Shepherd’s Bush beat Irún 3-1 in the first match and defeated Athletic Club 1-0 in the second game, witnessed by the Spanish royals. The event barely got a mention in the British press, although the Wimbledon News noted that the Spanish press praised the Bushmen’s midfield play. However, the Bilbao visit was the Bushmen’s last overseas tour. Impacted by the onset of the Great War, Shepherd’s Bush FC folded in 1915.

So, who were Shepherd’s Bush FC? The club started out as Old St. Stephen’s Football Club, founded in 1880 by former pupils of St. Stephen’s School in Westminster. In 1892, the club was one of the selected founding members of the Southern Alliance amateur league, alongside now household names, like Tottenham Hotspur and Luton Town, plus Erith, Polytechnic, Windsor Phoenix, Westminster Criterion, Chesham, West Herts and Upton Park. Despite the name, East Londoners Upton Park are not related to West Ham but were involved in the creation of goalkeeper handling laws in 1871 and also represented Great Britain at the first Olympic football tournament in Paris in 1900, winning gold.

Old St. Stephen’s FC moved around and, in 1898, settled in Shepherd’s Bush, West London, changing its name to match its new neighbourhood. Its ground was the Loftus Road stadium. During its time there, London hosted the Olympic Games just down the road at White City in 1908. The White City stadium was also used for greyhound racing and one 1966 World Cup match between France and Uruguay, switched from Wembley due to a greyhound meeting schedule clash! The stadium was demolished in the 1980s to make way for new BBC TV studios. Its passing was lamented in The Pogues’ song White City, and there is a plaque on the wall where the 1908 athletic track finishing line was, immortalised by the photo of exhausted Italian marathon runner Dorando Pietri being helped across the line by officials. Pietri was later disqualified.