In Derby, it is said to have originated far earlier, in the third century, during the victory celebrations that followed a battle against the ancient Romans. Despite the legends of Kingston and Chester, certain facts appear to contradict the Anglo-Saxon theory. Namely that there is no evidence of it having been played at this time in Saxon areas or on the European continent, nor is the game mentioned in early Anglo-Saxon writings and literature. Prior to the Norman Conquest of England, the only trace found of any such ball game came from the Celts. One other possible theory in relation to its origin is that when the aforementioned "mob football" was being played in the British Isles in the early centuries A.D., a very similar game was being played in France, particularly in Brittany and  Normandy. So it is quite feasible that the Normans brought this form of the game to England with them.

All these theories produce a picture quite bewildering in its complexity - far more complex than the simple rules that governed this form of the game, if we dare even to call them rules.

Quite apart from man's natural impulse to demonstrate his skill and strength, even in this chaotic and turbulent fashion, it is certain that in many cases, pagan customs, especially fertility rites, played a major role. The ball symbolized the sun, which had to be conquered in order to secure a bountiful harvest. The ball had to be moved around, or across, a field so that the crops would flourish and the attacks of the opponents had to be warded off.

A similar significance was attached to the games between bachelors and married men that prevailed for centuries in some parts of England, and, likewise, to the famous game between married and unmarried women in the Scottish town of Inveresk at the end of the seventeenth century which, perhaps by design, was regularly won by the married women. Women's football is obviously not so new as some people think.