The club was in origin the works outfit of the Phoenix Bessemer steel company (formerly Messrs Steel, Tozer, and Hampton),[1] spun out of the cricket club, and claimed a foundation date of 1876.[2] The club may have started playing under Sheffield Rules, although by 1876 they were nearly indistinguishable from the association football laws.
The club entered the FA Cup in 1882. Its 8–1 win over Grimsby Town during that seasons FA Cup competition is still its opponent's record defeat.[3]
The club did not enter the FA Cup after 1883, although it remained a member of the Football Association until 1885.[4]
^It is unclear what the score was, but was likely to have been 8-1. Football: A Weekly Record of the Game (29 November 1882, p. 140), the Sheffield Daily Telegraph (27 November 1882, p. 7) and the Leeds Mercury (27 November 1882, p. 7) all record the score as 8-1; the Hull News (2 December 1882, p. 6) does not give a score, but implies that it was 8-1, as it records the half-time score as being 5-1; while the Sheffield Independent (27 November 1882, p. 4 and 2 December 1882, p. 12) records the score as 7-1, with the half-time score being 4-1, and the Derbyshire Times (2 December 1882, p. 6) just gives the score as being 7-1. It was not, however, 9-1, as often recorded.
^Alcock, Charles (1885). Football Annual. London: Cricket Press. p. §93.
