Hawks F.C. was an English

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club from

Anerley Anerley () is an area of south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is located south south-east of Charing Cross, to the south of Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, west of Penge, north of Elmers End and South Norwood ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

History

Although the club claimed a foundation date of 1875, its first reported game was against a Surrey School Masters select on 7 October 1876, ending in a 6-0 win. The first match against a regular club was against Mosquitoes F.C. on 28 October 1876. The match ended goalless, after a Hawks goal was disallowed as Mosquitoes noticed that the club had 12 men on the pitch. As was common in the 1870s, many of the Hawks players also played for other clubs; the Hawks' victory over

South Norwood South Norwood is a district of south-east London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, Greater London and formerly in the historic county of Surrey. It is located 7.8 miles (12.5 km) south-east of Charing Cross, north of Wood ...

in November 1876 being made easier by several of the South Norwood players choosing to play for the Hawks instead. One remarkable game in January 1878 saw the club beat the Blue Mantles 6-0, with a further six goals being disallowed for offside. Hawks competed in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

twice. In 1877-78, the club beat

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...

5-2 in the first round, before losing to

Remnants Remnant or remnants may refer to: Religion * Remnant (Bible), a recurring theme in the Bible * Remnant (Seventh-day Adventist belief), the remnant theme in the Seventh-day Adventist Church * ''The Remnant'' (newspaper), a traditional Catholic ne ...

in the second, the Remnants club being reckoned to be two stones per man heavier on average than the Hawks. This weight difference proved decisive, as the Hawks' Jones went off injured in the first half, and both Remnants goals came from scrimmages. Notably, multiple reports praise the goalkeeping of the Remnants' Rev. William Blackmore. In 1878-79, the club lost to

the Swifts ''Swifts'' (also known as ''The Swifts'') is a heritage-listed late-Victorian architecture, Victorian Battlement, castellated Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival mansion located in the suburb of Darling Point, New South Wales, Darling Po ...

in the first round, having taken the lead, but conceding an equalizer which saw a shot from Charles Bambridge "touching the tape, but going through", before a goal which the Hawks disputed as being offside. In the latter season, the club played in far fewer matches than in the preceding year (11 as opposed to 24), and the club membership had dwindled from 52 to 35. The club seems to have been disbanded after this season, as for 1879-80 its players are recorded as playing for clubs such as

Clapham Rovers Clapham Rovers was from its foundation in 1869 a leading English sports organisation in the two dominant codes of football, association football and rugby union. It was a prominent club in the late 19th century but is now defunct. The club playe ...

and

Grey Friars , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

. The name was revived in 1884 for another club in Anerley, with an entirely different set of players, but still playing at the Robin Hood fields. The last recorded match was a win over Champion Hill in December 1885.

Colours

The club's colours were dark and light blue, probably in hoops, as that was the main pattern at the time, and the club did not describe any other pattern.

Ground

The club played at a ground three minutes' walk from Anerley Station, using the Robin Hood public house for its facilities.

References

Defunct football clubs in England {{England-footyclub-defunct-stub