Littlewoods league cup trophy up for auction

Luton Town captain Steve Foster in a white and blue strip with arms upraised; goalkeeper Andy Dibble in bright yellow strip and bending over, holding the trophy's base; and Brian Stein in the white and blue strip. Steve and Brian are holding the trophy up on Andy's head. They are grinning and standing on a pitch with other players and officials behind them and beyond them packed stands. 24 April 1988.Alamy

Luton Town captain Steve Foster, goalkeeper Andy Dibble and winning goalscorer Brian Stein won the competition in 1988

Katy Prickett

An original English Football League Cup trophy is expected to sell for up to £40,000 at auction.

The solid silver trophy - which at the time was called the Littlewoods Challenge Cup - was presented to winning teams in the late 1980s.

Highlights included the 1988 final, when Luton Town's Brian Stein denied Arsenal back-to-back wins with a last-minute goal, resulting in a triumphant 3-2 win.

The cup is being offered at a two-day sporting memorabilia sale by Northamptonshire auction house BUDDS, based in Wellingborough.

The trophy is inscribed with its winners: Arsenal in 1987, Luton Town in 1988 and Nottingham Forest's double wins of 1989 and1990.

The Littlewoods League Cup trophy, a solid silver chalice-like cup. It has a lid on which stands the figure of a male footballer with his hands on his hips and his left leg resting on a ball. The cup is ornate with a leaf pattern around its stem and base. It is resting on a gilded base, which in turn is resting on a wooden base. BUDDS

Sports memorabilia auctioneer BUDDS has put an estimate of between £20,000 and £40,000 on the cup

The league cup is contested by all the professional teams in the English Football League - which today is made up four divisions.

It is the most prestigious domestic trophy in football, second only to the FA Cup.

The auction house said the sponsorship by the Liverpool-based retailer Littlewoods helped raise the profile of the competition.

When the sponsorship ended in 1990, the tournament was rebranded as the Rumbelows Cup, later sponsored by Coca-Cola, and in recent years rebranded as the Carabao Cup.

Des Walker (left) and Nigel Jemson in a red strip on the pitch at Wembley. Des is holding a silver figure of a footballer in his left hand and Nigel is holding up the Littlewoods cup in his left hand, which has red and white ribbons trailing off it. Behind them are banked rows of supporters in the stands. Getty

Des Walker and Nigel Jemson won the trophy with Nottingham Forest in 1990 after their 1-0 victory against Oldham at Wembley Stadium

The ornate trophy, which is 27.5in (70cm) high without its plinth and 34in (87cm) high including its plinth, was made in 1895 as the Viscountess Furness Cup.

It was given to the winning team in the Furness Shipbuilding Company's football tournaments between 1920 and 1968.

When the Stockton-on-Tees shipyard closed, the trophy was given to a school and later sold to a jeweller before Littlewoods refurbished it as its trophy.

The Littlewoods Challenge Cup will be sold at the auction starting on 2 December.

A close-up of the four names of the three clubs to win the trophy, etched on to its gilded base with their dates. The dates are on the left and the names on the right in capitals. From the top 1987 Arsenel, 1988 Luton Town, 1989 Nottingham Forest, 1990 Nottingham Forest. BUDD

The ornate silver cup and cover, now etched with the winning clubs' names, was made by Thomas Bradbury and Sons of London in 1895

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