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image captionFergus Suter left Scotland to earn his living playing football in England
The grave of one of English football s lesser-known pioneers has been restored after a fan watched his story on Netflix series, The English Game.
Jacqueline McAleese contacted Blackburn Rovers after noticing Fergus Suter s final resting place was dilapidated.
Suter is regarded as the first professional footballer, earning a working wage at Rovers in 1880.
Ms McAleese said she was quite upset after seeing his grave had fallen over and was just a mound of grass .
The restoration, funded by Blackburn Rovers, took place on the 135th anniversary of the triumph of Suter s third FA Cup winner s medal, when Rovers beat West Brom 2-0.
Jacqueline McAleese with the new gravestone for Fergus Suter at Blackburn Old Cemetery
Rovers have helped restore the grave of club legend Fergus Suter – 135 years on from helping the club to a third successive FA Cup win. Suter’s story was covered in the hit Netflix mini-series The English Game, released last year, having collected three successive FA Cup winners medals with Rovers in 1884, 1885 and 1886. Widely recognised as the first ever professional footballer, Suter joined Rovers from Darwen in 1880, the Scottish full-back spending nine years with the club, scoring three goals in 38 FA Cup appearances and making one league appearance in the inaugural season of the Football League in 1888/89.
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