[2] On 9 April 1887, Scottish Cup holders Hibernian, from Edinburgh, took on FA Cup winners Aston Villa in an exhibition match at the Birmingham club's Perry Barr ground.

[4] The advert Villa placed in the Birmingham Daily Mail in their 7 April 1887 edition described the game as a great international match; however, the Scottish newspapers The Glasgow Herald and The Scotsman reported on it in similar detail to several other cross-border challenge matches of that weekend, though they did acknowledge the participants' cup-winning statuses.

[5][6] and other newspapers covered other matches on Hibernians' tour of England (which saw them beaten by Stoke and Wolverhampton Wanderers) in similar fashion.

[9] Later in 1887, Hibernian won a friendly against 1887 FA Cup semi-finalists Preston North End that was billed as 'The Association Football Championship of the World'.

[10][11][12] However newspaper reports of the day did not bill the Hibs v Preston game as anything other than a friendly and anyway to qualify for a world championship fixture both teams had to be either a league champion or a cup winner; Preston North End at the time were neither so the Hibs claim is invalid.