AN FA Cup winner's medal which belonged to one of the first Blackburn Rovers superstars is to be auctioned later this month -- and today his family called for it to be kept in the town.

Fergie Suter joined the club in 1880 from Scotland and is widely recognised as having helped transform the club into one of the best in England at that period.

He appeared in four FA Cup Finals, picking up three winner's medals, and the one from his team's win in 1885 against Glasgow's Queens Park has been put up for auction at Christie's in London later this month.

Valued at around £6,000, the medal is being sold by a private owner who, according to Christie's officials, is not from the town. Suter's grandson Ken Suter, from Cornwall, said it would be fitting for the medal to be brought to Blackburn.

"It would be nice to think that the club would bid for it. After all my granddad was one of the earliest superstars," said Ken. "I'm very proud of Fergie and I collect some of his memorabilia but the medal is out of my price range, unfortunately."

Blackburn Rovers were unavailable for comment today, although hope of bringing the medal home was kept alive by the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery.

The gallery already houses three FA Cup winning medals belonging to Herbert Arthur, the goalkeeper who was in the same side as Suter. "We would certainly look into buying Suter's medal and find out what funding we could secure," said Nick Harling, keeper of social history at the gallery. "That period was an important time in Rovers' history and Suter played a major part in that."

The medal is one of the oldest to be sold at Christie's and the expectation of a good price is high.

"It's rare because it's from the 19th century and is certainly one of the oldest medals we have sold," said Christie's football specialist Dave Convery. "It's the old design of the FA Cup medal from the amateur days and is a very interesting piece."

Suter's on-pitch activities were not the only reason his name lives on. The fiery Scot was no stranger to controversy and caused more stirs than Eric Cantona and Vinnie Jones together could have mustered.

Fights and rumours of Suter being paid to play followed the full-back like a shadow and these stories are as well-known as his success in transforming fortunes of Rovers.

In those early days players were strictly amateurs and rumours of professionalism plagued Suter, who came down from Scotland in 1878 to bolster the English game.

Although a stonemason by trade, Suter complained that the local stone was too hard to work with. With no visible means of support, the only conclusion people could reach was that Suter was paid to play.

The following season Suter did the unforgivable and changed allegiances when he left Darwen Rovers, who he had played with for two seasons, and signed for Blackburn.

When the two teams met in a cup match in November 1880 at Alexandra Meadows the bad feelings spilled onto the pitch and a fight broke out between Suter and a Darwen player named Marshall.

Such was the extent of the ill-feeling that the return match was cancelled, with the two sides refusing to meet other except in cup-ties.