Which was the first British football team to beat the mighty Ajax FC of Amsterdam in a European Cup competition? Liverpool, Manchester Utd, Chelsea?

..... or none of the above?
The answer is Old Mancunians AFC, Manchester Grammar School Old Boys - we joined the Lancashire Amateur League in 1906 and celebrated our centenary in 2006.
In 1907 we entered the Beerschot Cup held in Belgium and in the semi-final we managed to defeat the also newly-formed Ajax 6-0.
The Belgian press "La Chronique Sportive" described the match as follows:
"Those who know anything about continental football need not be reminded that the Dutch club are one of the best, but Old Mancunians confirmed their excellent reputation by continuing their good form against Ajax. They led 2-0 at half-time and their brand of dribbling football saw them score a further four second half goals to complete a resounding 6-0 victory".
We did write to Ajax asking for a return fixture in our centenary season, but obviously they couldn't face two major losses in a century and declined to reply to our request.
Nowadays the Club is based in Fallowfield, Manchester. Our home ground for the first and second teams is at the Armitage centre, University of Manchester, where there are some of the best facilities and playing surfaces in the League. The third and fourth teams play at the University pitches at Wythenshawe where there has been a recent multi-million pound refurbishment of the changing rooms.
In recent years the Club has progressed from the depths of Division 2 of the Lancashire Amateur League to semi-finalists in the Lancashire FA Cup and runners-up in the Premier Division in 2006 and League Cup semi-finalists in 2009. We have expanded to run four teams, with the Reserves and 3rd XI Team gaining promotion in 2008-09, placing the Reserves in Division 2 which the 1st team struggled to get out of for over 90 years! The last couple of years have seen close links forged with Manchester University and Manchester Metropolitan University and we hope this will be a steady source of young players for the future.
Not only have we improved the success of the Club on the pitch, but we regard the social side of football as being just as important. We enjoy close links with the Queen of Hearts pub in Fallowfield, having established it as our base for post-match discussions on Saturday afternoon matches. A number of social nights are planned for the year and an end of season tour is being planned by our man at Outgoing.
At a time when amateur football is on the decline in some areas, we are proud to be able to draw on players from all around the north-west, and beyond, and soon hope to be able to fulfil our goal of being one of the best amateur football clubs in the Manchester region.

Roger Hunt
with thanks to Geoff Loughlin for the first hand information from the Beerschot Cup matches

Old Mancunians AFC

Charter Standard