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 is perhaps better known for playing in four Varsity Matches against Cambridge. The most notable of these was the first, in 1870 – a game still remembered as "Cobden's Match". Scoring 69 in Oxford's second innings and taking an exceptional catch one-handed at long on, Ottaway played a full part in helping his teammates to a position in which, with three wickets remaining, they needed to score four runs to win the game. Bets were taken among the spectators at 100–1 on for Oxford to win from this position, but they were thwarted by the Cambridge bowler Frank Cobden, who