Rochester 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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club from Rochester in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

History

The club was formed in September 1868 and played its first game against the Mid-Kent Club in November 1868. Although the club was founded to play under Association laws, in the 1868–69 season it still appeared to be operating under an outdated set of laws, as it is recorded having beaten a Maidstone side by 5 touchdowns to 0, with no goals being scored; the club unaware that the touchdown had been abolished in 1867. For the club's first seven seasons, its opponents were other Kentish clubs, such as Maidstone and the Royal Engineers, plus the south London clubs the Wanderers and

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. The club did not enter the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

until 1875-76, losing to Herts Rangers in the first round. This is the first reported match the club played north of the

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. The following year saw the club go on its best-ever FA Cup run, beating Union in the first round and

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 second, the latter in front of a crowd of around 150, after a slight controversy regarding the original match ball, which seems to have been more a rugby ball than association ball; "one way it measured the required length but the other was much smaller." The club lost 4–0 to

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at the

Kennington Oval Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between th ...

in the third round (that year, the last 10), although the final goal was "palpably off-side". The club entered the Cup every year until 1892–93, but only once more reached the third round; in 1882-83 (that year a final 25), after receiving a bye in the second. The club's biggest FA Cup win was 6–1 over

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in 1885-86. Rochester's last appearance in the competition proper was in 1887-88, when the club was drawn against the Royal Engineers. Although the Sappers won 3–0, the

Football Association A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...

ordered a replay on the basis that they had fielded two players who had not been registered for the competition. However, two of Rochester's players had been injured in the original match, and the club scratched. The club's final Cup tie was in the first qualifying round in 1892–93, losing 4–1 at Clapton. It seems that the Kent club had difficulties in raising a team, as not one of the Rochester players listed on the fixture card (a forerunner to the football programme) appeared in the match itself.

Notable players

* William Lindsay, who was a Rochester member when chosen to play for Scotland in the England v Scotland representative matches in 1870.

Colours

The club's original colours were black & white hoops, plus a black velvet cap with the City of Rochester arms in silver. The cap was dropped from 1870.

Ground

The club played on the Borstal Road to the south-west of Rochester, a mile from Rochester Bridge station and with a club house on the Esplanade, although it was apparently not always easy to find, with the Cup tie against the Swifts kicking off late because of the difficulties the visitors had in locating the pitch.

References

{{Reflist Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Kent Association football clubs established in 1868 Association football clubs disestablished in the 1890s