sheffield fc held a training match one week prior to the game to "practice the rules of the football association". among the most prominent differences between the codes were offside (the fa had a fairly strict offside law; the printed sheffield laws of 1862 had no offside law at all, although at various times the club had experimented with different offside laws), handling (while both codes permitted the ball to be caught, the fa code also allowed the ball to be struck with the hand, though a goal could not be scored in this manner), and the smaller width of the sheffield goal (four yards, as opposed to the fa's eight yards). it is likely that sheffield's relative unfamiliarity with the fa rules gave an advantage to the london team.