Cuthbert Ottaway lost the delayed replay 0–2. Although the precise nature of Ottaway's ankle injury remains unknown, there is no evidence that he never played senior football again after the 1875 Cup Final. His biographer, Michael Southwick, suggests that "the damage sustained to his ankle... signalled the end of his footballing career." As an international, Ottaway was selected to lead the England team travelling to Partick to meet Scotland on 30 November 1872 in what is now recognised as the first international match to be played. (England had met a "Scotland" team in five earlier friendlies, but these matches are not regarded
Cuthbert Ottaway skill and control than most footballers of his period; at a time when play of the most robust sort – including body-checking and "hacking" – was in vogue, Ottaway was praised for his grace. "His beautiful science," another report observed, "exhibited how a ball ought to be taken through a host of foes." Ottaway appears to have been well regarded by his teammates, but there are hints that he practised the snobbery not uncommon among men of his class and time. The Sheffield amateur Charles Clegg (later Sir Charles Clegg, President of the Football Association), who played alongside him in