Downtrodden, the poor fellow went first (8)
I believe the answer is:
trampled
'downtrodden' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'poor fellow went first' is the wordplay.
'poor fellow' becomes 'tramp' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'went first' becomes 'led' (I've seen this in another clue).
'tramp'+'led'='TRAMPLED'
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trampled that I've seen before include "crushed" , "Trodden underfoot" , "Walked heavily or roughly" , "Trod roughly underfoot" .)