old club Witton (5–1) and Romford (8–0); a bye in round five saw them through to a sixth round meeting with West Bromwich Albion. This resulted in a 2–0 victory for the cup holders, who then met Old Carthusians in the semi-final, played on 7 March 1885. Rovers had little difficulty getting past the Old Boys 5–1 to set up a repeat of the previous year's final against Queen's Park, who had come through replayed matches against Notts County and Nottingham Forest in their last two rounds.
A week before the semi-final, Forrest was selected for the Home Championship match against Ireland, together with his Rovers teammates, Herby Arthur, Joe Lofthouse and Jimmy Brown. England beat the Irish with ease by four goals to nil, including a goal each from Lofthouse and Brown. The Rovers quartet retained their places for the next match, against Wales, played on 14 March at Leamington Road, Blackburn. England were "disappointing" and Wales returned home with a well-deserved 1–1 draw.
The next England match was a week later on 21 March against Scotland to be played at The Oval. Forrest and his three Blackburn colleagues were again selected for England. The Scottish officials complained as they argued that Forrest was a professional. At the time he was receiving £1 a week from Blackburn Rovers. Forrest was eventually allowed to play but he had to wear a different jersey from the rest of the team. Blackburn Rovers also had to agree not to pay him his wages in the week that he played for England, thus enabling Forrest to become the first professional to play for England. The match itself ended 1–1, with England's equalizer coming from Charlie Bambridge, thus allowing the Scots to claim the championship.
The 1885 FA Cup Final, played at the Oval on 4 April, was against Queen's Park, whom Blackburn had beaten in the previous year's final. This time there was little controversy and it was soon clear that Rovers were the superior side, even though Queen's Park fielded six players who had appeared in the England versus Scotland match two weeks earlier. After 14 minutes, Forrest got the better of his marker Charles Campbell and was able to fire Rovers in front from close range, after Jimmy Brown's shot had come back off the goal-posts. Although Walter Arnott did put the ball in the net just before half-time, referee Francis Marindin disallowed the "goal" for handball. The Scots continued to attack, but Rovers increased their lead on 58 minutes when Brown, "who had played throughout like a man inspired", added a second goal. From this point, Rovers controlled the game, and Queen's Park's efforts were to no avail. After the final whistle, the Scottish team were a little unhappy that Rovers had fielded players, including Forrest, whose amateur status was questionable – despite this, there was little doubt that professionalism was here to stay.
During the summer of 1885, there was further pressure put on the Football Association to accept professionalism, culminating in a special meeting on 20 July, after which it was announced that it was "in the interests of Association Football, to legalise the employment of professional football players, but only under certain restrictions". Clubs were allowed to pay players provided that they had either been born or had lived for two years within a six-mile radius of the ground. There were also rules preventing professional players playing for more than one club in a season, without obtaining special permission, and all professional players had to be registered with the FA.
The new rules caused problems for some clubs in the 1885–86 FA Cup tournament, especially those who had recruited large numbers of players from Scotland. Leading teams, including Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End, were disqualified for fielding ineligible players. As a consequence, many minor teams were able to progress into the later rounds, including Brentwood who Blackburn Rovers met in the sixth round. A 3–1 victory took Rovers through to a semi-final against the last surviving totally amateur side, Swifts who included England internationals Charlie and Arthur Bambridge, and George Brann. Despite this, Swifts presented no more of a challenge than Rovers' earlier opponents and after a 2–1 victory in the semi-final, played at the County Cricket Ground, Derby on 13 March 1886, they were through to the final, where they were to meet West Bromwich Albion.
Forrest was prevented from playing for England against Ireland in the opening match of the 1886 British Home Championship as this was played on the day of the FA cup semi-final. He regained his place for the next matches, against Scotland on 27 March 1886 which ended 1–1 and Wales two days later, which was won 3–1.
The 1886 FA Cup Final against West Bromwich Albion was played at the Kennington Oval on 3 April 1886. Although Blackburn fielded seven players who had appeared in the two previous finals, whereas Albion had reached the final for the first time, the two sides were evenly matched and the game ended goalless. The replay took place at Derbyshire County Cricket Club's Racecourse Ground in Derby, the first time an FA cup final had been played outside London. Although Albion started the match continually attacking the Rovers goal, eventually Blackburn's experience began to show. Joe Sowerbutts added to his goal in the 1884 final by scoring the first after 26 minutes before Jimmy Brown, who had scored in the 1885 final added a second with seventeen minutes to go. Blackburn Rovers had thus become one of only two clubs (the other was Wanderers) to win the cup in three consecutive seasons.
Blackburn Rovers started their campaign to claim the FA cup for a record fourth time with a bye as their first round opponents Halliwell withdrew. In the second round, they were drawn to play in Scotland against the previous season's Scottish Cup finalists, Renton based in the village of Renton, West Dunbartonshire. The first match ended in a 2–2 draw with Renton causing one of the biggest shocks for years when the Scottish club won the replay 2–0.
Forrest was selected for all three matches in the 1887 British Home Championship. The matches against Ireland and Wales resulted in easy victories with scores of 7–0 and 4–0 respectively, but in England's final match of the tournament against Scotland played at Leamington Road, Blackburn on 19 March 1887 the Scots won 3–2 and went on to claim the championship.
In the 1887–88 FA Cup campaign, Rovers had an easy passage through the early rounds with victories against other Lancashire clubs, including Blackburn Olympic (5–1), Accrington (3–1) and Darwen (3–0), before they were drawn against Derby Junction who were appearing in the FA cup for the first time. Rovers were defeated 2–1 in the sixth round match which was played at the Derby Arboretum.
As a result of Rovers' relative lack of success, none of their players were selected to represent England in the 1888 British Home Championship, with Forrest losing his place to Wolverhampton Wanderers's Harry Allen.
Football League era