FA Cup Book 1-291

for the THE STORY OF THE FA CUP FINALS, 1872 - 2012

Edited by Mike Bynum

for the THE STORY OF THE FA CUP FINALS, 1872 - 2012

From the Sports Pages of

Cup Commentaries by Brian Barwick

EDITOR’S NOTE The photos, game programmes and other memorabilia in this book were gathered during an exhaustive seven-year research effort.

This historic collection was put together with the aid, and assistance, of a large number of club historians whose teams had played in the FA Cup final, sports collectors and other private sources. Some of these items were taken off the walls of pubs and corporate offices. Others had been stored away in boxes for many years by fanatical team supporters.

Quite a number of these unique bits of memorabilia were borrowed from club trophy cases, Director’s Suites and boardrooms. And, surprisingly, some of these unique items were purchased on Ebay.

And as a bonus, for the first time ever, all of the FA Cup final game programmes, from 1920 to 2012, are being presented together.

Through the years, the size of these Cup programmes, their prices, and their design styles, have greatly varied.

For example, the 1920 Cup final programme cost six pence. Ninetytwo years later, the 2012 programme would cost 10 GBP. The first modern programme appeared in 1910. Prior to then, there were twopage line-up cards – and these had been published since the mid-1880’s.

It is interesting to learn that the 1924 Cup final programme was very difficult to locate – this is due to the fact that the 1924 final, between Newcastle United and Aston Villa, was played in a rainstorm and very few of these water-logged programmes have survived. The remaining 1911 to 1915 programmes are in the hands of serious sports collectors.

Overall, more than 80,000 images from the archives of Getty Images, Corbis-Bettmann, the Press Association, Colorsport, Reuters, Mary Evans Picture Library, Mirrorpix, the Daily Mail and many other smaller, or private, archives were reviewed and considered during the various editorial stages of designing Quest for the Cup. Collectively, when viewing all of the photos and memorabilia in this book, they form an impressive keepsake for all English football fans and supporters to savour and enjoy.

And each one of these photos and pieces of memorabilia has its own special story to tell.

Hopefully, the end result of this massive effort is a celebration of England’s – and the world’s – greatest football tournament and prize.

For 140 years, it has lifted the hearts and hopes of millions each football season.

Mike Bynum September 10, 2012

PERMISSIONS

The FA Cup logo and the Football Association shield are reprinted by permission of The Football Association.

The Cup Commentaries, from 1872 to 2012, were originally written

by Brian Barwick for exclusive use in this Book.

The five “10 Greatest” sidebar stories were originally published by ESPN and are reprinted by permission.

All of the Cup final game stories from 1881 to 2012 were originally published by The Daily Telegraph or The Sunday Telegraph and have been edited for use in this book. Reprinted by permission.

Copyright © 2012 by Canada Hockey LLC All rights reserved.

ISBN: __________________ No part of this work covered by the copyright may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photographing, recording, taping, or in electronic storage and retrieval systems without the permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Angela Purdy, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Book design: Angela Purdy, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and

James Wilkins, Wetumpka, Alabama, USA. Published by: Epic Sports Classics, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

8

INTRODUCTION Everybody who is interested in football has their favourite FA Cup moment – and, indeed, their favourite FA Cup final.

Whether it’s simply having been first out of bed to grab the best seat in the house, ahead of a television sporting marathon that was guaranteed to include some of the best football, and some of the worst light entertainment, songs and suits known to man.

Or, perhaps, sitting in the best seat in the stadium to watch the FA Cup final play out before your very own eyes.

I’m fortunate enough to have done both. And my affection for the FA Cup remains genuine and long-lasting. As a fan, as a TV man and then more recently, as a senior football administrator, I’ve enjoyed a relationship with the FA Cup that goes back over 50 years.

I watched my first final on black and white television in 1962, attended my first final at Wembley in 1971, made a BBC television documentary on the 100th FA Cup final in 1981, joined a Cup-winning team on their open-top bus city parade in 1986, and walked out with the President of the Football Association, Prince William, to “meet the teams” ahead of the new Wembley’s first FA Cup final in 2007.

From watching the TV pre-match and postmatch paraphernalia from my armchair, to helping produce it for television, to being part of the Cup story – it has been a slightly bizarre journey, but one I wouldn’t have missed.

The FA Cup remains, for me, one of sport’s most enduring and endearing competitions.

Simply, it is a knock-out of an idea.

The man who came up with the notion,

ONE LAST RIDE TOGETHER ■ Bill Shankly brings the Cup back to Liverpool in 1974. It was the club’s last piece of silverware won by the Scottish manager.

Charles Alcock, based it all on a sporting competition he had taken part in at his old public school in Harrow.

Sure, it now has to live alongside some other powerful, compelling, successful football competitions that enjoy and deserve real financial and broadcasting muscle, but the FA Cup still has its place on the football calendar, and long may that be the case.

In being asked to write a short essay on each FA Cup final to sit along the sumptuous photographs in this book, I have been on a journey that embraces three different centuries, reflects huge social and sporting change, and the game’s transition from being the preserve of toffs to becoming the people’s game.

From games played without crossbars, nets and penalties, to matches played in modern stadiums, filled with 90,000 spectators and beamed around the world to over 500 million television viewers.

From teams using genuine horse power to get themselves, and the carriages, to the fledgling stadiums, to these days, with tens of thousands using a different type of horse-power to speed them down both rail and road to see their favourites contest the FA Cup final in magnificent surroundings.

And from being a competition that started with just fifteen entrants to one that, only this past season, had a record entry of 763 clubs.

And, as well as still retaining its relevance in the crowded modern football scene, the FA Cup also deals in that wonderful sporting gift – glory.

It is that inspiring glory of scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final, managing a team to that historic moment, watching as a fan as your team lifts the trophy, or somewhere in their history enjoys their own special FA Cup moment – a giant-killing, a replay winner, perhaps in

extra-time or via a penalty shoot-out, playing hosts to one of football’s “big names” or just being in the same competition as teams filled with household names.

Wembley Stadium provided the perfect stage for the 2011-12 competition’s climax, but it is interesting to note that Wembley FC began their assault on the FA Cup 9 months before in the Extra Preliminary Round. Their opponents were Ascot United – and their FA Cup tie was streamed on Facebook for the first time.

Wembley got through that one, but fell victims to Hanworth Villa in the 1st Round Qualifying in front of 106 spectators! Mind you that was 84 more people than caught the Extra Preliminary Round action between Mole Valley SCR and Lordswood.

But that is the very democracy of the FA Cup that makes it unique.

Every fan can name their own favourite FA Cup moment, the day when their team upset the odds, drew the favourites out of the velvet bag, or were the head-line makers on one particular FA Cup weekend.

Indeed, there have been many great FA Cup upsets when non-League heroes beat teams from football’s top table: Yeovil Town beat Sunderland in 1949, Hereford famously knocked out Newcastle United, Supermac and all, back in 1972, and in 1989 Sutton United beat Coventry City in the 3rd Round, just 20 months after the Sky Blues had lifted the Cup itself at Wembley.

Or, when the likes of Fourth Division Colchester United beat the all-powerful Leeds United side of the early 1970’s, Third Division Bournemouth beat Manchester United in 1984 or, famously, when the Football League’s bottom club, Wrexham, beat the reigning champions, Arsenal, in a memorable 3rd Round tie back in 1992.

INTRODUCTION These are results that help define a club’s history – delivering the ultimate “I was there” moments.

And its fame travels. Jose Mourinho, who won the FA Cup with Chelsea in 2007, describes it thus: “I used to say it is the competition of the people. The English FA Cup is incredible and people who are in love with the game, as I am, must have a special feeling for it.”

And then there’s the Cup final itself, with its traditions and tales of derring-do, deadly finishing, dodgy goals and Didier Drogba – who is now officially an FA Cup final record-breaker.

And there have been unforgettable moments like watching a marching band, hearing Abide with Me sung with purpose and gusto, and watching the winners and losers wearily climb the Wembley steps to receive hand-shakes, pats on the back, winner’s and loser’s medals, and, of course, for one team, the FA Cup itself, decked in ribbons.

It is also the tournament in which legends have been made, and feats of sporting drama delivered in bountiful measure.

And its history is full of surprises.

Who has the highest margin of victory in the FA Cup final – why, Bury, of course, in their 6-0 win over Derby County in 1903.

And who has played in the most Cup finals?

This honour belongs to the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, one of the early pioneers, who played in no less than nine finals.

Cup finals also make heroes of players – and horses! Anybody who knows their English football has heard of Billy – “the White Horse” – who helped make sure the first FA Cup final at Wembley in 1923 actually got started.

The litany of famous names and famous games in the FA Cup tournament is endless, but the Cup final itself can define a player’s career.

We remember the man with the “tooth-pick” – Billy Meredith – who was a winner with both Manchester City and Manchester United in 1904 and 1909, respectively; Alex James, who in his baggy long shorts, scored for Arsenal under the shadow of the Graf Zeppelin in 1930; Dixie Dean, who wore the first “No. 9” in a Cup final, in 1933; Jackie Milburn’s post-war Wembley magic for Newcastle United, and the “Matthews Final” in 1953 – when Stan finally picked up his Winners’ medal.

We also remember Bert Trautmann’s brave goalkeeping display for Manchester City in 1956; Ian St. John’s bullet header for Liverpool in 1965; Charlie George’s outrageous 1971 winner for the Gunners; Ian Porterfield’s goal and Jimmy Montgomery’s save for Sunderland in 1973, and that “other” Sunderland – Alan Sunderland – whose dramatic goal won the 1979 “five-minute final” for Arsenal.

And one must not forget Ricky Villa’s wonderful individual effort for Spurs in 1981 – which is perhaps the final’s best-ever goal; Ian Rush’s two goals to clinch the Double for Liverpool in 1986: Keith Houchen’s amazing flying header for Coventry City in 1987; Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang upsetting the odds in 1988 to win the Cup; Eric Cantona’s imperious strike for Manchester United in 1996; the “Michael Owen final” in 2001; Steven Gerrard’s memorable captain’s performance for Liverpool in 2006; Didier Drogba, who was an FA Cup final scoring machine with three game-winning goals in four finals, which is a record, and Ashley Cole, who was a FA Cup final winner (for Arsenal and Chelsea) on no less than seven occasions.

Of course, the FA Cup has to continue to work hard to succeed and survive, and also to manage change whilst respecting tradition. The pages ahead of you underline the scale of that

tradition, history and legend.

And, indeed, the competition does have one of the most beautiful trophies in sport.

The first FA Cup trophy – “the little tin idol” – was stolen from a sports outfitter’s shop window in 1895; the second Cup – a stunning replica of the original – was later presented to the FA Cup’s first superstar Lord Arthur Kinnaird in 1911.

In recent years that stunning trophy was bought at auction for £478,000.

The third FA Cup, and the one whose design has now become world-famous, was made in Bradford in 1911, and, fittingly, was won in its first year by Bradford City.

Replaced by an exact replica in 1992, because of wear and tear to the original, the trophy with its unique shape, remains an iconic treasure. It is a jewel in football’s crown.

I would like to personally thank publisher Mike Bynum for allowing me the privilege of penning the words to complement the wonderful photographs and stunning displays of memorabilia in this book, and also to Lisa Seabrook and David Barber, for checking my facts and figures and making sure they all added up.

And a special note to Billy, the White Horse, for making sure the first Wembley final got started without too much delay.

In 2007, we re-opened the famous stadium with the Red Arrows. Their dramatic fly-past marked a new era in the history of the world’s best domestic football cup tournament.

I hope you are all strapped in now and ready for a journey through the years – and so let’s get “Up for the Cup!”

Brian Barwick September 15, 2012 Twickenham

CONTENTS

The Football Association Challenge Cup: The Early Years................................. 70

1905

Aston Villa v. Newcastle United..............................................134

1872

Wanderers v. Royal Engineers...................................................78

1906

Everton v. Newcastle United...................................................136

1873

Wanderers v. Oxford University................................................79

1907

Sheffield Wednesday v. Everton..............................................138

1874

Oxford University v. Royal Engineers.......................................79

1908

Wolverhampton Wanderers v. Newcastle United...................140

1875

Royal Engineers v. Old Etonians..............................................80

1909

Manchester United v. Bristol City...........................................142

1876

Wanderers v. Old Etonians.......................................................80

1910

Newcastle United v. Barnsley..................................................146

1877

Wanderers v. Oxford University................................................81

1911

Bradford City v. Newcastle United.........................................148

1878

Wanderers v. Royal Engineers...................................................81

1912

Barnsley v. West Bromwich Albion.........................................152

1879

Old Etonians v. Clapham Rovers..............................................82

1913

Aston Villa v. Sunderland........................................................154

1880

Clapham Rovers v. Oxford University......................................83

1914

Burnley v. Liverpool................................................................158

1881

Old Carthusians v. Old Etonians..............................................84

1915

Sheffield United v. Chelsea.....................................................160

1882

Old Etonians v. Blackburn Rovers............................................86

1920

Aston Villa v. Huddersfield Town...........................................162

1883

Blackburn Olympic v. Old Etonians.........................................88

1921

Tottenham Hotspur v. Wolverhampton Wanderers................164

1884

Blackburn Rovers v. Queen’s Park (Glasgow)............................90

1922

Huddersfield Town v. Preston North End...............................166

1885

Blackburn Rovers v. Queen’s Park (Glasgow)...........................92

1923

Bolton Wanderers v. West Ham United..................................168

1886

Blackburn Rovers v. West Bromwich Albion...........................93

The Road to Wembley................................................................................. 176

1887

Aston Villa v. West Bromwich Albion.......................................94

1924

Newcastle United v. Aston Villa..............................................178

1888

West Bromwich Albion v. Preston North End...........................96

1925

Sheffield United v. Cardiff City..............................................180

1889

Preston North End v. Wolverhampton Wanderers.................100

1926

Bolton Wanderers v. Manchester City....................................182

1890

Blackburn Rovers v. Sheffield Wednesday..............................102

1927

Cardiff City v. Arsenal............................................................184

1891

Blackburn Rovers v. Notts County..........................................104

1928

Blackburn Rovers v. Huddersfield Town.................................188

1892

West Bromwich Albion v. Aston Villa.....................................106

1929

Bolton Wanderers v. Portsmouth............................................190

1893

Wolverhampton Wanderers v. Everton...................................108

1930

Arsenal v. Huddersfield Town.................................................192

1894

Notts County v. Bolton Wanderers.........................................110

1931

West Bromwich Albion v. Birmingham City...........................194

1895

Aston Villa v. West Bromwich Albion.....................................112

1932

Newcastle United v. Arsenal.................................................. 202

Unsolved: Did Harry Burge really steal the famous FA Cup?........................... 114

1933

Everton v. Manchester City.....................................................204

1896

Sheffield Wednesday v. Wolverhampton Wanderers...............116

1934

Manchester City v. Portsmouth...............................................208

1897

Aston Villa v. Everton.............................................................118

1935

Sheffield Wednesday v. West Bromwich Albion......................210

1898

Nottingham Forest v. Derby County.......................................120

1936

Arsenal v. Sheffield United......................................................214

1899

Sheffield United v. Derby County...........................................122

1937

Sunderland v. Preston North End...........................................216

1900

Bury v. Southampton..............................................................124

1938

Preston North End v. Huddersfield Town...............................218

1901

Tottenham Hotspur v. Sheffield United..................................126

1939

Portsmouth v. Wolverhampton Wanderers.............................220

1902

Sheffield United v. Southampton............................................128

The Best of the Cup: Top Ten Lists.............................................................. 224

1903

Bury v. Derby County.............................................................130

1946

Derby County v. Charlton Athletic.........................................236

1904

Manchester City v. Bolton Wanderers....................................132

1947

Charlton Athletic v. Burnley...................................................238

BACKERS OF THE CUP â– Budweiser and William Hill became sponsors of the FA Cup in 2011-12.

CONTENTS

FOOTBALL FEVER IN MECCA OF TENNIS â– In 1988, Wimbledon completed their meteoric rise from FA Amateur champions (in 1963) to FA Cup kings.

Manchester United v. Blackpool.............................................240

1982

Tottenham Hotspur v. Queens Park Rangers.........................338

1949

Wolverhampton Wanderers v. Leicester City..........................244

1983

Manchester United v. Brighton and Hove Albion..................340

1950

Arsenal v. Liverpool................................................................248

1984

Everton v. Watford..................................................................344

1951

Newcastle United v. Blackpool................................................250

1985

Manchester United v. Everton................................................346

1952

Newcastle United v. Arsenal...................................................252

1986

Liverpool v. Everton................................................................348

1953

Blackpool v. Bolton Wanderers...............................................254

1987

Coventry City v. Tottenham Hotspur.....................................352

1954

West Bromwich Albion v. Preston North End.........................258

1988

Wimbledon v. Liverpool..........................................................356

1955

Newcastle United v. Manchester City....................................266

1989

Liverpool v. Everton................................................................358

1956

Manchester City v. Birmingham City.....................................268

1990

Manchester United v. Crystal Palace......................................364

1957

Aston Villa v. Manchester United...........................................270

1958

Bolton Wanderers v. Manchester United................................274

1991

Tottenham Hotspur v. Nottingham Forest..............................366

1959

Nottingham Forest v. Luton Town..........................................276

1992

Liverpool v. Sunderland..........................................................370

1960

Wolverhampton Wanderers v. Blackburn Rovers...................278

1993

Arsenal v. Sheffield Wednesday...............................................374

1961

Tottenham Hotspur v. Leicester City......................................280

1994

Manchester United v. Chelsea...............................................378

1962

Tottenham Hotspur v. Burnley...............................................282

1995

Everton v. Manchester United................................................382

1963

Manchester United v. Leicester City.......................................284

1996

Manchester United v. Liverpool.............................................388

1964

West Ham United v. Preston North End................................286

1997

Chelsea v. Middlesbrough.......................................................392

1965

Liverpool v. Leeds United.......................................................290

1998

Arsenal v. Newcastle United...................................................396

1966

Everton v. Sheffield Wednesday..............................................292

1999

Manchester United v. Newcastle United.................................400

1967

Tottenham Hotspur v. Chelsea...............................................296

2000

Chelsea v. Aston Villa..............................................................406

1968

West Bromwich Albion v. Everton..........................................298

2001

Liverpool v. Arsenal................................................................412

1969

Manchester City v. Leicester City...........................................304

2002

Arsenal v. Chelsea...................................................................418

1970

Chelsea v. Leeds United..........................................................308

2003

Arsenal v. Southampton..........................................................422

1971

Arsenal v. Liverpool................................................................310

2004

Manchester United v. Millwall................................................426

1972

Leeds United v. Arsenal.........................................................312

2005

Arsenal v. Manchester United.................................................430

1973

Sunderland v. Leeds United....................................................314

2006

Liverpool v. West Ham United...............................................434

1974

Liverpool v. Newcastle United................................................318

2007

Chelsea v. Manchester United................................................440

1975

West Ham United v. Fulham..................................................322

2008

Portsmouth v. Cardiff City......................................................446

1976

Southampton v. Manchester United.......................................324

2009

Chelsea v. Everton...................................................................450

1977

Manchester United v. Liverpool.............................................326

2010

Chelsea v. Portsmouth.............................................................454

1978

Ipswich Town v. Arsenal.........................................................328

2011

Manchester City v. Stoke City.................................................460

1979

Arsenal v. Manchester United.................................................330

2012

Chelsea v. Liverpool................................................................466

1980

West Ham United v. Arsenal...................................................332

Details....................................................................................................478

1981

Tottenham Hotspur v. Manchester City.................................334

FA Cup by the Numbers.............................................................................488

CONTENTS

1948

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QUEST FOR THE CUP

FPO

TAKING THE TUBE TO WEMBLEY â– ABOVE: An unique London Underground poster promoting the 1926 FA Cup final. OPPOSITE PAGE: A similar Underground poster which promoted the 1933 Cup final.

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QUEST FOR THE CUP

HOMECOMING â– The famed Red Arrows perform a pre-match fly-by over Wembley Stadium on May 19, 2007, to celebrate the re-opening of the iconic arena and the return of the FA Cup final following a 7-year rebuilding period. 89,826 attended the 2007 Cup final at Wembley.

QUEST FOR THE CUP

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ROAD TO THE TOP ■ Chelsea’s FA Cup win over Liverpool was the first of two major trophies the

Stamford Bridge squad would obtain in May 2012. Two weeks later, the Blues defeated Bayern Munich at Allianz Stadium, in Munich, Germany, to win the European Cup.

QUEST FOR THE CUP

PRE-GAME GREETINGS ■ Liverpool’s Billy Liddell (right) shakes hands with King George VI prior to the 1950 Cup final, which the Gunners later won, 2-0.

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FAMILY HEIRLOOM ■ This game ball from

Wolves’ 1-0 Cup win against Everton in 1893 can now be found on display in a trophy case at Molineux Stadium.

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GRAND PRIZE â– An editorial cartoon describes the action at the 1889 Cup final. OPPOSITE PAGE: The Cup is carried to the Royal Box for presentation in 2012.

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RARE ACHIEVEMENT ■ The commemorative sheild given

by The Football Association to Blackburn Rovers F.C. to celebrate Rovers’ three-straight FA Cup final wins in 1884, 1885 and 1886. Wanderers was the other team to achieve this honour — in 1876, 1877 and 1878. LEFT: A popular boys game based on the FA Cup final.

QUEST FOR THE CUP

UNIQUE TREASURES ■ The game ball that was given to West Bromwich Albion after their 3-0 Cup final win against Aston Villa in 1892. OPPOSITE PAGE: A 1930’s game for young children to play. BELOW: Ten rare Baines football cards of FA Cup winners.

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MEMORABLE LOSSES ■ A souvenir brochure from Liverpool’s first Cup final – a 2-0 loss to Arsenal in 1950. Liverpool would later win the Cup in 1965, 1974, 1986, 1992, 2001 and 2006. OPPOSITE PAGE: Cardiff City full-back Jimmy Nelson is carried off the Wembley pitch following the team’s 1-0 loss to Sheffield United in 1925.

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xxxxx x xxxx xxx x xxxxxxxxxx x xxxxxx x xxxxx x xxxx xxx x xxxxxxxxxx x xxxxxx x xxxxx x xxxx xxx x xxxxxxxxxx x xxxxxx x xxxxx x xxxx xxx x xxxxxxxxxx x xxxxxx

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Barnsley’s 1912 FA Cup-winning team.

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RED INVASION â– More than 25,000 Liverpool fans arrived at Wembley in 2012, hoping to add another piece of silverware to their vaunted trophy collection. Liverpool last won the Cup in 2006.

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PROGRAMME GALLERY BLUE REIGN ■ Chelsea captain John Terry accepts the

prestigious FA Cup trophy following their 2-1 win against Liverpool in 2012. It was the Blues’ fourth Cup final win in 6 years.

THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION CHALLENGE CUP:

T

THE EARLY YEARS

By Richard Shepherd

he Football Association Challenge Cup is 140 years old in 2012, and was first played for in 1871-72. But how did this sporting tournament, one of the greatest in the world of football, come into existence?

The game was born on the streets of English towns and cities, nurtured in the great Public Schools of Victorian Britain, and eventually organised by the Football Association, which had been formed in 1863 to codify the rules. These had not been uniform in the various parts of the country, and in the various Public Schools, whose former pupils would form their own clubs on leaving school.

The origin of the Cup is to be found in the background of the men who formed it. The moving force was Charles Alcock, the Secretary of the Football Association from 1870 to 1895. He had been a member of the Forest Club, which was named after Epping Forest and played near London. It was from this club that the famous Wanderers Football Club evolved, and they would be winners in five of the first seven Cup Finals.

Alcock had been educated at Harrow School, which, like all Public Schools then, and now, was divided into boarding-houses, each of which was home to a number of pupils. These houses would compete at Football and Cricket against the other houses in a knock-out tournament to see who would become the “Cock House.”

These types of matches were played in the other

leading Public Schools such as Eton, Charterhouse, Shrewsbury, Rugby, Clifton, Winchester etc.

Alcock’s fellow members of the Football Association had also been at these type of schools and understood the tradition surrounding these House tournaments. So the FA Cup tournament was, in effect, an adaptation – on a national scale – of what Alcock and his friends had known as schoolboys. It was therefore no surprise that Alcock found immediate support for his original proposal … “that it is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established.”

So it was that on July 20, 1871, in a small oak-panelled room at the London offices of The Sportsman newspaper that a seven-man committee of the Football Association agreed to establish a Challenge Cup tournament. It was essentially meant to be a “Challenge” – the idea being that the winners would be exempted the following season from all the earlier rounds and would play in the Cup final and would be challenged by the other finalist. It was a principle that was, however, soon swept aside – but the tournament is still officially known as the “Football Association Challenge Cup.” In that opening 1871-72 season, seventeen years before the formation of the Football League, fixture cards for the season had already been completed, with clubs playing friendly matches against each other. Because of the scheduled friendly fixtures and the travelling involved, Northern members of the nine year-old FA were absent from that first competition.

But fifteen teams did enter, though only two – Queen’s Park of Glasgow and Donington Grammar School – came from North of Hertfordshire. Five clubs were from

IN THE BEGINNING ■ Arthur Kinnaird played in nine Cup finals. OPPOSITE PAGE: The Football Association was founded in the Freemasons Arms pub in 1863.

outside the London Metropolitan area – Hitchin, Royal Engineers, Reigate Priory, Maidenhead and Great Marlow.

The other eight were all within easy reach of the centre of London – Wanderers, Harrow Chequers, Barnes, Civil Service, Crystal Palace (not the current Football League Club), Upton Park, Clapham Rovers and Hampstead Heathens.

These were the fifteen entrants for the competition that was won in its first year by Wanderers, who defeated Royal Engineers, 1-0, at The Oval, the home of Surrey County Cricket Club, in front of approximately 2,000 spectators.

Queen’s Park, the Scottish club, were one of the original entries, Charles Alcock and his FA colleagues intending that their new competition would be open to clubs from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. In fact, Glasgow’s Queen’s Park reached the final in 1884 and 1885, losing on each occasion to Blackburn Rovers.

But the formation of the Scottish and Irish Football Associations meant that they would start their own Cup tournaments. So Scottish and Irish clubs gradually withdrew from the FA Cup, but not the Welsh clubs.

Despite the 1876 formation of the FA of Wales, who began their own Welsh Cup competition the following year, their leading clubs continued in the FA Cup as is the case today – in fact, Cardiff City won the FA Cup in 1927, the only time that a non-English club has won it, and Cardiff reached the final on two other occasions.

In the early years of the FA Cup, there was no professionalism in the game (at least not officially). Several clubs were paying players on the side, and when the FA discovered it these clubs were expelled from the Cup tournament. But the tide of professionalism could not be turned back, and the FA legalised it in 1885. Up to then, it was the leading amateur clubs, consisting of exUniversity students and well-to-do players who were the main participants. But with the growth of the Northern and Midland clubs, who consisted of working men, it was Blackburn Olympic, a side of cotton-weavers, plumbers, dentist’s assistants, ironworkers, picture framers and

spinners, who in 1883 beat Old Etonians in the final.

When Albert Warburton, the Blackburn Olympic captain, was presented with the Cup, there were remarkable scenes of enthusiasm in front of the Oval pavilion. The Olympic supporters went mad with excitement. Until that moment the Cup for them had existed more in dreams than reality, but here at last it was about to travel north.

What a homecoming the Olympic were given.

Cheering, waving crowds, and a brass band marked the triumphal route as the team, with Warburton holding the Cup aloft as they were driven through the streets of Blackburn in a wagonette drawn by six horses. It was the start of a homecoming tradition for the Cup winners that continues to this day.

From then on, it would be “working class” clubs who

would dominate the competition and Blackburn Rovers won it in three consecutive years (1884, 1885 and1886).

The days of the Arthur Kinnaird, later the President of the FA, who had played for Wanderers and Old Etonians were over. He would take the field ready for battle – wearing long white flannel trousers, his club jersey and a blue and white quartered cricket cap rounded off by his splendid red beard.

With professionalism now a major force in the game, and the FA Cup now its leading competition, clubs now needed some kind of organised competition to attract spectators apart from the Cup. So it was that the Football League came into existence in 1887-88. But while that developed into a regular weekly tournament, it was the FA Cup that remained the national “glamour” tournament, which would eventually be played at Wembley Stadium in

front of crowds of 100,000-plus spectators.

The original FA Cup trophy existed until 1895. But less than five months after Aston Villa had won, they put it on display in the shop window of William Shillcock, a football and boot manufacturer located on Newton Row in Birmingham.

On the night of September 11, 1895, it was stolen from the premises and never recovered. The second trophy, an exact copy of the original, was in use until 1910. But because its design was pirated, it was withdrawn from service and presented to Kinnaird.

The third trophy was in use from 1911 to 1991, when it had to be withdrawn from service because it was incapable of having further repairs due to celebratory handling over the years.

The FA ordered an exact copy of the third trophy and that is the one that is in use today.

THE TOURNAMENT BEGINS â– Royal Engineers lost to Wanderers in the inagural Cup final, 1-1, but later won the trophy in 1875. 2,000 attended the Cup final at Kennington Oval.

Wanderers defeat engineers

to win FIRST Cup WANDERERS 1-0 ROYAL ENGINEERS

Kennington Oval, March 16, 1872 The final match for the possession of The Association Challenge Cup was played today on Kennington Oval in the presence of 2,000 spectators.

Shortly after three o’clock the ball was kicked off by the captain of the Royal Engineers, who had lost the coin toss and would be facing a strong wind.

The Championship game had been set up by the Engineers’ 3-0 win over Crystal Palace and Wanderers’ 0-0 tie with Glasgow’s Queen’s Park in the semi-finals. Queen’s Park, which was unable to cover the expenses for a replay, withdrew, thus allowing Wanderers to advance to the title match with the Engineers.

Queen’s Park’s withdrawal allowed them to keep intact their five-year unbeaten record.

The tournament began with 15 teams entered – including eight from London – but no clubs from Northern England were participating.

The Engineers entered the game as 7-4 favourites. Their opponent, Wanderers, had a strong squad, which was composed of the best players to have graduated from the public schools and universities.

Ten minutes after the start of the game, the gallant Engineers hit a patch of bad luck when Lieutenant Edmund Cresswell broke a collar-bone, but bravely played to the end of the contest.

Fifteen minutes into the game, Wanderers’ star player, Robert Vidal, broke away and passed to Morton Betts, who scored the game’s only goal.

Wanderers, by winning the Cup, are now exempt until next year’s final and have the choice of the venue.

FA CUP MEMORIES From little acorns do mighty oak trees grow ...

Beginning with the first FA Cup final, which was played on March 16, 1872, a rich and wonderful football tradition began – one that has lasted more than 140 years.

On Saturday, November 11, 1871, the whole adventure got underway with the 1st Round of the first-ever FA Challenge Cup competition.

The idea of a national knock-out football competition had been dreamt up by Charles William Alcock, who was born in Sunderland and educated at Harrow School. “... it is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association, for which all clubs belonging to the Association should be invited to compete.”

Thus the FA Cup – based on Alcock’s experience of an inter-house “sudden death” competition to determine the “Cock House” at Harrow – was born.

Alcock was also responsible for organising the first international football match – England v. Scotland – in 1872 and the first international cricket Test Match – England v.

Australia – in 1880.

A talented man of great foresight, Alcock was also captain of Wanderers, a team predominantly made up of Old Harrovians, and one of 15 that ultimately entered the first FA Cup. Wanderers first round tie was cancelled when their opposition, Harrow Chequers, withdrew from the competition. Also through on a walk-over were Cup favourites, Royal Engineers.

History was made though at Upton Park where Clapham Rovers’ forward, Jarvis Kenrick, scored the first-ever goal in the FA Cup. Wearing jerseys of cerise and French grey, Clapham completed a 3-0 win.

Trying to complete fixtures proved difficult and teams did drop out of the competition, but by the semi-finals Royal Engineers were to play Crystal Palace and Wanderers were drawn against Scottish entrant, Queens Park.

Akin to modern times, both semi-finals were to be played at Kennington Oval, as would the final.

Royal Engineers won in a replay over Crystal Palace, 3-0, whilst Wanderers enjoyed a walk-over when their first match with Queen’s Park ended in a 0-0 draw, but the Scottish team couldn’t afford to make the long trip twice, thus allowing Wanderers to advance.

A total of 2,000 spectators were present at Kennington Oval to witness an historic sporting event as Wanderers met Royal Engineers in the first FA Cup final.

The match began shortly after three o’clock on Saturday, March 16th. Wanderers had the sun on their backs and dominated early proceedings and went into the lead after good “middling” by Robert Vidal and a “well-directed kick” by goal-scorer, A.H. Chequer.

A.H. Chequer turned out to be a pseudonym for Morton Betts, who derived the name from his membership of the Harrow Chequers club.

Betts, who mostly played at full-back, later made a lone appearance for England as a goalkeeper.

As was the tradition then, the teams changed ends when a goal was scored but there was no addition to the scoreline.

The tradition of a Cup final “injury” was born when Lieutenant Edmund Cresswell of the Engineers broke his collar-bone but gallantly continued to play on.

After the match, Wanderers were the first winners of the Cup, which was presented to them by FA president E.C. Morley at a prestigious dinner held in Pall Mall three weeks later.

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Wanderers Make It Two straight WANDERERS 2-0 OXFORD UNIVERSITY

Lillie Bridge, March 23, 1873 The tournament to determine the winner of the second Association Challenge Cup had a mountain of problems to overcome, creating several odd match-ups. These were usually caused by byes and scratched teams.

Queen’s Park of Glasgow, which had played a scoreless draw with the Wanderers in the semi-finals last year, then were unable raise the funds to travel to London for the replay, again failed to make it to London for their semi-final match against Oxford University.

Wanderers, which had won the first Cup, were given a bye to the finals, and were able to choose their own venue for the final. Wanderers chose Lillie Bridge, which was one of London’s best sports stadiums. It was located near the present-day Stamford Bridge stadium.

A crowd of 3,000 watched as Wanderers won their second straight Cup, 2-0, against Oxford University on a pair of goals by Charles Wollaston and Arthur Kinnaird.

It would be the first of nine appearances in Cup Finals for Kinnaird. Oxford had beaten the Royal Engineers, 1-0, in the third round.

Wanderers’ biggest opponent, however, was the Boat Race on the Thames later that afternoon. With most of the Cup crowd also being Boat Race fans, the Cup kick-off was moved up to 11 a.m.

FA CUP MEMORIES Imagine that by winning the FA Cup final in 2012, Chelsea were given a direct bye to the following year’s final.

It would cause an eye-brow or two to be raised, initiate a rash of comments in the media and undoubtly a meltdown on the internet.

Well, in 1872, that’s what happened in the FA Cup. Wanderers, who had won the inaugural Cup tournament the year before, were parachuted straight into the final as per the rules and concept of the competition.

It was, after all, a Challenge Cup, and the preceding rounds were played to find the team who would “challenge” the Cup holders. It was, however, the only time this rule was ever invoked.

New teams in the tournament included 1st Surrey Rifles and Oxford University. And, once again, completing scheduled fixtures proved an issue and the Scottish entrant, Queen’s Park, were given a bye until the semi-finals to cut back on the amount of travelling needed to play the games.

As it was, Queen’s Park, had been air-lifted to the semi-final, but the Glasgow team pulled out of the tournament, which gave Oxford University a tilt at Wanderers in the final.

To be fair, Oxford University had played and won four matches en route to their “walk-over” with Queen’s Park.

The final took place at the Amateur Athletic Ground, Lillie Bridge, in West Brompton – a site which was the choice of the FA Cup holders, Wanderers.

The match was scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. kick-off, not to satisfy television schedules as would be the case these days, but to allow those attending the match to also make it to the towpath to see the annual Oxford v.

Cambridge Boat Race later that day. As it happened, due to the late arrival of the spectators, the game finally got underway thirty minutes late.

Charles Wollaston scored Wanderers’ opening goal in their 2-0 victory, kicking the ball into an empty goal.

Then as the University side moved their goalkeeper further up the field in a desperate move to save the match.

Wanderers’ second, clinching goal was scored by Arthur Kinnaird. Educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge, Kinnaird was an FA Committee man, and later President of the Association, but he was also a very committed player.

In making a documentary on the early life of the FA Cup, I once interviewed Kinnaird’s grandson, a very jolly man, who made the point that his famous ancestor “liked hacking and hacking he did!”

Hacking in football then sounded just short of physical assault!

Kinnaird was one of the early greats of English football; he played in nine of the first twelve Cup finals and collected five Winner’s medals.

He was probably the first superstar of the game.

According to Cup legend, on one journey to the final at the Oval, the crowds removed the horses at the head of his carriage to transport it themselves – as a mark of respect.

ADD PHOTO

Oxford UNIVERSITY Edge ROYAL Engineers

to Win Cup OXFORD UNIVERSITY 2-0 ROYAL ENGINEERS

Kennington Oval, March 14, 1874 The final match for possession of the world’s most handsome football trophy was played this afternoon on the Surrey Cricket Ground at Kennington Oval in the presence of 3,000 spectators, with Oxford University defeating the Royal Engineers, 2-0.

The Cup final was played by the two teams that had lost to Wanderers in the first two Cups.

The Engineers, which had beaten Brondesbury, 4-0, and Maidenhead, 7-0, entered the Cup final as the favourites.

Oxford won the pre-match coin toss. The Engineers kicked off and after 90 minutes of play the university squad had won the tournament prize on a pair of goals by Charles Mackarness and Frederick Patton.

Oxford’s Robert Vidal, who was playing in his third straight Cup final, won his second Cup. He had earlier played for the Wanderers in 1872, when they won the inagural Cup tournament.

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FA CUP MEMORIES At this time the FA Cup was still largely the preserve of the gentry, of public schools and universities, of “old boys” and officers and gentlemen.

In 1874, the Cup was won by an academic institution for the first and only time.

Oxford University loosened the stranglehold Wanderers had on the Cup tournament by defeating them, 1-0, in a quarterfinal replay and then beat the Royal Engineers of Chatham by two goals to nil in the final.

Oxford put twice-winners Wanderers out of the competition in the 3rd round, essentially the quarter-finals, with a 1-0 replay win after a 1-1 draw.

Twenty-eight teams entered the Cup tournament – proof that interest in the FA Cup was growing, albeit a report on the final itself still only warranted a small column at the bottom of a page in The Sportsman.

Legendary cricketer, W.G. Grace, was still the main headline-grabber, scoring runs down under in Australia against teams of eighteen and twenty-two players, respectively!

Back at Surrey County Cricket Club’s home, Kennington Oval, the finalists in this year’s FA Cup were facing up to each other amidst a strong March wind and an audience of 3,000 spectators. Both teams were in their second FA Cup final, having both lost their previous attempts.

Royal Engineers were led by an inspirational figure, Major Francis Marindin, but were without one of their best backs, Lieutenant Alfred Goodwyn, who had been posted on military duty to India.

The Army team had actually spent a fortnight in camp preparing for the final and working out the best tactics to win the game – but sadly to no avail.

The University side was not totally made up of students and included an ordained clergyman, Arthur H. Johnson, a Fellow of All Souls College.

The game was underway shortly after 3:15 p.m. on March 14th, and it was Oxford, defending the Harleyford Road end of the stadium, who took the lead after just ten minutes.

An Oxford corner-kick gave Charles Mackarness a chance to hit a shot beyond Engineers goalkeeper Capt. William Merriman and under the tape between the posts.

The teams changed ends but Engineers’ luck didn’t improve, with Oxford extending their lead ten minutes later through forward Frederick Patton. At the heart of that goal was Robert Vidal, a “prince of dribblers” who had been on the winning Wanderers side of 1872.

Oxford could have extended their lead when it was believed they put the ball between the Engineers’ posts but their players didn’t appeal for a goal.

At this time, just like cricket, players were expected to appeal if they felt they’d scored. Just try stopping them now ... but these were different times.

Oxford goalkeeper Charles Neapean had a sterling match and kept the Engineers’ late rally at bay.

The final score was two-nil and, as convention dictated, the Cup was not presented to Oxford after the game, but later in the year at their annual dinner.

royal Engineers Win First Replay for

Challenge Cup ROYAL ENGINEERS 2-0 OLD ETONIANS

Kennington Oval, March 16, 1875 The Royal Engineers, which had lost two of the first three Association Challenge Cup finals, managed to take possession of the championship trophy that had long eluded them with a 2-0 victory over Old Etonians this afternoon at Kennington Oval.

Wanderers, which had been heavy favourites after beating Farningham, 16-0, in the first round, would eventually lose to last year’s Cup champions, Oxford University, in the quarter-finals. Queen’s Park, another favourite, was competing in the inaugural Scottish Cup. Three days ago, the Cup final between the Engineers and Old Etonians ended in a 1-1 tie, which forced today’s replay – the first ever in Cup history.

Henry Renny-Tailyour, who had scored the lone goal in the semi-final replay win against Oxford University and in the first match with Old Etonians, and William Stafford teamed up to give the Engineers a 2-0 winning margin.

THIRD TIME IS A CHARM ■

After losing their first two Cup final matches, the Royal Engineers finally were winners. They defeated the Old Etonians, 2-0, in a replay.

FA CUP MEMORIES On August 25, 1875, Captain Matthew Webb became the first man to swim unaided across the English Channel.

His remarkable feat took him nearly 22 hours and he swam nearly 40 miles. Webb became a national hero and his fame travelled the world.

He later lost his life in a swimming stunt at Niagara Falls.

When he was buried, his famous Channel swim was reflec- ted in a memorial stone in his birth-place in Dawley that read: “Nothing great is easy.” These sentiments are ones that the Royal Engineers players must have shared.

Twice-beaten finalists in the fledgling FA Cup tournament in 1872 and also in 1874, they must have wondered whether they would ever lift the stunning silver trophy.

In 1875, they finally put things right.

Twenty-nine teams entered that year’s FA Cup. Old Etonians received a bye in the second round, which allowed for a “last eight” to be established.

Royal Engineers made light work of their route to the final.

They were three-nil winners over Marlow; 5-0 over Cambridge University; 3-2 over Clapham Rovers, and then had a single goal replay victory over the Cup holders, Oxford University, in the semi-final.

Next stop was the Old Etonians in the FA Cup final.

The military side had nine lieutenants and two captains in their Cup final line-up. Old Etonians’ team included Sir James Stronge as one of their backs and the side was captained by the charismatic Hon. Arthur Kinnaird.

C.W. Alcock, a Cup-winner with Wanderers in 1872,

refereed the match.

Once the ball was kicked off, the game was played at a fast and furious pace. And with a strong wind at their backs, Alexander Bonsor put the Old Etonians ahead.

The teams changed ends and ten minutes later, following a good “bully” in front of the Old Etonians goal, Engineers drew level with a goal by Lieutenant Henry Renny-Tailyour.

He would also score in the replay because, despite benefitting heavily from the strong wind, the Old Etonians could not find a decisive winning goal.

And they also lost one of their star players, Cuthbert Ottaway, who received a bit of severe “hacking” from an attentive Engineers’ back – and suffered a violently sprained ankle. That injury would keep him out of the replay – the first FA Cup final replay – which was played just three days after the first match.

Royal Engineers fielded the same side, but it seems finding players for the replay proved a little more difficult for the Old Etonians. They arrived an hour late for the replayed final and sported no less than four changes on their team.

One can imagine a few hand-written notes being scurried by horse and carriage between some well-appointed houses as the Old Etonians struggled to find a team of sufficient strength to field in the replay against the Engineers.

When they finally showed up at the Oval they found an Engineers team determined to finally lift the trophy.

This time the Engineers – “after several spirited bullies” – saw their opposition off by two goals to nil.

POWERFUL Wanderers Defeat Old Etonians

in Cup Replay WANDERERS 3-0 OLD ETONIANS

Kennington Oval, March 18, 1876 Wanderers, who had won their first two Challenge Cups by only playing five matches, had a much tougher route this time, having to win four before reaching the final against Old Etonians. In the semi-final against Swifts, Charles Wollaston scored the winning kick to give Wanderers a 2-1 victory.

In the final on March 11th, John Edwards’ kick at 35 minutes gave Wanderers a 1-0 lead. But five minutes into the second half, Alex Bonsor evened up the score with his goal for Old Etonians. The match, which was played with extra time, ended in a 1-1 tie.

A week later in the replay, Wanderers won easily, 3-0, with a goal by Wollaston – the only player still left from the 1872 Cup team – and a pair by Thomas Hughes.

It was the first time a player would score two goals in a Cup fnal. Wanderers were aided by Arthur Kinnaird, the Old Etonians captain, who was forced to replace Quintin Hogg in goal, but proved to be unable to stop the Wanderers’ onslaught.

The victory gave Wanderers a total of three Cups in five years.

FA CUP MEMORIES The fifth staging of the FA Cup final, in 1876, was notable for the inclusion of three sets of brothers and the first overseas player making his debut in the climax of the tournament.

Frank and Hubert Heron teamed up on Wanderers’ side, while Alfred Lyttelton and his brother, Edward, were in the colours of the other finalists, Old Etonians.

A further set of brothers in Old Etonians line-up were Albert and Charles Meysey-Thompson. Rather quaintly for the Cup final, Albert took Thompson as his surname and Charles took Meysey.

Once again, the Arthur Kinnaird captained Old Etonians, which included American-born Julian Sturgis, who is deemed to be the first overseas player in the Cup final.

In the semi-finals, Wanderers had defeated Swifts whilst Old Etonians knocked out Oxford University.

Wanderers were playing in their third final and Old Etonians were taking part in their second. The Cup final would go to a replay for the second year in succession.

The first Cup final match was played on March 11, 1876.

Conditions were fine but once again a strong wind blew around the Oval and, as would be the case many times in the future at this famous cricket ground, this was a toss to win.

Wanderers did just that and when play finally got underway at twenty minutes past three, the 1872 and 1873 winners dominated proceedings, going ahead in the match through John Edwards after 35 minutes.

The equaliser would seem to have been one for the “dubious goals” committee as The Sporting Life’s account of the goal reflects.

“Not many minutes then had fell in more senses than one, as owing to the wind and its defenders being forced back on the posts, they were knocked down, and ball, Wanderers and Etonians in a body went through the space between them which the tape should have covered. Thus both sides were equal.”

No further chances were scored despite, no doubt, a liberal display of bullying, scrimmaging and hacking – and with the scores even it was a replay and back to the Kennington Oval the following Saturday.

For the second year running Old Etonians suffered from not being able to play their first-choice eleven in the replay.

Conditions for the match were inclement. The previous week’s gusty wind was replaced by a cold snap and a distinct threat of snow. The bad weather caused a reduction of the attendance at the game by approximately 2,000.

The supporters being absent was one thing, but the changes in a weakened Old Etonians again proved to be their undoing as Wanderers, unchanged from the drawn first match, ran out comfortable winners by three goals to nil.

Charles Wollaston scored the opening goal and Thomas Hughes added two more to clinch Wanderers’ third Cup final victory in five years.

Wanderers Win cup in extra-time

Against Oxford WANDERERS 2-1 OXFORD UNIVERSITY

Kennington Oval, March 24, 1877 The Association Challenge Cup began with 37 teams entered in the first round, but it ended with Wanderers and Oxford University meeting in the finale.

Wanderers defeated Cambridge University, 1-0, in the semi-finals and Oxford beat Upton Park by a similar score before receiving a bye into the final.

It would be the closest Cambridge would ever get to winning the FA Cup. Evelyn Waddington got the game’s first goal with a long kick to give Oxford a 1-0 lead. Waddington’s kick was caught by Wanderers goalkeeper Arthur Kinnaird, but Kinnaird stepped back over his own goal line to give Oxford the lead. Jarvis Kenrick evened it up for Wanderers just before time was called in regulation play.

The two teams then agreed to play on for 30 minutes in order to determine a winner. During extra-time, William Lindsay boomed the winning kick to give Wanderers a 2-1 victory and their fourth Association Challenge Cup. Wanderers also won the Cup in 1872, 1873 and 1876.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH ■ Playing in

their third Cup final, Oxford University fell short, losing to Wanderers, 2-1.

FA CUP MEMORIES FA Cup final history has been littered with outstanding performances, displays that changed the destiny of the game.

Great saves, great goals, great tackles – all have been part of the rich tapestry of this amazing tournament.

But not many players have been able to change the result of a game – and after the game had been finished.

But that redoubtable early hero of the FA Cup, the Arthur Kinnaird, who is fast becoming a hero of mine, did just that!

Kinnaird, who had played in three of the previous five finals – once for Wanderers and twice for Old Etonians – was again back at Kennington Oval for the climax to the 1877 competition.

This time he was playing for Wanderers – and this time in goal. In his three previous Cup final appearances, he was a forward, but in 1876 he replaced Old Etonians’ injured goalkeeper.

This remarkable man took his place in the Wanderers’ goal behind two full-backs, two half-backs and six forwards – I think they would call that “total football” these days!

On a cold and blowy day at the Oval, the game scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. kick-off got underway shortly after 3 p.m.

Wanderers were traditionally slow starters, despite winning the toss and having the wind to their backs, and Cup final day was no different.

The match’s first key moment came when Evelyn Waddington’s long punt was caught by Kinnaird, who stepped back between the posts.

Oxford appealed for a goal and after some significant

consultation, the referee, Mr. S.H. Wright, awarded a point.

Wanderers hit back, but couldn’t get the goal back immediately. As the wind dropped and a rain shower made the pitch a little greasy on top, the teams changed ends and Wanderers went for it.

Kinnaird by now had moved from goalkeeper to an out–field position, replacing the injured Charles Wollaston who went back between the posts.

Wanderers’ equaliser came four minutes from the end, when Hubert Heron’s run and pass found Jarvis Kenrick, who fired home past Oxford goalkeeper Edward Allington.

Seven minutes into the first period of extra-time, Wanderers’ William Lindsay had a shot headed out by the Oxford backs but followed up with a sharply-taken rebound.

Wanderers were in front for the first time in the game, and despite some spirited play by the university squad in the closing minutes, there was no addition to the scoreline and Wanderers had won.

There was, however, a later subtraction to the score-line when Kinnaird took his protest about Oxford’s goal to the Football Association Council. Such was his power of persuasion and his level of influence that he managed to convince them that he had not stepped over the line when catching the ball. They struck the goal from the records, despite the referee having given it and newspaper reports having verified it.

The result of the match was changed to 2-0 for the next 100 years or so.

Wanderers stop Engineers to win third Straight

Challenge Cup WANDERERS 3-1 ROYAL ENGINEERS

Kennington Oval, March 23, 1878 Wanderers won their third straight Association Challenge Cup, and fifth in seven years, with a 3-1 defeat of the Royal Engineers in front of a crowd of 4,500 at the Oval. They have a perfect record with five Cup finals wins in five appearances.

The Engineers had to get past two replays with Oxford University in order to meet Wanderers in the finals. It was a rematch of the first Cup final in 1872.

Jarvis Kenrick scored two goals and Arthur Kinnaird added another to put Wanderers on top this afternoon. William Morris scored the Engineers’ lone goal.

After winning their third straight Association Challenge Cup, the Wanderers were entitled to keep the trophy, based on the rules of the era. However, the Wanderers agreed to let future teams continue to duel for the Cup as long as a future team would not be able to keep it after winning three Cups in a row.

Oddly, this would be Wanderers’ last appearance in the Cup final. Three years later, after struggling to finance a team, they would disappear from FA competition.

LET THERE BE LIGHT ■ In November 1878, Kennington Oval hosted its first football game played under the lights. The two teams who participated in this historic event were Wanderers, the current Cup holders, and Clapham Rovers.

FA CUP MEMORIES Wanderers were fast becoming the hot team of the FA Cup and in 1878 they completed a hat-trick of successive wins.

This meant they not only lifted the Cup trophy again, but actually could keep it forever.

They were the rules of the competition and thus the Wanderers took ownership of the silver trophy.

In due course, however, they gave the Cup back to the Football Association and thus it continued to be played for.

The final in 1878 was again between Wanderers and Royal Engineers. The frequency that these teams were reaching the final suggested that the climax to the tournament seemed the preserve of just a few teams.

In seven Cup finals only four teams had competed: Wanderers, Royal Engineers, Oxford University and Old Etonians. This, despite, the competition now attracting over 40 teams, including the exotically-named Panthers, Swifts, Hawks, Pilgrims, St. Marks and Remnants – all taking their place in the opening stages of that year’s contest.

In the semi-final stage, Royal Engineers had beaten Old Harrovians, 2-1, whilst Wanderers had received a bye to the final. In earlier rounds Wanderers had beaten Panthers, 9-1; High Wycombe, 9-0; Barnes, 4-1, following a 1-1 draw, and Sheffield, 3-0.

Engineers were no slouches either, having knocked six goals past Pilgrims and eight past Druids en route to their semi-final clash with Old Harrovians.

The final itself was eagerly anticipated and played in front of a large crowd, estimated at approximately 4,500. The match

kicked off at 3:40 p.m. in fine weather, and Wanderers were hot favourites.

Within five minutes of the start, Wanderers were ahead after Jarvis Kenrick, the man who had scored the first-ever goal in FA Cup history (in 1871-72), was on target again in the FA Cup final itself.

Engineers equalised but Wanderers went back in front when a free-kick from Arthur Kinnaird was “bullied” into the goal.

The second half proved as absorbing as the first, but Wanderers maintained their scoring touch when Kenrick scored their third, and his second, goal of the game.

Another big hero on the day was Wanderers’ goalkeeper, James Kirkpatrick.

In future FA Cup finals, goalkeepers would play a major role in helping determine the destiny of the Cup. In 1956, German hero Bert Trautmann would play the closing stages of Manchester City’s final against Birmingham City with a broken neck.

Kirkpatrick got involved in a heavyweight assault by Royal Engineers in the 1878 final and emerged with a fractured arm.

But the gallant Kirkpatrick played on for the rest of the match ... and in goal, too!

Wanderers’ secretary, C.W. Alcock, later returned the Cup to the Football Association, on the understanding that the rule over retaining the trophy, if won three successive times, was removed. When Blackburn Rovers achieved this feat in the 1880’s they were presented with a commemorative shield to mark their achievement.

Old Etonians BEAT Clapham ROVERS to CLINCH

CLUB’S FIRST CUP OLD ETONIANS 1-0 CLAPHAM ROVERS

Kennington Oval, March 29, 1879 Having been to The Association Challenge Cup final twice earlier, in 1875 and 1876, the Old Etonians finally won the prestigious trophy with a 1-0 victory over Clapham Rovers in a rain-soaked contest.

Old Etonians had to get past a stubborn Darwen in the quarter-finals following a pair of 5-5 and 2-2 replays, before winning 6-2, then edging Nottingham Forest, 2-1, in the other semi-final.

Clapham, however, had a much easier journey with an 8-1 routing of Swifts in the quarter-finals and a bye in the semi-finals.

Clapham controlled the ball in the first half, with midfielder Norman Bailey twice attempting to score for Rovers – but each time he missed.

After being set up by Harry Goodhart, C.J. Clerke finally broke the game open, scoring the Cup-winning goal in the 65th minute for Old Etonians.

Clapham half-back James Prinsep is the youngest player to ever compete in a Cup final. His age at the time was 17 years, 245 days.

THE WINNING PATH ■ Old Etonians

played only eight games in 1878-79 – all in the FA Cup tournament. They finished with a record of six wins, two draws and no losses.

FA CUP MEMORIES The 1878-79 FA Cup competition started with a thumping big upset in the First Round – the very essence of the FA Cup. Wanderers, the Cup winners in the three previous seasons, were hammered, 7-2, by Old Etonians in the opening stage of the tournament.

It was a surprise result and a reward for the work Major Francis Marindin had put in to keep Old Etonians alive.

Membership had drifted and it seemed to be dying a natural death. However, under Major Marindin’s energetic leadership he managed to renew interest in the club from Old Etonians in London and at the two universities.

In his career, he had played for both Royal Engineers, twice as a beaten FA Cup finalist (in 1872 and 1874), and Old Etonians, the school he had attended.

When the two teams met in the 1875 FA Cup final, it is thought he did what every officer and gentleman would do: he decided to play for neither team, preferring to watch from the stands.

In 1874, Marindin was elected President of the Football Association, a post he held until 1890. He also refereed in eight Cup finals (nine if you count the 1886 replay) and was a mover and shaker in the early days of association football.

Knighted in 1897, he left the office of President of the FA when he became concerned by the growing influence of professionalism in the game.

In 1879, having beaten the famous Wanderers, Old Etonians went on a Cup run, beating Reading, 1-0; Minerva, 5-2; Darwen finally, 6-2, after a couple of high-scoring draws, 5-5

and 2-2.

In the semi-final they beat Nottingham Forest, 2-1.

In the FA Cup final they were to face a new name at that lofty level of the competition.

Clapham Rovers had got a walk-over in the first round, and then scored 10 goals against Forest School in the next stage of the tournament.

A close 1-0 win over Cambridge University followed and then they had Swifts, who were were to put to the sword, 8-1, in the quarter-finals.

After receiving a bye in the semi-finals, they lined up against Old Etonians at Kennington Oval.

For one Clapham Rovers player it would mark a piece of FA Cup final history. James Prinsep, at 17 years and 245 days, was the youngest ever player to appear in the final, until 2004.

He had a very good game, and would earn a Winners’ medal two years later.

The game itself started in fine conditions despite a heavy shower half an hour before kick-off. Certainly these matches, being played in March rather than early or mid-May, which has become the recent norm, meant they were always susceptible to a range of potential weather conditions, many of which visited during of the period of the match itself.

This particular final had some challenging conditions: wind, rain and hail in its late March mixture – and only one goal.

It was scored by C.J. Clerke, twenty minutes into the second half. It was the Cup clincher and the Etonian supporters – estimated at 5,000 – cheered enthusiastically.

ADD PHOTO

LLOYD-JONES LEADS Clapham Rovers OVER

MIGHTY Oxford CLAPHAM ROVERS 1-0 OXFORD UNIVERSITY

Kennington Oval, April 10, 1880 Oxford University, which had won The Association Challenge Cup in 1874 and had reached the final in 1873 and 1877, lost to Clapham Rovers, 1-0, in a contest that was played on a bitterly cold afternoon at Kennington Oval.

Clapham lost to Old Etonians in the 1879 Cup final.

In a game that was largely dominated by stingy defences on both sides, Clopton Lloyd-Jones scored the game’s only goal in the 80th minute.

Oxford arrived at the Oval after defeating Nottingham Forest, 1-0, in the semi-final.

Clapham got there via a bye.

In the quarter-finals, Clapham topped Old Etonians, 1-0, while Oxford survived a 1-0 replay win against Royal Engineers.

Clapham reached the quarter-finals after recieving a bye in the 2nd Round, then routed Pilgrims, 7-0, and defeated Hendron, 2-0.

Oxford’s route was a bit more messy.

After beating South Norwood, 4-1, in the 2nd Round, they had a scoreless tie with Aston Villa and a 1-0 win over Maidenhead.

Reggie Birkett, Rovers’ goalkeeper, would be the first player to play for England in both international football and rugby competition.

For Oxford, it would be their last year to participate in the FA Cup tournament.

FA CUP MEMORIES The first FA Cup final of the new decade put a new name on the illustrious list of winners.

Clapham Rovers who had lost the previous year’s Cup final by a single goal, won it this time around by a similar scoreline.

They joined Wanderers, Oxford University, Royal Engineers and Old Etonians as the latest winners of the first national domestic knock-out cup competition in world football.

Once again, the estimated crowd was growing at Kennington Oval. Six thousand supporters turned out for the Cup final.

The game still had a remarkably different turn of phrase than today as this extract from a report in The Sporting Life illustrates.

“For some time now the play was continued in the centre of the ground, the backs on both sides playing exceedingly well, until a combined rush down by the Clapham forwards resulted in a bully just in front of the Oxford goal, which was neatly saved by (Percival) Parr ... a capital middle by (Clapton) Lloyd-Jones now threatened the University goal but the final kick by (Harold) Brougham was too hard and sent the ball over the cross-bar.”

Ah, a cross-bar, things would seem to be moving on from a tape across the posts. It is believed cross-bars were being experimented on from the mid-1870’s and were made compulsory from 1882.

What is also significant around this time was the FA Cup final still had to earn its stripes with regards to the space it was given in the newspaper. It was still someway short of being

“national news” but was moving slowly in the right direction.

The only goal of the 1880 FA Cup final was scored by Clapham Rovers’ Lloyd-Jones, after a brilliant solo run by F.J. Sparkes, with ten minutes left to play.

It was a much-changed team from Rovers’ first tilt at the Cup the previous year, with just five players remaining but they did have two undoubted stars in their line-up.

R.H. Birkett was their goalkeeper and an England international following his selection for a game against Scotland in 1879.

A highly competent handler of the ball, Birkett was one of a few sportsmen who represented their country at both football and rugby.

Norman Bailey played nineteen times for England and was still on the national team seven years after playing for Clapham Rovers in their Cup win.

For Oxford University it was three defeats in four finals and it was also their last appearance at the ultimate stage of the competition.

Once again the same names cropped up at the FA Cup final.

Major Mandarin was the referee of the Clapham v. Oxford clash and C.W. Alcock was one of the game’s two umpires.

A year later, Alcock received a testimonial from the Football Association in recognition of his eighteen years dedicated service to the sport and its parent organisation.

These were truly the founding fathers of the game now enjoyed by hundreds millions of people the world over these days.

FA CUP MEMORIES In 1881 a new name arrived at Kennington Oval to play their part in the FA Cup final, which was staged in early April.

Old Carthusians, had entered the tournament before, but this time they made it all the way to the final.

They polished off Dreadnought, 5-1, in the second round, got a bye in the next round before taking the scalp of the Royal Engineers, 2-0, in the Fourth Round.

In the next round, Old Carthusians beat the Cup holders, Clapham Rovers, in a convincing 3-1 victory, then advanced by defeating Darwen, 4-1, in the semifinal.

Old Carthusians were another football club built on an old boy’s public school, Charterhouse School, which is based in Godalming, Surrey.

The pupils had played a version of the game since the 1850’s and had made their debut in the tournament in the 1879-80 season.

Whilst members built up the Old Carthusians, others founded Stokeon-Trent FC. The final itself saw Old Carthusians matched against Old Etonians – the epitome of a game being played by the upper reaches of society.

It was a decisive 3-0 win for Old Carthusians, matching the biggest winning margin previously landed by a Cup-winning side.

A goal to the good at half-time, two successful second-half strikes sent the Cup to a new home.

Interestingly, a member of their victorious side was James Prinsep, who had been a loser two years before with Clapham Rovers. Now 19, he was on the winning side.

The amateur side, Old Carthusians, were watching with

interest and concern for signs of professionalism entering the sport and ultimately found their real home in the amateur ranks.

They would be the winners of the FA Amateur Cup in 1894 and 1897.

Winning both the FA Cup and the FA Amateur Cup was a double only achieved by Old Carthusians and Wimbledon.

Wimbledon, or course, had their FA Cup triumph in1988 – it was one of the tournament’s great upsets.

In the post-final news in 1881 were the details of the award ceremony marking Charles Alcock’s services to the game.

He was presented with a silver ink-stand and candle-sticks and a purse of £330 in recognition for his contribution since 1863.

Held at the Freemasons’ Tavern, Great Queen Street, Long Acre, the presentation to Alcock was an enjoyable affair. He was thanked for his “loyal and untiring devotion with which he has ever sought to promote (football’s) interest and prosperity.”

In response, Alcock explained in thanking the Association for the gifts, that the rules he had advocated in 1863 had been originated by his brother, in 1859.

He spoke warmly about The Football Association, from very small beginnings and also spoke on the subject of semi-professional footballers.

The game was about to undergo big changes, and some of the public school’s famous sporting off-shoots for their former pupils, were about to take a back-seat in the game.

But not before one more tilt at the windmill.

PAGE’S GOAL WinS Public

School Duel OLD CARTHUSIANS 3-0 OLD ETONIANS

I

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, April 9, 1881

n the last battle between two amateur teams from public schools for The Association Cup, Old Carthusians, who were made up of former students from Charterhouse and playing only in their second season of Cup competition, easily defeated Old Etonians, 3-0, this afternoon at London’s Kennington Oval.

With both teams having scored more than 20 goals in the tournament, the Cup final was expected to be a high-scoring affair.

Old Carthusians scored in the first half on a short kick by William Page. In the second half, Edward Wynyard and Edward Parry added a pair of goals against the exhausted Etonians, boosting their lead to 3-0.

Old Etonians arrived in the finals with a bye. Old Carthusians had to take a more difficult route by beating Darwen, 4-1.

Old Carthusians, which also won the FA Amateur Cup in 1894 and 1897, later became the first team to win both Cup tournaments.

ENGLAND’S HEROES ■ This painting of England’s top football players includes members of the Old Carthusians and from Old Etonians.

FA CUP MEMORIES It was March 1882 – and these were changing times. On the 24th of the month, Jumbo, the magnificent elephant and unrivalled star of London Zoo departed Britain for America and the world of legendary showman, P.T. Barnum.

Twenty-four hours later, Old Etonians won the FA Cup – but in so doing became the last amateur team to ever win the world’s most famous Cup competition.

Whatever Jumbo thought as he set sail for distant shores we’ll never know, but we can sense that the “old school” amateur footballers, from the higher echelons of English society eyed with caution the influx of football’s rank and file new recruits.

Old Etonians, once again captained by the wonderful Hon. Arthur Kinnaird were up against Blackburn Rovers, the first team from outside London and its surroundings to play in the FA Cup final.

The Lancashire club had been founded in 1875 by a group of public school old boys who met and created “Blackburn Rovers” and decided their colours would be blue and white – as they still are today.

Their leading light was John Lewis, later to become a founder of the Lancashire FA, a famous referee who was in charge of three FA Cup finals and later a vice-president of both the FA and the Football League.

In the 1881-82 tournament, there were three “Blackburns” in the First Round draw.

Blackburn Rovers beat Blackburn Park Road, 9-1, whilst Blackburn Olympic lost to Darwen, 3-1.

Rovers then beat Bolton, 6-2, had a bye in the 3rd Round, before beating close neighbours, Darwen, 5-1, in Round 4.

A Fifth Round win over Wednesbury Old Athletic was followed by a replayed semi-final win over Sheffield Wednesday.

Blackburn’s appearance in the FA Cup final had caught the imagination of the local public and the team received a rapturous sendoff at the railway station as they set off for London.

They also had plenty of supporters following them, who made up a large portion of the 6,500 that turned up at Kennington Oval on what was a fine day.

The Rovers were a team of “compactness and physical endurance” – and their varying stature and physique took the eye of the metropolitan supporters.

For the first time at the Oval, the match was played across the cricket square.

And eight minutes into the game, the Old Etonians, while playing on familiar territory, were ahead.

Reginald Macauley’s long shot beat Roger Howarth in the Blackburn goal.

An injury to a key player on the Lancashire side, Geoffrey Avery, proved a handicap as the game went into the second half.

In the second half, Rovers piled on the pressure, scrimmage after scrimmage, but to no avail; the Old Etonians saw the game out and had won the FA Cup again for the second, and last, time.

After the game, at a function held at St. James’ Restaurant, Blackburn captain Fred Hargreaves said if they could have got the goal back they would have beaten their opposition in extra-time. Possibly.

But his colourful counter-part, Arthur Kinnaird, had celebrated victory for the Old Etonians in typically flamboyant style – standing on his head outside the pavilion at the Oval!

KINNAIRD & CO.

WIN Cup OLD ETONIANS 1-0 BLACKBURN ROVERS

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, March 25, 1882

T

he eleventh Cup became a battle between the public schools and the emerging professional teams from the Midlands and Northern England.

In the semi-finals, Blackburn Rovers routed Sheffield Wednesday, 5-1, after previously battling to a scoreless draw, to become the Northern Cup challenger. Old Etonians, led by Arthur Kinnaird, thrashed Great Marlow, 5-0, to become the Southern Cup representative.

The more experienced Old Etonians scored quickly against Blackburn and held the Rovers scoreless to win their second Cup, 1-0, before a crowd of 6,500. It would be the last Cup final victory for the public schools.

Old Etonians won their first Cup in 1879 with a 1-0 victory over Clapham Rovers. They also lost in three other Cup finals – in 1875, 1876 and 1881.

Old Etonians’ only goal came in the eighth minute of the first half after a series of passes from Arthur Dunn to William Anderson, and to Reginald Macauley, who booted the ball past Blackburn goalkeeper Roger Howarth.

8,000 watch olympic WIN

cup BLACKBURN OLYMPIC 2-1 OLD ETONIANS

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, March 31, 1883

I

n front of a crowd of 8,000, who had journeyed outdoors to enjoy the wonderful springtime weather, Blackburn Olympic needed the help of a 30-minute extra-time period to defeat favoured Old Etonians, 2-1, to win the Association Challenge Cup this afternoon.

Old Etonians took a 1-0 lead 30 minutes into the first half on Harry Goodhart’s goal.

Olympic, which had spent a week training at Blackpool prior to the Cup final, began to show their strength in the second half. They were also aided by an injury to Old Etonians’ Arthur Dunn, which put the college squad down a man. But Old Etonians defence played strong and held Olympic to just one goal – by Alfred Matthews to even the count at 1-1.

At the end of regulation play, it was agreed to play and extra 30 minutes to hopefully get a decision in the match.

The extra-time and an additional player advantage proved to be too much for Old Etonians as Jimmy Costley blasted in the winning goal for Olympic.

FA CUP MEMORIES By the mid-1870’s, the Lancashire town of Blackburn had a dozen or so clubs playing football in the area.

In 1876, two of them – Black Star and James Street – merged to create Blackburn Olympic.

It was a grand name for a club that had a hugely influential effect on the football landscape as the game gradually moved from amateur to professional.

The 1883 FA Cup final would see a first – a team from the North would win the FA Cup for the first time – and a team made up of working-class who gave the rich lads t’boot.

Blackburn Olympic had made it to Kennington Oval after beating four local teams.

Along the way, they throttled Druids, the Welsh team, 4-1, and whipped Old Carthusians, 4-0, in the semi-final – once a ball had been found to play with!

As part of their preparations for the final, Olympic were taken away to the healthy sea-air of Blackpool. It was an indication that the Cup final was being taken more professionally now – and especially, it would seem, up north.

And “in the opposite corner” were Old Etonians, five times FA Cup finalists, twice winners and the current Cup holders.

The Cup final attracted a good crowd of 8,000. Play “was announced for half past three, and with commendable punctuality the elevens turned out to do battle.”

Old Etonians dominated early exchanges and “bully after bully” resulted in front of the visitors’ goal.

The Cup-holders finally went ahead through Harry Goodhart from a move set up by John Chevallier and Reg Macauley.

It was well into the second half before Olympic equalised through Arthur Matthews.

Blackburn Olympic were enhanced further when Old Etonians lost A.T.B. Dunn to injury.

Olympic poured on the pressure but couldn’t clinch the match.

Sportingly, Old Etonians agreed to extra-time despite being a man down – with inevitable consequences.

During the first-half of extratime things remained even, but in the final 15 minutes Blackburn Olympic went ahead through Jimmy Costley “who scored the winning point.”

The Cup came up to the north for the first time and a parade and civic reception were held for the members of the Blackburn Olympic club.

It would be the forerunner of that special FA Cup tradition – the welcome home party for the successful winning side.

The Southern clubs felt there was a sea-change happening in the game. Some moaned about how Olympic had been able to afford to take time off to prepare in Blackpool, intimating they may have been financially assisted.

The Football Association recognised the need to regulate the game properly and in 1885 legalised professionalism in football. Three years later, the Football League was born.

Blackburn Olympic would not be one of its founder members.

The League, instead, preferred Blackburn Rovers.

Olympic would find it tough to compete for players and supporters and in 1889 folded as the club we knew them as.

However, they had made their mark on English football.

FA CUP MEMORIES The first FA Cup final, between two clubs drawn from further than London and the Home Counties, drew both an extraordinary attendance to Kennington Oval – and a distinctive range of dialects.

Blackburn Rovers versus Queen’s Park of Scotland drew an estimated crowd of around 14,000 – and they had come from far and wide to see their favourites in action.

“It was evident that a large portion of the crowd had come from Lancashire and Scotland.

The broad Doric which one heard on all sides was proof enough of this. It is noteworthy that these excursionists were mostly of the artisan class, and equally noteworthy was their honest enthusiasm and their accurate knowledge of the game.”

The game was changing fast and becoming more than the popular past-time of the rich.

The size of the crowd attending the final at Kennington Oval was such that it tested the inadequate entrance facilities at the ground.

A foggy day in London had turned into a beautiful afternoon as the teams emerged from the pavilion at half-past-three.

The Glasgow team were in their black and white hoops whilst Rovers were in their blue and white.

Queen’s Park were pre-game favourites and lived up to that billing in the early skirmishes between the teams. But Rovers soon proved to be too powerful.

Firstly, Jimmy Forrest and James Brown combined, with the latter committing George Gillespie in the Queen’s Park goal. James Brown missed the

ball badly but Joe Sowerbutts had the easy job of putting it through the Glasgow team’s posts.

A second goal beckoned for Rovers and duly arrived when, from a corner, the Scotsmen seemed to have cleared their lines only to see the ball returned between their posts by Jimmy Forrest of Rovers.

Robert Christie later scored for Queen’s Park but it was not enough as Rovers held out strongly on defence for the rest of the game and became the second Blackburn club in two years to lift the FA Cup and take it back home for a parade and a reception.

The two teams would meet again in the final in 1885 by which time the ultra-refined Pall Mall Gazette might have gotten a little more use to them.

“Strange oaths fell upon Southern ears, and curious words, curious but expressive filled the air. It is said, and it redounds to the honour of these gentry, that Blackburn will turn out in its thousands to welcome back the conquering heroes, with bands of music and gay banners.

“For a few hours the loom will lay idle, and the sons of toil will drink much more liquor than is good for them.”

The South of England would have to get used to it. The power-base in the game was moving inexorably northwards – and their fans would follow them southwards.

The next time a London team would win the Cup would be in the next century.

Blackburn and their colourful supporters would be back in town next year.

ROVERS Defeat highscoring scots for

Cup BLACKBURN ROVERS 2-1 QUEEN’S PARK

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, April 4, 1884

t

he Scottish Cup winner from Glasgow, Queen’s Park, travelled south to Kennington Oval to meet Blackburn Rovers for the English version of the Cup in front of a crowd of 14,000. Queen’s Park had scored 44 goals in the seven games prior to the Cup final and were considered the legitimate favourite.

Blackburn, however, were up to the challenge and won their second straight Cup, 2-1.

Queen’s Park had two first-half goals that were disallowed after being rolled “offside.” Blackburn responded by moving the ball into Queen’s Park territory, with Joe Sowerbutts giving Blackburn a 1-0 first-half lead. Queen’s Park got on the scoreboard five minutes before intermission, with Robert Christie’s scoring the equaliser.

Early in the second half, Jimmy Forrest scored quickly to lift Blackburn’s lead to 2-0.

ROVERS defeat scots, retain

cup Blackburn ROVERS 2-0 Queen’s Park

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, April 4, 1885

I

n the first season of legalised professional players, Blackburn won the Association Challenge Cup again by defeating Scottish powerhouse Queen’s Park in a rematch of the 1884 Cup final. The final score was 2-0 and it was played before a crowd of 12,500 on a chilly April Saturday afternoon at the Oval.

It was a game which featured the Rovers’ power and fitness against the Scots’ superior skills. And for the second year in a row, Blackburn proved to be the better squad.

Following a kick by Jimmy Brown that hit the post and rebounded, Jimmy Forrest, from close-in, booted it past Queen’s Park goalkeeper George Gillespie for a 1-0 lead fourteen minutes into the match.

In the second half, Brown, Rovers’ captain, scored the team’s second goal after 13 minutes of play to complete the 2-0 victory.

CHAMPS AGAIN ■

After winning the Cup final against Queen’s Park in 1884, the two teams met again in 1885 – and Blackburn won again. This time the score was 2-0.

FA CUP MEMORIES The Easter Holidays in 1885 allowed football followers to take advantage of rail excursions from Scotland, Northern England and the Midlands.

Their destination: Kennington Oval. The event: the FA Cup final.

Although some doubters had wondered at the wisdom of holding football’s big game on a holiday weekend it just gave more people a chance to travel to see it.

And as in the previous year it was Blackburn Rovers versus Queen’s Park.

The gates to the ground were opened early and by 3 o’clock the pitch was lined with rows of spectators some ten to twenty deep.

It had turned out to be a delightful April day, warm and sunny, with a keen wind keeping the playing surface dry and firm.

The fans had kept themselves amused by renditions of wellknown songs and the mood was good-natured. The anticipation was for a game as lively as last year’s.

Queen’s Park, who had been a consistent entrant in the FA Cup, and just as consistent a withdrawer, had become the dominant force in Scottish football.

Formed in 1867 they helped build the structure, strategy and, indeed, some of the early competitions in Scottish football.

They provided all eleven players for a Scotland v. England match in 1872, and their jerseys carried distinctive thin black and white hoops.

The famous players in their history would include another man who made his mark on both Scottish and English football, Alex Ferguson.

Queen’s Park had already won their own domestic cup tournament – the Scottish FA Cup

– on no less than seven occasions – and would add a further three successful attempts by 1893.

With their home ground at Hampden Park in Glasgow, the amateur side had regularly entered the English FA Cup as well, but would often have to scratch out of the competition if a tie needed a replay to resolve it.

Either the inability of their players to travel twice down south, or the expense of doing so, meant Queen’s Park had a chequered record in the competition.

In 1884 and 1885 they made it to the English final – and hundreds of supporters followed suit on the trip to London.

As the teams appeared separately from the pavilion, the crowd cheered them loudly as they walked onto to the pitch, with the Scottish club getting an especially warm welcome.

Inside the first quarter of an hour, Blackburn captain Jimmy Brown’s shot was blocked. Some defensive heading didn’t clear the trouble and Jimmy Forrest, a scorer in the 1884 final, was on target again, putting the ball through the Scottish team’s posts for the game’s opening goal.

No further scores were added in the first half. Queens Park hit back hard – but to no avail.

Howard Fecitt and Forrest would combine and lay the ball in for Brown to score with ease, giving Rovers a 2-0 lead.

To their credit, Queen’s Park refused to give up the fight and played strongly to the end of the game.

However, like the previous year with the same club, Blackburn Rovers, and two years before with Blackburn Olympic, the FA Cup was going back home to a Lancastrian town that was getting used to seeing it.

ROVERS WIN THIRD

CUP

IN A ROW BLACKBURN ROVERS 2-0 WEST BROMWICH ALBION

By The Daily Telegraph Racecourse Ground, Derby, April 10, 1886

B

lackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion, who battled to a 0-0 tie in the Cup final a week ago before a crowd of 15,000 at Kennington Oval, met again in a replay today at the Racecourse Ground at Derby, which is home to the Derbyshire County Cricket Club – and Blackburn proved their superiority with a 2-0 victory.

Special trains from Birmingham, Lancashire and Nottingham brought a large contingent of visitors, who formed a record crowd of 12,000 for the contest.

The match began at 3:33 p.m., and 27 minutes into the game Joe Sowerbutts scored the only goal of the first half to give Blackburn a 1-0 lead.

Albion opened the second half with a flurry of attempts to score, but Rovers’ defence proved to be too stingy.

Jimmy Brown, the team’s captain, scored in the second half to give Rovers a 2-0 lead.

The win gave Blackburn its third Association Challenge Cup in a row, which tied the record set by Wanderers in 1876-1878.

FA CUP MEMORIES One of the most enduring elements of life in the United Kingdom found its way onto the plates of the well-to-do in 1886.

For, that was the year that Fortnum and Mason’s sold a peculiar new foodstuff – the humble baked bean! They actually bought a sample from a American gentleman called Mr. Heinz.

Success was in the wind – literally! And the humble baked bean, when joined by a few of his pals, was a smash-hit.

Over 2 million cans of baked beans are sold in the UK every day!

1886 was also the year when the FA Cup final reflected more evidence that the game of football was changing and that the working man was about to be a very significant part of its future.

Blackburn Rovers were also in the Cup final again, which was good news for Messrs. Sharples and Aspden, of Northgate, Blackburn, who were arranging excursions to London for the Cup final.

By now this was becoming an annual event for Rovers – and their supporters might have been getting in the mood to buy a “season ticket” to be transported to the event.

In 1886, they would have to venture south more than once to see their team ultimately lift the trophy because the first match against West Bromwich Albion ended in a scoreless draw.

West Bromwich Albion reflected the new type of football club that was signing up with Association Football. Founded in 1878 as the West Bromwich Strollers, the team’s players were comprised of factory staff from George Salter’s Spring Works. They were renamed West Bromwich Albion in 1880

after a district in their area. And the new name stuck.

Albion joined the Football Association in 1883, turned professional in 1885, and the following year reached the FA Cup final. They more than matched the support at the Oval for Blackburn Rovers and Albion received a huge cheer as they entered the field of play.

The team was photographed before the game – a new-fangled idea – and the game then kicked off at around 4 o’clock. Once again, it had been delayed to accommodate those people who had wanted to see the Boat Race earlier in the day.

A crowd of around 15,000 watched the game but despite a sunny day and a strong wind, neither could score.

Albion were the fitter team.

Therefore, perhaps predictably, Blackburn declined to play the extra half-hour.

An FA committee was quickly assembled and it was decided by a small majority that a replay should take place in seven days – and held at Derby County.

This was a departure for the Cup tournament but probably reflected the fact that teams originated from further up the country and supporters could make the replay more easily if the game was played nearer their homes.

It was a wise choice and an estimated 12,000 turned up at the Racecourse Ground in Derby to witness Blackburn clinch a hattrick of FA Cup final victories.

A late bite of winter weather meant that the finalists had woken up to a heavy snow-fall.

Thankfully it had thawed by kick-off time – and Rovers roared home.

MIGHTY Villa Dump

WEST BROM ASTON VILLA 2-0 WEST BROMWICH ALBION

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, April 2, 1887

W

est Bromwich Albion, who were playing in The Association Challenge Cup for the second straight year, and were match favourites, lost to rival Aston Villa, 2-0, in a contest that was hotly contested. It was the first all-Midlands Cup final.

Following a scoreless first half, Derek Hodgetts booted Aston Villa to a 1-0 lead early in the second half.

Afterward, Albion protested the goal. The argument that followed lasted several minutes. Albion goalkeeper Bob Roberts, assuming Hodgetts was offside, made no attempt to stop the Villa winger’s shot. The umpires on both sides, however, ruled in favour of Villa, much to the distress of Albion and the wrath of their supporters.

Two minutes before the end of the match, Archie Hunter intercepted a back-pass and added Villa’s second goal to wrap up the scoring at 2-0 and complete an eightyear dream.

VILLA RULES ■ Aston Villa’s FA Cup final win in 1887 would be the team’s first of seven Cup wins. Villa would also win the Cup in 1895, 1897, 1905, 1913, 1920 and 1957.

FA CUP MEMORIES Aston Villa, one of English football’s most decorated clubs, and an original member of the Football League, began their life in 1874 when cricketing enthusiasts of Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel decided to also run a football team.

To further complicate matters their first fixture was against a local rugby team, who insisted that the match should reflect both sports.

So, the first half of the game was played under rugby rules whilst the second half of the game was played under football jurisdiction.

I’m not sure how they worked out the score.

Aston Villa made rapid progress and made their way through the footballing hierarchy to lift their first FA Cup in 1887.

This was to be the first of seven FA Cup final wins, and a further three final appearances when finishing up as the losing side.

In the 1886-87 Cup tournament, there were a total of 128 teams entered, including teams from Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Their Cup final opponents, West Bromwich Albion, beat Preston North End in the competition’s semi-final and Villa beat Rangers, both games carrying a 3-1 scoreline.

Villa’s early colours were defined by an order for two dozen shirts of chocolate and sky blue – but the chocolate “melted” and claret was the preferred option.

The Cup final was staged at Kennington Oval and a large crowd headed down from the Midlands to see it.

On the day, Villa were the team that prevailed – and with some comfort and self-confidence it would seem.

Archie Hunter, the Villa captain, who became a team legend, saw it thus: “Doubtless you noticed the

comments of Jem Bayliss (Albion’s captain) and myself prior to the match.

“We were both confident of winning up to the time of going upon the field, and, in fact, until the first goal was scored.

“After that, the confidence seemed to be confined to our team as the West Bromwich men were very down-hearted.”

Goals by Dennis Hodgetts, which Albion felt was offside, and Hunter, himself, clinched victory for Villa.

For West Bromwich Albion, who had been the losing Cup finalist the previous year, there was an instant inquest as the club’s officials felt they were below par and that perhaps their preparations for the Cup final had not been suitable.

One element of those preparations had been a couple of days down in Ascot, readying themselves for the match.

An Albion committee man was asked if the “away-days” had contributed to their defeat. His answer was unequivocal.

“Yes, decidedly; we have discovered since the match that the air at Ascot was not bracing enough. It was what could be termed ‘softening.’ It tended to reduce the stamina of the men.

My contention is that the (Cup final) defeat was solely caused by the fact of their leaving home (to go to Ascot).”

One wonders what was going on at Ascot during the team’s final preparations and it is not clear whether they went back there the following year – but something must have changed because they won the FA Cup for the first time in 1888.

One small foot-note: Newton Heath made their debut in the FA Cup in 1886-87. Later, they would be known as Manchester United.

PRESTON

BID

EXPOSED WEST BROMWICH ALBION 2-1 PRESTON NORTH END

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, March 24, 1888

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nbeaten this season, Preston North End were so confident of their chances to win today’s Cup final that they asked the referee, Major Francis Marindin, if they could have a team photograph made with the Cup before the match. His reply: “Hadn’t you better win it first?”

Preston had scored a whopping 55 goals in seven matches in the Cup tournament, including a record 26 goals against Hyde. Yet in the 1888 Cup final, which was played before a crowd of 19,000, they met their equal in West Bromwich Albion, who came away with a 2-1 victory and their first FA Cup crown.

Albion had been the runner-up in the previous two Cup finals, losing to Blackburn Rovers, 2-0, in 1886 and to Aston Villa, 2-0, in 1887.

Albion took the lead eight minutes into the first half, when Billy Bassett passed to Jimmy Bayliss, who kicked it past Preston goalkeeper Robert Mills-Roberts.

A determined Preston squad returned in the second half and after seven minutes John Goodall attempted a header, which hit the bar and bounced away.

Fred Dewhurst then kicked the rebound past Albion goalkeeper Bob Roberts to even up the score at 1-1.

Albion finally took the lead for good with 13 minutes left to play after forward George Woodall took a long shot and the ball bounced off Albion’s Billy Bassett’s knee. It then hit the post and fell in for a 2-1 advantage.

FA CUP MEMORIES The year 1888 proved to be a land-mark for the development of football in England.

On March 22, the Football League was formed and its first twelve members gave a sense of how the geographical centre of the game was moving away from the capital and up into the Midlands and the North.

The founding members of the new 12-team organisation were: Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, West Bromwich Albion, Everton, Burnley, Accrington, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Notts County, Derby County and Stoke.

Professionalism was taking hold in the game, and the early exponents and winners of the FA Cup found themselves more comfortably playing as amateurs and had their own competition, the FA Amateur Cup by 1893.

Two days after the formation of the Football League, the FA staged the Cup final at Kennington Oval.

West Bromwich Albion had made it to the final for the third year running but their opponents were Oval first-timers, Preston North End. Preston were another football club which grew out of a cricket and rugby establishment – and on October 15, 1887, they truly made their mark on the FA Cup in a game that is enshrined in history.

On that afternoon they beat their opponents Hyde, 26-0! It is still the highest score ever recorded in the history of the Cup tournament.

Preston had wanted to play the game in midweek to leave them free to continue their established fixture schedule. Hyde refused and so Preston put out the “first team” when their opponents turned up at Deepdale for the Cup match.

It was 12-0 at half-time and things only got worse after the break, with another fourteen goals going past the Hyde goalkeeper, Charles Bunyan, whom many people thought was their best player!

The top scorer in the match was Jimmy Ross with eight goals.

Preston reached the FA Cup final and found West Bromwich Albion in the opposite corner.

It is not known whether the Throstles had prepared by going to Ascot again – one would rather think not!

However, what really played into their hands was their previous experience in the final and a touch of over-confidence in the Preston ranks.

The referee, Major Francis Marindin, was judged to have had a controversial match and Preston’s

players were displeased when Albion’s opening goal by Jem Bayliss was allowed despite their strong appeals.

Preston equalised through Fred Dewhurst early in the second half but George Woodhall gave Albion a second – and winning – goal in the fifteen minutes of the game.

At their third attempt, West Bromwich Albion had finally won the FA Cup. Preston would enjoy that moment twelve months later ... and more.

As the year closed in, one birth was notable – John Logie Baird. His ground-breaking invention of the television would send football spinning and bring in billions of pounds in new revenue.

A RECORD CROWD OF 22,000 AT oval WATCH preston

WIN DOUBLE PRESTON NORTH END 3-0 WOLVERHAMPTON wanderers

By The Daily Telegraph, Kennington Oval, March 30, 1889

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he sign above the doors at the train station read: “To the Oval” – and all morning and afternoon a large crowd made their way outside to find a wagon or an omnibus to take them to Kennington Oval to see the much-hyped FA Cup final between Preston North End and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It was the first year of the Football League, which had been organized in March 1888, and began play in the 1888-89 season. A record crowd of 22,000 showed up for the Cup final.

Preston North End, which lost in the Cup final last year to West Bromwich Albion, had been living up to the promise of their team chairman, William Sudell, to have the best team in the country in the 1888-89 season. They became known as the “Invincibles” as they roared to an 18-4-0 record.

With an emphasis on attack, Preston scored 74 goals in their 22 matches, and only at Accrington were they denied a goal. Preston gave up only 15 goals all season.

In the Cup tournament, Preston would reach the final without giving up a goal. They are also the first team to win the lofty Double, which consisted of the League title and the FA Cup. Preston took a 3-0 lead on goals by Fred Dewhurst in the 15th minute, Jimmy Ross at the 25th minute and Sam Thompson in the 70th minute, which proved to be the only points of the contest.

TROPHY BOYS ■ Preston North End did not give up a goal en route to the Cup final and won England’s first Double.

FA CUP MEMORIES Preston North End were one of the prime movers in the leap to professionalism in football.

Their manager during those changing times was Major William Sudell. A former Preston player, he searched the length and breadth of Britain to find the best players for his Deepdale side.

In 1884, such determined professionalism led to their expulsion from the FA Cup. Sudell claimed that at least they admitted paying his players; others, he suggested, were “sham” amateurs. A year later the game of football cautiously embraced professionalism and Preston moved forward.

It wasn’t just paying the players that marked Preston as professional. Their approach to the game also had intensity to it. They studied tactics with chessmen set out on the billiard table and with diagrams drawn up on the blackboard.

And what a team! With some talented Scotsmen in their ranks, they set out to build on their achievement of reaching the 1888 FA Cup final.

And they did. The 1888-89 season saw them win the

Football League championship without losing a game and lift the FA Cup without conceding a goal.

These achievements gave them the first domestic Double. And their unbeaten status earned them the tag of “The Invincibles.”

Preston’s League Championship win was delivered courtesy of eighteen wins and four draws in a 22-game season. They beat their nearest rival, Aston Villa, by a massive 11 points. During the season, they scored 74 goals and conceded only 15.

In the FA Cup tournament they beat Bootle, Grimsby, Birmingham St. George’s and Cup holders West Bromwich Albion without conceding a goal.

The Cup final matched Preston with Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had surprisingly come through a replayed semi-final with Blackburn Rovers.

A large crowd at Kennington Oval, believed to be in the region of 22,000, saw “The Invincibles” brush aside their Midlands opposition and win convincingly by three goals to nil. The game’s progress was also followed eagerly back in Preston. A large crowd had gathered

outside the town’s newspaper offices, waiting for any information to be relayed.

By half-time, Preston were two goals to the good, with Fred Dewhurst and Jimmy Ross on target for the Lancastrian side.

In Preston, several thousand people had congregated outside of the newspaper building to get updates on the Cup final as it progressed. They cheered when news of a third goal reached them – it had been added by Sam Thompson, who triumphed despite the handicap of having lost his sight in one eye.

When the final posting went up, which declared a 3-0 win for Preston, a large cheer went up and the crowd dispersed, no doubt, to some local pubs.

Back at the Oval, Major Francis Marindin, who had refereed the game, presented the trophy to the winners.

After winning the Cup, which was a stunning yet small silver trophy, some Preston fans questioned whether it matched the scale of their team’s achievement.

“The little tin idol,” just 18 inches tall, had been bought for just £20, but it was still the trophy to win.

TOWNLEY HAT TRICK WRAPS UP

CUP FINAL BLACKBURN ROVERS 6-1 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, March 29, 1890

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illy Townley, Blackburn’s left-winger, scored three goals to pace the Rovers’ 6-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday, before a crowd of 20,000.

Townley got his first goal on a header following a free kick by Walton six minutes into the opening half.

At the 35th minute, Nat Walton took advantage of his scoring opportunity with his long shot, which gave Rovers a 2-0 lead. Walton and Townley, working together again, gave Blackburn a 3-0 lead on Townley’s low kick that got past Sheffield goalkeeper John Smith at the 37th minute.

Two minutes later, Townley passed to Jack Southworth, who scored Rovers’ fourth goal.

Fourteen minutes into the second half, Wednesday got their only goal of the game when Albert Mumford punched it past Jack Horne, the Blackburn goalkeeper.

Six minutes later, Townley got his hat-trick to boost Rovers’ lead to 5-1. At the 77th minute, Joe Lofthouse wrapped up the scoring.

A POWERHOUSE ■ Blackburn’s 6-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday was the Cup final’s biggest winning margin until Bury topped this score in the 1903 Cup final.

FA CUP MEMORIES The 1890’s began with the highest-scoring FA Cup final to date as Blackburn Rovers ran riot over Sheffield Wednesday at Kennington Oval.

Preston North End had won the Football League Championship for the second year running but “The Invincibles” proved themselves to be mere mortals by losing four games in the process.

They also were surprisingly knocked out of the FA Cup tournament by Bolton Wanderers in the 3rd Round, having dispatched Newton Heath and Lincoln City in the previous rounds.

Blackburn made steady progress through the tournament. They beat Sunderland in the 1st Round, following it up with wins over Grimsby Town and Bootle before beating Wolves in a single-goal semi-final.

Their opponents, Sheffield Wednesday, were one of only three teams to have ever lost a game in the FA Cup and reached the final.

In their 3rd Round tie with Notts County, Wednesday’s original 5-0 win was overturned on an appeal from the East Midlands side, who subsequently went on to win the replayed game, 3-2.

This time it was Sheffield Wednesday who appealed and their protest was upheld.

A third match was organised, and, this time, non-League Sheffield Wednesday came through successfully by two goals to one.

Sheffield Wednesday, more commonly known as “The Wednesday” in those days, had derived their name from the local cricket club, which the football counterpart derived from.

The cricket club played its fixtures on a Wednesday and thus termed itself “The Wednesday Cricket Club.” When they

developed a football team in the winter months to keep their players fit, the name was carried forward.

They were voted into the Football Alliance in 1889 and, in their first season, were crowned champions. In the same season they reached their first FA Cup final.

That’s when the fairytale stopped as they met three-time winners, Blackburn Rovers.

Rovers, who had finished third in the Football League, were in top form when they met their Yorkshire rivals at Kennington Oval on March 29th, 1890.

Blackburn’s six-to-one score was the most points scored thus far in the FA Cup final.

Rovers were up, four-nil, by half-time and added a further couple of goals after the break.

Billy Townley scored a hat-trick and further goals were added by Nat Walton, Jack Southworth and Joe Lofthouse.

The authorised programme for the match, which laid out the team line-ups, was priced at one penny, and now an original copy of the programme could be valued at several thousand pounds.

The 1890 final was the last that Major Marindin officiated as referee. Being the President of the Football Association at the time, Marindin had played in two Cup finals and had been a referee of eight Cup finals and a replay.

In modern times the referee is appointed to the final only once and it is considered to be a pinnacle of an official’s career, unless they go on to referee a UEFA Champions League final or World Cup final.

Those matches were still decades away. But Marindin had played his part in the early days of the game.

ROVERS WIN 5TH

CUP BLACKBURN ROVERS 3-1 NOTTS COUNTY

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, March 21, 1891

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overs won their second straight Association Cup, and fifth overall, with a 3-1 victory over Notts County before 23,000. It was the largest crowd to ever see a Cup final in the tournament’s history.

Today’s match was supposed to be the first Cup which featured goals with nets, but the prototypes arrived too late for the kick-off and were instead put to use three days later in an international match.

Blackburn scored their first goal eight minutes into the match when George Dewar got a pass from Joe Lofthouse, took aim and booted the ball through the goal – and just out of reach of James Thraves, the Notts County goalkeeper.

Thirty minutes into the match, Lofthouse, Nat Walton, Billy Townley and Jack Southworth combined on a series of passes to move the ball up the wing. Southworth then sent the ball into the corner of the Wednesday net for a 2-0 lead. Five minutes later, Townley connected on a rebound off the bar on a shot by Southworth to give Rovers a commanding 3-0 advantage.

At the 70th minute Notts County finally got on the scoreboard with Jack Oswald’s goal.

ENGLAND’S BEST ■ Blackburn trounced Notts

County, 3-1, to win their second straight Cup final, and fifth overall, which tied Wanderers’ earlier record of five Cup final wins.

FA CUP MEMORIES In the small town of Milford in County Armagh, there is a park which carries the name of a man who changed football.

And, it was on a pitch in that park that one of football’s most celebrated features was born.

William McCrum, a local businessman and goalkeeper, invented the penalty kick.

The game’s guardians were becoming increasingly aware that players were using whatever means necessary to prevent a goal being scored against them.

McCrum came up with the idea of the penalty kick to solve the problem, and in 1890 it was taken to the International Football Board for their thoughts.

They were broadly in favour, but it was an incident in an FA Cup quarter-final, between Stoke and Notts County, in February 1891, that saw the argument sway heavily in favour of its rapid introduction.

A blatant hand-ball on the goalline by Notts County’s Jack Hendry enraged their opposition and the crowd alike. It was the incident of his punching the ball away that clinched the penalty debate.

Penalties were passed for introduction by the IFAB Board in June 1891, and the first one was scored by Billy Heath for Wolves in a League game against Accrington Stanley in September 1891.

Since then, these kicks have produced millions of heartstopping moments in the game.

Earlier in March of that year, Notts County’s luck had carried them to the FA Cup final, where they met Blackburn Rovers.

The 1891 final was another day trip to London for Blackburn fans.

The team received a rousing send-off as it left the train station for London on Friday’s 11:20 a.m. departure, destined for the capital and the FA Cup final against Notts County.

The previous weekend the two teams had met in the league and Rovers had suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of their final rivals.

Notts County had beaten a weakened Blackburn side, 7-1, and went into the match at Kennington Oval as favourites.

County had prepared for their Cup final meeting at Ashover in Derbyshire and it was felt the bracing air and “chilling baths” would make their players “fit to play for a kingdom.”

They were in good spirits but they were about to meet the “Cup Kings” – Blackburn Rovers.

At centre-forward Rovers had Jack Southworth, a great footballer and a professional musician.

He had scored in the 1890 Cup rout of Sheffield Wednesday.

An England international, he was the leading man in his position in the country and a key part of Blackburn’s success story.

The Lancastrians blitzed Notts County in the first half in front of a crowd estimated at 23,000.

Southworth got their second goal with Geordie Dewar and Billy Townley also notching. Jack Oswald scored a consolation goal for County mid-way through the second-half, but the dye was already cast – and the Cup was going back to Blackburn again.

CUP KINGS ■ Between 1894 and 1891, Blackburn Rovers won the Cup five times – in 1884, 1885, 1886, 1890 and 1891.

FA CUP MEMORIES On March 15, 1892, one of English football’s most iconic clubs was formed: Liverpool Football Club.

They settled in at Anfield, as Everton, its previous tenants, moved across Stanley Park to a new home at Goodison Park.

Liverpool would become one of the FA Cup finals’ most regular visitors. Their 2012 meeting with Chelsea at Wembley was their fourteenth appearance in the climax of world football’s first, and best, domestic cup competition.

By way of introducing them to what lay ahead, just four days after Liverpool announced itself to a quizzical world, the latest chapter in the FA Cup story was reaching its conclusion.

On March 19, West Bromwich Albion met Aston Villa in front of a huge crowd of over 32,000 at Kennington Oval.

It was to be the Oval’s last staging of the tournament.

Surrey County Cricket Club, which had become alarmed by the growing size of the Cup final crowds opted out of hosting the event anymore.

Indeed, the early games had been watched by just

a few thousand but now the games were drawing big crowds – invariably being filled with a mixture of interested Londoners and visiting fans from the North and the Midlands.

The last Cup final held at Kennington Oval was an allMidlands clash between Villa and West Brom.

Villa were the favourites. They had finished fourth in the Football League whilst the Throstles had ended up a lowly 12th spot in the fourteen-team League.

Albion’s Cup run had seen them beat the 1891 Cup winners, Blackburn Rovers, in the Second Round and Sheffield Wednesday, the previous year’s beaten finalists, in the next round, before finally dispatching Nottingham Forest in a semi-final that went to three games.

Villa’s route to the final had taken account of Heanor Town, Darwen, Wolves and Sunderland in the semi-final.

When the result of the FA Cup final was cabled back to the Midlands it was received with surprise.

Albion had come out clear winners by three goals to nil. An inspired display up front by the gloriously-named Billy Bassett helped to steer the game West Brom’s way.

An early goal from Jasper Geddes, the 21-year old

outside-left, settled their Cup final nerves and was followed up by a second from Nicholls.

A third from Jack Reynolds put the game beyond Villa.

The Villa goalkeeper, Jimmy Warner, had a difficult afternoon and the windows of his business, a public house, were later smashed in by disgruntled fans.

After the match, Kennington Oval bade farewell to the Cup final. It had staged every one since 1872, except 1873 and the replay of the 1886 final.

It had also witnessed the social transformation of the sport, the growth of interest in the sport, the developments in how it was played, and the rules by which it was governed.

Kennington Oval had also seen the sport move its power-base from the upper-class to the workingclass, had marked the move from amateur players to professionals, and had enjoyed the antics of superb eccentrics like the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird.

From marking the end of a seasonal sporting wheeze, it had seen crowds arrive in their thousands by train from the other end of the country to witness this new phenomenon.

Albion swamp

VILLA WEST BROMWICH ALBION 3-0 ASTON VILLA

By The Daily Telegraph Kennington Oval, March 19, 1892

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est Bromwich Albion won its second Association Cup in four attempts with a convincing 3-0 victory over favoured Aston Villa, before a record crowd of 32,810.

Albion, which won the Cup in 1888 with a 2-1 victory over Preston North End, was also a runner-up in the 1886 and 1887 Cup finals.

Both teams reached this year’s Cup finale after a pair of thrilling semi-finals. Albion’s Jasper Geddes scored three goals in a snowstorm against Nottingham Forest and Villa defeated League champions, Sunderland, in a match played at Bramall Lane, with Jack Devey and Dennis Hodgetts scoring two goals each in Villa’s 4-1 victory.

Four minutes into the first half today, Geddes gave Albion a 1-0 lead with his shot from the left of the goal which Villa goalkeeper Jimmy Warner mishandled.

At the 27th minute, Sam Nicholls scored easily against Warner to boost Albion to a 2-0 lead. Albion’s third goal came when half-back Jack Reynolds blasted a long kick from forty yards that travelled high and fast to give Albion a 3-0 lead at the 55th minute and wrap up the scoring.

TROPHY COLLECTORS ■ West Bromwich’s Jasper Geddes scored a hat trick in a snow storm against Nottingham in an earlier Cup tie. Against Aston Villa in the Cup final, he scored the team’s opening goal.

ALLEN’S GOAL A CUP CLINCHER OVER

Tired Everton WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1-0 EVERTON

By The Daily Telegraph, Fallowfield, March 25, 1893

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fter 21 years at Kennington Oval, The Association Cup was moved to a new venue, the Manchester Athletic Club at Fallowfield. A total of 45,000 were in attendance – which is 30,000 more than the stadium’s capacity.

Wolverhampton won the Cup easily, 1-0, against an Everton squad that had to play three games in their semi-final match with Preston North End to advance.

Everton and Preston played to a 2-2 draw at Bramall Lane and a 0-0 draw at Blackburn, with Everton finally winning their third meeting, 2-1.

Five days after their win over Preston, Everton and Wolverhampton met for the Cup and an exhausted Everton squad fought mightily, but Harry Allen’s goal at the 60th minute made the difference. Allen’s long kick from the right wing got past Everton goalkeeper Richard William’s outstretched fingertips, giving Wolverhampton a 1-0 lead.

Everton was unable to muster a response. Fifteen minutes before the match’s conclusion, the Blues filed a protest, stating that the match should not be considered a Cup-tie because of the large crowd overflowing on the touchline. Hours later, the protest was withdrawn and the Cup was handed over to Wolverhampton.

VICTORY AT FALLOWFIELD ■

Wolves’ trip to Manchester allowed the Midlands club to defeat Everton, 1-0, who had earlier played three difficult Cup semi-final contests.

FA CUP MEMORIES The FA Cup final had a new home in 1893. It had moved up North and was to be staged at the Manchester Athletics Ground in Fallowfield.

Fittingly, the final featured a Lancashire side, Everton, and a leading team from the Midlands, the Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Everton, who had finished third in the Football League, had knocked out FA Cup holders, West Bromwich Albion, in the competition’s First Round.

They followed that up with wins over Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday, before beating Preston North End in a semi-final that took three games to resolve.

Wolverhampton, who were eleventh in the league, had beaten Bolton in a replay in the 1st Round, Middlesbrough and Darwen next, and then FA Cup giants, Blackburn Rovers, in the semi-final.

The week before the final, an Everton reserve side had beaten Wolves’ first team, 4-2, in the League but in the

final the next week, Wolves would have their day.

The ground in Fallowfield was buzzing, with a brim full of people – a crowd of 45,000. This was the first FA Cup final, except the 1886 replay, to be staged outside London and the crowds flocked to it.

The sun shone brilliantly for the match and the sight of so many supporters – it was the largest crowd ever seen for a football match anywhere in the world.

A large number of people were admitted without paying, and the police, 192 in number, struggled to cope with the sheer amount in attendance.

The small press corps also complained that their view of the game was obstructed by hordes of spectators and by pavilion seats that didn’t have line of sight of the whole pitch.

All that said, the crowd created a terrific atmosphere and the game was close.

Everton dominated in the first half and nearly scored on several occasions but Wolves held firm.

In the second half, the Midlands club took control. At first they went close but, like Everton before them, could not grab the vital break-through.

On the hour that all changed when Harry Allen grabbed the opening goal. It proved to be the winner.

Everton failed to respond and, indeed, their secondhalf performance did not match that of the first period.

In the later stages of the game, Wolves defenders bottled up the back and Everton disappointingly fell short.

It was Wolves’ first FA Cup final win, after a disappointing defeat by Preston North End in 1889.

For Everton, their next Cup final appearance was four years away, but in 1894, they would actually host the FA Cup final at their own new ground at Goodison Park.

The immediate upshot of staging a match outside of London was a sense that the crowds would be bigger and the journeys shorter, but it wouldn’t be long before the capital claimed its Cup final back.

Notts county soar to

cup WIN NOTTS COUNTY 4-1 BOLTON WANDERERS

By The Daily Telegraph Goodison Park, March 31, 1894

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otts County, the Football League’s oldest professional club, won their biggest honour in the team’s history with a 4-1 victory today over Bolton, before a crowd of 37,000 at Goodison Park.

Eighteen minutes into the opening half, Notts County pressed their attack, with Sam Donnelly racing down the pitch and finishing with a shot that hit the goalpost and rebounded. Wasting no time, Arthur Watson reacted by kicking the ball into the net and scored the game’s first goal.

At the 29th minute, Watson and Jimmy Logan moved the ball down the field, with Logan scoring a brilliant goal that Bolton goalkeeper John Sutcliffe had no chance of saving. In the 67th minute, Logan launched a grand shot that rolled between Sutcliffe’s legs for a 3-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Logan dodged a pair of Bolton backs and scored his third goal to give Notts County a 4-0 advantage. Logan’s third goal tied Billy Townley’s hat-trick record of four years ago.

At the 87th minute, Jimmy Cassidy finally succeeded in booting one past George Toone, the Notts County goalkeeper, to cut the score to 4-1.

FA CUP MEMORIES The North of England had made its mark – and the opening of the Manchester to Liverpool Ship Canal in 1894 was a further indication that the region was continuing to benefit from industrial growth.

That was work. A wider opportunity for play was also reflected in the opening of the world-famous Blackpool Tower – which nowadays still proudly overlooks the sands on the Fylde Coast.

And, in hosting the FA Cup final for the second year running, the North-West of England was underlining its importance in the rapidly growing world of association football.

This time the Cup final was be played in Liverpool, at Everton’s Goodison Park, and the club had taken some lessons from the staging of the match at Fallowfield, in Manchester, the previous year.

The scenes there had bordered on the chaotic as thousands of supporters got in free – and the numbers proved very difficult to manage safely.

The 1894 FA Cup final was between Bolton Wanderers and Notts County.

The Magpies had been beaten by Blackburn Rovers in their first FA Cup final appearance, in 1891, and were now in the Football League’s Second Division.

County can still claim to being the world’s oldest professional association football club.

Founded in 1862, but some official sources say 1864, they got things underway when “a side was chosen by W. Arkwright and Charles Deakin. A very spirited game resulted in the latter scoring two goals.”

An original founder member

of the Football League in 1888, County played in the original division but dropped into the Second Division in 1893.

Their opponents at Goodison Park – Bolton Wanderers – was another founding member of the Football League and had retained its status in the top division, finishing 13th in 1893-94.

A crowd of 37,000 filled Goodison, and a possibly biased observation in The Nottingham Evening Post suggested that those wearing County favours significantly out-numbered those wearing the colours of Bolton.

The East Midlands supporters certainly had something to cheer when County went ahead through Watson after eighteen minutes.

Bolton supporters screamed “Penalty!” when County defender Jack Hendry remembered his famous hand-ball in an FA Cup-tie with Stoke and tackled Wanderers’ Robert Tannahill. But there was no penalty.

County went on the attack again and centre-forward Jimmy Logan scored their second goal.

They led two-nil at half-time and Logan added a third and a fourth goal midway through the second half. In so doing, he became one of only three players to have scored a hat-trick in the FA Cup final.

Billy Townley of Blackburn Rovers (in 1890) and Stan Mortensen of Blackpool (in 1953) would be the only other members of this elite scoring club.

A consolation goal for Bolton Wanderers was scored by Jimmy Cassidy.

It would be their only FA Cup final victory, but they became the first non-First Division team to win the FA Cup.

TOP HONOURS ■ Winning the 1894 FA Cup final was the Magpies’ most glorious moment in football. Three years earlier, Nott’s County lost in the 1891 Cup final to Blackburn, 3-1.

Villa’s chatt Scores Quickly as team struggles

IN TIGHT CONTEST ASTON VILLA 1-0 WEST BROMWICH ALBION

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 20, 1895

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record crowd of 42,560 merrily made their way into the new Sports Ground at Crystal Palace to see it inaugurated in a well-fought Football Association Challenge Cup final that saw Aston Villa defeat West Bromwich Albion, 1-0.

Villa and Albion had met twice earlier in the Cup final, in 1887 and 1892, with Villa winning the 1887 match, 2-0, and Albion taking the 1892 encounter, 3-0. This was the third venue for the Cup final in three years. Crystal Palace was chosen for its natural grass bowl, which would accommodate large, standing-room-only crowds.

Villa scored its only goal in the first minute of the match after Charlie Athersmith moved the ball up from his extreme right side to near the goal, then fired a shot that hit the goalpost. The ball bounced back toward Bob Chatt, who quickly kicked it past Joe Reader, the Albion goalkeeper. For another 89 minutes, Villa held on to claim the Cup. Chatt’s goal was the quickest goal ever scored in an FA Cup final.

After Villa had won the Cup, it was exhibited in a shop window of a Birmingham shoemaker, William Shillcock.

When the Cup was reported stolen from Shillcocks, a £10 reward was offered for information regarding the theft, but no one stepped forward. Villa was eventually fined £25 by the FA, with the money being spent on a new trophy.

QUICK STRIKE ■ Bob Chatt’s goal – just 40 seconds into the Cup final match with West Bromwich Albion – stood as a record for 114 years until it was broken by Everton’s Louis Saha, who scored after 25 seconds in 2009.

FA CUP MEMORIES Wednesday, September 11, 1895, was just another average day in the working life at W. Shillcock, Football Outfitters, at 73 Newton Row in Birmingham.

As the staff closed the shop for the night, one of them, no doubt, affectionately bade a cheery “good evening” to their special “guest.”

There it was, slap bang in the middle of their shop window – the FA Cup. Yes, the “little tin idol,” as it was affectionately called, was on display in Mr. Shillcock’s store.

Aston Villa had won the Cup that April for the second time; this time by beating Midland neighbours, West Bromwich Albion – and they were enjoying giving the public an opportunity to share in their success.

However, when the Shillcock’s shop staff came in and opened the store on Thursday morning, they found, to their extreme dismay, there had been a break-in overnight and the FA Cup had vanished.

Sometime between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., a burglar had broken into the shop, stole cash from a drawer and, more importantly, had disappeared with the FA Cup. The shop and Aston Villa were very embarrassed and a poster was put up everywhere announcing a £10 reward for “the recovery of the Cup or for information leading to the conviction of the thieves.”

To no avail, the Cup was never found again. Aston Villa were fined £25 by the Football Association for losing the trophy whilst in their care.

The FA then commissioned Messrs. Vaughton’s of Birmingham to make a new Cup. Fortunately, Vaughton’s had miniature replicas of the original trophy to use as a model for the new Cup. The mystery of the missing FA

Cup was never solved, although an elderly man by the name of Harry Burge came forward over fifty years later and told a Sunday newspaper that he had been the thief and that the trophy had been melted down into silver coins shortly after it had been stolen.

In 1895, the FA Cup final had been moved to Crystal Palace after the Football Association had decided to bring its showpiece event back into London.

Crystal Palace would be the home of the FA Cup final for nearly twenty years. A crowd of 42,560 for the 1895 Cup was accommodated in an area of eight acres.

The stadium was partly built on the site of an old lake, which had been filled in and turfed over.

As well as some reserved seating there was also steep banking around the pitch that provided a natural viewpoint for the thousands in the standing-room sections.

A Sunday Times reporter at the scene wrote: “The sea of faces that met one’s gaze on all sides presented a site far easier imagined than described, whilst the excitement and enthusiasm was pulse-stirring enough to be trying to weak nerves.”

A ticket for the game actually came to light in 2008. It had been in somebody’s loft for years; the ticket for a seat in “The Ring” cost half a crown in 1895 – or 12.5p in current currency. More than a hundred years later the same ticket was sold at auction for several thousand pounds!

The original owner of the ticket would have witnessed the quickest goal scored in FA Cup history to that point. John Devey’s goal – or was it Bob Chatt’s – which was scored well inside a minute and it would be 114 years before that record was broken.

Unsolved:

Did Harry Burge Really Steal the Famous FA Cup

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By Rebekah Oruye, The Birmingham Mail, May 13, 2010 illions of excited fans get fired up for a David and Goliath-style FA Cup final each May. But the famous Cup has an exciting history of its own – one that is not well known.

Back in 1895, a victorious Aston Villa won the FA Cup – beating local rivals West Bromwich Albion. The hallowed trophy was brought to town for proud fans to view. On the night of September 11, while it was being displayed in a football outfitters’ shop in Aston, the Cup was stolen without a trace.

Villa were fined £25 by The Football Association because the Cup was stolen on the club’s watch. The £25 penalty was used to pay Vaughton’s of Birmingham to design a new trophy, which would be an exact replica.

No one was ever arrested or charged with the theft and its mysterious disappearance remained unsolved for more than 60 years.

That was until an 80-year-old man by the name of Henry (Harry) James Burge confessed to a national newspaper that he had committed the burglary at the shop, which was owned by William Shillcock.

The Sunday Pictorial published the exclusive story, with the headline: “Soccer’s Biggest Riddle” on Sunday, February 23, 1958.

Burge even posed for a photograph with the story, showing how he broke the shop’s rear door open with a small crowbar. In his admission, Burge stated that he and two other men entered the shop and stole several pairs of football boots along with the Cup. He also alleged that the silver FA Cup was melted down the night it was stolen, to be made into fake half crowns.

After Burge’s story was published, several discrepancies were soon spotted by Birmingham police between Burge’s

tale and a contemporaneous report that has appeared in The Birmingham Post after the trophy’s theft. The Birmingham Post’s story read: “Mr. Shillcock arrived at the shop on the morning after the theft and saw the back room covered with plaster, looked up and saw a hole in the roof.

“The robber or robbers got onto the roof from the entry and this was done by climbing with a hand and foot on each wall. The lead on the roof was stripped off and the lath and plaster broken through. To get back again a pair of steps found in the shop were used.”

The report also stated some shillings were stolen.

Efforts to recover the original FA Cup proved fruitless.

A £10 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest, which was never claimed. Aston Villa bosses were forced to pay a fine of £25 because the trophy – which cost £20 to make in 1872 – was nicked while in their care.

Chief Supt. Benbow decided that no realistic possibility of a conviction was available and the file was closed.

Records held by PC Tubbs of Birmingham CID showed cops already had details of forging gangs and had made some arrests in the Newtown area where thieves were stealing silver and making forged half crowns. The crooks were known to be disposing of the coins through betting at the old Birmingham Racecourse in Bromford Bridge. Burge was never arrested in connection with the forgery.

David Cross at the West Midlands Police Museum said Victorian police did not keep, or even submit, crime reports in 1895.

Written statements had only come into use in 1890 and pocket books in 1896 and the first real written record of a crime was recorded by the clerk to the court, who had to write everything down the witnesses said.

Mr. Cross said that crime files held in Sparkhill, dating back to 1944, revealed that Burge was an opportunist thief who had spent time in jail for breaking into shops and

HISTORY OF THE CUP TROPHY VERSION

YEARS IN USE

Cup No. 1

1872 - 1895 (1)

Cup No. 2

1896 - 1910 (2)

Cup No. 3

1911 - 1991(3)

Cup No. 4

1992 - present

(1) Original trophy stolen in 1895.

(2) Replacement Cup trophy retired in 1910.

(3) New Cup retired in 1991 due to extreme wear.

houses, when the opportunity presented itself.

In July 1957, aged 75, Burge pleaded guilty to housebreaking and was sentenced to two years’ probation.

The following year, he appeared at Birmingham Quarter Sessions and was sentenced to seven years’ detention for stealing from cars.

The Recorder, Mr. R.C. Vaughan QC, having heard of Burge’s record of 42 previous convictions going back to 1897, and on hearing that Burge had been sentenced to a total of 46 years and 11 months’ imprisonment during his lifetime, said: “When you appeared last year I told you that if you did this sort of thing again, instead of retiring from a life of crime, I should send you to prison for a long time.

Because of your age I had hoped to do what your counsel asked (leniency) but society has to be protected from a man such as you, who has spent a lifetime in stealing.”

Burge was released from prison in 1961 and placed in an old people’s home. He died in September 1964.

Did he really steal the Cup? Burge confessed to the crime, but differences in the reports and the property that was stolen means the truth is still unknown to this day.

Wolves lose cup

DUEL

at PALACE SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2-1 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 18, 1896

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he Cup reached a milestone as it celebrated its 25th match since the inaugural event at Kennington Oval between Wanderers and Royal Engineers in 1872. And for the second year in a row, the eventual Cup winner jumped out to an early lead.

Sheffield Wednesday wasted no time in scoring in the first minute of play, then traded a pair of goals with Wolverhampton en route to winning their first Association Cup, 2-1, before a crowd of 48,836.

Moments after the kick-off, Archie Brash passed the ball cleverly to Fred Spikesley, who booted a diagonal shot, which flew past Wolverhampton goalkeeper Billy Tennant for a 1-0 lead in the match’s opening minute of play.

Seven minutes later, David Black’s free-kick tied the match up at 1-1.

Spikesley again struck for Wednesday as he scored his second goal at the 18th minute with his excellent volley that soared past a stationary Tennant to put them ahead for good, 2-1.

A GREAT SATURDAY ■ Sheffield Wednesday “jumped out” to an early lead, then held on to defeat Wolves, 2-1, in the 25th Cup final, which was played at Crystal Palace.

FA CUP MEMORIES The start of the modern Olympics was in 1896, with the inaugural Summer Games fittingly being hosted in Athens.

Great Britain and Ireland sent just ten athletes to the Games, amongst them a certain Launceston Elliot.

Elliot proved to be something of an all-rounder. He became Britain’s first gold medal winner of the modern era, with an all-conquering performance in the one-handed lift. He also took silver in the twohanded lift, and this talented athlete competed in the rope-climb and the 100 metres.

Elliot and his team-mates brought home two gold, three silver and two bronze medals as the Athens Games drew to its close.

Three days after it finished, attention turned to the FA Cup final at Crystal Palace.

A record entry of 208 teams had been whittled down to Sheffield Wednesday and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Wednesday, as they were more commonly called in these times, had beaten Bolton in a replayed semi-final whilst Wolves had taken care of Derby.

A splendid crowd of nearly 49,000 at Crystal Palace saw the new FA Cup on show, and Lord Kinnaird was there to present it to the winning team. And that team was The Wednesday.

They had got off to a flying start when Fred Spikesley got a goal in the first minute of the match, matching the previous year’s flying start to a “Crystal Palace final.”

David Black equalised for Wolverhampton after eight minutes, then Spikesley got his second, and the game’s third, goal in the eighteenth minute.

It was a goal with a tinge of controversy about it as Spikesley’s

shot cannoned off the underside of the bar, down to the ground and out of the goal.

Legend has it that Wolves’ goalkeeper, Billy Tennant, was dazed in conceding Spikesley’s effort, and was so convinced he hadn’t let in a second goal that at the end of the game he inquired about the date of the replay ... only to be told the bad news!

After the final, Lord Kinnaird handed the new ‘tin idol’ to The Wednesday players and, in due course, they set off back home for Yorkshire and a tumultuous welcome.

Indeed, tens of thousands made their way down to the Sheffield railway station to cheer their heroes.

The numbers staggered everybody and the sense of joy was boundless.

The team and club officials were put on horse-drawn carriages and they made their way slowly along streets packed with supporters.

Whatever C.W. Alcock actually thought after he had introduced tournament football in the early 1870’s, it was fast becoming apparent that the FA Cup was becoming a national sporting obsession – and the winning of the trophy was a moment of great sporting merit and tremendous civic pride.

“Amid roaring cheers and an almost indescribable uproar of hand-clapping and hurrahs, the procession got started, with the band in front and a dense mass of the crowd following behind,” the local newspaper reported. “On every hand was a sea of faces – it was impossible to see anything else.”

Another set of people, this time in Sheffield, had realised what their team winning the FA Cup meant to them and their town.

It was a happy time.

aston Villa Edges Everton for prizeD DOUBLE in

3rd cup win ASTON VILLA 3-2 EVERTON

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 10, 1897

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he 1897 Cup final, which was a match between the country’s best club and its biggest club, was played before a record crowd of 65,891. The 3-2 outcome was decided before half-time.

It was Villa’s third Cup crown, having also won England’s most prestigious prize in 1887 and 1895.

At eighteen minutes into the opening half, Johnny Campbell put Villa ahead, 1-0, on a bullet shot that landed in the left corner of the net.

Five minutes later, Everton’s Jack Bell broke the Villa defence, reached the mouth of the goal and Villa goalkeeper Jimmy Whitehouse came out to meet him. They collided, with both falling, but Bell managed to kick the ball into the net to even up the score at 1-1.

At the 28-minute mark, Richard Boyle booted a free kick that bounced off Howard Spencer’s arm and into the net, putting Everton on top, 2-1.

Villa responded with a pressuring attack, and with ten minutes left in the first half, following a kick from the corner and a tussle in front of the goal, Villa was awarded a penalty kick. Jimmy Crabtree sent the ball flying, it was deflected, but Freddy Wheldon booted the ball in to even up the count at 2-2. The excitement was now intense and the game became faster. After a corner kick, Jack Devey got possession of the ball and kicked it past Bob Menham, the Everton goalkeeper, in the final minute before half-time for what would be the winning goal.

The second half, surprisingly, was scoreless.

Following the match, Villa fans learned that Derby had dropped points in a league match against Burnley, which allowed Villa, the 1896 league champion, to retain their title. It would be the second Double in FA history. Oddly, this feat would not be achieved again for 64 years.

FA CUP MEMORIES It was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Year – Queen Victoria, that is.

1897 marked her sixty years on the throne and the country celebrated wildly.

In Birmingham, there were further reasons to get out the bunting and have a glass or two of ale: Aston Villa had emulated Preston North End’s 1889 achievement and won the League Championship and FA Cup Double.

And they had won both on the same afternoon!

Villa lost only four of their 30 league fixtures and had bounced their way through the FA Cup. Wins over Newcastle United, Notts County, and Preston, after three games, then Liverpool in the semifinal had put Villa on course for the Double.

Their opponents at Crystal Palace were the Merseysiders, Everton, who had beaten Burton Wanderers, Bury, Blackburn Rovers and then Derby County in their semi-final.

The final itself was watched by a massive crowd of 65,891. The figure was a long way from the estimated 2,000 that had witnessed the first final at Kennington Oval in 1872.

The FA Cup was now big news – and the 1897 final was a cracker of a game.

Five players still remained from Villa’s 1895 triumph over West Bromwich Albion.

They had a new goalkeeper, Jimmy Whitehouse, who was bought from Grimsby Town for a fee of £200 – which was a huge sum in those days. Jimmy Crabtree was a new wing-half, Fred Wheldon had joined Villa from Small Heath for £100 and up front were two Scotsmen, John Campbell from Celtic and John Cowan.

A travelling support of an estimated 10,000 travelled down from the Midlands to see the game.

The match they witnessed was worthy of being the FA Cup final: five goals being scored – all in the first half.

Villa struck first – Jack Devey fed Johnny Campbell, whose shot beat Bob Menham in the Everton goal.

The Merseysiders steeled themselves and hit back. Jack Bell equalised for Everton, and then, within minutes, their right-half, Dickie Boyle, put them ahead.

It had been a magnificent response by Everton to go ahead, and in keeping with the ebb and flow of this exciting game, Villa matched it.

Wheldon grabbed an equaliser for the Midlands side and then England international Jimmy Crabtree scored with a header on the brink of half-time.

Villa’s defence had tightened in the second half, not least because of the athletic efforts of centre-half Jimmy Cowan, who had taken part in the famous Powderhall Sprint in his past.

No more goals were added and Aston Villa were FA Cup winners.

There were still League fixtures played on the day of the Cup final and Derby County lost a game they needed to win to stand any chance of unseating Villa at the top of the First Division.

With Derby’s loss, Aston Villa had now completed the domestic Double – the League crown and the FA Cup – and had clinched both on the same day.

A further sign of the club’s new fortunes was marked by their move to a new home – Villa Park.

After Villa had won the FA Cup and the league crown, there were mass celebrations in Birmingham, but Villa decided against displaying the FA Cup trophy in Shillcock’s window!

Nottingham Forest DEFEAT Favoured Derby

for FA Cup NOTTINGHAM FOREST 3-1 DERBY COUNTY

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 16, 1898

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ith recording devices set up in Crystal Palace to record the sounds of The Association Cup for future listeners, Nottingham Forest defeated Derby County, 3-1, before a crowd of 62,017 on a beautiful spring afternoon. It was Forest’s first Cup final win.

Derby entered the contest as pre-match favourites.

A week before the Cup final, Derby had routed Nottingham Forest, 5-0, in a league match. Today, dozens of special trains brought thousands of fans from the Northern counties and from the Midlands to watch this year’s Cup battle.

Derby began the match with a slow start, seeming unable to work together. Less than 20 minutes into the match, Arthur Capes scored the first of his two goals following a free-kick.

Derby managed to even up the match at the 31st minute on Steve Bloomer’s header shot, which followed a free kick. Nottingham Forest then retook the lead three minutes before half-time on Capes’ rebound shot that Derby goalkeeper Jack Fryer dived for and couldn’t reach.

With four minutes left to play, Nottingham Forest put the issue beyond doubt at 3-1 on John McPherson’s splendid shot past Fryer.

A MOMENT OF GLORY ■ John McPherson scores

Nottingham Forest’s third goal with four minutes remaining in regular time to ensure victory. OPPOSITE PAGE: Lord Rosebery lifts up the FA Cup before presenting it to Nottingham Forest. It was Forest’s first Cup crown.

FA CUP MEMORIES The 1898 FA Cup final was an all-East Midlands affair as Nottingham Forest took on Derby County at the now newly-established home of the FA Cup final at Crystal Palace.

A crowd of 62,000 came to see a game between the local rivals – and, once again, the first half saw lots of goal-action.

Forest went ahead through Arthur Capes on 19 minutes. Derby equalised through the peerless Steve Bloomer after half an hour.

Forest pushed on and got a second goal shortly before half-time to go ahead, 2-1.

McPherson clinched victory for his team with four minutes remaining in regular time. It was some goal, as he was flat out on the ground, having robbed a Derby defender, when the ball went in.

Derby County had been expected to win – and indeed had the greatest goal-scorer of the era in their ranks.

Steve Bloomer was a goal-scoring phenomenon and remains a true Derby County legend.

“Steve Bloomer’s watching ...” a wonderful ditty to the great man is still sung on matchdays by the Derby County faithful, and a bust of him was unveiled alongside the home dugout at Pride Park in 2009.

Bloomer was the star of his time – 28 goals in 23 games for England, two free-scoring spells for Derby County, and another goal-scoring spree at Middlesbrough.

His career goal tally stands at 300 goals in over 500 games.

Bloomer’s particular goal specialty was the “daisy-cutter” – and he was Derby’s leading scorer for season after season.

Bloomer is believed to have scored 17 hattricks – and in modern-times his ability in front of goal would have been priceless.

He later moved to coach in Germany, but after the First World War got underway Bloomer’s time was spent in a camp that held foreign nationals who had been working in Germany.

There he passed the time by involving

himself in all sorts of sporting activity, but was pleased to return home at the end of fighting.

Bloomer was loved in Derby, had played and starred for their baseball team and was also a decent cricketer. Indeed, when he suffered ill-health in the 1930’s, the club sent him on a cruise to Australia and New Zealand to aid his recovery. He died at the age of 64 in 1938.

Bloomer had scored Derby’s only goal in the 1898 FA Cup final, a header; but it wasn’t enough on the day, despite their enjoying the majority of support in the stadium.

Like many favourites, before and since, they found their form deserting them on the very afternoon it needed to be there. Such has been the wonderful serendipity of the FA Cup final down the years.

Notts Forest, as they were still colloquially termed then, had ridden their luck but come out of the game as deserved winners of the FA Cup final, emulating the achievements of their neighbours, Notts County. They received the trophy from Lord Rosebery.

AT THE TOP â– Steve Capes scored two goals to lead Nottingham Forest to an upset win against Derby County.

FA CUP MEMORIES The year of 1899 marked the moment a guy by the name of John S. Thurman patented a household “saint” – the pneumatic carpet renovator. You and I know of it as the vacuum cleaner.

You can imagine the scenario. “That’ll never take off, John.”

“We’ll see,” Thurman would note, then add, “Now mind your feet.”

Well, did it take off ! And, mind you, things were moving fast in football, too.

A record crowd of nearly 74,000 watched the FA Cup final at Crystal Palace. Once again, the teams came from the North and a new name was to be engraved on the Cup. Sheffield United, which had been formed in 1889, was another off-shoot from the cricketing fraternity.

Yorkshire County Cricket Club formed the new club six days after the staging of a semi-final between Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion.

They were elected to the Football League Division Two in 1892, and then promoted to the First Division in 1893, where they stayed for over 40 years.

They were Football League champions in 1897-98, having been runners-up the previous year and again in 1899-1900.

Sheffield United were hot stuff.

Their route to the Cup final was littered with replays – two games each against Burnley and Preston. In their semi-final with Liverpool, there would be three – a 2-2 draw in the first game was then followed up with a 4-4 draw, United finally went through with a 1-0 win in a delayed second replay.

Opponents at Crystal Palace were Derby County. They showed just five players surviving from their line-up in the previous year’s Cup final defeat against Nottingham Forest.

Their route to the final included wins over Woolwich Arsenal, Wolves, Southampton and Stoke.

The weather on Cup final day had started dull and overcast but by the time the game got underway, it was a fine afternoon.

The crowd, a huge one, availed itself of every vantage point, and one poor chap fell thirty feet out of a tree. It was a much anticipated match.

Derby County started quickly and went ahead after just 12 minutes through John Boag, a member of the previous year’s team.

Derby’s great forward, Steve Bloomer, had one of those days when his prolific scoring touch went missing. He had several chances, including an open goal in the second half, but couldn’t make it count.

After an ordinary first-half display, Sheffield United came alive in the second half of the game, or for at least ten minutes of it to be exact.

On the hour they equalised through Walter Bennett. United then took the lead five minutes later on Billy Beer’s goal. Jack Almond added a third goal at the 68th minute.

A fourth goal in the closing stages of the game through Fred Priest just rubbed it in.

Sheffield United Victorious Before

Record Crowd SHEFFIELD UNITED 4-1 DERBY COUNTY

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 15, 1899

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heffield United, last season’s Football League champions, won their first FA Cup by defeating Derby County, 4-1, before a Cup final record crowd of 73,833. It took United three games to get past Liverpool in the semi-final.

United and Liverpool tied, 2-2, in their first encounter, which was played in Nottingham.

In their second match, at Bolton, they were down, 4-2, with eight minutes left to play, when Fred Priest scored twice to earn a second replay. A third meeting took place at Fallowfield, but the game was abandoned when the crowd continued to overflow onto the playing field, with Liverpool leading, 1-0.

United finally achieved a 1-0 victory in the fourth meeting, which was played in Derby.

The Cup final was a duel between United’s captain and left half, Ernest Needham, and Derby’s prolific goalscorer, Steve Bloomer. Needham won the encounter after Bloomer missed on several scoring opportunities.

Derby took the lead after John Boag shot the ball past Willie Foulke, the Sheffield goalkeeper, in the 12th minute.

In the second half, Walter Bennett, Billy Beer, Jack Almond and Fred Priest scored four goals to win the Cup for Sheffield.

CUP CAPTAIN ■ Ernie Needham, the Sheffield United captain, led his team to FA Cup crowns in 1899 and 1902 as well as the Football League’s First Division Champtionship in 189798. He duelled with Derby County’s Steve Bloomer throughout the afternoon in the 1899 Cup final.

FA CUP MEMORIES The first FA Cup final of the twentieth century once again added a new name to the growing list of winners of the famous trophy.

Bury Football club was formed after a meeting at the Waggon and Horses Hotel, which was attended by local Wesleyan and Unitarian clubs who decided to form a new Bury club. A subsequent meeting at the Old White Horse Hotel in April 1885 rubber-stamped the proposal.

Bury were elected into the Football League Division Two in 1894 and the following year made it into the top division.

The club would play in just two Cup finals, would win them both and scored ten goals in the process. They would also create a record-winning Cup score that still exists today – and one that unlikely will ever be matched.

Their Honours Board is not flush with achievements but in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s Bury were a team to be reckoned with. Under the tutelage of secretarymanager H.S. Hamer, they created FA Cup history and

carved their own slot in the legend of the tournament.

Bury’s opponents in the FA Cup final were another new name to get to this stage of the tournament – Southampton.

Their creation can also be dated to around 1885, when members of the Young Men’s Association at St. Mary’s Church met and formed a football club.

The team’s name was changed to St. Mary’s in 188788 and then became Southampton St. Mary’s in 1894.

The South Coast club wouldn’t actually join the Football League until 1920 as an original member of Division Three. They were a non-League club when they faced Bury in the century’s opening FA Cup final.

The afternoon of their Cup meeting was a scorcher and Southampton were to suffer in the sun.

The Saints lost the toss and were made to face playing into the sun in the first forty-five minutes. And by halftime they had red faces, partly through sunburn but also having conceded three goals without reply.

All teams want to have a lucky striker on board, and Bury did. The appropriately-named Jasper McLuckie was on target twice in the first half. Firstly, inside ten minutes he scored from a Bury corner, and then, fourteen minutes later, he added his second.

McLuckie took a pass from Ross, went through and hit a low shot past Robinson in the Southampton goal.

In between those two goals, Willie Wood had scored Bury’s second goal of the match and the Lancastrians were clear by half-time.

In the second half, Southampton plugged away but without the belief they could turn around the three-goal deficit.

A fourth goal for Bury through Jack Plant after 80 minutes put the game totally out of Southampton’s reach and the First Division team became the latest to put their name on the FA Cup Winners’ list.

Three years later, Bury would be in the Cup final again – and they would really go to town.

bury dominant in quest

for cup crown BURY 4-0 SOUTHAMPTON

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 21, 1900

S

outhampton, which had beaten three First Division teams en route to the Cup final – Everton, 3-0; Newcastle, 4-1, and West Bromwich Albion, 2-1 – and fellow Southern Leaguer Millwall in the semi-final replay, 3-0, had big plans to be the first non-League team to win the FA Cup – but those plans died quickly in their 4-0 loss to Bury in the final.

With a crowd of 68,945 watching on a blazing hot afternoon at Crystal Palace – and most of them cheering for the South’s first finalist since Old Etonians lost to Blackburn Olympic, 2-1, in 1883 – Southampton kicked off to Bury and were staring straight into the sun.

In less than 23 minutes, Bury took a dominant 3-0 lead – two of the goals were by centre Jasper McLuckie (at the 9th and 23rd minute marks). Willie Wood added Bury’s second goal after 16 minutes.

With 10 minutes left to play, Bury made it 4-0, when Jack Pray booted a long shot from the corner, which allowed Jack Plant to drive a low shot into the net for the crowning goal.

LOTS OF GOALS ■ Bury roared past nonleague Southampton in the Cup final, winning 4-0.

SPURS RallY to win

Cup in replay TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3-1 SHEFFIELD UNITED

By The Daily Telegraph, Burnden Park, April 27, 1901

A

crowd of 110,820 filled Crystal Palace a week ago to watch Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United battle to a 2-2 draw. The large crowd, which was generated by the appearance of a London team in the Cup final for the first time in 21 years, eclipsed the previous attendance record of 73,833, which was set two years ago when Sheffield United and Derby County met in the Cup final.

The replay was staged at the home ground of Bolton, in front of a much smaller crowd of 20,470, with Tottenham defeating Sheffield, 3-1, to become the first club from outside the Football League to win the Cup since the League’s formation in 1888.

The hero of the Tottenham squad was Sandy Brown, who scored both of Spurs’ goals in the first final and a second-half strike in today’s replay.

Brown also scored goals in every round of the Cup tournament – the first player ever to accomplish such a feat – and finished with a record 15 goals.

Sheffield took the lead at the 40th minute when Ernest Needham passed to Fred Priest, who booted the ball past Spurs goalkeeper George Clawley for a 1-0 lead.

In the second half, Tottenham rallied with three goals

by John Cameron, Tom Smith and Brown against Sheffield goalkeeper Willie Foulke to win their first Cup. After the Cup was presented to Spurs, a pair of blue ribbons were tied to the trophy. This started a new tradition has continued to the present.

CUP KINGS ■ Tottenham Hotspur, who have won a total

of eight Cup finals in their storied history, rallied in the replay to defeat Sheffield United, 3-1.

FA CUP MEMORIES The year began with the death of Queen Victoria – a monarch for nearly 64 years, the longest reign in the country’s history. She passed away in January 1901, at the age of 81.

The FA Cup final that year finally involved a London club – and a nonleague one at that.

Tottenham Hotspur were in the Southern League – and they became the only non-League club to win the FA Cup since the formation of the Football League in 1888.

It is obviously a record that one can never see being equalled as the differentials between the biggest and smallest clubs have got wider and wider.

It had been nineteen years since a Southern club had actually won the Cup. Their opponents would be 1899 winners, Sheffield United, and the final would go to a replay.

A massive crowd of more than 110,000 people gathered at Crystal Palace for the game.

The correspondent from The Daily Graphic described it thus: “Comparisons were made with Derby Day, but the scene would be perhaps have been more suggestive of a Test Match in the Caribbean, had it not been for those perched precariously in the tree-tops been wearing bowler-hats.”

Sheffield United took the lead after 10 minutes through Fred Priest. The London side levelled things up through Sandy Brown.

Brown put Spurs ahead six minutes into the second half, but within a minute Sheffield had equalised with a controversial goal.

Tottenham goalkeeper George Clawley fumbled a ball, regained it and

then sent it down the pitch. But he was staggered to find that both the referee and linesman had concluded that he had been over the goal-line when he cleared the ball.

This caused an uproar! But the goal was given.

Unfortunately for the referee, Mr. Kingscott of Derby, the goal was captured on an early film newsreel and, after the game was over, viewing of the film seemed to confirm the officials had indeed made an error of judgment.

The match was drawn and the game went to a replay to be staged at Burnden Park in Bolton.

Mr. Kingscott’s participation in the match was a matter of conjecture, but the Football Association stuck with their man and this time Tottenham made no mistake, winning the game by three goals to one.

On target was Sandy Brown, who became the first player to score in every round of the Cup. He scored 15 goals in all.

The team from the capital had won the Cup, but it was a dressing room filled with a range of accents, with just three Englishmen being joined by five Scotsmen, two Welshmen and an Irishman.

The London club would be elected to the Football League Division Two in 1908 and were promoted to the First Division the following year. It was also the first time Tottenham had won the FA Cup in a year ending in a “1.”

Remarkably, they would repeat the feat in 1921, 1961, 1981 and 1991.

They would also win the League Championship in 1961 and the Football League Cup in 1971.

Sheffield United

WIN CUP

in fierce REPLAY SHEFFIELD UNITED 2-1 SOUTHAMPTON

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 26, 1902

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n a Cup final that featured the losing squads from the past two Cups – Southampton in 1900 and Sheffield United in 1901 – it would take two games to determine a winner, with Sheffield United winning the replay, 2-1.

In their first Cup final match at Crystal Palace, which was played before a crowd of 76,914, the two teams played to a 1-1 draw. In today’s replay, 33,068 at Crystal Palace watched Sheffield go home the winner, 2-1.

It was the second straight Cup final replay for United.

The victors, who won the coin toss, had to overcome a strong wind while taking a 1-0 lead after two minutes on a goal by George Hedley.

Southampton’s star player was C.B. Fry, who is perhaps the greatest all-around player in England’s long and storied history. Fry evened up the score at 1-1 at the 70th minute on Arthur Brown’s goal.

Sheffield then accomplished what it failed to achieve in last year’s Cup final; it stopped Southampton’s rally.

With eleven minutes left to play, Billy Barnes’ goal gave Sheffield a 2-1 lead, which was good enough to win the Cup.

RETURN CHAMPS ■ Sheffield United would win the prized trophy four times in its six Cup final appearances.

GAME 1 CONTROVERSY

■ This illustration is from the initial 1902 Cup final, which was played on April 19, 1902. It shows Sheffield’s Fred Priest (in the white shirt) banging Jack Robinson, the Southhampton goalkeeper, into the net after Alf Common had fired a long shot into the goal for a 1-0 lead. Harry would score the equaliser for Southhampton in the 88th minute.

FA CUP MEMORIES William Henry (Fatty) Foulke was one of the true characters of English sport at the beginning of the 20th century. Weighing in at around 20 stone, this 6-foot-4 giant of a man was both a professional footballer and professional cricketer.

In fairness, it was in football that he made his name. A goalkeeper, he was between the posts for Sheffield United when they won the 1902 FA Cup in a replay against Southampton.

Foulke was an imposing figure in his long white shorts and long-sleeved striped jersey, but he was definitely built for comfort not agility.

A target for some lively remarks from the crowd – Foulke would counter by saying “they can call me anything as long as they don’t call me late for dinner!”

He would make a remarkable impression in the Cup final – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Sheffield United had beaten Northampton, Bolton, Newcastle after a replay, and then Derby County after two replays, to secure a Cup final place.

Southampton were their opponents in the final.

At full-back, the Southern League team had the great

C.B. Fry, a multi-talented sportsman who also played cricket for England and once equalled the world record for the long jump.

A crowd of nearly 77,000 witnessed a close first game, which ended in a draw and a ton of controversy.

Alf Common, who would later feature in the first four-figure transfer fee, had given Sheffield United a lead early in the second half but Harry Wood equalised late in the game for Southampton.

The goal caused uproar. Wood, the Southampton captain, had appeared to be tying his bootlaces in an offside position, when he found himself with the ball at his feet.

He went through and scored. Sheffield United, and particularly their heavy-weight goalkeeper, Foulke, took exception to the decision to award the goal.

After the game ended, Foulke left the Sheffield United dressing room unclothed to set out and find the referee, Mr. T. Kirkham, and his linesmen.

The ‘T’ in Mr. Kirkham’s name might well have stood for ‘terrified’ on that afternoon, because on hearing Foulke was on his way to see them, the referee took

refuge in a broom cupboard!

The replay a week later at Crystal Palace was calmer and this time Sheffield United clinched victory by a 2-1 score.

It was their second FA Cup final win and third final appearance in four years.

Local M.P., Sir Howard Vincent, sent a letter of congratulations to the club: “Lady Vincent and my daughter send their greetings to all, and especially to our giant goalkeeper, Foulke, with his tremendous smile and prodigious kick, the best goalkeeper football has ever seen. May he live for a thousand years.”

He didn’t, of course, but he did go on to play for Chelsea, where his habit of having two schoolboys behind the goal to collect the ball when it went wide, inadvertently invented ball-boys.

There were two other notable events in 1902. Newton Heath became Manchester United, the team that has the most successful record in the FA Cup with a remarkable 11 wins in 18 final appearances.

The other great event was the invention of Marmite.

TOP OF THE LIST ■ Charles B. Fry, the Southhampton full-back, was one of England’s greatest football stars and a legendary performer in cricket and track & field.

wild scoring Bury Romp past Derby county in

Cup Final win BURY 6-0 DERBY COUNTY

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 18, 1903

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ever before in the history of the Cup final has the result been so one-sided as Bury’s 6-0 defeat of Derby County, which was played before a crowd of 63,102. The previous record was Blackburn’s 6-1 victory against Sheffield Wednesday in 1890.

Bury, which also won the Cup with a 4-0 victory over Southampton in 1900, has now scored 10 goals in two finals and has yet to be scored on.

Remarkably, Bury went through this year’s tournament and did not concede a goal. The only other Cup winner to achieve this feat was Preston North End in 1889.

Derby were playing without the services of their main star, Steve Bloomer, and an injured goalkeeper, Jack Fryer.

Bury got its first goal at the 20th minute on a pass from Billy Richards to George Ross, who dashed up and booted it just inside the post.

In the first 14 minutes of the second half, Bury added four goals by Charlie Sagar, Joe Leeming, Willie Wood and Jack Plant to take a 5-0 lead.

Leeming added another strike at the 75th minute to lift Bury’s advantage to 6-0.

METEORIC CHAMPS ■ For a brief three-year

span, Bury would twice win England’s biggest football prize. Their 6-0 victory in the 1903 Cup final is the largest winning margin ever recorded in Cup final history.

FA CUP MEMORIES

BURY’S HISTORIC DAY Bury’s six goals in the 1903 FA Cup final was the largest winning margin ever achieved in the 140-year history of the Cup tournament. Below is a breakdown of the scoring.

PLAYER ROSS JAGAR LEEMING WOOD PLANT LEEMING

TIME OF GOAL 20 min.

48 min.

56 min.

57 min.

59 min.

75 min.

SCORE 1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0

Bury’s march to the 1903 FA Cup final didn’t give any pointers to the fact they would end up record-breakers when they played Derby County at Crystal Palace.

Three successive 1-0 wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers, Cup holders Sheffield United, and Notts County were then capped by a 3-0 win over Aston Villa in the semi-final.

Bury scored a total of six goals in four ties.

In the Cup final, on April 18, 1903, they would score six goals in one afternoon and create a landmark victory that still stands as the biggest margin of victory in Cup final history.

Bury’s opponent in the final were Derby County.

Twice beaten finalists in 1898 and 1899; the Midlands side were on the wrong end of a thrashing.

Derby County had reached the final in a very positive fashion, beating Small Heath, 2-1; Blackburn Rovers, 2-0; Stoke, 3-0, and Millwall Athletic, 3-0.

Bury and Derby County had finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in the league’s First Division that season and a close match was expected.

Derby had a stinker of an afternoon.

Their performance was inexplicable and Bury took full advantage.

The Shakers took the lead after twenty minutes of the first half through their captain, George Ross. It was in the second half, however, that the floodgates opened.

Four goals in eleven minutes early in the second period put the game beyond reach, and Bury were on course for their second FA Cup final triumph.

The goals flew in. Charlie Sagar after 48 minutes, Joe Leeming on 56 minutes, and sixty seconds later Willie Wood was

on target.

Jack Plant added another after 59 minutes and Leeming rounded things off with Bury’s sixth and final goal after 75 minutes.

In two FA Cup finals, Bury had scored 10 goals and had allowed none against.

Indeed, Bury had not conceded a goal in the whole of the 1902-03 FA Cup tournament. Things were working out well for them at both ends of the pitch.

After the Cup final, the Bury team celebrated their amazing victory with a special dinner at the Trocadero restaurant in Piccadilly Circus.

They then set off back to Bury with thousands of supporters waiting to receive them off the London train at Bolton Street Station. The nearby streets were swamped with happy fans as Bury paraded the FA Cup. The newspapers, meanwhile, were trying to make some sense of the record score line. The Daily Chronicle suggested that the game was a “fiasco.”

“Nothing had been seen like it before.

Bury defeated Derby County by six goals and it could have been twenty.

That it was not is testimony to the mercy exercised by the winners rather than to the defence of the losers.”

This was the high water-mark for the Lancastrian side; they would never enjoy such resounding and famous success again.

Derby County would lick their wounds and eventually win the FA Cup in 1946.

By the way, if you are wondering how much it would cost to buy a pair of football boots back in 1903; the price for the best pair was 10/6d in old English money – just over 50p in current parlance. A bargain! And Bury certainly had their shooting boots on in 1903.

CITY IN FINE FORM,

topPLE Bolton MANCHESTER CITY 1-0 BOLTON WANDERERS

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 23, 1904

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heavy rain the previous night had soaked the turf at Crystal Palace enough to slow down both Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers, but the 33rd edition of The Football Association Challenge Cup still proved to be a thriller as a large crowd of 61,374, including Prime Minister Alfred Balfour, watched as Manchester City won its first Cup, 1-0.

Billy Meredith’s goal at the 23rd minute gave City a 1-0 lead, which was enough for the eventual victory.

Bolton had a second-half opportunity to even up the score after Billy Yenson made his way through the City defense, but he was tripped by a defender with only the City goalkeeper, Jack Hillman, between him and the goal.

A free-kick by Bolton was not successful.

In the final minute of play, Bolton’s Walter White attempted to even the count, but the ball hit the post and bounced away, leaving Wanderers empty-handed in their first attempt to win England’s most important football trophy.

In the 1920’s, Bolton would be the top Cup team of the decade, winning the trophy in 1923, 1926, and 1929.

THE PRIDE OF WALES ■ Billy Meredith (right) played in 367 games for Manchester City and 303 for Manchester United. The Welshman also led both teams to Cup final wins.

FA CUP MEMORIES Billy Meredith was one of the early stars of English football. A Welshman from a mining background – he was a pit pony driver – he would go on to be the toast of Manchester and win the FA Cup with both City and United.

Indeed, Manchester United was a new name in the FA Cup draw for the 1902-03 tournament. They made their debut in the Third Qualifying Round, beating Accrington Stanley, 7-0.

Manchester City, meanwhile, progressed through the tournament with wins over Sunderland, Woolwich Arsenal, and Middlesbrough via a replay.

Their semi-final win over Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton Wanderers’ victory over Derby County set up the first allLancashire final.

The star man for Manchester City was Meredith, who had been a Welsh Cup winner with Chirk, a small mining town in North Wales.

He also played in the Football League with Northwich Victoria, before Manchester City chased his signature.

Meredith’s family were against him moving away from Wales and turning professional.

When he eventually did sign for City, he played as an amateur for a year and kept up his work at the pit.

Meredith turned professional in January 1895. Despite playing on the wing, he was regularly City’s top scorer, and the darling of the fans.

Meredith was a one-off, charismatic, a rebel and a man.

He regularly played with a toothpick lodged in his mouth. He was captain of Manchester City when they lined up against Bolton at Crystal Palace in front of a very good crowd of 61,374, considering both

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK ■ Manchester City’s 1903-04 season was a memorable one. In addition to winning the Cup, they were elevated to the First Division of the Football League – and finished second in league standings.

teams had come from well over 200 miles away.

The only goal of the game came midway through the first half and Meredith was the man who got it. Taking a ball from teammate George Livingstone, he rounded Dai Davies in the Bolton goal to score.

It was actually Meredith’s second goal of City’s Cup campaign, but fittingly as their best player, at age 29, and skipper, it proved the decisive strike. He also scored in the semifinal against Sheffield Wednesday.

Meredith would move across town to Manchester United in May 1906. He was serving a ban for his involvement in a football bribery scandal at the time.

He had been accused of bribing an Aston Villa player £10 to lose a match and had been given an 18-month ban.

Meredith was involved in the creation of the Players’ Union, and despite pressure to cease being part of that new group, he and some of his fellow Manchester United colleagues refused and earned the nick-name of Outcasts FC. In 1909, he won another FA Cup final, this time with Manchester United.

After the First World War, Meredith moved back to City and astonishingly, played in a semi-final against Newcastle United for them at the age of 49 years and 245 days.

In total, the mercurial Welshman played in eleven games for Northwich Victoria, 367 matches for City and 303 for United. He also played 48 times for Wales.

His final resting place, when he died in 1958, was in an unmarked grave but the PFA, the Welsh FA and the two Manchester clubs later collaborated to pay for the upkeep of a new headstone.

It was the proper thing to do for a hero of two clubs and his country.

101,117 WATCH HAMPTON’S TWO GOALS LEAD VILLA to VICTORY ASTON VILLA 2-0 NEWCASTLE UNITED

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 15, 1905

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crowd of 70,000 was expected for the battle between Aston Villa and Newcastle United, but large packs of fans – by the thousands from the Midlands and the North – kept pouring into town, wearing their favourite team’s colours.

They would soon occupy every seat at Crystal Palace, and those with standing-room tickets occupied every spot with a possible view. Others with a more adventurous spirit scaled the rooves of the buildings behind the southern goal. Several hundred more, risking broken bones, scaled the tree branches behind the north and east stands.

The total to see the game was 101,117 –which smashed the previous crowd of 73,833 in the 1899 Cup final between Sheffield United and Derby County – but it was short of the 110,820 who attended the first 1901 Cup final match between Spurs and Sheffield United.

Playing against a strong wind, Villa took the lead two minutes into the match, with Harry Hampton’s header, to go up, 1-0. Hampton added a second goal at the 76th minute to seal the 2-0 victory.

The win gave Villa its fourth Cup. Their earlier Cup wins came in 1887, 1895 and 1897.

JAM PACKED ■ A spirited crowd of 101,000 Aston Villa and Newcastle United fans filled every seat at Crystal Palace, with only standing-room spots in the stands. Many others occupied nearby tree branches to watch Villa win their fourth Cup final.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The Newcastle United squad poses for a photo before the 1905 Cup final is played.

FA CUP MEMORIES Crystal Palace was quickly establishing itself as the new home of the FA Cup final – and another bumper crowd of over 100,000 spectators turned up in 1905 for the Aston Villa v. Newcastle United match.

Newspapermen loved the colourful crowds, the different accents and the whole hullabaloo of “Cup final” day.

“The invasion of London for ‘t’Coop Tie’ is always a sight, an event, an experience. It is a wonder to those on the south side to see how the trains go steaming past with heavy loads the whole morning through ‘til two o’clock ...”

In town for t’Coop on April 15th were Villa, chasing their fourth Cup victory and Newcastle, who were still trying to get a Cup final win.

The Geordies arrived at Crystal Palace with the League Championship all but won, so they had a domestic Double in their sights.

Aston Villa would finish fourth in the league – six points adrift of their Cup final rivals.

The Birmingham side beat Leicester Fosse, Bury,

Fulham, and Everton in the semi-final.

Newcastle had knocked out Plymouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Bolton, and then Sheffield Wednesday in their semi-final.

The size of the crowd underlined the status of the game and, indeed, it was only the second time the 100,000 barrier had been breached.

Aston Villa got off to a flying start when “the Wellington Whirlwind” – Harry Hampton – scored after two minutes.

A brilliant individual goal, it set the stadium alight and sent Villa’s travelling supporters crazy with delight.

A prolific scorer, Hampton had joined Aston Villa from Wellington Town and was the key player to bring out the best in the skilful forwards who were playing around him.

He was an “old-fashioned” centre-forward full of hustle and bustle. He would get the ball out to the wings and wait for it to return. Then he would do the scoring business via his head or foot.

Hampton was also happy to take the goalkeeper into the back of the net with the ball if so required. He was

a crowd pleaser, an England international and would also play for Aston Villa in their 1913 FA Cup win over Sunderland.

Hampton was Villa’s top man in the 1905 final, notching his second goal in the closing stages of the second half to clinch victory for the Midlands side.

A shot by Albert Hall was parried by Newcastle goalkeeper Jimmy Lawrence and Hampton raced in to score an easy goal.

Fittingly, Howard Spencer, the only man in Villa’s history to win three FA Cup Winners’ medals with the club, received the 1905 Cup trophy from the Kinnaird family.

For Villa, it was their fourth triumph in the world’s best-loved domestic Cup tournament – another three would follow in due course.

They were also beaten finalists three times in the FA Cup final.

Newcastle, founded in 1892, would play in five finals in just seven years – but they would only win one of these.

Everton win FIRST

Cup

EVERTON 1-0 NEWCASTLE UNITED

By The Daily Telegraph Crystal Palace, April 21, 1906

I

t took three visits to the Cup final, but Everton won the prized trophy with a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United, which was played in front of a crowd of 75,609.

Everton had previously lost the Cup in 1893 to Wolverhampton and Aston Villa in 1897.

In an afternoon that was windy and played under overcast skies, both teams played strong defensively until Everton’s centre-forward, Sandy Young, who hailed from Scotland, scored the game’s lone goal at the 75th minute to give the Merseysiders their first Cup. In the semi-finals, Everton had to get past a strong Liverpool squad, which was aiming for the Double. But a pair of Everton goals ended Liverpool’s hopes.

Everton’s Harold Hardman, who scored one of the goals against Liverpool, played as an amateur – one of only three to win a Cup since 1900.

Hardman later won a gold medal in football, while representing Great Britain in the 1908 Olympics, which were held in London, and later served as chairman of Manchester United.

ONE FOR THE BLUES

■ In 1906, Everton won their first FA Cup final. They would win the Cup again in 1933, 1966, 1984 and 1995.

FA CUP MEMORIES Everton hoped it would be third time lucky when they reached the 1906 FA Cup final.

Beaten finalists in 1893 and 1897, the Goodison team had spent the previous pre-season on their firstever overseas tour, playing matches in Austria and Hungary.

The success of the trip set them up for the regular season.

In Everton’s ranks was outsideright Jack Sharp, who had also developed into a fine cricketer.

During a ten-year stint with Everton, he made 342 appearances, scoring 80 goals – and also earned two England caps.

His cricketing career saw him score more than 22,000 runs for Lancashire and a century against Australia in one of his three Test Match appearances for England.

When he retired he opened a famous sports shop in Liverpool and later became a director at Everton Football Club.

In the 1906 FA Cup final, his pass led to Everton’s winning goal.

The Blues’ route to the Cup final had included a victory over neighbours Liverpool in the semifinal at Villa Park. That match had been the talk of the city for weeks.

More than 50,000 fans made the journey to the Midlands to see the biggest match between the two Merseyside rivals thus far.

Everton would triumph, 2-0, with goals from Walter Abbott and Harold Hardman to set up a Cup final with Newcastle United.

Newcastle were a strong side and the match was much-anticipated.

Both teams had earned a reputation for playing good football and one newspaper proclaimed that it would be “The Match of the Century.”

Over 20,000 Everton fans left Lime Street for London before dawn, carrying with them their

colours, rattles, hats and ribbons.

It made for a colourful sight – blue and white of course.

Everton dominated for much of the first half but neither side could get that vital first goal.

Newcastle had no less than seven Scotsmen in their line-up and were managed by a Scotsman, too: Frank Watt.

Alex (Sandy) Young, a Scotsman himself, thought he had put Everton ahead 20 minutes into the second half only to see the goal ruled out for offside. He did, however, score the one that counted ten minutes later.

Young fed the ball to the wing, where Sharp cleverly beat both Peter McWilliam and Jack Carr. The multi-talented winger then returned the ball to Young, who hammered it into the Newcastle net.

Everton defended for their lives in the closing minutes as Newcastle pushed hard for an equaliser.

The Blues held out and their captain, Jack Taylor, received the FA Cup from Lord Kinnaird.

Young was thought to be an inconsistent performer but he had got his lines right on football’s big day.

After the Cup final the team went to the Alhambra Theatre, where they were accorded a standing ovation.

The next day they visited Hampton Court before returning to Merseyside via a League defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.

Their homecoming was memorable, with hundreds of fire torches lit to illuminate their route from the railway station to Goodison.

It was, the local paper said, “the most remarkable popular demonstration that had ever taken place in the city boundaries.”

Sheffield Wednesday Surprise Everton in

Cup Final win SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2-1 EVERTON

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 20, 1907

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verton, the 1906 winners of The Association Cup, got past Sheffield United in an early round of this year’s Cup playoffs, but were unable to get past United’s crosstown rival, Sheffield Wednesday, in today’s thrilling Cup finale. A large crowd of 84,594 gathered at Crystal Palace to enjoy the warm spring afternoon match – and they were not disappointed.

Jimmy Stewart’s goal in the first half gave Everton a 1-0 lead.

This score was evened up at 1-1, when Wednesday’s Jack Sharp added a goal before half-time.

The second half remained tense until Wednesday’s George Simpson booted in the winning goal with two minutes left for a 2-1 lead.

In an early surprise in the Cup tournament, last year’s runner-up, Newcastle United, lost to Crystal Palace in the first round, 1-0.

This was the second time the previous winner had reached the final and failed to win the Cup; the first time being in 1883 when Old Etonians lost to Blackburn Olympic.

WEDNESDAY RULES

■ Sheffield Wednesday finished with a lackluster League record of 18 wins, 13 draws and 15 losses.

FA CUP MEMORIES Everton were back at Crystal Palace to defend the FA Cup against Sheffield Wednesday in the 1907 final.

Wednesday had reached the Cup final with wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers, Southampton, Sunderland, Liverpool and, in the semi-final, Woolwich Arsenal.

Everton had begun the defence of the trophy against Wednesday’s city rivals, Sheffield United.

Wins over West Ham United, Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace followed before the Merseyside giants knocked West Bromwich Albion out of the Cup tournament in their semi-final at Burnden Park.

FA Cup final day turned out to be a cold, windy day in London. Supporters from both Northern cities had made their way to the capital by rail and a healthy crowd of over 84,000 filled Crystal Palace and delivered gate receipts of over £7,000 for the FA coffers.

Once again Londoners looked on as Northerners spilled colourfully out of the stations and into the capital.

Thousands upon thousands, who looked forward to the day’s big game made their way to the final.

Everton had performed more strongly in the League. They would finish third behind Bristol City, the League Champions, and Newcastle United.

Wednesday would finish 13th.

With only one change from the side that had lifted the trophy the previous season, Everton started quietly, but like their Yorkshire rivals found the wind to be a damaging and decisive factor.

In charge of the match was referee Nat Whittaker, who had been fined by the FA the day before the final for having arrived late at a League match in

Leicester the previous month.

He wrote in explanation that he had taken the right train but made the wrong connection.

On Cup final day, he managed to arrive on time.

The game’s first goal came on 21 minutes when Wednesday’s England international, Jimmy Stewart, was on target.

Jack Sharp, Everton’s cricketing footballer, got an equaliser late in the first half to set up the possibility of an exciting second half.

However, the winner was the wind, which was persistent and troublesome for the players.

Sheffield had begun the second half stronger but Everton had resisted their attacking overtures and were beginning to have the edge with extra-time looming.

Then Wednesday, late in the game, got the decisive winning goal. George Simpson, their diminutive winger, scored against the run of play to clinch a Cup final victory for the Yorkshiremen.

Among the treats for the victorious Sheffield Wednesday men, on their return home with the Cup, was an appearance on stage with the acclaimed comedian, George Robey, at one of Sheffield’s busy music halls.

For Everton, it was time to lick their wounds and continue their growing reputation in the Football League.

One bright moment for Everton had happened in 1907 without their knowledge; a certain William Ralph Dean had been born in Birkenhead.

He would become Everton’s greatest goal-scorer, a legend in the game and one of the famous names in FA Cup final history.

FA CUP MEMORIES 1908 marked the year when London staged its first Summer Olympics. The budget for the Games was just £15,000 and they made a profit.

The White City Stadium was built to house the track and field activity and Britain ended up well ahead of the USA at the top of the medals table.

The country’s haul included 56 gold, 51 silver and 39 bronze medals across 110 events in 22 sports.

The Games themselves lasted from April 27th to 31st October and among the lasting images of the Fourth Olympiad was of the Italian, Dorando Pietri, crossing the line to win the Marathon.

Or, so he thought.

In fact, he had been stretched to the limit in completing the new marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards, and had received assistance in the closing stages from track officials.

He was disqualified but still remains more famous than the “new” winner – America’s Johnny Hayes – and later received a gold cup from the Queen.

Two days before the 1908 London Olympics began, that season’s FA Cup final was staged at Crystal Palace.

A crowd of nearly 75,000, raising gate receipts of close to £6,000, made the match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United, another moneyspinner.

Newcastle United would finish fourth in the league’s First Division in 1907-08, having won it in the previous season.

Their Cup opponents,

Wolverhampton Wanderers, would end up in ninth position in the Second Division.

Wolves had made it to the Cup final via wins over Bradford City, Bury, Swindon Town, Stoke and then, Southampton, in the semifinal.

Newcastle United, meanwhile, had beaten Nottingham Forest, West Ham United, Liverpool, Grimsby Town and then Fulham, by a thumping 6-0 in the semi-final.

The final itself was also blessed with goals – four of them, with the Midlanders surprisingly coming out on top by three goals to one.

Twice-beaten finalists before, in 1905 and 1906, Crystal Palace was again to prove an unlucky ground for the Geordies.

Wolves were on their way to emulating their first FA Cup final win in 1893, when they scored two goals in the last five minutes of the first half against Newcastle.

Kenneth Hunt put them ahead after 40 minutes, his first goal for the club, and then George Hedley added a second goal three minutes later to give Wolves a comfortable 2-0 half-time lead.

Newcastle hit back through Jimmy Howie before the fourth “H” to get on the score-sheet – Billy Harrison – clinched things for Wolves.

The Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Bell, handed the trophy over to Wolves captain Billy Wooldridge.

Newcastle would have to wait a little bit longer to lift the Cup. One other notable footballing achievement that season was the first League Championship title success for Manchester United – the first of many.

WolveS Defeat Newcastle, take home

SECOND Cup WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 3-1 NEWCASTLE UNITED

By The Daily Telegraph, Crystal Palace, April 25, 1908

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ewcastle United continued their losing ways in the Association Cup final at Crystal Palace; this time losing to Wolverhampton Wanderers, 3-1. It was Wolves’ second Cup, having defeated Everton at Fallowfield in 1893.

Newcastle United have lost in the Cup final three of the past four years at Crystal Palace. They had previously lost to Aston Villa in 1905 and Everton in 1906.

Weather affected both the crowd and the playing field at Crystal Palace. A snowstorm had hit London on Thursday, two days before the match.

Then, an hour before play began, rain began to fall.

After the rain stopped at 3 p.m., a crowd of 74,697 took their places in the stands and on the grassy terraces.

Newcastle appeared to be the stronger team for most of the first half, but Kenneth Hunt and George Hedley punched in a pair of goals in the last five minutes to give Wolverhampton a 2-0 lead.

Newcastle’s Jim Howie cut the Wolves’ lead to 2-1 with his goal seventeen minutes into the second half. Billy Harrison added Wolverhampton’s third goal late in the match to put the Cup out of of Newcastle’s grasp.

ONE RISES, ONE FALLS ■ Wolves enjoyed

their second Cup triumph in four attempts, but Newcastle United fans were left numb after losing the Cup final for the third time in the past four years.

United win FIRST

Cup

MANCHESTER UNITED 1-0 BRISTOL CITY

By The Daily Telegraph Crystal Palace, April 24, 1909

I

t began with a crashing rebound of the ball from the crossbar above the Bristol City goal, then a moment of tension followed by a low, swift drive from a white-clad player and quickly the red-andwhite favours of Manchester United fans were waving in wild merriment as they celebrated their team’s 1-0 lead against Bristol City.

A crowd of 71,401 gathered at Crystal Palace, in Sydenham, today to see the Cup final. Many had travelled more than 200 miles by excursion trains to attend. Not since the ever-memorable match of 1901, when a London club appeared in the Cup final, has such a string of vehicles made the journey by road to see England’s biggest football spectacle. The railroads also discharged tens of thousands at the Crystal Palace gates.

With both teams normally wearing red uniforms, it was decided before the match that Manchester United would wear white and Bristol City would appear in blue uniforms with white stripes.

United’s Sandy Turnbull scored the game’s only goal midway through the first half, when Harold Halse hit the crossbar and the ball fell to Turnbull, who was unmarked in front of the goal. He wasted no time in firing it past goalkeeper Henry Clay for a 1-0 lead.

Bristol City were unable to answer.

ONE & COUNTING ■ United captain Charlie Roberts holds the Cup as the team is greeted by a large crowd of excited supporters upon their return to Manchester after winning the prized trophy.

FA CUP MEMORIES Manchester United’s history in the FA Cup final has been graced with many special moments.

Their magnificent post-war win over Blackpool in 1948; a rampant Denis Law in 1963; two wins over arch-rivals Liverpool in 1977 and 1996 – the latter inspired by the mercurial Eric Cantona; Norman Whiteside’s winner in 1985; Fergie’s first trophy in 1990; the middleleg of the marvellous treble in 1999 and, of course, victory in Cardiff against Millwall in 2004.

United acheived eleven Cup final victories in all – the most of any club and also seven times they were beaten finalists, most emotionally in the wake of the Munich Disaster in 1958.

They have been giants in the competition and it all started back in 1909 and their first FA Cup final.

Born out of Newton Heath FC, United had won the First Division Championship for the first time in 1907-08 and followed it up the next year with their first FA Cup final victory.

Their opponents were from the West Country, Bristol City, who would actually finish above United in the league that year, but at Crystal Palace the Lancashire club got their hands on the “little tin idol.”

Both teams had to wear a change strip as they both usually wore red. United plumped for white shirts with the county’s red rose on the left breast. Bristol City wore blue.

The big pre-match story was the fitness of their inside-forward, Sandy Turnbull. He was struggling with a knee injury and looked likely to miss the final.

United captain Charlie Roberts persuaded the club’s manager, Ernest Mangnall, to take a risk on Turnbull because of his recognised scoring process.

And the gamble paid off. After 22 minutes, Sandy Turnbull, who was to sadly die in the Great War, reacted quickest to a Harold Halse shot that had struck the Bristol City cross-bar, and steered the ball home past goalkeeper Harry Clay.

Bristol City responded and Manchester United were reduced to ten men after losing left back Vince Hayes through injury.

Hayes returned to the field as a forward and United, despite strong Bristol City pressure, were able to see the game out.

After the game, Roberts, the United captain, received the FA Cup – and the start of the club’s legendary place in the trophy’s history was truly underway.

The star of the match was the man with the tooth-pick – Billy Meredith. He had starred for Manchester City when they had won their first FA Cup final in 1904. Now in a United shirt, Meredith again worked his magic.

Meredith’s class, particularly in the game’s second-half, proved inspirational to a United team that seemed inhibited by nerves.

But Meredith didn’t do “nerves!”

Interestingly, the travelling supporters were getting wise to the constraints of Crystal Palace – and how to get the best viewpoints in

the stadium.

Therefore, more than a thousand spectators brought their own “stands” with them. Animated scenes of feverish activity took place before the kick-off on the outskirts of the crowd, with amateur carpenters knocking together something to assist them with a better view of the game.

One interesting note: the match programme from that Cup final was recently purchased at auction for a world-record price of £23,500.

GAME CHANGER ■ Manchester United captain Charlie Roberts poses with the English FA Cup on the steps of Manchester Town Hall after their 1-0 triumph over Bristol City in the Cup final at Crystal Palace.

OPPOSITE PAGE: United’s Sandy Turnbull (not seen in this photo) scores the game-winning goal in the 22nd minute to defeat Bristol City’s goalkeeper, Harry Clay.

FA CUP MEMORIES Newcastle United arrived in London for their 1910 FA Cup final clash with Barnsley, well aware that the capital, and Crystal Palace, in particular, had not been a happy hunting ground for the Tyneside team.

First Division champions in 1905, 1907 and 1909, the men in the black and white stripes had finished runnersup in the FA Cup in 1905,’06 and ’08.

They would also not win at Crystal Palace in 1910 – but still lifted the trophy. And even in 1911 they couldn’t beat their South London hoodoo.

Newcastle would finish fourth in the 1909-10 First Division, whilst their Yorkshire rivals in the FA Cup final, Barnsley, were a mid-table Second Division side.

The match at Crystal Palace was a tight one, indeed not a memorable one – but it did end all-square.

Barnsley took the lead late in the first half through Harry Tufnell and Newcastle had to push on against the Tykes’ rugged defence to try and level the scores.

They did – but only just. An 83rd minute goal from Jock Rutherford pulled Newcastle back into the game.

Barnsley players objected, feeling that Rutherford had been offside when heading home Sandy Higgins cross – but the goal stood.

The game finished 1-1 and the FA Cup final went to a replay.

For Newcastle there was relief that the game would be played at Goodison Park, whilst Barnsley, who had beaten Everton in a replayed semi-final, felt all the neutral Merseyside fans would back the Tynesiders because of that result.

What wasn’t in doubt was the crowd appeal of the replayed FA Cup final.

Scheduled on a Thursday afternoon, nearly 70,000 supporters filled the Everton ground – and plenty more tried to get in.

Rain had fallen all morning on the day of the match and the pitch was very wet.

Newcastle adopted a “win-at-all-costs” mentality – tough and rough. And they didn’t apologise for it. This was their chance to lift the Cup. A goalless first half burst into life in the second when England international Albert Shepherd raced through the Barnsley defence and scored with a low shot.

Newcastle’s second goal came from the penalty spot – the first in FA Cup final history. Tynesiders’ captain Colin Veitch handed the ball to Shepherd and the big centre-forward thumped it into the back of the Barnsley net.

The visiting Newcastle supporters erupted. The FA Cup had finally been won, albeit away from their unlucky ground at Crystal Palace.

If Shepherd’s penalty was a first, Newcastle were also involved in a “last.”

The trophy they were handed was being used for the last time. The second FA Cup, which was bought to replace the first one stolen from the Birmingham sports shop, was taken out of commission when its design was pirated for a minor competition in Manchester.

A new Cup was commissioned and the old one was presented to Lord Kinnaird to mark his 21 years as President of the Football Association.

At an auction in 2005, David Gold, the chairman of West Ham United, bought the Cup. It cost him more than £478,000. It is now on display at the National Football Museum.

shepherd’s 2 goals against barnsley earn FIRST cup FOR Newcastle

AT GOODISON NEWCASTLE UNITED 2-0 BARNSLEY

By The Daily Telegraph, Goodison Park, April 28, 1910

A

fter losing the Cup in three finals (1905, 1906 and 1908) during the past five years, Newcastle United won the prized Association trophy with a 2-0 victory over Barnsley in a replay before a crowd of 69,000 at the home ground of the Everton Football Club.

Five days earlier, Newcastle and Barnsley played to a 1-1 draw in their Cup Championship match at Crystal Palace.

Newcastle had to travel 200 miles – to Liverpool – to find a friendlier playing field. In the smaller Goodison Park, an enthusiastic crowd packed the stadium such that the gates had to be closed to cut off admittance.

The playing field today was slippery. Rain had fallen quite heavily during the morning and finally quit an hour before the match began. With pools of water standing on the pitch, the speedy Barnsley players were forced to play at a slower pace.

Following a fiercely-played first half, Albert Shepherd scored twice to give Newcastle their long-awaited victory.

The second point came on a penalty kick 17 minutes into the second half.

FINALLY, ON TOP ■ After three unsuccessful trips to

the Cup final in London, Newcastle United finally took home the vaunted FA Cup trophy after the replay was moved to Liverpool.

Bradford City Win New Cup

in Replay BRADFORD CITY 1-0 NEWCASTLE UNITED

By Ben Bennison at United Football Ground, The Daily Telegraph, April 26, 1911

B

radford City’s 1-0 victory over Newcastle United in the replayed Cup final at United Football Ground created new records for a competition that has been played for forty years. A crowd of 58,000 paid a total of £4,478 for the largest sum ever collected at the gate. It exceeded by £300 the receipts which had been collected a year ago in the Newcastle United-Barnsley replay at Goodison Park.

Both teams were playing for a new Cup which replaced the one that had been retired and given to Lord Kinnaird to celebrate his 21 years as the FA’s president.

The new trophy was crafted by the silversmith, Fattorini and Sons of Bradford. The cost of the new Cup was fifty guineas.

Newcastle United were playing in their fifth final in seven years. Their only win came last year in the replay against Barnsley. Four days ago, both teams finished in a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace.

In today’s match, which was determined by defence, Newcastle goalkeeper Jimmy Lawrence, who had played in goal in all five of Newcastle’s Cup final appearances, was beaten by Bradford forward Jimmy Speirs 15 minutes into the first half. It was the game’s only goal.

In a bit of irony, the town where the new trophy had been created would be keeping it there for another year.

ONE AND ONLY ■ Making their only appearance in the Cup final, Bradford City’s defence proved to be the stronger of the two finalists.

FA CUP MEMORIES In 1911, Bradford-based Italian immigrant Antonio (Tony) Fattorini revealed to an expectant sporting world his creation – the new FA Cup. Destined to become the most recognisable trophy in world sport, the silver trophy was designed and manufactured in Bradford and hallmarked in Sheffield.

Fattorini and his team produced a beautiful piece of work with elegant curves and a size to demand attention and express visually the importance of the competition for which it was the prize.

The company which is now 185-years-old and rewarded with Royal Approval as a maker of trophies, insignia and medals, celebrated its FA Cup design whilst enjoying the centenary of its use in 2011 – even though a fourth FA Cup was introduced in 1992, because of the third trophy becoming fragile.

I have often been in the company of the great trophy and, wherever we sent it, when I was at the Football Association, it would bring the house down.

Just to complete an incredible story, Fattorini was also a founding member of Bradford City Football Club and was a Board member when they won their first and only FA Cup final – in the first year the new Cup was used in 1911.

In an incredible twist of fate: Bradford City would beat Cup holders, Newcastle United, in a replayed final and take the new trophy back home to Bradford.

Newcastle United were playing in their fifth FA Cup final in seven years and, once again, they couldn’t

win at Crystal Palace.

In fact, in those five matches at Crystal Palace, free-scoring Newcastle only managed to score twice.

En route to the 1911 final they had scored 18 goals in six games but at Crystal Palace they couldn’t get a goal.

Bradford City had scored just eight goals in their five knock-out rounds to make their first final.

The match, which was watched by nearly 70,000 spectators, was a poor one. Newcastle were playing without their Cup-winning specialist, Albert Shepherd, who was out with a bad injury – and it showed.

They had also lost their clever schemer, Peter McWilliam.

Bradford had two great “hefty giants” in the middle of their defence, and Robert Campbell and David Taylor were able to keep the Tynesiders at bay.

The weather was fine, the football wasn’t and, before the game was over, the spectators were heading out of Crystal Palace to grab a look at the preparations being made for the forthcoming Festival of the Empire.

On the evening after the game the Bradford City players went to the Alhambra where pictures of their afternoon’s exploits were shown by the bioscope.

The following Wednesday the two teams met again, this time at Old Trafford.

Newcastle goalkeeper Jimmy Lawrence rushed out to field a ball from Bradford City’s captain, Jimmy Speirs. He missed it and Bradford were gifted with what proved to be the only goal of the game.

LEADING OFF REPLAY TRIUMPH ■ Bradford City’s J.H. Speirs scores the gamewinning goal against Newcastle United. It would be Bradford City’s only Cup final win.

THE SECOND TIME AROUND â–

After losing to Newcastle United in a replay two years earlier, Barnsley won its first Cup final on its second attempt.

LATE TUFNELL GOAL A CUP

WINNER

FOR BARNSLEY BARNSLEY 1- 0 WEST BROMWICH ALBION

By Ben Bennison at Bramall Lane, The Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1912

I

n a match that went the distance, and then some, Harry Tufnell scored the only goal, with less than three minutes left in extratime to give Barnsley a 1-0 victory in the replayed final against West Bromwich Albion for The Association Cup. It was played on the grounds of Sheffield United at Bramall Lane, before a crowd of 38,555.

Four days ago, Barnsley and Albion played a scoreless match at Crystal Palace before a crowd of 54,556.

In today’s meeting, Albion’s goalkeeper, Hubert Pearson, stopped six Barnsley scoring attempts, but the seventh proved to be the one that Pearson couldn’t reach.

Barnsley’s defence made the difference in their journey to the Cup. They played six goal-less matches in the tournament, including three against last year’s Cup winner, Bradford City, before winning, 3-2, in extra-time in their fourth meeting.

Twice in the second half, when facing the sun, Barnsley goalkeeper Jack Cooper had to make difficult stops on skilful shots by Albions’s Sid Bowser.

Barnsley’s lone goal finally came on a pass from Bob Glendinning to Tufnell at midfield, who was in full stride.

Tufnell went straight for the Albion goal. As he came fast toward Pearson, Tufnell let loose a hard, low shot, putting the ball into the net for the 1-0 victory.

FA CUP MEMORIES On April 10th, 1912, R.M.S. Titanic, the largest ship in the world, set sail from Southampton to New York on its maiden voyage.

Six days later, it lay on the sea-bed in the North Atlantic in one of maritime’s most tragic incidents.

The ship had struck an iceberg and within hours the unthinkable had happened – the Titanic had sunk. The Titanic, with its mix of some of the wealthiest people in the world on board as well many folk out to start a new life in America, was no more.

Over 1,500 passengers and crew perished in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, with 706 survivors.

It became a huge story the world over and was still completely dominating the English newspapers on April 20th, the day of the 1912 FA Cup final.

That year’s final, played under the shadow of the story emerging from the sinking of the Titanic, was between Barnsley and West Bromwich Albion.

Division Two side Barnsley had taken a circuitous route to the Cup final, playing no less than 10 matches to get to the tournament’s climax.

They beat Birmingham after a replay, then Leicester Fosse and Bolton, before engaging in a 4th Round tie with Bradford City, the FA Cup holders, that went to four matches.

Unbelievably the first three were goalless draws before the Tykes triumphed, 3-2, over their Yorkshire rivals.

West Brom’s route was simpler. They beat Spurs, 3-0; Leeds City, 1-0; Sunderland, 2-1, and Fulham, 3-0, before beating Blackburn in a replayed semi-final, 1-0.

The final itself was a poor one. A much smaller crowd than previous years – 54,556 – saw a match in which defences dominated. And scoring chances were few and far between.

The crowd made their displeasure felt. And the newspapers didn’t hold back either. “A DULL, FEATURELESS GAME” was The Daily Mirror’s view.

The replay was scheduled for April 24th at Bramall Lane, Sheffield United’s ground, and West Brom, with a back-log of League games because of their Cup run and postponements, had to play an away match at Everton in between the “two” finals.

They sent out a weakened team at Goodison Park and were fined £150 by the Football League.

The replay wasn’t much better than the original match. Played in hot, sunny conditions, West Brom spurned chances and Barnsley’s Wilf Bartrop had an opportunity cleared off the line.

The match went into extra-time and with a second replay beckoning, Harry Tufnell, Barnsley’s insideforward, hood-winked West Brom captain Jesse Pennington; Albion’s defenders, Arthur Cook and Freddie Buck, reacted too slowly and Tufnell steered the ball past Albion goalkeeper Hubert Pearson.

Barnsley successfully saw the game through to the end and lifted the FA Cup. The replay’s attendance had been over 38,000 with gate receipts of £2,615.

A collection amongst supporters at the ground raised a total of £49 1s 2d for the Titanic Disaster Fund.

The story of the sinking of the world’s largest ship would fascinate people for the next 100 years.

So would the FA Cup final.

LEADING OFF THE PRIDE OF BARNSLEY ■ Team captain Johnny Speirs and his Barnsley team-mates return home with the Cup – it was one of the greatest moments in the city’s history.

120,081 Watch as Aston Villa

Win Cup ASTON VILLA 1-0 SUNDERLAND

By Ben Bennison at Crystal Palace, The Daily Telegraph, April 19, 1913

A

ston Villa won its fifth Association Cup championship this afternoon with a 1-0 victory against Sunderland, before the largest crowd to ever see a Cup championship game. A total of 120,081 packed every inch of Crystal Palace.

It was even larger than the crowd for the final in 1901, when Tottenham Hotspur, a non-League team, who were the hope of the South, met Sheffield United before a crowd of 110,820.

Aston Villa, which had previously won the Cup in 1887, 1895, 1897 and 1905, are tied with Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers for most Cup final wins. They won this one on a header by Tommy Barber, following a corner kick from the right, sending the ball just inside the left post with 15 minutes left to play.

Villa’s goalkeeper, Sam Hardy, injured a knee in the second half following a rush by Sunderland’s Harry Martin, and missed ten minutes of the match. He would return before Barber’s goal.

Aston Villa was awarded the second penalty kick in Cup final history, but Charlie Wallace’s attempt sailed wide of the net.

THE BLACK CATS ARRIVE ■ On Cup final day, London was invaded by more than 10,000 Sunderland supporters – and they came dressed for the occasion.

ALMOST A DOUBLE â–

J.W. Bache of Aston Villa and England, Bache played in 2 Aston Villa FA Cup-winning sides, 1905 and 1913 and made 7 appearances for England. LEFT: Villa won 19 of 38 games in the 1912-13 season, had 12 draws and lost 7 en route to a second-place finish in the First Division.

In the FA Cup tournament, they went 6-0.

FA CUP MEMORIES The allocation of “added time” by the referee has often been a source of controversy and frustration by those involved in a close football match.

Indeed, in the last few years it has even been given a nick-name.

“Fergie Time” refers to the keen level of interest and attention, the great Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson, pays to the allocation of a game’s additional time.

A long theatrical stare at his watch is normally accompanied by a pained expression, especially if the number of minutes on the board does not agree with his own view of how many it should be. Especially exacerbated if his team is trailing in a match.

I’m not sure how Fergie or any other manager would have responded to Mr. Adams’ “injurytime” decision in the 1913 FA Cup final.

It is believed that he added 17 minutes, extending the match well beyond 100 minutes long.

When he finally blew the final whistle, it confirmed Aston Villa as the latest winners of the FA Cup. Winners in 1887, 1895, 1897 and 1905, Villa made it five wins in six Cup finals, and they did it in front of a massive Crystal Palace crowd of 120,081.

Having beaten Derby, 3-1; West Ham, 5-0; Crystal Palace, 5-0; Bradford 5-0, and then Oldham in the semi-final, Villa would also finish runners-up in the first Division.

The league champions that season, and Villa’s Cup final opponents, were Sunderland. The meeting of the two top teams was reflected in the massive interest in the game.

Villa’s habit of scoring five goals in their Cup-ties that season led their fans to dub their meeting with

Sunderland the “Five final.” But on the day only one goal was ultimately needed to win the FA Cup. Harry Hampton was still doing his stuff for Villa, while Charlie Buchan was in the Sunderland ranks.

Later an Arsenal player, “Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly” magazine became a regular treat for football followers old and young in the 1950’s and 60’s.

This final delivered another “first” – the first penalty missed in the game’s biggest match.

A tense opening, and nerves amongst both ranks of players, set the tone for the game.

And just to prove falling down in a heap when barely touched is not just a modern phenomenon, The Times reported that: “These expensive professionals seem very fragile creatures; the smallest hack which no public schoolboy would think of noticing is enough to send him to the earth in a well-acted, but supremely ridiculous agony of pain.”

Feuds happened all over the pitch, including one between Hampton and Charlie Thomson of Sunderland, but the referee decided to take no action. He was later suspended by the FA for bad timekeeping and not maintaining order, as were the two players for their Cup final antics.

Mr. Adams did give a penalty in the match, however, and Villa’s Charlie Wallace sliced the spot-kick wide.

He was able to recover from his disappointment when he supplied the corner for Tommy Barber to score Villa’s winner.

The two teams would meet in the following mid-week at Villa Park and a 1-1 draw was the result.

Sunderland went on to win the league title.

PARTY AT THE PALACE

■

Thousands of enthusiastic Aston Villa fans made their presence known while in London to support their team in the FA Cup final. It would be Sunderland’s first trip to play for England’s biggest football prize.

King George ATTENDS AS BURNLEY

WIN

FA CROWN BURNLEY 1- 0 LIVERPOOL

By Ben Bennison at Crystal Palace The Daily Telegraph, April 25, 1914

T

hey came by train, tram and vehicles of all description, this invading army of Northerners, which made up a sizeable portion of the crowd of 72,778 today at Crystal Palace.

They were not disappointed as Burnley won their first Association Challenge Cup with a 1-0 victory over Liverpool. When the tournament began, a record 476 teams had entered to play for England’s greatest football prize.

Among the spectators was King George V, who was wearing a red rose of Lancaster in his button hole in honour

TOAST OF THE TOWN

of the two Lancashire teams playing in the final. After the match, King George presented the Cup to the victors. It is the first time a monarch had attended a Cup match, or handed the Cup to the winning team.

Bert Freeman, who also played centreforward for England, scored Burnley’s only goal thirteen minutes after half-time.

Ironically, it was the fifth time in six seasons the Cup final ended in a 1-0 score.

■ The Burnley football team, riding on a horse-drawn wagon, is given a heroes’ welcome upon their return from winning the FA Cup final.

FA CUP MEMORIES The 1914 FA Cup final was the last staged at the Crystal Palace – and it was the first time either Burnley or Liverpool had played in the “biggest match” of the season.

Burnley had reached the final by beating South Shields, Derby County, Bolton Wanderers, and then both Sunderland and Sheffield United after replays.

Liverpool’s route to the Cup final involved winning matches against Barnsley, Gillingham, West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers and then Aston Villa in the semifinal.

An attendance of nearly 73,000 would see two Lancastrian teams fight it out to have their name, a new name, on the FA Cup roll of honour.

As had become the norm, thousands of supporters came down to the capital by train.

Departing on Friday evening and early Saturday morning, excited fans jumped aboard trains, like the 7:40 a.m. football special from Lime Street. It had 1,200 people packed into eighteen coaches.

Every carriage was alive with colour – red and white ribbons, streamers and rosettes, lapel “FA Cup” badges and red and white bowler hats.

Sandwiches wrapped in red and white paper and the odd bottle of something tantalising, kept everybody in good spirits.

This was an FA Cup “army” on the move.

The roads around the stadium were jampacked and Liverpool used taxis to transport their players to the ground.

For the first time ever the monarch attended the game, and King George V, wearing a red rose on his coat, was very enthusiastically received by both sets of supporters.

After the National Anthem had been played, both sets of players were lined up in

ON VIEW FOR THE KING

front of the King and one of the captains led the players in a rousing three cheers for the Cup final’s special VIP. Burnley, the favourites, had prepared by training at Lytham whilst Liverpool had stayed overnight before the game in Chingford, where Everton had stayed before the 1906 and 1907 finals.

The early stages of the game were affected by both sets of players exhibiting nerves.

With spectators using every vantage point, including standing on the top of wooden posts and climbing nearby trees, they witnessed Liverpool gradually exert pressure on the Burnley defence.

Tom Miller had a goal disallowed for offside, Jimmy Nicholl hit the cross-bar and the ever-popular Billy Lacey brought out a good save from Burnley goalkeeper Ronnie Sewell, but still Liverpool couldn’t get the vital break-through.

When it did come after 58 minutes, it was Burnley who broke away and scored. Teddy Hodgson passed to centre-forward, and exEvertonian, Bert Freeman and he crashed home a brilliant shot.

Liverpool pressed for an equaliser, but despite Sheldon, Longworth, Fairfoul, Lacey and McKinlay going close, Burnley held out for victory.

At the end of the game there was a stampede to get in the best position for the presentation of the Cup. The King’s presence meant a greater number of spectators stayed to see the post-match formalities than had been the habit of previous years.

Burnley were the victors, and Liverpool were the vanquished. But by the time the next FA Cup final was played, in 1915, those terms had taken on a more sinister tone – the World would be at War.

■ Burnley FC made their first appearance in the FA Cup tournament 1885. They were a founding memeber of the Football League in 1888. Winning the FA Cup trophy in 1914, with King George VI watching, is the greatest achievement in the club’s history.

Post-Game Plea

Stirs Cup Crowd SHEFFIELD UNITED 3-0 CHELSEA

By Ben Bennison at United Football Ground, The Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1915

I

t was a monumental speech: “You have played with one another and against one another for the Cup; (it is time to) play with one another for England now.”

These were the memorable words of the Earl of Derby to an Association Cup crowd of 49,557 following the Sheffield United-Chelsea final.

It was the smallest crowd to attend a Cup final since 1896. However, with World War I already underway in Europe, most of those in the Cup crowd were dressed in military khaki. And with Lord Derby’s words those in the crowd knew this would be the last Cup final until the military conflict in Europe was over.

The traditional Cup final game site at Crystal Palace was being utilised by the British military so the Football Association opted to hold this year’s final at United Football Ground in Manchester, which had been built five years ago (in 1909).

United’s Jim Simmons scored the first goal of the match 36 minutes into the first half for a 1-0 lead.

The contest would remain close until the final six minutes of the second half, when Stan Fazackerly made it 2-0. His shot bobbed about on the crossbar, then it fell in.

In the match’s final two minutes, Joe Kitchen’s swift, low kick to the far corner of the net, which Chelsea goalkeeper Jimmy Molyneux was unable to reach, gave United a 3-0 advantage.

After Lord Derby’s short speech, which emotionally inspired the crowd, Claude Kirby, the chairman of the Chelsea club, added, “There is now a battle to be fought elsewhere.”

ONE LAST FINAL ■ With World War I already raging in Europe, the last Cup final for five years is played before a small crowd at United Football Ground, in Manchester, which Sheffield United (right) won easily, 3-0.

FA CUP MEMORIES The First World War had broken out just before the start of the new 1914-15 football season and many people, justifiably, felt as the nation’s young men were losing their lives in the pursuit of freedom that competitive football in England should be cancelled.

Indeed in many ways, the most important football played in 1914 were probably the impromptu kick-abouts between British and German soldiers as they laid down their arms and left their respective trenches to have a brief Christmas respite from the horrors of war.

Football did continue but would end after the completion of the season.

A third round second replay between Bradford City and Norwich City, which was scheduled for Lincoln City’s ground, was played behind closed doors so local munition workers were not distracted from their essential work for the war effort.

The FA Cup final was moved from its established home at Crystal Palace to avoid disrupting traffic in the capital.

Instead, it would be played at the recently-built United Football Ground in Manchester, and the game would feature Sheffield United and Chelsea Chelsea had Bob Thomson up front, who had been injured a fortnight before the final.

He actually played with the disability of having sight in only one eye.

Lieutenant Vivian Woodward was given special leave from the battlefields of France and a possible place in the FA Cup final.

Woodward was an amateur footballer, but had made a great impression at Chelsea.

Aware that he was attending the match, and mindful of Thomson’s injury, the

Chelsea directors asked Woodward to play.

Ever the gentleman, Woodward declined, saying that those players who had got Chelsea to the Cup final should be the ones who played in it.

The match was dubbed “The Khaki Final” because of the vast number of servicemen in the crowd.

Sheffield United triumphed emphatically, 3-0, and they were presented with the trophy. Competitive football ceased shortly afterwards.

The Yorkshire club kept the Cup in safekeeping for the next five years – setting a record until Portsmouth’s pre-war win in 1939 led them to holding on to the Cup for seven years.

The game itself at Old Trafford was played in rather wet and murky conditions, in front of a crowd of just under 50,000.

Sheffield’s opening goal came after 36 minutes, when a mis-kick from Stan Fazackerly fell to team-mate Jim Simmons.

He quickly scored.

Chelsea fought back in the second half and also defended well until a late brace of goals from Fazackerley and Joe Kitchen put the game beyond the Londoners’ reach.

In 1915, it was the Yorkshire team from Sheffield that received the FA Cup from the final’s guest of honour, the Earl of Derby.

The unease of playing football at this time, and particularly an occasion like the FA Cup final, was underlined by the news that thousands of soldiers had been killed in Ypres from a German gas attack, the first of its type, on the day the match was played.

Sport, quite rightly, had to take a backseat to far more fundamental aspects of human life, and would not return in a competitive form until 1919.

PRE-MATCH GREETINGS ■

Chelsea captain Jack Harrow (left) shakes hands with George Whey, the Sheffield United captain before the 1915 Cup final kick-off.

Villa TOP Huddersfield

in Cup REVIVAL ASTON VILLA 1-0 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

By Ben Bennison at Stamford Bridge, The Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1920

A

ssociation Cup football returned in January 1920 which ended a fiveyear drought. And with it came an expanded Football League with 22 clubs in each division.

And in the FA Cup tournament, Aston Villa won its sixth Cup final today, 1-0, in extra-time over Huddersfield Town. The game was played before a crowd of 50,018 in the huge amphitheatre at Stamford Bridge, the home ground of Chelsea football club.

Villa’s goal came ten minutes into the extra 30-minute period with a header off a corner kick that soared past Alex Mutch, the Huddersfield goalkeeper.

At the time, there was some confusion over who should be credited for the goal. Many in the stands thought that the ball twisted into the net off the head of Huddersfield’s Tommy Wilson. But Villa’s Billy Kirton was acclaimed the scorer as he was mobbed by his team-mates and they danced and pranced to celebrate the win.

Following the match, Andrew Ducat, the Aston Villa captain, accepted the FA Cup from Prince Henry and, when he showed the trophy to the 50,000-plus in attendance, they roared their approval.

Villa, who had previously won five Cups – in 1887, 1895, 1897, 1905 and 1913 – set a new record today for most Cups won, pushing them past Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers.

Huddersfield’s route to the Cup final was a difficult one.

Earlier in the season, the FA determined Huddersfield to be insolvent, which forced a mass transfer of players to reduce debt. Yet with their remaining players, Huddersfield continued to win enough matches to play for the Cup.

THE CUP RETURNS ■ After playing to a 0-0 draw in regular time, Aston Villa and Huddersfield Town played a 30-minute extra-time period to determine a winner. OPPOSITE PAGE: Prince Henry presents the Winners’ medals to the Aston Villa players after the Cup final.

FA CUP MEMORIES By all accounts Huddersfield Town should not have made it to the first FA Cup final after the end of World War One. They were broke, and owed two of their own directors a total of £25,000. An idea for them to amalgamate with Leeds United was floated, but by raising money from a willing public and transferring players they stayed in business – and went on a glorious Cup run.

The club also felt they had luck on their side. Before every game, their players rubbed a lamp that had been used in a local production of Aladdin.

The lamp did its trick – and Huddersfield got two of their three wishes.

In their first wish, they gained promotion from the Second Division to the First Division.

Their second wish was to reach the FA Cup final. Their third wish would be to go on and win the Cup. Huddersfield’s opponents there would be Aston Villa, already Cup-winners on five previous occasions, and a team full of internationals.

Villa were one of the game’s big names – and success was never far away for them. But they also enjoyed their share of luck en route to the final.

After being outplayed for most of the game, they had squeaked through a quarterfinal tie with Tottenham Hotspur – and had goalkeeper Sam Hardy to thank for their safe passage.

They then went on to beat Chelsea in the semifinal, which prevented the Football Association from the embarrassment of having one of the finalists playing in their own stadium.

Stamford Bridge was the venue for the final and early Pathé Film newsreels show a ground packed to the rafters as the two teams emerged from the changing rooms.

A big advertisement on the side of the stand proclaimed the virtues of the “Military Pickle” – and the standard flat caps were on parade. There were 50,000 in the stadium and every spectator seemed to have a similar piece of headwear.

The game itself was a close one. No goals were scored in the first ninety minutes. The game then went to extra-time.

This was a change in routine.

Recent finals had gone to a replay after the first game was drawn in normal time.

The game’s decisive action took place 10 minutes into extra-time, when Aston Villa’s centre-forward, Billy Kirton, headed home from a corner.

He was unsure he had been the scorer, but after the game referee, Mr. Howcroft, confirmed he had been the match-winner for Villa.

Huddersfield Town pushed forward but couldn’t level things. And for a sixth time, Aston Villa had won the Cup, overtaking the achievements of the Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers.

For the Yorkshiremen better times were ahead.

Early in 1921, they made the appointment of Herbert Chapman as their manager – and with his arrival came a remarkable upturn in their fortunes. Chapman was an inspirational figure and he would bring League and Cup honours to Huddersfield Town before moving to Arsenal and repeating his magic there.

VICTORY, AT LAST ■ Aston Villa’s Billy Kirton scores the extra-time game-winner against Huddersfield Town to win the Cup final.

George v Crowns TOTTENHAM as

CUP KINGS TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1-0 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

By Ben Bennison at Stamford Bridge, The Daily Telegraph, April 23, 1921

W

e saw the real heart of the British nation today at Stamford Bridge – a great, loyal heart. It was an occasion never to be forgotten.

In rain that pelted and slashed and drenched, King George V, together with his sons, the Duke of York and Prince Henry, walked onto the field of the Chelsea football club to be introduced to, and shake hands with, the Tottenham and Wolverhampton players, who had come to do battle for the Cup, which is the most magical and coveted of all football trophies in Europe.

These footballers stood rigid on a white line that, in a twinkle, was obliterated by a deluge that was sudden and rampageous.

The band of the Irish Guards, nearby, in coats of scarlet and gold, struck up the National Anthem, and 72,805 people sang God Save the King as a wonderful, disciplined choir, then, as one voice, they broke into deafening cheers.

It was a scene that was profoundly impressive – the King was with his people, and there was only joy.

Tottenham Hotspur would win the match, 1-0, on a field that had been reduced to a sloppy, muddy surface.

The winning goal came eight minutes into the second half. The sun, which had just arrived, quickly began to warm up the Stamford Bridge ground.

Tottenham’s Jimmy Dimmock kicked a ball which bounced off the back of a Wolverhampton defender.

Dimmock then scrambled for the loose ball. At 15 yards from the Wolverhampton goal, he let loose with a kick that goalkeeper Noel George was unable to reach. It would prove to be enough for Spurs to win the Cup.

SPURS WIN AGAIN ■ Arthur Grimsdell shows off the Cup to Spurs fans as he walks outside the Chelsea Stadium.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The Cup winners are driven through the North London streets in a Charabanc with the FA Cup on display following their 1-0

34

STANFORD BRIDGE THRILLER ■ Playing on a slippery turf, Tottenham’s Bert Bliss makes a daring attempt to score against Wolves. OPPOSITE PAGE: King George V presents the Cup to Spurs captain Arthur Grimsdell.

FA CUP MEMORIES The 1921 FA Cup final saw Tottenham Hotspur repeat their triumph of twenty years before and start building a reputation of winning trophies in years ending with a “1.”

In 1901, Southern League club Tottenham overcame Sheffield United in a replayed FA Cup final. They became the only non-League club to win the FA Cup. In 1908, Spurs were finally elected to the Football League’s Second Division in a very close vote with Lincoln City, and in 1921 they were in the country’s top division.

Spurs were moving along nicely and 1920-21 saw them put together a strong Cup run.

They beat Bristol Rovers; Bradford City – via a famous Jimmy Seed second-half hat-trick, and then Southend, putting a total of fourteen goals past those three opponents.

In the quarter-finals, Spurs got their revenge for the previous year when they knocked out Cup holders, Aston Villa, by a single goal. And another famous Cup name, Preston, were conquered in their semi-final at Hillsborough.

Spurs captain Arthur Grimsdell was a hugely influential player – a great half-back and equally a great leader of men. When he was injured he was sorely missed.

Spurs’ opponents in the FA Cup final were Wolves – who’d beaten Everton in the quarter-final and the Welshmen of Cardiff City in a replayed semi-final.

The teams played in their traditional colours, Spurs in white and Wolves in black and gold stripes.

The spectators arrived sodden with rain, but full of anticipation, and plenty of “Cockerel” hats were on show.

Such was the enthusiasm for the game the fans were allowed into Stamford Bridge four and a half hours before the kick-off. The attendance was 72,805 and the match receipts – £13,414 – were the biggest for any football match up to that time.

King George V was introduced to the teams prematch, with the pitch already soaked – and the rain refused to let up as the final began. At times it made the game a mockery.

Spurs, who had scored freely in the earlier rounds,

found Wolves a tougher nut to crack. But the game’s solitary goal came eight minutes into the second-half.

Jimmy Dimmock, a flying left-winger from Edmonton and a huge favourite with the Tottenham crowd, was the man who got the vital goal.

He ran from almost his own half, beating two Wolves players before hitting a weak shot from about 15 yards.

The quagmire conditions contrived to help the shot slip under Wolves’ goalkeeper, Noel George, and the Cup was won.

After the King handed over the Cup trophy, it was carried back to Tottenham, via Hyde Park, Camden Town and Seven Sisters Road, in an open charabanc.

Attached to the trophy were the original ribbons from Spurs first famous FA Cup win in 1901.

A celebration was held at King’s Hall in Holborn – and Spurs began to build on their reputation as a formidable FA Cup team.

Wolves would play in their next Cup final in 1939 – the last one played before the start of the Second World War. But in 1921, on a rainy day in London Town, they lost to the local favourites.

FA CUP MEMORIES The last FA Cup final, before the huge move to Wembley in 1923, was staged again at Stamford Bridge and it was a classic War of the Roses clash.

Huddersfield Town, beaten finalists in 1920, were back and facing fellow Lancastrians, Preston North End. Preston had won the Cup in 1889, as part of a Double-winning campaign. They had also been beaten finalists in 1888.

In the 1922 semi-final, they knocked out current Cup holders, Tottenham Hotspur.

The Cup final was a game that attracted wide interest because the new Huddersfield Town manager, Herbert Chapman, was making a big difference to the Yorkshire club and its players – and it was being noticed.

Chapman was born in Kiveton Park, Yorkshire, and his father was a miner. He was one of eleven children.

Chapman avoided a lifetime down in the pits by staying above ground and studying mining engineering. He also played football, first as an amateur and later as a professional.

He was an unremarkable footballer, and drifted from club to club – eventually getting paid employment at Northampton Town.

It was also at Northampton that Chapman later began a managerial career that gave him legendary status. From Northampton, he moved to Leeds City, where his progress was checked when banned for life for his alleged part in the club’s payment of players during the Great War. In 1920, Huddersfield Town approached him to join their club – and an appeal against his ban was won.

Chapman started to make a difference at Huddersfield straightaway. He was a man who thought about tactics, who wanted his players to think the game through more seriously, and was keen on the right level of physical and medical care for his men.

Later in his career, he would pursue the use of stadium floodlights and was an advocate for numbers being sewn on players’ jerseys. He was a visionary.

At Huddersfield Town, he was massively successful. In his short period there his team were League champions twice and FA Cup winners once.

Chapman was a proven winner.

In 1925, he moved to Arsenal and set them off on a trophy spree. They were the team of the Thirties – and he set the template for that success. Back in 1922, his job was to beat Preston and win Huddersfield Town their first FA Cup final. And he did it.

Once again a single goal would win the Cup final. This time, it came from the man who had been fouled, Billy Smith.

Preston thought the offence happened outside the penalty area.

They probably would have rued, but they left their lucky black cat in Preston, preferring instead for sprigs of heather for the Cup final.

Huddersfield got a warm welcome at home and paraded around the streets in a blue and white striped bus.

The club went on to win the League Championship in 1923-24 and 1924-25. And such was the structure Chapman had put in place before he left for Arsenal.

The Yorkshire club also finished runners-up in the League in 192526 and in 1926-27.

Chapman enjoyed huge success at Arsenal before he died suddenly in January 1934.

SMITH’S Penalty Kick DecideS Cup FINAL for

Huddersfield HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 1-0 PRESTON NORTH END

By Ben Bennison at Stamford Bridge, The Sunday Telegraph, April 29, 1922

F

or the third straight year Stamford Bridge hosted an uninspiring Cup final.

Fortunately for the FA, the new Empire Stadium at Wembley will be finished next season to host the greatest championship game in the world.

Playing before a crowd of 53,000, on a beautiful, sunny afternoon, Huddersfield Town defeated Preston North End today, 1-0.

Only one play stood out in this match, and it was controversial.

Huddersfield’s lone goal came on a penalty kick in the second half, which was awarded after Preston fullback Tom Hamilton tripped Huddersfield’s Billy Smith.

Most Preston fans, however, thought that Smith had been tripped outside the penalty area.

After Smith readied himself to attempt the penalty kick, he was distracted by Preston goalkeeper James Mitchell.

Smith finally sent the ball soaring – and it whirled past Mitchell’s reach for a 1-0 lead with 23 minutes left to play.

Following the match, the Duke of York and Prince George presented the Cup to Huddersfield Town and medals to both teams amid hearty roars of enthusiasm and the National Anthem being played.

Cup Controversy ■ H.R.H., The Duke of York, is introduced to the Preston North End players before the 1922 Cup final is played at Stamford Bridge. It was Huddersfield Town’s second trip to the Cup final. They lost to Aston Villa, 1-0, in the 1920 final.

126,047 Watch as Bolton Wins

Wembley Opener

The Best of Wembley â– King George V and a huge crowd of approximatly 200,000 attend the first FA Cup final to be held at the new Empire Stadium, in Wembley, between West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers.

BOLTON WANDERERS 2-0 WEST HAM UNITED

By Ben Bennison at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 28, 1923

K

ing George V was there to formally open the new Empire Stadium at Wembley, which is the cornerpiece of the upcoming British Empire Exhibition. He was joined by a record crowd estimated at 200,000. Thousands more were outside the gates, unable to either buy a ticket or gain admittance with the ticket they had.

The gates were closed at 1:45 p.m. At one point, thousands of disappointed enthusiasts broke down the barriers and stormed into the stadium.

Wembley, which was built to accomodate 125,000, was packed. The official attendance for today’s Cup final was

later set at 126,047. The Red Cross reported that more than 1,000 were treated for fainting and other injuries related to storming the stadium gates. By the time the King finally arrived, the crowd had spilled onto the playing field and police, on horses, were needed to move the crowd back so that the game could be played.

One prominent member of this effort was Constable George Scorey and his 13-year-old white horse named “Billy.” In several London newspapers, many sportswriters were so impressed with Billy’s crowd-control abilities, they ran headlines the next day referring to the Cup match as the “White Horse Final.”

Although delayed, the match finally kicked off at 3:45 p.m. Two minutes later, David Jack connected with a

header to give Bolton a 1-0 lead.

At eight minutes into the second half, Bolton wrapped up the scoring when Ted Vizard took a pass at midfield, and worked his way past West Ham’s United’s Sid Bishop and Billy Henderson.

And at the moment, when it seemed as if he would run the ball over the goal line, Vizard kicked the ball to J.R. Smith, who booted a great shot into the net for a deciding 2-0 victory.

A SHOW WORTH SEEING ■ After the Cup final

had been delayed 45 minutes, Bolton’s David Jack scored quickly – at the 2-minute mark – to electrify the large crowd of 200,000.

FA CUP MEMORIES “The greatest arena in the world” – those were the words that introduced the new Empire Stadium at Wembley to an expectant public.

The 1923 FA Cup final programme continued: “This vast stadium, the largest in the world, the most comfortable, and the best equipped, holds more than 125,000 people ... .”

On the day of the first FA Cup final there, it may have held double that amount.

The Empire Stadium at Wembley was built as part of the British Empire Exhibition to be opened by King George V the following year.

But ahead of that event, and in an area that “equals the Biblical city of Jericho,” the new stadium was to host the Cup final.

Interestingly, the stadium was built in 300 days and at a cost of around £750,000 by a battalion of workers, who put it through vigorous stress and stability tests.

In the Cup programme, fans were urged to “squeeze as close as possible to their next-door neighbours in the standing enclosure.”

In reality they had no choice, as thousands upon thousands spectators for the FA Cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United poured into the stadium. There had been a “no ticket” policy for the 1923 Cup final – that would never happen again.

With the stands already full, the fans spewed out onto the pitch, the only space still left. And gradually they were moved off the playing surface into the stands themselves or along the sides of the pitch.

These were remarkable, unprecedented scenes and

the aerial camera shots made astounding viewing.

Amidst it all was a policeman and his police white horse.

Billy, the police horse, and his rider, PC George Scorey, went into Wembley and FA Cup final folklore as they helped move the fans off the pitch and behind the lines so the match could get underway.

There were obviously other policemen and other horses doing the same but Billy stood out – and still does when you look at photographs from this famous day.

Later, PC Scorey said, “I happened to see an opening near one of the goals and the horse was very good – easing them back with his nose and tail until we got a goal-line cleared. Perhaps because he was white he commanded more attention. But, more than, that he seemed to understand what was required of him. Another helpful thing was the good temper of the crowd.”

Amazingly the game got underway just 45 minutes late.

Bolton scored after just two minutes through David Jack – it was the first goal at Wembley – and despite the fans’ proximity there was no pitch invasion.

A second Bolton goal was scored

by Jack Smith, with his shot going in off the underside of the bar.

Bolton had won their first major trophy and Wembley had staged its first chaotic match.

The receipts for the game were an extraordinary £27,776 – easily a record then for a sporting eventand the FA subsequently returned £2,797 to ticket-holders who claimed to have not been able to reach their seats. How the FA checked the merit of their cases remains unclear.

LEADING OFF KEEPING THE PEACE â– Mounted police joined with ground forces to push back the unexpectedly large crowd that had spilled onto the pitch for the first-ever FA Cup final to be played at the newlycompleted Empire Stadium at Wembley.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Bolton Wanderers captain Joe Smith (middle with the trophy) poses with the FA Cup outside the new stadium in Wembley.

LEADING OFF THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE ■ PC George Scorey and his horse, “Billy,” were a key force in controlling the overflowing crowds at the 1923 Cup final at the Empire Stadium at Wembley.

The Road to

O

Wembley

n a January day in 1922, His Royal Highness, the Duke of York − later King George the Sixth of England − cut a piece of turf from the top of a hill at Wembley, Middlesex.

Within 300 days, after more than 250,000 tons of clay had been carved out, and 25,000 tons of concrete with 600 tons of steel rods to bind it, and 1,500 tons of girders and 500,000 rivets were put in place by the skill and patient efficiency of British construction workmanship, this mass of steel and concrete was coaxed into shape to make the world’s greatest sports arena, the Empire Stadium at Wembley.

In the 89 years since the last seat was bolted into its appointed position and the last lick of paint was left to dry, many, many millions have streamed through its lettered turnstiles, to be thrilled or elated by the successes, and depressed by the failures of, their favourite teams, who were fighting to get their names inscribed on The Football Association Challenge Cup. On July 20, 1871, about a dozen young men belonging to the aristocracy of those times met at the offices of The Sportsman in London. There were no big professional clubs with lavish grandstands, no multi-million pound transfers, no shin guards, no goal nets nor whistles for referees.

The chairman of the meeting was E.C. Morley, a former captain of Barnes. The others present were representatives of the Forest club (not Nottingham Forest, but a famous amateur club, which played on a ground near Epping Forest, from which arose the even more famous Wanderers club, who were five times winners of the Cup), Upton Park, Westminster School, the Civil Service, Crystal Palace and Royal Engineers. It was proposed by C.W. Alcock, the captain of Wanderers, that “It is desirable that a Challenge Cup be established in connection with The Association for which all clubs belonging to The Association shall be invited to compete.”

At a later meeting, it was decided to start what is now

By Roland Allen

popularly known as the “English Cup” tournament. It has for many years been the most talked about and popular sporting competition in the world.

There were only fifteen entries in the first year − 187172 − and, as a matter of interest, they were: Barnes, Civil Service, Clapham Rovers, Hitchin, Maidenhead, Marlow, Donnington School, The Wanderers, Hampstead Heathens, Harrow Chequers, Reigate Priory, Royal Engineers, Upton Park, Crystal Palace and the Scottish club, Queen’s Park.

The professional monopoly of the Cup started in 1884, when Blackburn Rovers won it for the first of three straight years. Since then, no amateur club has been good enough to win it, or even to get to the final.

Crowds have greatly increased from 2,000 for the first final, which was played at Kennington Oval, where County and Test cricket matches are now played, to crowds of 100,000-plus after the Empire Stadium at Wembley was opened in 1923, to 90,000 at the new Wembley. The gate receipts have risen from a few hundred pounds in the 1870’s to £45,000 at the Cup final between Derby County and Charlton Athletic in 1946, when the competition was resumed after World War II, to multimillion pound paydays today.

Most of the finals were played at Kennington Oval until 1892. Then after an interval of two years, during which it was played in the provinces − at Fallowfield Stadium in Manchester in 1893 and at Goodison Park in Liverpool in 1894 − the finals were played at Crystal Palace until the outbreak of World War I, in 1914. In 1915, the Cup final was played at United Football Ground in Manchester.

For three years after the war, the finals were played on the Chelsea FC grounds at Stamford Bridge, then the Football Association entered into an agreement for the finals to be played at the new Empire Stadium at Wembley, beginning in 1923.

Although officially named the Empire Stadium, the new arena was soon being referred to as “Wembley” due to its location in the London suburban village.

King George V was the first English King to attend

a Cup final. That was in 1914. It is now an established custom for a member of the Royal Family to attend the finals at Wembley.

Through the years the Cup tournament and the final have grown in popularity.

Twice the Cup tournament has been interrupted by the outbreak of war − from 1916 to 1919 and from 1940 to 1945 − but each time, when the Cup competition was resumed, it was stronger and more popular than ever.

Until the first final at the new stadium, on April 28, 1923, between Bolton and West Ham, Wembley was little more than a vague name on the Underground timetable to most people. It was a village which workers in London would retire to each weekday evening to breathe clean air, admire the view from its cluster of hills or play golf among the cool trees and pleasant pools.

By the outbreak of World War II, Wembley had flashed like a magic name round the world. The greatest exponents in the soccer show-business had skimmed across its velvet turf. And it had entertained Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses, Dukes and Earls and Lords, artists and actors, statesmen and diplomats, businessmen and the great mass of people vaguely known as the working classes, with their mothers and wives, sisters and sweethearts and girlfriends. Distinguished foreigners had sat, slightly puzzled, perhaps, but deeply impressed and seen the King and Queen of England mixing with their people and sharing their enjoyment of this essentially English occasion.

During six years of war, stripped of its trappings but retaining its human drama, big-time football was kept going in a modified form at Wembley.

Then, on April 27, 1946, came the first FA Cup final of the new peace era.

Derby County and Charlton Athletic provided a memorable game. There was a lingering shadow of austerity to remind us that we had been at war. But there were also coloured suits and hats, mass bands and rattles, to indicate and promise that the greatest of all football occasions was settling again into its normal and rightful place in our social structure − and in our hearts.

A SALUTE TO GREATNESS ■ A London policeman at Wembley salutes West Bromwich Albion captain Tommy Glidden following the Throstles’ 2-1 win against Birmingham City in 1931.

Newcastle Finally Get Revenge Against ASTON VILLA IN

CUP FINAL NEWCASTLE UNITED 2-0 ASTON VILLA

By Ben Bennison at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 26, 1924

T

his year’s Cup final had none of the drama of last year’s match between Bolton and West Ham United. 91,695 showed up today for the Football Association’s Challenge Cup final between Newcastle United and Aston Villa, which was lighted by a fickle sun, but gave off wondrous colour. As the fans stood on their tiptoes to watch the match, they shouted and screamed and roared.

More importantly, the fans were orderly, didn’t break down barricades, or spill onto the playing field.

Newcastle won, 2-0, and were able to make amends for their 2-0 loss to Villa in the 1905 Cup final at Crystal Palace.

BACK TO THE NORTH ■ Full-back Frank Hudspeth carries the FA Cup to the dressing room after the trophy presentation and celebration of Newcastle United’s 2-0 victory over Aston Villa in the 1924 Cup final at Wembley.

This time, with seven minutes left to play in the second half, Newcastle overcame weariness and found a way to defeat favoured Villa.

Newcastle’s Neil Harris, who had scored three goals against Derby County in a 2nd Round third replay, got loose from Villa half-back Victor Milne, was tied up in a jumble in front of the Villa goal, then punched the ball past Villa goalkeeper Tommy Jackson to give Newcastle a 1-0 lead at the 83rd minute.

After the Newcastle goal, Villa’s Arthur Dorrell used every ounce of speed to move the ball downfield and even up the score. After reaching the corner flag, he lifted the ball high with his kick, but team-mates Len Capewell and Billy Kirton were unable to get the ball past Newcastle goalkeeper Bill Bradley.

With five minutes left to play, Newcastle responded with a long kick downfield, with winger Stan Seymour outrunning a Villa defender to reach the ball. Quickly, Seymour got his left foot on the ball and booted it high over the head of Jackson for another Newcastle goal and a 2-0 victory. After the match, the Duke of York presented the Cup to Frank Hudspeth, the captain of Newcastle United.

RETURN TO TYNESIDE â– The Cup traveled north to Newcastle for a second time in 1924, following their their 2-0 win against Aston Villa in the Cup final. The Toons finished the season with a league record of 17 wins, 15 losses and 10 draws.

FA CUP MEMORIES PC George Scorey and Billy were not on duty for the 1924 FA Cup final and they were the lucky ones as the day was a wet one – a very wet one.

Indeed, so many spectators used their programmes to shield them from the rain, that this edition of the many FA Cup collectibles has become one of the most sought after – especially a dry one!

The rain got into people’s clothes and into the cameras being used to provide footage of the match for the famous cinematic newsreel company, Pathé News. No moving pictures or newsreels exist of the actual game.

So what did the following week’s cinema-goers miss?

Well, they’d have witnessed Newcastle United avenging their 1905 defeat against Aston Villa. On that occasion the Midlands team had won by a two-goal margin and that was reciprocated by the Geordies 19 years later in their 2-0 win against Villa (in 1924).

The “Rainy Day Final,” as it was dubbed, pitted together two teams who had a significant FA Cup pedigree. Newcastle had won it in 1910 and been beaten as finalists four times, whilst Aston Villa were the masters

of the tournament with six wins and one runners-up slot.

In the semi-finals, Newcastle had beaten Manchester City, 2-0, at St. Andrews, whilst Aston Villa beat Burnley, 3-0, at Bramall Lane.

The Cup final was held on April 26th and was watched by a more modest, if soaked, crowd of 91,695, which was well below the stadium’s capacity, and well below the previous human torrent that attended the firstever Wembley Cup final.

The rain actually stopped for spells in the first half and an odd ray of sunshine was spotted.

The match, however, was did not reach the anticipated lofty heights. Two top teams were playing for the top prize, but nerves got the best of them.

Villa had the better of the first half, with their wingers, Dick York and Arthur Dorrell, playing in fine form, but they couldn’t capitalise on their chances.

There was to be no breakthrough and the match was drawing to a goalless full-time when the Cup final’s fate was sealed by a couple of late goals in a three-minute spell.

Firstly, Neil Harris, the Newcastle centre-forward, who had foraged bravely throughout the game, had a shot beaten down by Villa’s goalkeeper, Tommy Jackson. Billy Cowan followed it up for Newcastle.

Most records, however, give the goal to Harris.

The second goal came two minutes later from outsideleft Stan Seymour. He dashed towards goal and, as the ball fell at his feet, he hit an unstoppable drive past Jackson. Suddenly, it was 2-0 and, despite Villa having their own chances, the game was won and the Cup was going back to the North-East.

After the match, Newcastle’s players went up to the Royal Box − a total of 39 steps − to receive their medals from the Duke of York.

The next time Newcastle reached the Cup final would be eight years later. But Aston Villa would have to wait another thirty-three years before they made it back to the season’s big showpiece match.

The other winners on the day were the Football Association. After the previous year’s chaos they were able to report “all had gone smoothly.”

FIERCE PLAY â– Charles Sutcliffe, the Sheffield United goalkeeper, punches out a Cardiff City kick in the second half.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The Duke of York meets the 1925 Cardiff side before the Cup final.

Sheffield United WIN

FOURth FA Cup SHEFFIELD UNITED 1-0 CARDIFF CITY

By Ben Bennison at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 25, 1925

S

heffield United and its army of supporters from the North Country celebrated loudly as William Gillespie, the captain of the Yorkshire club, led his men up to the Royal Box to receive the biggest prize the game has to offer, the Football Association Challenge Cup, from the Duke of York. When Gillespie accepted the Cup, there was a long, deep-chested roar – the heartiness of it was gloriously English.

This day, the occasion was the people’s very own, and the intimacy of it all was no less remarkable.

A crowd of 91,763 was on hand at Wembley Stadium and when the Duke of York left the stands to greet and shake hands with each player before the match began, there was no doubt that their opponent, Cardiff City, had the most fans on hand as they screamed and shouted a welcome to their footballers.

It was the first time a Welsh team had reached the Cup final and the Red Dragon flag could be seen throughout

Wembley Stadium.

Sheffield United won the contest, 1-0, thirty minutes into the first half when Fred Tunstall, United’s outsideleft, stole a pass from Harry Wake and, with only Cardiff goalkeeper Tom Farquharson in front of him, he steadied himself and shot low, far beyond the exceptionally long reach of Farquharson for a 1-0 lead.

Cardiff ’s Harry Beadles, Jimmy Gill and Joe Nicholson later missed on scoring opportunities and the Welsh squad fell short in their first Cup match.

FA CUP MEMORIES Sheffield United were one of the clubs who made an early impact on the FA Cup – and who have since failed to add to their previous glory days in the tournament.

Reaching six finals since 1899 had produced four Cup wins, and during the turn of the 20th century the Yorkshiremen were hot stuff.

League champions in 189798, they were FA Cup winners the following season and again three years later. They added a third success to their record in the last Cup final, which was played before the Great War (1915), and were runners-up in 1901.

A Division One club, led for many years by secretary/manager, John Nicholson, the Blades were part of the early fabric of the English game.

After the Great War, they picked up again but found honours tougher to land, so there was keen expectation of putting that right when they rolled into Wembley for the 1925 FA Cup final.

Their opponents were Cardiff City, who had been elected to the Football League in 1920 and now, in 1925, were a First Division club.

The Blues had been runners-up in the League in 1924.

The first Welsh team to appear in the Cup final, they had created a huge stir of interest in Wales. The club was seen to be representing the whole country as much as themselves.

On the morning of the game the Cardiff players received telegrams and cables from Welsh folk the world over.

Good luck messages fired in from Canada, the United States and New Zealand, from the Welsh Regiment in India and the H.M.S.

Cardiff.

Thousands of fans travelled from Wales to the Cup final – and when Cardiff came onto to the pitch the Welsh supporters went crazy.

Before the final, the Duke of York was introduced to both sets of players and the Cup final got underway.

It was a lively match which was won by a single goal for the fourth time in six years.

A through-ball by United’s Harry Pantling went past Harry Wake of Cardiff and Fred Tunstall’s low shot went beyond Tom Farquharson in the Cardiff goal to give United a 1-0 advantage. The game was half an hour old.

Cardiff mounted a spirited response, most notably in the game’s closing minutes, when both Harry Beadles and Fred Keenor failed to convert chances to level the scores.

Sheffield United had won their fourth FA Cup final and joyously received the trophy from the Duke of York, with the Duchess of York and former Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in attendance.

Their captain, the balding Billy Gillespie, took the trophy and received warm congratulations from the Duke of York, who told him that he’d enjoyed the game enormously.

Although it hadn’t been Cardiff ’s day, their fans gave them a rousing reception and also sportingly cheered the victors, Sheffield United.

As was now the custom, the Cup was taken to the winners’ home-town to be received by huge crowds, with Gillespie and Nicholson, showing off the trophy with great pride.

They have never won it since.

KINGS OF SHEFFIELD â–

The 1925 Sheffield United team that won the Cup. OPPOSITE PAGE: Overall, the Blades won the Cup four times: in 1899,1902, 1905 and 1925.

Jack SCORES LONE GOAL AS

BOLTON BEAT City BOLTON WANDERERS 1-0 MANCHESTER CITY

By Ben Bennison at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1926

T

hree years after winning the FA Cup against West Ham United, Bolton Wanderers returned to Wembley today to meet Manchester City in the Cup final.

With a crowd of 91,447 on hand, including King George V, the Wanderers beat Manchester City, 1-0, to win their second Cup final.

Bolton’s win avenged the 1-0 defeat they had suffered twenty-two years ago against Manchester City in the 1904 Cup final.

Bolton’s lone goal was scored by David Jack, a tall, long-legged, big-striding fellow, 31 minutes into the second half. Following a corner kick, Ted Vizard shot hard at the City goal, it bounced off the leg of Sam Cookson, the City full-back, and Jack, who is as quick as lightning, fired it past goalkeeper Jim Goodchild for the game’s only score.

City were unable to even up the count because their over-eagerness caused them to throw away several generous chances. In the second half, they seemed to find their game, but they shot badly at several crucial moments and were unable to score.

City had scored 31 goals en route to the Cup final and had defeated cross-town rival, Manchester United, 3-0, in the first Cup play-off match between the two teams in 34 years.

Before the match began, King George shook hands with each of the players from Bolton and Manchester City.

After the contest, he presented the precious, magical Cup to Joe Smith, Wanderers’ captain, and the crowd broke out in a thunderous applause and shouting.

ACTION AT THE NET ■ Bolton goalkeeper Dick Pym (in dark uniform) punches clear to end a Manchester City attack in the first half of the 1926 Cup final. Pym had been acquired from Exeter City in 1921 for a then-record £5,000.

The Best of Wembley ■Bolton’s star players, Jimmy Seddon (holding the trophy) and Billy Butler, parade the Cup around Wembley to show it off to their fans, who made the long trip to London.

FA CUP MEMORIES There had not been many goals scored in FA Cup finals played at the new Wembley Stadium so far – and the 1926 showpiece didn’t buck that trend. Again a single goal decided the outcome.

This was strange because the two 1926 finalists had scored freely en route to Wembley.

Bolton Wanderers, the winners in 1923, had scored 18 goals in preceding rounds whilst Manchester City had scored an extraordinary 31 goals, making their way to Wembley.

City had struggled in the League and were second from bottom as they lined up for the Cup final, with two League games still to play.

Bizarrely they were the second highest scorers in the division but had a defence that leaked goals.

City’s thirty-one goal haul in the Cup tournament had included an 11-4 win over Crystal Palace in the 5th round, with Frank Roberts scoring five goals and Tommy Browell a further three.

In the quarter-finals, City scored six goals against Clapton Orient before beating neighbours Manchester

United, 3-0, in their semi-final at Bramall Lane.

Bolton’s progress to Wembley was not as spectacular, but they did prevent another Welsh team from making the Cup final by beating Swansea, 3-0, in their semi-final at White Hart Lane.

In 1926, a total of 53,000 standing tickets, 15,000 uncovered seats and 23,000 covered seats were pre-sold, with the majority of purchasers not knowing which teams would be in the Cup final.

The two finalists were allocated just 1,750 tickets each – even at this distance you can hear the cries of frustration and anger from the supporters.

This situation is a significant problem that crops up every year when tickets are distributed for the Cup final, but in 1926 things looked tough for the travelling supporters of Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers.

And the touts took a beating for their trouble.

The country itself was on the edge of an industrial precipice, with the very real likelihood of a major strike of key workers in support of the miners, who were faced with less money for longer hours.

Ten days after the FA Cup final, the General Strike – as it was termed – got underway. Miners, railwaymen, transport workers, printers, iron and steel workers and dockers were out on the street.

The strike lasted nine days and was a land-mark industrial dispute in British social history.

By the time the workers had gone on strike Bolton Wanderers had won the FA Cup and beaten finalist, Manchester City, had been relegated.

At Wembley the free-scoring Mancunians couldn’t get past an inspired Dick Pym in the Bolton goal. Time after time he denied them – and he was the main difference between the two sides.

The actual match-winner was David Jack. The man, who had scored Wembley’s first goal in 1923 again clinched the Cup final victory for Bolton. Jack’s goal occured with fourteen minutes left in regular time.

Ted Vizard slipped a pass inside to Jack to set up the winning goal.

It was Bolton’s second Cup win in four years, and David Jack would be back for more – with Arsenal.

LEADING OFF ONE IS ENOUGH ■ Bolton’s David Jacks watches as his kick soars past Jim Goodchild for the game-winning goal.

OPPOSITE PAGE: After boarding the train to go to Bolton, Joe Smith shows the Cup to three fans at the London train station.

The Best of Wembley â– Cardiff City captain Fred Keenor and his team-mates board the train to return to Wales with the Cup. It would be the only time the Cup would go to a team from outside of England.

PROUD Cardiff TakeS ENGLISH FOOTBALL Cup

BACK to Wales CARDIFF CITY 1-0 ARSENAL

By Ben Bennison at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 23, 1927

T

o all who were present at Wembley, this year’s Cup final was plain, ordinary and seldom thrilling. After long-established fashion: the occasion finally beat the man. And, for the first time in history, the highlyprized FA trophy was won by a team from Wales, as represented by Cardiff City, who defeated Arsenal, 1-0.

This final was unique because it is the only time the Cup was won by a team from outside England.

The winning goal occurred 74 minutes into the match, when Dan Lewis, the Arsenal goalkeeper and a Welshman, curiously dived at a kick fired by Cardiff ’s Hughie Ferguson and fell to the ground with the ball snuggly secure in his grasp.

As he got up, Lewis, perhaps a bit confused, threw the ball back into the net instead of out onto the field of play.

In doing so, he beat himself and his club as the referee awarded a goal to Cardiff City.

There has never been such a tragedy in a Cup final.

Following the match, most of the 91,206 onlookers were left dumbfounded by what they had just observed.

When the celebrating was over, King George presented the Cup to Cardiff captain Fred Keenor to the accompaniment of a roar of cheers.

THE DRAGON TAKES FLIGHT ■ Arsenal

goalkeeper Dan Lewis palms the ball away after a Cardiff goal attack. FAR RIGHT: King George V meets Cardiff City’s Fred Keenor before the Cardiff captain introduced his team.

FA CUP MEMORIES The 1927 FA Cup final was memorable for many reasons, but chiefly for three “firsts.”

It was the first FA Cup final broadcast live on BBC Radio.

Commentary from the previous year’s final – between Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City – had been relayed to public halls in those specific areas, but in 1927 the commentary went nationwide.

To help the listeners follow the early broadcast games a drawing of the pitch, divided up into eight numbered segments, was published in The Radio Times.

As one commentator described the play, another one would shout out which square the ball was in.

This is thought to be the origin of the phrase “back to square one.”

Another first was the singing of the FA Cup final hymn, Abide With Me. This famous hymn, with words written by Devon vicar Henry Lyte in 1847, was introduced into the pre-match routine by Sir Frederick Wall, the FA Secretary.

It was known to be a favourite of the royal couple, Queen Mary and King George V, who attended the Cup final in those days.

A “tinny” recording of the Wembley crowd singing the hymn in 1927 is said to exist and a commercial recording of the historic rendition was produced for sale that year.

Since 1927, the hymn has been sung at every Cup final.

And when its removal was mooted in 1959, there was a public outcry. It remains part of the fabric of FA Cup final day.

The third “first” that day was that the FA Cup was to be won

by a team from outside England, and thus the trophy left the country for the first time.

The two competing teams were Arsenal and Cardiff City.

The Welsh team were back in the Cup final after their losing appearance against Sheffield United in 1925.

Cardiff ’s team was made up of a collection of Welsh, Scottish and Irish footballers, plus a single Englishman, Billy Hardy. Indeed, only three Welshmen made the Bluebirds’ starting line-up.

As was becoming the norm for Wembley Cup finals, the match was won by a single goal – and it went to Cardiff.

The goal-scorer was Hughie Ferguson, whose tame shot was mis-handled by Arsenal goalkeeper Dan Lewis. It slipped between his arms and he couldn’t scoop it back from crossing the line.

Ironically, Lewis was from Wales. He later pinned the blame on wearing a brand new goalkeeping jersey that was still shiny new. Arsenal took that thought seriously enough to always wash their goalkeeper’s new jerseys before they were used in matches themselves.

It was an historic day, Cardiff had won the Cup. And on the final whistle there was a pitch invasion of Welsh fans to celebrate that special moment.

After Cardiff ’s captain, Fred Keenor, collected the FA Cup from King George V – the party began.

The Bluebirds had enjoyed their biggest-ever win.

It would be more than 80 years until they would return to the Cup final.

NEW GLORY FOR THE CUP ■ Arsenal

goalkeeper Dan Lewis fails to prevent Cardiff City’s Hughie Ferguson (blue) from scoring the winning goal.

THE CUP TAKES A VICTORY RIDE ■

The victorious Rovers return home to Blackburn with the FA Cup trophy aboard the team charabanc after defeating Huddersfield Town, 3-1. It was Rovers’ sixth Cup final win. OPPOSITE PAGE: The 1927-28 Huddersfield Town squad that played against Blackburn Rovers for the 1928 Cup.

After waiting 37 Years, Blackburn FINALLY Win

Cup Again BLACKBURN ROVERS 3-1 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

By Ben Bennison at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 21, 1928

K

ing George V and Queen Mary, together with the Duke and Duchess of York, were present at Wembley Stadium when Blackburn Rovers, after an interval of 37 years, recaptured The Football Association’s Challenge Cup trophy by defeating Huddersfield Town, 3-1.

Blackburn’s Jack Roscamp opened the scoring in the first minute of play when his kick slipped through the grasp of Huddersfield goalkeeper Billy Mercer and into the net for a 1-0 lead.

Twenty-one minutes later, Blackburn increased its lead to 2-0 when Tommy McLean received a pass from Roscamp and blasted the ball past Mercer.

Ten minutes into the second half, Huddersfield’s Alex Jackson chanced a shot with his left foot toward Blackburn’s net.

Rovers goalkeeper Jock Crawford got his hand on the ball, but he was only able to deflect it toward the post, which it hit and fell in, cutting Blackburn’s lead to 2-1.

With five minutes left to play, Roscamp made a solo charge at the Huddersfield goal. He kept the ball close and never lost control of it. When Roscamp finally was one-on-one with Mercer, he put it past the Huddersfield goalkeeper for a 3-1 lead and the eventual victory. It was Blackburn’s sixth Cup win in seven trips to the final.

FA CUP MEMORIES In 1928, Mickey Mouse made his cinematic debut. And in his first animated talkie – Steamboat Willie – the cartoon character became an overnight sensation.

“Mickey Mouse” later became English slang for something small and unimportant.

The FA Cup final has thankfully managed to avoid that cruel label, while other football competitions have been hit by that damaging description.

In 1928, the Cup final brought together two teams used to FA Cup glory – and the newly-introduced Community singing put the crowd in a good mood.

Blackburn Rovers had previously won the Cup on no less than five occasions – including a hat-trick of victories in 1884, 1885 and 1886. In fact, Blackburn teams won it five times in eight years in those heady days in the late 19th century. Their cross-city rivals, Blackburn Olympic, got it all started with their Cup win in 1883.

Huddersfield Town had won the Cup final in 1922 and been beaten finalists in 1920.

The 1928 Cup final had something unusual happen in it.

Both teams scored!

It was indeed the first Cup final since 1910 in which the losing finalist scored.

And the crowd didn’t have to wait long for the first goal, which was scored in the opening minute of the game.

Jack Roscamp, the Blackburn centre-forward, barged Huddersfield’s goalkeeper, Billy Mercer, over the line – and the ball went, too.

Mercer’s own description of the incident sounds like a case of common assault!

“I had no sooner touched the ball – or so it seemed to me – than Roscamp dashed straight into me. He struck me in the mouth and broke part of a tooth, cracked the upper denture and cut my lip. I was knocked over and the ball went over the line. I don’t blame anybody, of course. It’s all in the luck of the game.”

Looking at film of the goal, it does seem Mercer is being a trifle generous. Mind you, through the year, a number of decisive Cup final strikes were scored by a marauding forward barging into the goalkeeper. Such goals would be unlikely to stand in these modern times.

Blackburn had brought their mascot, a blue and white canary, to Wembley and he was able to whistle a happy tune as the Rovers went further ahead on Tommy McLean’s goal.

In the second half, Huddersfield Town got one back before Roscamp settled Rovers’ nerves with a goal that depended more on skill and strength.

A long pass upfield gave Roscamp possession and, when challenged, he passed it out to George Thornewell on the wing.

The outside-right returned the ball to Roscamp, who thrashed it past Mercer.

I suppose the Huddersfield goalkeeper was just glad Roscamp didn’t follow it up by charging him into the back of the net – again.

Blackburn teams had won the Cup for a sixth time but wouldn’t reach the final again for another thirty-two years.

Huddersfield Town, meanwhile, licked their wounds – and would be back playing under the Twin Towers twice in the next ten years.

FA CUP MEMORIES As the 1920’s drew to a close, Bolton Wanderers made their third visit to Wembley, following successful visits in 1923, the inaugural Cup final under the Twin Towers, and 1926, when David Jack repeated his scoring feat of three years before.

The 1929 Cup final brought them a hat-trick of victories and established them once and for all as the FA Cup team of the decade.

This time the proud Lancastrians were facing first-timers, Portsmouth. Both teams were First Division clubs, but the Wanderers went into the season’s climax as clear favourites to win the Cup. They had finished 14th in the First Division, with Pompey six places lower in the 22-team League.

Prior to the Cup final, the match balls were soaked in water to prevent it from being too “lively” for the players on what was firm ground at Wembley. A “heavy” ball was therefore in play.

As was becoming the norm – and has been the case ever since – the competing clubs were very disgruntled with their allocation of Cup final tickets.

At Bolton’s post-final banquet a plea was made to the FA to review their existing ticket arrangements and let the clubs have between “8,000 to 10,000 each.”

This request clearly suggested that the allocation was well short of that number – and that the current allocation for competing finalists of 25,000 was the stuff of dreams.

That said, the current shareout of tickets to the finalists is

still the subject of much debate and dismay as many clubs, who reach Wembley have average attendances and season-ticket holders well in excess of that amount. And, of course, travelling up and down the country has become the norm – not the exception.

The Cup final ticket dilemma is always a controversial issue, as the FA tries to manage fairly the demands of the “football family” – many of whom work long hours for little reward, commercial partners and their customers and, of course, the competing clubs themselves.

It is fascinating to note though that the thorny problem of “not enough tickets” was a live issue 80 years ago, when it seemed Wembley, rather than the FA, were responsible for the distribution of the much soughtafter tickets to the big day.

On Cup final day in 1929, Wanderers fans at Wembley saw Bolton take the honours with two second-half goals, the first through Billy Butler and the second in the closing minutes by Harry Blackmore.

Prior to the match a total of 17 players had each collected three Winners’ medals. Five names had to be added to that list when Bolton secured victory: Dick Pym, Bob Haworth, Jimmy Seddon, Harry Nuttall and Billy Butler.

The Wanderers would add a fourth FA Cup win in 1958, following a defeat in 1953.

Portsmouth would later have two famous wins, in 1939 and 2008, as well as a pair of losing visits in 1934 and 2010.

And the ticket debate would continue to run and run.

Bolton’S 2 LATE GOALS DASH Portsmouth’S

Cup HOPES BOLTON WANDERERS 2-0 PORTSMOUTH

By Ben Bennison at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 27, 1929

B

olton Wanderers became the winningest FA Cup team of the 1920’s with their 2-0 victory over Portsmouth before a crowd of 92,576. It was their third Cup in the past six years, having already won the prestigious prize in 1923 and 1926.

The Prince of Wales, who went onto the playing field before the match and shook hands with both teams, later presented the Cup to Jimmy Seddon, the captain of the Lancashire team.

It was a match that was tremendous in its hardness and contrasts – Portsmouth hitting their stride quickly in the first half, full of life and fire; Bolton were cold, calculating – and grim – much like the manner of the old campaigner.

Bolton finally took control of the game with a pair of goals by Billy Butler and Harold Blakemore, late in the second half.

In the 79th minute, Harry Nuttall, from the right wing, sent a centre pass past Portsmouth’s David Thaceray, with Butler cutting in and driving the ball low and hard past Portsmouth defender Alex Mackie, who had dashed up but could not prevent the goal.

Eight minutes later, Bolton sent Portsmouth’s spirits spiralling. Butler again beat Thaceray, then sent a centre pass to Blakemore, who booted the insurance goal against John Gilfillan, the Portsmouth goalkeeper.

PROUD VICTORS ■ Jimmy Seddon, the Bolton captain (middle), walks with the Cup after the Wanderers had defeated Portsmouth, 2-0, to win their third Cup in the 1920’s. Bolton also took the Cup home in 1923 and 1926.

James & LAMBERT FIRE GUNNERS to

FIRST Cup ARSENAL 2-0 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 26, 1930

A

rsenal, which was making its second appearance in the FA Cup final today, defeated Huddersfield Town, 2-0, before a crowd of 92,488 at Wembley. In their only other Cup final appearance, the Gunners lost to Cardiff City, 1-0, in 1927.

Alex James, the little Scotsman who was the hero of the match, scored the first goal for Arsenal sixteen minutes into the first half after receiving a pass from Cliff Bastin and blasting a shot that Huddersfield goalkeeper Hugh Turner couldn’t reach.

Jack Lambert, the stout-hearted centre, added the second strike moments into the 88th minute to wrap up the scoring at 2-0.

Overhead, the German airship, the Graf Zeppelin, flew past the great stadium and dropped down to 200 feet, dipping its nose to acknowledge the presence of King George V, who was attending the match.

Afterwards, when the King presented the Cup to Tom Parker, the Arsenal captain, there was an unbounded roar of enthusiasm of the North London team’s supporters.

HEROES IN RED ■ Arsenal captain Tom Parker carries the Cup as the team leaves Wembley after defeating Huddersfield Town, 2-0, in the 1930 Cup final.

The Best of Wembley ■ The Graf Zeppelin airship from Germany flies over Wembley Stadium during the 1930 Cup final. Its presence created a lot of controversy. At one point during the match, the airship neared the playing field, dipping its nose to honour King George V, who was attending the Cup final.

FA CUP MEMORIES Alex James was a diminutive, stockilybuilt footballer. With his hair parted down the middle and plastered to his head, his jersey’s sleeves buttoned at the wrist and his shorts baggy and flapping, he cut an odd-looking character.

He was one of the finest players of his generation and an all-time great in Arsenal’s proud history.

James had a glittering time at Arsenal.

In the eight seasons he was at Highbury, he reached the FA Cup final twice, won the League Championship four times, won the FA Charity Shield four times and set up a new record for a First Division points total.

He was also a pivotal part in the so-called “WM” formation, which had been developed at Arsenal. It was based on their forward-line operating in a W formation and their defenders an M formation. The Gunners added lots of subtleties to the basic format with James, in particular, playing very deep.

Born in Scotland at the turn of the century, James began his career with Raith Rovers before moving south to join Preston North End. He played there for four years. But a dispute over money and Preston’s reluctance to release him for Scotland’s matches sent an unhappy James further south – to London and Arsenal.

James had already made a mark in the capital. In 1928, he had been part of Scotland’s famous Wembley Wizards, who beat England, 5-1, with the man in the baggy shorts claiming two goals.

The baggy shorts were said to be an attempt to stave off the effects of rheumatism – and keep his legs warm.

They became his trade-mark.

He was also noted for his “fluttering

foot” – a trick in which he pretended to back-heel the ball, only then, with a wiggle of the hips fooling his opponent, bringing it back under his control and being away and gone.

Signed in 1929, James played for the Gunners in the 1930 FA Cup final.

Their opponents were Herbert Chapman’s old club, Huddersfield Town.

In deference to the Arsenal manager, the two teams walked out side by side. A tradition that still exists today.

James got the first goal of the game after 16 minutes. He scored with a fierce shot from inside the Huddersfield penalty area.

Scoring, however, was not the mainstay of James’ game. He was a playmaker – who set up goals with telling passes and clever ball work. He also played deep in midfield and caused havoc for opposing defences.

Arsenal’s second goal was scored by Lambert from a James pass – a regular combination.

The goal was obtained as Huddersfield had pressed for a well-deserved equaliser.

James, in the role of scorer and creator, had other ideas.

One more outstanding memory from the day was the sight of the German airship, the Graf Zeppelin, drifting over Wembley as the match played out beneath it.

The hydrogen-filled commercial passenger transporter had passed over Buckingham Palace and along the River Thames before briefly settling over Wembley Stadium, throwing a long shadow on the pitch, much to the annoyance of the crowd. Of course, it was a precursor for more sinister airborne activity later in the decade.

LEADING OFF GREAT GUNNERS â– A mounted policeman attempts to control the crowd on the sidelines of the Wembley pitch.

92,406

WATCH WEST BROMWICH RallY TO DEFEAT BIRMINGHAM WEST BROMWICH ALBION 2-1 BIRMINGHAM CITY

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 25, 1931

W

est Bromwich Albion, the Second Division squad which had the youngest team to ever play in an Association Cup final, put together the most thrilling and dramatic sixty seconds of football ever witnessed in the Cup’s sixty years of history.

Still, it was ninety great minutes of football that will be long remembered.

In doing so, they have buried the bogey of Wembley “atmosphere” for all time.

This breathless 60 seconds – between the game’s 57th and 58th minutes – will long live in the memory of the 92,406 people at Wembley, who watched as the rain continued throughout the game.

In the twelfth minute of the second half, Birmingham City managed to even the score at 1-1 on Joe Bradford’s goal.

In doing so, they accomplished the unbelievable, for no Cup team had scored an equalizing goal in a Cup final in 21 years.

An overwhelmed Bradford was mobbed by his Birmingham City team-mates as they celebrated the goal.

Bradford’s goal came after a lobbing pass from George Morrall. Finding himself open, Bradford, while running at full speed, punched the ball past Albion goalkeeper Harold Pearson to even it up at 1-1.

But it was all too good to last.

A minute later – and before the cheering had ended – Albion’s three forwards moved the ball upfield. Harry Hibbs, the Birmingham City goalkeeper, dashed out to meet Albion’s W.G. Richardson, but slipped and fell on the moist grass.

Wasting no time, Richardson kicked it past Hibbs for his second goal of the afternoon and a 2-1 lead.

Richardson’s first goal came in the 25th minute of the first half.

THE BIRMINGHAM CUP DERBY ■ After winning the FA Cup against rival Birmingham City, the West Brom team and many of their supporters pose for a photo in front of the train that would take them back to Birmingham.

FA CUP MEMORIES The famous Midlands newspaper, the Sporting Argus, was printed on special blue pages instead of the standard pink, in honour of the day that Birmingham City met their near neighbours, West Bromwich Albion, in the 1931 FA Cup final.

First Division Birmingham City would finish 19th in the League, whilst Albion would win two matches played after the FA Cup final to clinch a promotion back to the top flight.

On the Midlanders’ special day at Wembley there was almost a full programme of League fixtures. The time of the FA Cup final having the day to itself was still in the future.

Getting a ticket for the game was also a problem. Albion had 80,000 Cup final ticket applications for their allocation of just 7,500 tickets.

For those lucky enough to gain access to the stadium they were to watch a game in which April showers turned into an April monsoon. The rain fell persistently throughout the game, making the ball as heavy as lead and the pitch as soggy as a wet sponge.

The two opposing goalkeepers, Harold Pearson of West Brom and Harry Hibbs of Birmingham, were cousins but all family ties were put on hold as this Midlands derby was played in front of 90,000plus at Wembley.

Albion took the lead though Richardson and, despite pressure from the Blues, the score remained 1-0 at halftime, when the players took respite from the pouring rain.

Birmingham City drew level

in the 57th minute through Bradford, but soon after the restart, Albion, through Richardson, were again ahead.

However, after having viewed film of the game, it only took 11 seconds from the re-start to the goal.

Birmingham City had momentarily lost their concentration after celebrating – and paid dearly for it.

That was the last of the scoring as both teams struggled to stay afloat in the closing stages of the game – and the final whistle drew proceedings to a soggy close.

In one of those stiff 1930’s-style post-match interviews, the two team captains and the referee – “the three monkeys” as one writer referred to them – sat showered, suited and booted, then went through a stilted exchange while sitting around a small table, dressed with a china tea service.

Tommy Glidden, Albion’s captain, thanked Blues captain Ned Barkas for the game and told him, with a sense of fun, if “they wanted to come and have a look at the Cup they were only around the corner.”

Barkas smiled.

In keeping with the times, the Birmingham players and their wives spent the following day taking in the sea-air at Brighton, whilst the Albion party headed off to Madame Tussauds to view waxworks of the two captains.

Then, for Albion, it was time to bring the Cup back for their supporters to see – and then time to concentrate on those two crucial League matches that would see them over the promotion line.

MUDDY TRIUMPH â– Albion captain Tommy Glidden, with the Cup, and his teammates enjoy a victory lap around the mud-soaked Wembley.

LEADING OFF A VIEW OF VICTORY â– Thousands of West Bromwich fans line up during along the parade route to see the Albion team return to the Hawthorns with the Cup.

A ROYAL VISIT ■Prince Edward, the Duke of Windsor (middle), visits with Billy Bassett, Albion’s Chairman, and the West Bromwich team to congratulate them on their 2-1 Cup win against their cross-city rival, Birmingham City.

ALLEN’S DOUBLE LEAD NEWCASTLE

TO VICTORY NEWCASTLE UNITED 2-1 ARSENAL

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 23, 1932

N

ewcastle United won the 1932 Cup final against Arsenal, 2-1, by a goal which should not have been allowed to count – but everyone who saw the match agree that the better team won.

It is a pity that no more than one goal divided the teams at the finish, for goals alone count in football, and the new Cup holders owe their triumph to an extraordinary blunder which was not seen by the only two people who mattered – the referee and the linesman.

Arsenal were ahead, 1-0, with seven minutes left to play in the first half, when Newcastle’s Jimmy Richardson ran the ball over the goal-line.

Then realising his mistake, Richardson passed the ball back to Jack Allen, who sent a crashing kick into the net from six yards out to even up the score at 1-1.

The crowd quickly voiced their opinion on the play, and the Arsenal squad attempted to protest, but the officials awarded Newcastle with the goal.

Arsenal’s opening goal occurred fifteen minutes into the first half on a header by Bob John.

The clinching score came twenty-seven minutes into the second half when Newcastle’s Allen kicked a low drive into the far side of the net to give them a 2-1 lead.

DUEL AT THE GOAL ■ Arsenal’s Jack Allen (in red) is unable to score after Newcastle goalkeeper Albert McInroy (in green) takes control of the ball at the net.

The Best of Wembley ■ Newcastle United captain Jimmy Nelson (front) carries the trophy down the 39 steps from the Royal Box after the presentation ceremony. It was Newcastle’s third Cup final victory. They previously won the Cup in 1910 and 1924.

FA CUP MEMORIES The FA Cup’s climax in 1932 contained one of those moments that help create an essential part of what makes up the myth and mystique of something as glorious as this wonderful sporting competition.

In the Cup final were two teams who had enjoyed FA Cup success before: Arsenal, winners in 1930, and Newcastle United, who’d held the Cup aloft in 1910 and 1924. They both had their eyes on another moment of FA Cup glory. Arsenal finished runners-up in the First Division. Newcastle were at mid- table, but Cup success was now a real possibility for both teams.

Arsenal were playing without their star-man and matchwinner in 1930, Alex James, who was out with injury.

James had been doubtful for the Cup final in the weeks building up to it. Several sportswriters believed he had aggravated his injury while taking part in a tackle staged for the press and photographers, just days before the game.

Still, Arsenal went in front in the match through Bob John, who had been moved into the forward-line from wing-half.

The Gunners had started brightly and were matching their north-east opponents all over the field. Then, in a moment of Wembley folklore, Newcastle equalised with a goal that many believe should never have stood. Jimmy Richardson chased a long ball to the goalline and it seemed to go out of play for a goal-kick before he crossed it.

Waiting for the ball in the penalty area was Jack Allen, who scored from close-in.

Referee W.P. Harper gave

the goal to Newcastle and guaranteed his place in FA Cup annals. However, still photographs from the game clearly show the ball was over the line before it was crossed.

The goal should not have stood.

On the front page of the following Monday’s Daily Herald was the news that Adolf Hitler had secured big wins in the German elections – the consequences of which lay ahead for all Brits.

But also on the front page was a photograph, which the Herald claimed as proof that Newcastle’s first goal in the previous Saturday’s final should not have been allowed.

The referee had claimed: “It was a goal. As God is my judge the man was in play. I was eight yards away.”

Nowadays, the controversy would have been done and dusted within seconds of it happening, with armchair viewers seeing multiple replays of the incident, and then the whole thing analysed within an inch of its life in the post-match hoo-ha.

But not back in 1932. Some relatively primitive film and photographic evidence revealed the truth of the incident – but by then the game had been won and lost.

Allen added Newcastle’s second goal – a brace for him and the FA Cup for the Geordies.

Arsenal’s reaction to it all was typically stiff upper-lip stuff. Captain “Gentleman Tom” Parker said he would not allow his players to protest and hold up the game, whilst Sir Samuel Hill-Wood’s comments afterwards were that “it was

EXPLOSIVE Everton

Rout City

IN WEMBLEY CUP FINAL EVERTON 3-0 MANCHESTER CITY

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 29, 1933

E

verton, on their first visit to Wembley, set a new record in defeating Manchester City, 3-0, before a crowd of 92,950. It was the most points scored in a Wembley Cup final win since the Championship match between Bolton and West Ham was played at the famous stadium ten years ago.

Everton got on the scoreboard at the 41st minute after Cliff Britton kicked a long shot from the wing to Jimmy Stein, and the Everton left-winger scored easily.

Seven minutes into the second half Britton booted a kick from 40 yards out. As the ball neared the goal, Everton’s Dixie Dean outjumped City goalkeeper Len Langford and scored on a header to boost their lead to 2-0.

Everton’s third goal was scored by Jimmy Dunn at the 80th minute on a header following Al Geldard’s corner kick.

The two teams’ uniforms would have a small footnote in history books. With both teams having uniforms with blue as their primary colour, they were required to wear neutral colours – Everton lined up in white and Manchester City wore red. It was also the first time the teams wore numbers on their jerseys. Everton displayed numbers 1 to 11. Manchester City had 12 to 22.

A BIG DAY IN LONDON ■

Manchester City fans arrive in high spirit at Euston Station, in London, to see their team play the Merseysiders in the Cup final. OPPOSITE PAGE: The Everton captain, Dixie Dean, and his teammates leave Wembley with the Cup after defeating Manchester City, 3-0.

LEADING OFF A NEW EXPERIMENT â– In the 1933 Cup final, FA officials experimented with numbers on the backs of players shirts. Everton had the numbers 1 to 11 and Manchester City the numbers 12 to 22.

FA CUP MEMORIES All you Evertonians out there get a glass of water and an aspirin as I reveal that for their 1933 FA Cup final appearance against Manchester City, the Toffees very nearly played in RED shirts!

Since both Everton and Manchester City played in blue shirts, there had to be change of strip. In those days, both teams would be asked to change, not just one, as is the convention nowadays. The alternative choice for the 1933 final was red shirts or white shirts – City preferred red and Everton obviously plumped for white. So the Merseyside men turned out in unfamiliar white tops, black shorts and socks with a royal blue trim.

There was something else different about the shirts, too – for the first time in the Cup final there were numbers on the back of the jerseys. It was another innovative idea from that visionary football man, Herbert Chapman. The players were numbered from 1 to 22, with Everton having 1 to 11 and City 12 to 22. It meant the two goalkeepers, Ted Sagar and Len Langford, were numbered 11 and 22, respectively.

It also meant the first player to play in a No. 12 shirt in the Cup final was City’s winger Eric Brook. Fittingly it also meant that the No. 9 jersey was worn by William Ralph (Dixie) Dean of Everton and England.

This was a golden period for Everton. Promoted to the First Division in 1931, they were Champions of the same Division the following year.

A lot of Everton’s success was built around the remarkable goal-scoring prowess of Dean.

He became an iconic figure at Goodison, which is reflected in the statue that now stands outside the ground on Merseyside.

Playing with a nickname he disliked, it is difficult to give Dean justice in terms of his influence at Everton, but the statistics give some clue.

He played 433 games for Everton and scored 383 goals – astonishing figures that reflected the potency of a centre-forward who was robust, single-minded and a goal-scoring machine.

Having started his career at Tranmere Rovers, he crossed the River Mersey and signed for Everton in 1925.

In 1927-28, he scored an unsurpassable total of 60 goals in 39 League games. He even added a further three goals in two FA Cup matches that season.

In the Championship season of 1931-32 he scored 45 goals in 38 games. In the 1933 FA Cup final, against Manchester City, he was on target again, scoring the second goal in a resounding 3-0 win.

He had also played a part in Everton’s first goal, which was slotted home by Jimmy Stein.

Dean’s second-half goal for Everton was followed up later in the game by Jimmy Dunn heading home Albert Geldard’s cross.

Afterwards, Dean and his team-mates paraded the Cup around Wembley.

In 1938, Dean severed ties with Everton, moving to Notts County and then briefly to Sligo. But his footballing home was Goodison Park, where – in a somewhat fitting way – he died in March 1980, just minutes after the end of an Everton v. Liverpool derby.

FA CUP MEMORIES Dixie Dean’s post-match good-luck message to Manchester City and Lancashire proved fruitful as the beaten finalists in the 1933 FA Cup final came back for more the following year. It was a memorable journey to Wembley.

In their Sixth Round home tie against Stoke City, the match was seen by 84,569 fans – still a record highest attendance at an English club ground.

Their semi-final against Aston Villa promised to be a close encounter, but in fact City romped home, 6-1.

Their opponents in the FA Cup final were Portsmouth, who had been runners-up in 1929. They came through a semi-final against Leicester City, 4-1, and were entertained pre-match by music hall stars Bud Flanagan and George Doonan.

Featured in City’s ranks, at right-half, was Matt Busby, later a massive figurehead at their neighbours, Manchester United. In goal was their youngest player, Frank Swift. He cut a nervous figure as he made his way onto the pitch. He had followed his Portsmouth

counterpart, Jock Gilfilian, in not taking gloves on to the field with him, and rued the decision, when he deemed himself at fault for Portsmouth’s opening goal. The scorer was the deliciously named Septimus Rutherford, a man born on Tynemouth.

City trailed at half-time by the score of 1-0. Legend has it, that in the dressing-room Fred Tilson comforted a dejected Swift by saying he’d put things right by scoring a brace of goals in the second half. And Tilson did just that. His first strike in the 73rd minute was followed by the decisive winning goal two minutes from time.

Swift, who’d had a better second half, was overcome at the end of the game and fainted. He did, however, come around in time to receive his Winners’ medal from King George V. And, the following week, the monarch sent a telegram to Manchester City asking about the welfare of the young goalkeeper.

An estimated one million people came out to welcome City back to Manchester. The city’s Mayor spoke of his pride in the team as they showed off the Cup trophy

from the Manchester Town Hall balcony.

Busby would go on to Liverpool and then settled at Manchester United as their new post-war manager.

Frank Swift played for City until the late forties, becoming a hugely popular figure. He later became President of the City Supporters Club.

An England international, whose career straddled the war years, Swift went into journalism when he finished playing, chiefly working for The News of the World.

In 1958, he lost his life in the Munich Air Disaster, while on his way home from covering Manchester United’s exploits against Red Star Belgrade in the fledgling European Cup. Busby was on the flight, too, and was badly injured. He saw his young team decimated as eight players died in the crash. In 1968, ten years after the Munich Disaster, Busby would guide Manchester United to European Cup success over Benfica at Wembley.

City would follow up their 1934 FA Cup win with a League Championship triumph in 1936-37.

Unlucky POMPEY Lose

in Cup Finale MANCHESTER CITY 2-1 PORTSMOUTH

P

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 28, 1934 ortsmouth, which lost the 1929 Association Cup against Bolton Wanderers, was the loser again this afternoon when they were defeated by Manchester City, 2-1, in the Cup final at Wembley.

It was played before a crowd of 93,258.

If ever a team deserved sympathy it was Portsmouth. They held on to their slender 1-0 lead until the 73rd minute and protected their goal so skillfully that every Manchester raid was stopped.

Then tragedy struck like lightning.

Jim Allen, who had been doing two men’s work, with a heart as big as the football he was kicking, was knocked unconscious in a collision with City captain Sam Cowan. Afterwards, the Portsmouth coach and doctor led him to the touchline and worked feverishly to revive him.

By the time he was conscious again, City’s Fred Tilson had scored to even up the match at 1-1.

Portsmouth rallied for a few minutes, but City were playing at their peak.

Three minutes before the end of the match, Tilson made his second strike to put City ahead, 2-1, for good.

Portsmouth’s lone goal came at the 26th minute, when Sep Rutherford got past Laurie Barnett and fired a 19-yard kick that Manchester City’s goalkeeper Frank Swift was unable to reach.

DUEL AT THE GOAL ■ King George V presents the Cup to Manchester City captain Sam Cowan. It would be the monarch’s last Cup final. OPPOSITE PAGE: Manchester City’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, Frank Swift (middle), clears the ball from the goalmouth.

Sheffield Wednesday Win

Cup Thriller SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 4-2 WEST BROMWICH ALBION

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 27, 1935

W

embley’s thirteenth Cup final was easily the best of all. It will be remembered as the thrill-a-minute match.Very few in the vast crowd of 93,204 had seen such a big game filled with so much drama and tense excitement as Sheffield Wednesday won, 4-2.

The first goal came in the opening two minutes of play; two goals were scored in the final five minutes; West Bromwich Albion twice tied the game with goals; half a dozen easy scoring chances were missed and – and for the first time in more than 30 years six goals were scored.

Jackie Palethorpe put Wednesday on the scoreboard with his goal two minutes into the first half. Albion drew even at 1-1, when they reached the 21-minute mark with Wally Boyes’ goal.

The match remained even until 20 minutes were left to play in the second half, when Mark Hooper’s kick hit inside the far post to give Wednesday a 2-1 lead.

Five minutes later, Albion’s Ted Sandford put the ball in Wednesday’s net with a 20-yard shot to tie the match at 2-2.

In the final five minutes, Wednesday’s Ellis Rimmer, who had scored in every Cup round, connected on a pair of goals to put the Owls ahead for good – and a 4-2 victory.

WEDNESDAY’S BIG DAY ■ A British Pathé cameraman shoots the Cup game-action from the sideline. OPPOSITE PAGE: The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) shakes hands with the Sheffield Wednesday players at the Cup final before their 4-2 victory over West Bromwich Albion.

FA CUP MEMORIES Two notable events away from football took my eye when researching the 1935 FA Cup final.

Firstly, it was the Silver Jubilee of King George V’s reign.

Twenty-five years on the throne and remembered as the first monarch to attend an FA Cup final, when he watched Burnley and Liverpool fight it out at Crystal Palace in 1914.

He would be absent from the 1935 final and would sadly pass away the following January.

On a more prosaic note, 1935 marked the first production of a chocolate confectionery, which two years later was branded as a “Kit-Kat.” Its fame has spread worldwide and it is now produced in over 20 countries and sells more than 10 million each year.

On the football field in 1935, Arsenal had won the League Championship, and the FA Cup final was to be played out between Sheffield Wednesday, twice Cup winners in 1896 and 1907, and West Bromwich Albion, already three-time Cup winners in 1888, 1892 and 1931.

For once, the Cup final rained goals. Often a match was decided by a single strike, this one saw six goals fly into the Wembley nets.

Sheffield Wednesday took an early lead through centreforward Jack Palethorpe. But Albion plugged it back with a goal nineteen minutes later.

Wally Boyes was on target for the Throstles.

Even at half-time, it was anybody’s game – and the second-half didn’t disappoint.

Sheffield Wednesday got ahead again through their

winger, Mark Hooper. Once again, Albion hit back, just five minutes later, when inside-left Teddy Sandford squared things up for the Midland side.

Both teams had chances, and the game seemed destined for extra-time when Sheffield Wednesday’s outside-left, Ellis Rimmer, kept up his record of scoring in every round of the FA Cup by scoring two late goals.

Rimmer, 28, was a winger with a knack of scoring goals. Signed from Tranmere Rovers in 1928, he was part of Sheffield Wednesday’s League Championship-winning sides of 1928-29 and 1929-30.

Rimmer also scored twice on his debut for England against Scotland. He went on to win four caps for his country.

It was not unusual to see Rimmer pop up with important goals but he surpassed at the Cup final. He had already notched six goals en route to Wembley but his memorable brace of goals in the last five minutes of the game guaranteed his place in football folklore.

Albion’s goalkeeper Harold Pearson took the two-goal Wednesday smash and grab personally, repeatedly kicking the ball back into his goal-net after Rimmer’s second score.

Team-mate Richardson, frantically waved and demanded the ball be returned to the centre-spot in the belief that Albion could still turn it around.

After all, Richardson had scored twice in a previous final himself. However, on this occasion, West Brom came up short in this six-goal thriller.

Rimmer, an excellent pianist, had hit all the right notes at Wembley.

LEADING OFF CONQUERING HEROES â– A sea of more than 100,000 greet the Sheffield Wednesday team upon their return from London after winning the 1935 FA Cup final, 4-2, against West Bromwich Albion.

Drake’s HAMMER STRIKE SEALS Cup for favoured

gunners ARSENAL 1-0 SHEFFIELD UNITED

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 25, 1936

A

rsenal won the FA Cup today for the second time in seven years. As expected, they beat Sheffield United, 1-0, before a crowd of 93,384, but not as comfortably as 2-to-1 favourites are supposed to win. It was Wembley’s fourteenth Cup final.

Ted Drake, who recently recovered from a serious knee operation, won the Cup for Arsenal in the 75th minute by taking the only opportunity that came his way.

The goal was set up by Cliff Bastin, who tricked Harry Hooper very cleverly before pushing the ball squarely across to his unmarked centre-forward.

It was the kind of opportunity Drake had been waiting for all afternoon, and quickly he swung his left leg at the ball. However, before Jack Smith, the Sheffield goalkeeper, could move an inch, Drake’s crashing kick hit the top of the net for a 1-0 lead.

The goal gave new life to a game which, for the greater part of the second half, had lapsed into a dull, humdrum affair.

In the closing minutes, Sheffield battled back and almost evened the score on Jock Dodds’ header, but the ball hit the crossbar with a bang instead of going into the net.

GUNNERS READY ■ Avid fans of Sheffield United brought their high spirits to the Mall in London on the morning of the FA Cup final against Arsenal at Wembley. The Gunners’ 1-0 win against Sheffield United would be their second Cup victory. OPPOSITE PAGE: Arsenal’s Alex James (with the Cup) and Joe Hulme (right) enjoy their victorious walk back to the dressing room after defeating Sheffield United, 1-0.

FA CUP MEMORIES 1936 marked twelve months of Royal turmoil in the country, as no less than three different monarchs ruled for part of the year.

King George V died at Sandringham in January. He was succeeded by Prince Edward, who became King Edward VIII. His relationship with American divorcee, Wallis Simpson – and his desire to marry his lover brought a bizarre crisis to the country.

Constitutionally he wasn’t allowed to marry the woman he had fallen in love with, so amidst scenes of great intrigue, sensitivity and retrospection, the King abdicated the throne and Prince Albert, the Duke of York, became King George VI. He, with the help of the Queen, would play a huge part in helping Britain come through the difficult days of the impending World War. At Wembley, matters were fractious, albeit on a slightly different level.

A dispute over filming fees meant the newsreel crews were locked out of the stadium on the day of the 1936 FA Cup final between Arsenal and Sheffield United.

The dispute centred on Wembley’s desire to raise the fees to £1,500 from the established figure of £900. The companies railed against the increase and when Wembley backed down, the film newsreel outfits actually offered to pay a lower fee – £500 – out of a sense of injustice.

No deal was struck, so enterprising journalists and cameramen hired autogyros and hovered over the stadium as the game progressed. Their pictures

gave a bird’s eye view of the match. By the following year the contractual impasse had been resolved.

What the sky-bound news crews and the 93,384 saw was a game that was won late in the day by Arsenal.

The Gunners were captained

by Alex James, all long shorts and clever shuffles. Leading the forward-line was Ted Drake.

Southampton-born Drake was a free-scoring centre-forward.

After starting his career with his home-town club, he had moved to Arsenal in 1934.

In the league-winning season of 1934-35 Drake scored often for Arsenal: three hat-tricks and four four-goal hauls in a campaign of 44 goals.

The following season, Drake scored seven goals in an away match against Aston Villa. And he claimed he should have had an eighth, when a shot hit the bar and bounced over the line.

But the referee said “no.”

Drake’s scoring feat remains a record.

On FA Cup final day he was on target again. Sheffield United had tested the Gunners’ resolve but it was left to Drake to provide the coup de grace.

Seventy-four minutes into the game, James started the move.

He passed to talented winger Cliff Bastin, who transferred the ball inside to Drake. Drake slipped by his marker and hit home fiercely from ten yards.

In the 1950’s Drake would go on to manage Chelsea to their first League Championship in 1955, but his time at Arsenal was spent being a simply prolific goal-scorer and match-winner.

Arsenal would play in their next FA Cup final in 1950.

CARTER CROWNS CAPITAL WEEK WITH WEDDING AND EXTRA-TIME

Cup WIN SUNDERLAND 3-1 PRESTON NORTH END

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, May 1, 1937

S

o it was Sunderland’s Cup year after all. They went to Wembley determined to gain the only football honour that has persistently eluded the club for nearly half-a-century – and with pluck and determination won Wembley’s fifteenth Cup by defeating Preston North End, 3-1, before a crowd of 93,495.

In the long history of the FA Cup few teams have achieved Sunderland’s feat against Preston North End. To fight back after being behind at half-time, draw even and then dominate the play completely, this great effort puts Sunderland in the gallery of great Cup winners.

Preston took a 1-0 lead with one minute left to play in the first half after Frank O’Donnell, who had scored in all five previous Cup rounds, kicked a low drive that Johnny

RETURN OF THE BLACK CATS ■ Sunderland captain Raich Carter and the 1937 FA Cup-winning team pose for a photo before departing King’s Cross Station, in London, after beating Preston North End in the Cup final.

Mapson, the Sunderland goalkeeper, was unable to reach.

This was the squad that Black Cats fans had been watching all season – and they finally showed up in the second half.

Their comeback started with Bobby Gurney, who evened up the score at 1-1 seven minutes into the second half, with his kick from four yards away that hit inside the top of the net.

The goal that gave Sunderland the victory arrived at the 70th minute when Gurney passed to Raich Carter, who beat Mick Burns, the Preston goalkeeper, for a 2-1 advantage.

With three minutes left to play, Carter passed to Eddie Burbanks, who booted Sunderland’s third goal for a 3-1 lead.

For Carter it was the perfect ending to a wonderful week that he would long remember.

On Monday, he married his long-time sweetheart.

Then, five days later, he was receiving the precious FA Cup trophy from the hands of the Queen. He then was carried off the field on the shoulders of fans in a procession of triumph to the Sunderland dressing room.

Gurney, who scored Sunderland’s first goal, was his best

FA CUP MEMORIES The grandly-named Horatio Stratton Carter was a proud son of Sunderland. During the 1930’s he also captained his home-town team to both League Championship and FA Cup triumphs in successive years.

“Raich” Carter, as he became widely known, was a tricky insideforward who left defenders in his wake with his dribbling ability.

He could also score goals – one of these came in the 1937 FA Cup final, when the Wearsiders met Preston North End at Wembley.

Carter, at 23, had been the youngest-ever captain of a titlewinning side.

But now he wanted to lift the Cup for his home-town team.The two Northern sides were both liberally sprinkled with Scotsmen.

Sunderland had five in their starting line-up whilst Preston had no less than seven, including Bill Shankly, who would go on to become a legendary manager at Liverpool. An interesting note – the managers of the two teams on this very English of sporting days were also Scottish!

Preston, a powerful side, went in front in the Cup final on the stroke of half-time through Frank O’Donnell. After intermission, Sunderland re-grouped and put together a stunning second-half showing.

Bobby Gurney equalised for the Wearsiders at 52 minutes on an assist by Carter. The Sunderland captain put his team ahead after 70 minutes. A third goal

by Eddie Burbanks brought the game totally under Sunderland’s control.

Carter received the trophy from Queen Elizabeth, who also congratulated him on his recent marriage. The Sunderland

skipper was then hoisted on the shoulders of his team-mates as they paraded the Cup in front of the winning team’s supporters.

Many of them had walked to the stadium because of an untimely bus-strike on Cup final day.

Carter was one of a number of great players whose potentially best footballing years in the game were lost because of World War II. On the outbreak of war, Raich worked in the Auxillary Fire Service, a reserved occupation, before moving on to become a Physical Training Instructor in the RAF. When hostilities ceased, he resumed his career at Derby County, where he won another FA Cup Winners’ medal in 1946.

An England international, he later went on to become a very popular player for Hull City.

Carter actually went on to manage the club and also Leeds United, where he took the Yorkshire team, which was built around the great John Charles, into the First Division.

Other management posts included Mansfield Town and Middlesbrough.

Raich was a keen sportsman, and was only one of a few players who also played first-class cricket.

Records suggest he had three post-war matches for Derbyshire – as a right-handed batsman and a slow left-arm bowler.

Two wickets and eight runs were chalked-by the Sunderland man – a slightly more modest return than from his football exploits.

Perhaps, as befits a multitalented sportsman, The Raich Carter Sports Centre was opened in his honour in Hendon, Sunderland, in 2001 – seven years after his death.

THE CUP SPECIAL ■ Raich Carter holds onto the prized trophy firmly while waiting for his train to depart from London to return to Sunderland.

RAICH’S BIG WEEK ■ Sunderland captain Raich

Carter (right) started the week by marrying his sweetheart. He finished it by winning the FA Cup, which he received from Queen Elizabeth and King George VI.

Preston Win cup On Penalty KICK in Final

THIRTY Seconds PRESTON NORTH END 1-0 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

By Frank Coles at Wembley, The Daily Telegraph, April 30, 1938

P

reston North End, which was beaten in last year’s Cup final by Sunderland, won the precious prize for the second time by defeating Huddersfield Town, 1-0 today, after the most dramatic finish of all time before a Wembley crowd of 93,497.

Preston previously won the Cup in 1889 in a 3-0 triumph over Wolverhampton.

Today’s FA Cup battle was a game of firsts. This was the first Cup final to be televised in its entirety.

It was also the first time a Cup final at Wembley would require an extra half-hour to finish play.

After the initial 90 minutes there were no goals. An extra half-hour was then ordered – the first time this had

NORTH END TOPPER ■ Huddersfield Town goal-

keeper Bob Hesford dives for the ball, but is unsuccessful as it hits the back of the net for Preston North End’s winning goal during the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.

happened in 18 years.

And with less than a minute left in extra-time there were no goals. Then suddenly George Mutch, Preston’s raven-haired inside-right, went darting through.

He reached the penalty area, chasing the ball at full tilt. It was a breathtaking moment. And it ended in stark tragedy for Huddersfield. Their captain, Alf Young, tackled Mutch, giving a penalty kick to Preston.

Mutch, who slowly recovered his senses with the aid of the trainer’s magic sponge, placed the ball at the 12yard spot, shook himself like a sleepy dog, stepped back a few paces and hit the roof of the net with a shot which no goalkeeper could have saved – and won the Cup for Lancashire with 30 seconds to spare.

Nearly fifty years after their first Cup victory, Preston North End had recaptured their glory again.

And in another odd bit of historical irony, 16 years ago – in 1922 – these same two teams met in the Cup final, and Huddersfield won the Cup on a penalty goal.

Following today’s match, King George VI presented the Cup to Preston captain Tom Smith and medals to members of both teams.

FA CUP MEMORIES “Of all the things that can happen in the game, when the whistle blows at Wembley and you’ve played in a final, and you’ve won, that’s the greatest thrill of your life as a player.

No doubt about that. I thanked God for that. The feeling is unbelievable.”

Those evocative words belonged to the late Bill Shankly, when reflecting on his FA Cup final experience of 1938.

Shankly had been a member of the losing side the previous year so he understood the flip side to Wembley success.

Once again Preston fielded seven Scotsmen; their opponents – Huddersfield Town – had ten Englishmen and the game itself suffered from a bone-hard pitch shorn of grass.

The previous month, Shankly and three of his colleagues – Smith, Beattie and Mutch – had played for Scotland against England at Wembley. “England versus Preston” the press had dubbed it.

George Mutch was a new face on the Preston team. Signed from Manchester United, where he had scored nearly 50 goals in more than 100 appearances, Mutch would score his most famous goal at Wembley in the 1938 FA Cup final.

The game had been goalless in the first ninety minutes and extra-time also seemed destined to not produce a decisive strike.

It was the first entire FA Cup final to be broadcast live on BBC Television and ex-Naval Officer Thomas Woodrooffe, who had commentated on such events as the opening ceremony of the 1936 Summer Olympics and Neville Chamberlain’s famous return from Munich, was the man at the microphone.

Woodrooffe was also known for the odd commentary gaffe, including his observation late in the 1938 FA Cup final that “If a goal is scored now I’ll eat my hat.”

Woodrooffe was later seen eating a chocolate hat the following week, which had been provided by The Times newspaper.

And that was because, in the penultimate minute of extratime in the final, Mutch was brought down in the penalty area

by Huddersfield’s Alf Young, and the Scotsman got back up gingerly to take the resulting penalty kick.

He admitted later that he had been dazed by the tackle, but his spot-kick hit the underside of the bar, taking some white paint with it, and the ball flew into the back of the net. It was virtually the last kick of the game and Preston’s players celebrated wildly after the final whistle.

What a difference a year makes.

Shankly later noted, “What I remember best are the scenes when we had been up to the Royal Box and received our medals. It was warm and Tommy Smith, the captain, was carried with the trophy shoulder-high. Alf Young, who had conceded the penalty, was crying with emotion because he felt he was responsible for losing the Cup.” The BBC’s broadcast paved the way for many decades of coverage. However, in 1938, only 10,000 of a possible 50,000 viewers actually tuned to see the Cup final on television.

Nearly seventy-five years later, the viewing figures for the FA Cup final are now close to 500 million worldwide.

UP FOR THE CUP â– Before the 1938 Cup final was played, a pair of fans attempt to get their teams emotionally soaring for the much-anticipated match between Preston North End and Huddersfield Town. OPPOSITE PAGE: Preston captain Tommy Smith shares the Cup with his team-mates.

WITH WAR IN EUROPE NEARing, Pompey suprise

favoured

WOLVERHAMPTON to win Cup PORTSMOUTH 4-1 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

By Frank Coles at Wembley, Daily Telegraph, April 29, 1939

T

he Cup final of 1939 will be remembered as much for the mysterious, almost unbelievable, collapse of the pre-match favourites, Wolverhampton Wanderers, as Portsmouth, who having sent losing teams to Wembley in 1929 and 1934, made their third visit there pay handsomely with a 4-1 triumph.

Only Sheffield Wednesday – in 1935 – had scored four goals in the Cup final in recent years.

Playing before a crowd of 99,370, Bert Barlow, who until February 24 was a Wolverhampton player, scored first for Portsmouth at the 29-minute mark.

Two minutes before half-time, Jock Anderson outsmarted Wolves goalkeeper Robert Scott with a hooked shot to give the Pompey squad a 2-0 advantage.

With everything to gain and nothing to lose, Wolves looked ready for an improved second half, but their hopes

were dashed in less than a minute when Tom Galley back-heeled the ball dangerously to Barlow, who banged a 20-yard drive, very fast and low.

Scott should have covered it, but he fell and, slowly, the ball trickled towards the net.

It was at that point, Cliff Parker dashed up and dived into the net – ball and all – for a 3-0 lead.

Instead of giving up, Wolves began to play with their old attacking form. Eight minutes later, Dickie Dorsett’s goal cut Portsmouth’s advantage to 3-1.

But Pompey refused to be shaken, and at the 71st minute Parker scored a picture goal – his second of the afternoon – on a header that flew past Scott.

UPSET SPECIAL ■ Jimmy Guthrie, the Portsmouth captain, enjoys a victory ride with the Cup after his team had defeated heavily-favoured Wolverhampton, 4-1. It was Portsmouth’s first Cup final win.

FA CUP MEMORIES September 3rd, 1939, saw the country go to war with Germany – and for the next six years daily British life was not to be the same. And, sadly for many, it would was never be the same again.

Difficult times like these make events like FA Cup final day seem all the more special.

It is a time when the nation can come together and have a mutual interest in the same event. In peace-time, occasions like Royal weddings and funerals and major sporting events are able to deliver that common sense of national purpose. And in 1939, there was a heightened sense of interest in the FA Cup final as the country headed to a state of war.

The two FA Cup finalists were Wolverhampton Wanderers and Portsmouth, and the latter, being home to many of our naval forces, added an extra ingredient.

Wolves were hot favourites.

Captained by Stan Cullis, they had finished higher in the League than Portsmouth. It was also the Midlands team’s sixth FA Cup final and the press fancied them strongly. After all, they would finish runners-up in the First Division.

Portsmouth were in their third final, had not yet won the Cup, and their place in the bottom half of the League indicated a team having a difficult season.

The two League games between the teams had resulted in a win apiece, but Wolves’ FA Cup results had matched their League form. They were 3-1 winners over Bradford Park Avenue in the 3rd Round; 5-1 over Leicester City; a 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool; 2-0 against Everton, and then 5-0 in their semi-final over Grimsby.

Portsmouth had beaten Lincoln City, 4-0, in the 3rd Round; toppled the Throstles, 2-0; swept past West Ham, 2-0, and narrowly defeated Preston, 1-0, before conceding a goal against Huddersfield Town in a 2-1 semifinal win.

The biggest crowd since the 1923 final watched the game, with an attendance of 99,370.

The guests of honour were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

The match turned out to be a one-sided affair, and, against all the odds and forecasts, it was Portsmouth who triumphed.

And central to their win, was Bert Barlow, an inside-left, who Portsmouth had only signed a couple of months before – from Wolves! He scored the first goal, and, before half-time, Jack Anderson added a second.

Within a minute of the resumption of play in the second half, it was 3-0. Barlow and Cliff Parker combining to take Pompey into an unassailable lead.

Wolves got one back through Dickie Dorsett before Parker added a fourth for Pompey.

Portsmouth had won the Cup for the first time. They would also hold the Cup the longest time, because in the autumn of 1939 the country was in a state of war and “official” football was suspended.

There were competitions held throughout the hostilities and Cups won, even at Wembley, but not the FA Cup. The trophy itself was safely stored in a Hampshire village pub, and even war hero Field Marshal Montgomery went to see it when he was in Portsmouth.

It was given back when the first post-war competition got underway in 1945-46.

LEADING OFF THE PRIDE OF POMPEY â– With Queen Elizabeth (left) looking on, King George VI presents the FA Cup to Portsmouth. It would be the last Cup final played until 1946.

The Best of

THE CUP Top Ten Lists

The FA Cup’s 10 Greatest

Managers

By Jon Carter ESPN

Matt Busby

Alex Ferguson

Arsenal

Arsene Wenger

Manchester United

The 2011 season saw Manchester United pipped to the post while fighting on three fronts by rivals Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final, but Ferguson’s record in the competition is unparallelled. He has picked up the trophy more times than any other manager − five − and has also been involved in the most finals − eight. His first success came in 1989-90 before leading United to three trophies in six years from 1993 onwards and, although his last trophy came in 2003-04, he is still viewed as one of the best managers in Cup history.

Arsenal’s boss has almost become defined by his last trophy − the FA Cup in 2005 − as his side struggles to recreate their past glories, but there was a time when the FA Cup was in the Gunners’ stronghold. Wenger secured four trophies in seven years from 1998 to 2005 and also made it to another final and two semi-finals in that period.

He also wrote himself into FA Cup folklore with an act of sportsmanship that saw him offer to replay Arsenal’s 1999 Fifth Round game with Sheffield United after Marc Overmars scored following Kanu’s failure to return the ball to the Blades following an injury.

The legend of Busby will forever be linked with Manchester United, but his first taste of the competition came as a player for rivals City, as he picked up the trophy for the first time in 1934. Joining Manchester United as manager after World War II, he guided the club to the FA Cup in 1948. In 1958, he returned to the Cup final after the tragedy of the Munich Air Disaster. Seven of his players were among the 23 killed in Germany and, famously, Busby twice received the Last Rites in the hospital. Somehow, he recovered and returned to lead the side to success in the Cup again in 1963 before his retirement after the European Cup success of 1968.

Manchester United

Ron Atkinson

Manchester United, West Bromwich, Sheffield Wednesday, Aston Villa A one-club man as a player, Atkinson holds the record for the most appearances (FA Cup and league) for Oxford United. Making more of an impression as a manager, the man who made way for Sir Alex Ferguson, with Manchester United second from bottom of the league in 1986, also managed the side to two successes in the FA Cup in 1983 and 1985. In a slightly less impressive feat, Atkinson was also in charge as Third Division Bournemouth provided one of the shocks of the competition’s history in 1984, with a 2-0 win against Manchester United.

Terry Neill

Arsenal, Tottenham, Hull Neill started as one of the youngest managers in the game after an 11-year spell with Arsenal ended just before they won their famous Double in 1971; he was 28 and took charge of Hull and then Tottenham. However, Neill returned to the Gunners to manage them for seven years from 1976-1983 and in that time the club reached three successive FA Cup finals, winning only the middle one in 1979. He retired from the game at age 41.

Bob Stokoe

Bill Nicholson

Blackpool, Sunderland

Tottenham

The sight of Stokoe running on the pitch in his red tracksuit, trench coat and trademark trilby to celebrate Second Division Sunderland’s 1973 FA Cup final success against Leeds is an iconic moment in Cup history. Taking Sunderland to the trophy for the first time since 1931, Stokoe earned the nickname “the Messiah of Roker Park” and he is remembered just as favourably as the man who won them the Cup, goalkeeper Jim Montgomery, for his hard work an enthusiasm in the club’s finest hour.

Nicholson picked up the league title both as a player and a manager at Tottenham and was the man at the helm as Spurs went on their greatest run of FA Cup successes in the 1960’s, which saw them win three trophies in seven years, including a Double in 1961. Nicholson, arguably Spurs’ greatest ever manager, allowed his players to express themselves, but demanded the type of commitment which is best summed up in his own words: “Any player coming to Spurs, whether he’s a big signing or just a ground staff boy, must be dedicated to the game and to the club. He must never be satisfied with his last performance, and he must hate losing.”

Howard Kendall

Blackburn, Everton, Manchester City, Notts County, Sheffield United Kendall became the then-youngest player in an FA Cup final (17 years 345 days) when he was on the losing side for Preston North End against Bobby Moore’s West Ham in 1964 and lost another final in 1968 for Everton against West Brom. As a manager at Everton he returned in three different spells to lead them to success in 1984 and more final heartbreak in 1985 and 1986.

Kenny Dalglish

Liverpool, Blackburn, Newcastle Despite his huge domestic success with Liverpool, Dalglish only managed to win the FA Cup once in his playing career − as player/manager in 1986. As a full-time boss, Dalglish took his side to glory in 1989 (with an Ian Rush double to thank) but the tragedy of the Hillsborough Disaster in the semi-final clash with Nottingham Forest saw 94 fans killed and left an indelible mark on Liverpool and their manager. Dalglish quit the club two years later after an FA Cup tie with Everton and, after taking Newcastle to the final in 1998, made his triumphant return to Anfield in the 2011 competition in a 1-0 defeat to Manchester United in the Third Round.

Keith Burkinshaw

Tottenham, West Bromwich

Another Tottenham legend, Burkinshaw oversaw the second of Spurs’ glory periods in an eight-year spell from 1976. Sealing back-to-back successes in the FA Cup in 1981 and 1982 ranks highest on his list of achievements and his inspired signing of Argentinian World Cup stars Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa helped the club on the path to glory, along with the emergence of England’s Glenn Hoddle. The 1981 FA Cup final replay saw Villa strike one of the greatest goals ever scored in a final as Spurs beat Manchester City, 3-2.

The FA Cup’s 10 Greatest

Forwards

By Dominic Raynor ESPN

Ian Rush

Chester City, Liverpool, Leeds united, Newcastle, Wrexham

Jackie Milburn

Newcastle United

“Wor” Jackie is widely regarded as the best striker to ever play for Newcastle United and was instrumental in the Magpie’s three FA Cup victories in 1951, 1952 and 1955.

En route to the first of those triumphs the converted winger, who turned up for a trial with Newcastle in 1943 with a pair of borrowed football boots wrapped in brown paper, scored in every round, topping that with two goals in five second-half minutes as Newcastle beat Stanley Matthews’ Blackpool, 2-0, in the 1951 final. The following year, Milburn left the Wembley heroics to Chilean striker George Robledo, but sent Newcastle on their way to the final with a stunning hat-trick in a 4-2 quarter-final victory over Portsmouth. Then, bidding for a third FA Cup in five years, Milburn scored after just 45 seconds − the fastest goal to be scored in an FA Cup final at Wembley at the time − as the Toon beat Manchester City, 3-1.

On January 5, 1980, Ian Rush enjoyed “the most amazing day” of his young life. The fresh-faced 18-year-old scored for Chester City as the Divison Three side pulled off an FA Cup shock against Newcastle United in front of 30,000 fans and, just a few months later, the £300,000 striker was snapped up by Liverpool. Once at Anfield, the Welshman left an indelible mark on the Cup competition, winning it three times and bowing out as the Cup’s greatest goalscorer, with 44 strikes. In 1986, Rush scored twice in a 3-1 win over city-rivals, Everton, in the first allMerseyside Cup final and broke the Toffees’ hearts again three years later when, with the game tied at 1-1, he came off the bench and scored twice in extra-time as Liverpool won a thrilling final, 3-2. Another Winners’ medal and another Wembley goal followed in 1992 as Liverpool beat Sunderland, 2-0, but there were sour moments too for Rush. The Liverpool legend’s final touch of the ball in a Reds shirt came when it bounced off his shoulder to set up Eric Cantona’s winning goal as United scooped the FA Cup in 1996 − it was the only final Rush lost.

Didier Drogba

Chelsea

Since he arrived in English football from Marseille in 2004, Drogba has fired Chelsea to four FA Cup triumphs, scoring in all four finals, and the first victory, in 2007, capped a season of personal milestones for the Ivory Coast striker. Opponents Manchester United had beaten Chelsea to the Premier League title just two weeks earlier, but Golden Boot winner Drogba struck his 33rd goal of the season as the Blues won the first FA Cup final to be played at the new Wembley Stadium. Two year’s on, having been hit by injury and suspension, a late charge in the FA Cup saved Drogba’s season. He scored a late winner against Arsenal in the semi-final and then, after Louis Saha had given Everton the lead with the quickest ever goal in an FA Cup final, after just 25 seconds, Drogba equalised in a 2-1 victory. In 2010, Drogba cemented his reputation as a Wembley specialist when he scored a dipping freekick to clinch a 1-0 win against Portsmouth − his 10th goal in the competition. In 2012, Drogba scored his third Cup-winner as Chelsea sent Liverpool packing, 2-1.

Jimmy Greaves

Chelsea, Tottenham, West Ham

Eric Cantona

Leeds United, Manchester United Eric Cantona arrived at Old Trafford in a cut-price £1 million deal from Leeds United and inspired the Red Devils to a wealth of domestic success that included two FA Cup triumphs in three years. In the 1994 final, the Frenchman scored two spot-kicks inside seven minutes to win an on-field wager with Chelsea’s Dennis Wise, who had bet Cantona £100 he would miss in an attempt to try and disturb his concentration. The final score was 4-0. Two years later, after returning from a ban for his infamous “kung-fu” kick on Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons, Cantona lead United to another FA Cup final.

Before the match, the focus was on Liverpool’s “Spice Boys” and their white suits, but it was Cantona who made the headlines when it mattered, scoring the Cup-winner with a well-controlled volley from the edge of the penalty area and then lifting the trophy as captain.

Nat Lofthouse

Bolton Wanderers

Bolton-born Lofthouse scored in every round of the FA Cup in 1953 and must have thought his name was on the trophy when he added to his tally after just 75 seconds of the final to help Bolton ease into a 3-1 lead against Blackpool. He even hit the post before Blackpool rallied to pull off a shock 4-3 victory. Nicknamed the Lion of Vienna − a sobriquet he acquired after being knocked out scoring a goal for England during a 3-2 win in Austria − Lofthouse was not a man to shrink from a challenge and when Bolton returned to Wembley for the 1958 FA Cup final he showcased his commitment in controversial fashion. The former coal miner scored both goals in Bolton’s 2-0 win over Manchester United, but the second, when he barged United keeper Harry Gregg into the goal and left him unconscious, remains one of the most contentious in a final. The goal stood and Lofthouse was an FA Cup winner.

Despite scoring 132 goals during four seasons with Chelsea, it wasn’t until Greaves joined Tottenham in a £99,999 deal from AC Milan (manager Bill Nicholson didn’t want him to become Britain’s first £100,000 player) in 1961 that the sensational striker scooped his first major honour − the FA Cup. Spurs had won the Double the previous season and goal-machine Greaves scored in every round, bar one, as he helped Tottenham defend their title, netting the opening goal as they won the tactical “Chessboard Final” against Burnley, 3-1. Greaves, who is the highest goalscorer in the history of English top flight, tasted FA glory once again in 1968. The striker scored seven times en-route to the “Cockney Final” with Chelsea, which Spurs won, 2-1.

Mark Hughes

Manchester United, Chelsea, Southampton, Blackburn, Everton Hughes was a real FA Cup warrior for both Manchester United and Chelsea and is the only player to have picked up four Cup-Winners’ medals at Wembley. The first came in 1985, when his two goals in the semi-final against Liverpool sent United on their way to a 1-0 victory over Everton in the final. Then, after a brief stint with Barcelona, “Sparky” returned to Manchester, and scooped his second FA Cup in 1990, with his double rescuing Manchester United from defeat against Crystal Palace, before winning the replay. A third trophy with United followed in 1994 when he scored in a 4-0 win over Chelsea. He then completed the set with the Blues in 1997.

Ian Wright

Crystal Palace, Arsenal, West Ham, Burnley Having been plucked from non-league football at the ripe old age of 22, Wright scored twice as a super sub as unfancied Crystal Palace drew, 3-3, in the 1990 FA Cup final – his first goal forced extra-time and his second put the Eagles ahead in extra-time, but United fought back through Mark Hughes and eventually won the replay, 1-0.

In 1993, Wright, who had joined Arsenal, once again, scored in the FA Cup final and once again the match had to go to a replay, but this time the England international triumphed, scoring the opening goal as the Gunners beat Sheffield Wednesday after extra-time. Wright, who scored 15 goals during his FA Cup career, picked up a third Winners’ medal in 1998, although the substitute played no part in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Newcastle.

Stan Mortensen

Michael Owen

Blackpool, Hull City, Southport

A virtuoso late show from two-goal hero Michael Owen in the 2001 FA Cup final overturned Arsenal’s dominance and set him on his way to winning the Ballon d’Or that same year. With Wembley being rebuilt the game took place at Cardiff ’s Millennium Stadium and Arsenal were rewarded for incessant pressure in the first FA Cup final played outside England when Freddie Ljungberg gave them the lead with 20 minutes left. The Gunners looked certain to win and had almost begun celebrating victory when Owen equalised with seven minutes to go after pouncing on a half-cleared free-kick. With extra-time looming, the young England star then outpaced both Tony Adams and Lee Dixon to score an unlikely winner and secure the second trophy of Liverpool’s Cup Treble.

RAF radio operator Mortensen returned from World War II to help fire Blackpool to three FA Cup finals in five years. In 1948, the Seasiders stood on the brink of defeat at the semi-final stage as Tottenham led, 1-0, with only four minutes to go, but Mortensen scored to force extratime and then completed a hat-trick to book a place in the final. Unfortunately, the England international suffered the bitter taste of defeat in the final, and again in 1951. It looked like it would be third time unlucky in 1953, with Bolton leading, 3-1, at Wembley but Mortensen, having scored, added two more goals to help secure a muchdeserved FA Cup-Winners’ medal. The Blackpool centreforward remains the only player to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup final and it is somewhat unfair that the 1953 showpiece is known as “the Matthews Final” due to the performance of his teammate, Stanley Matthews.

Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester United

The FA Cup’s 10 Greatest

Midfielders

By John Brewin ESPN

Stanley Matthews

Patrick Vieira

Stoke City, Blackpool

Arsenal, Manchester City Vieira’s last touch as an Arsenal player was to deliver the winning spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out that concluded the 2005 Cup final. It was a fitting conclusion to a Gunners career that saw him play in five finals, and win three of them. In partnership with Emmanuel Petit, he powered Arsenal to victory against Newcastle in 1998 at Wembley as Arsenal won the first of two Doubles, the second coming in 2002, as Chelsea were put to the sword.

That followed the final of 2001 in Cardiff where Arsenal’s dominance was mugged by the finishing of Liverpool’s Michael Owen. In 2003, Arsenal’s third final in a row saw Vieira, now the team’s captain, lift the trophy, just as he would in 2005. His leggy athleticism and drive from midfield stood him out from the packed midfields of his best years.

Trevor Brooking

West Ham

West Ham United’s famed “Academy” produced one of its favourite sons in this burly, yet deceptively skilled and graceful, attacking midfielder. Though West Ham’s 1966 generation had passed into history, FA Cup glory was enjoyed in both 1975 and 1980, with Brooking at its fulcrum. Fulham were taken apart in the first of those, via his promptings from midfield, but Brooking’s greatest day came five years later when Arsenal were defeated at Wembley. Never a man given to the physical aspects of the game, “Trev” hurled himself bravely to score what he has always referred to as a “rare header” as West Ham became the last club from the Second Division to lift the trophy.

A wing wizard from a truly bygone era, Matthews was the prime exponent, with apologies to Tom Finney, of the old-fashioned art of dribbling. A youthful prodigy with Stoke City, whose career was interrupted by the Second World War, Matthews looked to be running out of time to win a trophy as he entered his late 30’s. By now a Blackpool player, he had already been a losing finalist in 1948 to Matt Busby’s Manchester United, and in 1951 to Newcastle United. So 1953 looked like his last chance, with few knowing he would go on to play beyond the age of 50.

As it happened, it was his last Wembley and he grasped it in one of the Empire Stadium’s most famous days. Bolton Wanderers were defeated, 4-3, having led, 3-1, with 30 minutes to play, and Matthews’ wing play was the leading factor, despite a hat-trick by Stan Mortensen and that day will always be known as the “Matthews Final.”

Glenn Hoddle

Tottenham Hotspur, Swindon Town, Chelsea

Roy Keane

Nottingham Forest, Manchester United The engine-room of Manchester United for over a decade played his first FA Cup final as a mature 19-year-old as Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest lost to Tottenham Hotspur in 1991. He won his first Winners’ medal in 1994 as a junior midfield partner, but by 1996, having been a loser in 1995’s final, was an all-action Man of the Match as United secured a Double with a 1-0 defeat of Liverpool.

Despite limping off early in the 1999 final, Keane lifted the trophy as United marched on to a historic Treble. He again lifted the Cup as captain in 2004, but lost his last final, his sixth, in 2005, despite a typical display where he led by example and United were unlucky to lose to Arsenal. He was the supreme competitor and leader of his day.

Bryan Robson

West Bromwich, Manchester United, Middlesbrough Before Manchester United had Roy Keane, they had Robson, the man known as “Captain Marvel.” He had a proud FA Cup record, both with West Bromwich Albion and the Red Devils. Robson’s fighting qualities and ability to raise his game on big occasions were made for the FA Cup and he was a scorer in two finals, scoring a double in the final replay with Brighton and Hove Albion in 1983 was followed by United’s first goal in a 3-3 thriller with Crystal Palace in 1990. He also captained a ten-man United to denying Everton a Treble in 1985, following a blockbusting goal in a semi-final replay with Liverpool at Maine Road. As United became the leading force in England, Robson’s light was dying, yet he still scored a goal in a semi-final replay against troublesome Oldham, again at Maine Road. It was one of his last acts in a United shirt.

He scored in all four semi-final ties he played in for United.

Elegant, leggy, rather fond of himself and with good reason to be on a football field, Hoddle was the midfield schemer behind Tottenham Hotspur’s consecutive Cup triumphs of 1981 and 1982. His free-kick came off Manchester City’s Tommy Hutchinson for the equaliser in the first match of a replayed final in 1981. A year later, Hoddle scored in both matches of another replayed final, with his penalty winning the replay to defeat Queens Park Rangers in 1982. In his final game for Spurs, he was part of a losing effort in the 1987 final against Coventry City; a true Wembley classic. His passing, dead-ball skills and ability to dictate a match with grace made him a player to cherish through the late 1970’s and into the mid-1980’s.

Late in his career, as a player-manager and libero sweeper he would lead Chelsea to a losing final in 1994.

Ryan Giggs

Manchester United Two decades in the Cup competition has seen Giggs fill his home trophy cabinet with four Winners’ medals, and feature in another three losing final efforts, as Manchester United have dominated the English game. He will, of course, always be associated with one particular moment; a slaloming run through Arsenal’s weary defence in the last ever FA Cup semi-final replay, to win a wonderful game with one of the competition’s most iconic moments. From the fleet-footed young winger, who won his first FA Cup, to the calming presence of the veteran who is still a matchwinner. Giggs has been a constant star for as long as many care to remember.

Steven Gerrard

Liverpool

The inspiration behind Liverpool’s 2006 FA Cup triumph, Gerrard shares many characteristics with Bryan Robson, though even “Robbo” would have struggled to equal the heroics of Cardiff against West Ham. All looked lost for Liverpool before Gerrard, who had earlier lashed home a second equaliser, produced a third with a stunning half-volley, with injury-time ticking closer. It flew in from 35 yards and Liverpool were able to win the match on penalties. At just 21, Gerrard was also a star for Liverpool in 2001’s final, as he and Michael Owen denied Arsenal.

He is a player whose energy and determination are ideally suited to Cup football.

Liam Brady

Arsenal, West Ham

Arsenal were FA Cup perennials during the turn from the 1970’s to the 1980’s and their midfield meister was Dubliner Liam Brady, whose passing supplied bullets for the likes of Frank Stapleton and Malcolm MacDonald.

The Gunners reached three finals in a row from 1978 to 1980, and though only the middle one was won, Brady graced the competition many times during his seven years as an Arsenal player. The Gunners looked to have lost in 1979, too, when Manchester United had fought back from a two-goal deficit after Arsenal looked destined for glory, but Brady showed the presence of mind to start another attack, and his strong running eventually led to Alan Sunderland’s winning goal. Brady would eventually take his ball-playing talents and creativity to the continent before a late-period move to West Ham.

John Giles

Manchester United, Leeds United, West Bromwich Another Dubliner, Giles was the creative conductor of the great Leeds United team of the 1960’s and 1970’s, a man who was also unafraid of the pitched midfield battles of the day. Arriving at Leeds as a 23-year-old, he already had a Winners’ medal to his name, having played as a winger as Manchester United beat Leicester City in 1963’s final. Like his Leeds teammates, Giles would too often suffer Wembley woe and he was a losing finalist in 1965, 1970 and 1973, to Liverpool, Chelsea and Sunderland.

However, Giles was part of the team that finally took the FA Cup back to Leeds, by winning the 1972 final against Arsenal. A wondrous passer of the ball and supreme competitor, Giles was the prime midfield general of his day.

The FA Cup’s 10 Greatest

Defenders

By Jon Carter ESPN

Gary Pallister

Bobby Moore

West Ham, Fulham

Arguably England’s finest ever defender, Moore’s heroics in 1966 for England made him a legend of the game, but his 544 games for West Ham ensured that he made an impact at club level as well. In 1964, he was awarded the England captaincy, but also picked up his only FA Cup trophy as the Hammers beat Preston, 3-2, thanks to a lastgasp goal from Ronnie Boyce. Named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year that year, Moore went on to play for Fulham and took them to the FA Cup final in 1975 which, ironically, they lost, 2-0, to West Ham.

Manchester United

Three FA Cups wins in six years while at Manchester United made Pallister a legend in the competition. Having joined the club from Middlesbrough in 1989 to become Britain’s most expensive defender at £2.3 million, he initially struggled to impress, but won the 1990 FA Cup in his first season after a 1-0 replay win against Crystal Palace. Forming one of the best defensive partnerships in the game with Steve Bruce, Pallister’s crowning moment in the competition came in 1995 as he scored an extra-time equaliser to force a replay in the semi-final against Palace; and then got on the scoresheet again in the return game to seal United’s progress to the final.

Gary Mabbutt

Tottenham

His 16-year spell at Tottenham Hotspur, where he played from 1982 until 1998, saw Mabbutt reach the FA Cup final twice and both were eventful games. The defender scored Spurs’ second goal to give them the lead in 1987 against Coventry City, but then netted an own goal after the Sky Blues had equalised, to gift Coventry a 3-2 win in extra-time. Four years later, he would return to Wembley to captain Spurs to a 2-1 extra-time win over Nottingham Forest and played a part in causing Forest’s Des Walker to put through his own net for the winner.

Frank McLintock

Leicester city, Arsenal, Queens Park Rangers

First appearing in England with Leicester City in 1957, the Scot spent seven years at Filbert Street and reached two FA Cup finals in 1961 and 1963 in an ultimately losing cause. Moving from midfielder to defender when he joined Arsenal, he again struggled at Wembley, losing the League Cup finals of 1968 and 1969, but turned his luck around as he led the side to their first League and Cup Double in 1971 and also picked up the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year. Another Wembley FA Cup final defeat came in 1972, to Leeds, but he remains one of the most respected players in the history of the game.

Steve Perryman

Tottenham

Jack Charlton

Leeds united

A veteran of over 600 appearances for Leeds, Charlton picked up every domestic honour with the club. His part in England’s 1966 World Cup win was undoubtably the highlight of his career, but with Leeds he overcame the disappointment of losing the FA Cup finals in 1965 to Liverpool and to Chelsea in 1970, after his error allowed David Webb to net the winner to pick up the trophy in 1972 with a 1-0 win over Arsenal. However, the FA Cup would play its part in his eventual retirement from the game, as he was unable to recover from an injury sustained against Wolves in the semi-finals a year later.

Kevin Ratcliffe

Everton

Having spent two years in and out of the Everton team, when he also handed in a transfer request, Ratcliffe rose to captain the side in 1982 and became the youngest captain since Bobby Moore (23 years previously) to lift the famous trophy in 1984 when the Toffees beat Watford, 2-0. The defender’s rise to fame happened almost as quickly as one of his famous bursts of speed and saw him lead the side into their most successful period − winning the European Cup-Winners’ Cup, two League titles and progressing to two more FA Cup finals.

Having played over 850 matches in all competitions, Perryman is the most loyal player in the club’s history, and also holds the record for most appearances in the league, FA Cup, League Cup and Europe. Initially a midfielder, he converted to defence and rose to captain the side in 1975, leading them to win back-to-back FA Cup trophies in 1981 and 1982. He picked up the Football Writers’ Player of the Year award in 1982 and is viewed as one of the finest players in Spurs’ history.

Ron Harris

Chelsea

The defender known as “Chopper” for his aggressive tackling, Harris made an astonishing 795 appearances for Chelsea between 1961 and 1980 and was the youngest Cup final captain, aged 22, as an FA Cup runner-up in 1967, before lifting the trophy in 1970. In an extremely physical final with Leeds, Harris was in his element and played a part in the quick free-kick that saw Ian Hutchinson score a late goal to save a replay. For the return game, he was given the job of marking Leeds’ Eddie Gray, switching to full-back, and his crunching tackles on the winger limited Leeds’ attacking ambitions and saw Chelsea home with a 2-1 win after extra-time.

Ashley Cole

Arsenal, Chelsea

While he may not be the most well-liked defender in the game, Cole is the most successful player in the FA Cup’s history having won the competition seven times during his career thus far. He has Arsenal to thank for his development, as he was given his chance to shine as a young player under Arsene Wenger and won three of his Cups there, but a move to Chelsea in 2006 saw him pick up the trophy four times in six years to set a new all-time record. Cole has played in eight Cup finals with Chelsea and Arsenal and has now overtaken the three men who won the trophy five times in the 19th century − Charles Wollaston (The Wanderers), Arthur Kinnaird (The Wanderers/Old Etonians) and James Forrest (Blackburn).

Tony Adams

Arsenal

Fighting many demons throughout his career, Adams’ impact on the FA Cup was huge as he picked up the trophy three times during his 22-year association with Arsenal.

George Graham called him “my colossus” and Arsene Wenger described him as a “professor of defence” and, in 1992-93, Adams was the captain of the first English side to win the League Cup and FA Cup Double and scored the goal that took them to the final. The Premier League and FA Cup Double came in 1998 and he bowed out of the game with another in 2002 with his penultimate game being the 2-0 FA Cup final win over Chelsea.

The FA Cup’s 10 Greatest

Goalkeepers

By Tom Adams ESPN

Bert Trautmann

Manchester City

A former Luftwaffe paratrooper and World War II prisoner of war, Trautmann started his career in English football with St. Helens after declining to return to Germany following the end of hostilities, and 20,000 protested against Manchester City’s decision to hand him a contract. However, he repaid the club handsomely with his sterling service, no more so than in the 1956 FA Cup final when, with City leading, 3-1, after 73 minutes, he threw himself at the feet of Birmingham’s Peter Murphy and was knocked unconscious. Trautmann played on, making a number of saves, and only later realised he had broken his neck. “I still have pain if I make unexpected movements of my head,” he told The Guardian in April 2011. “But I was very lucky: surgeons told me I could have died or been paralysed.” Instead he became a City legend, the first goalkeeper and foreigner to win the Footballer of the Year award and, in 2004, was a recipient of an OBE

Peter Schmeichel

Ray Clemence

Liverpool, Tottenham

One of a select band of players who have appeared in at least five FA Cup finals, Clemence won the trophy with both Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in a long and glittering career. His halcyon days undoubtedly came at Liverpool, where he secured five league titles, three European Cups and the FA Cup of 1974, when Newcastle were dispatched 3-0 in the final. Clemence later said: “To win it (the Cup) was a special moment.” Though he was powerless to prevent Arsenal securing the Double in 1971, and was also beaten in 1977 by Manchester United, Clemence enjoyed further success following a move to Tottenham, when Queens Park Rangers were beaten in a replay in the 1981-82 season, his first at the club.

Clemence’s final full season ended with a third defeat in the final at the hands of Coventry City.

Manchester United

Quite simply the greatest goalkeeper in Premier League history, Schmeichel was a colossus for United, a man who inspired Alex Ferguson to say that “I don’t believe a better goalkeeper played the game.” Winning the Cup competition in 1994, 1996 and, of course, in the historic Treble year of 1999, Schmeichel made an indelible mark on the history of a great club. However, like Seaman before him, his defining performance in the competition came in a semi-final. With the score poised at 1-1 against Arsenal in 1999, United conceded a late penalty. If converted by Dennis Bergkamp, United’s Treble dream would surely have died. However, Schmeichel repelled the spot-kick, allowing Ryan Giggs to steal the show, and the match, with a quite brilliant winner in extra-time. The great Bergkamp never took another penalty; Schmeichel went on to captain United in their Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich in Barcelona.

David Seaman:

Arsenal

The Arsenal legend won the FA Cup on four occasions with the Gunners. Under George Graham in 1993, Seaman contributed to Arsenal’s Double Cup success over Sheffield Wednesday. He was the goalkeeper of choice as Arsene Wenger secured two league and Cup Doubles in 1998 and 2002. His 564th and final game for the club was a 1-0 victory over Southampton in the final of 2003 as he captained the side in the absence of Patrick Vieira, but it was the semi-final of that season that produced Seaman’s defining moment in the competition. With Arsenal leading Sheffield United, 1-0, Seaman produced a truly awe-inspiring save to deny Paul Peschisolido. Seemingly suspended in mid-air, he appeared to be acting out a scene from The Matrix when shooting out his right arm and clawing the ball off the line. Seaman “defied time and gravity,” according to The Guardian.

Jim Montgomery

Sunderland

Ian Porterfield gave Second Division side Sunderland a surprise lead against Don Revie’s fearsome Leeds United in the 1973 final and the holders were frustrated by a succession of saves from Montgomery, who would go on to become the club’s record appearance holder with 623 games. However, one double save in particular transfixed Wembley. Montgomery parried Trevor Cherry’s header before then denying Peter Lorimer’s follow-up with a quite astounding diving save, somehow tipping the ball onto the underside of the bar. The stop was so unlikely that BBC commentator David Coleman even declared: “And Lorimer makes it one each!” He didn’t, and one of the great FA Cup shocks had been achieved.

Bruce Grobbelaar

Liverpool

Signed from Vancouver Whitecaps for a fee of £250,000

by Bob Paisley in March 1981, the eccentric Zimbabwean was an unlikely replacement for Clemence, but quickly set about making his own mark on the history of Liverpool.

Grobbelaar was in goal when Liverpool beat local rivals, Everton, in the 1986 final, famously berating teammate Jim Beglin, and repeated the feat three years later in a final that was held in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives. Grobbelaar collected his third Winner’s medal when Sunderland were beaten, 2-0, in 1992, but he was also on the receiving end of one of the great FA Cup shocks four years previously

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Neville Southall

Everton

Everton’s record appearance holder was a giant figure in the club’s success in the 1980’s, winning the FA Cup for the first time in 1984 when Watford were beaten, 2-0, at Wembley − thanks to goals from Graeme Sharp and Andy Gray. A man capable of regular spectacular saves, Southall was the proof of Howard Kendall’s theory that “you never win trophies without an outstanding goalkeeper” as he went on to help a relegation-threatened side defeat Manchester United in the 1995 final, with Paul Rideout scoring the Cup-winning goal.

Gary Bailey

Manchester United Replacing the great Alex Stepney was a daunting task for Bailey and his first taste of an FA Cup final was tinged with bitter disappointment in 1979 when he failed to claim a cross, allowing Arsenal’s Alan Sunderland to score a dramatic late winner in a famous 3-2 win. However, Bailey made amends four years later. After Gary Stevens scored a late equaliser for Brighton to ensure the final of that year would finish, 2-2, after 90 minutes and require extra-time, the underdogs almost stole the trophy only seconds before the end of the match when Gordon Smith raced through on goal. “And Smith must score!” commentator Peter Jones shouted, but Bailey produced a magnificent save to take the game to a replay, which United won, 4-0, on May 26.

Two years later, he was on the winning side once more when Everton were defeated, 1-0, to take home the Cup.

Petr Cech

Chelsea

Seven months prior to his first appearance in an FA Cup final − a 1-0 victory over Manchester United in 2007 − Petr Cech was undergoing emergency surgery following a horrendous skull injury suffered in a clash against Reading.

But he turned in an accomplished performance in the first Cup final to be held at the new Wembley to mark his brave return from serious injury. Cech subsequently won the competition in 2009, defeating Everton, and 2010 − when he emulated Dave Beasant by saving a penalty from Portsmouth’s Kevin-Prince Boateng. In 2012, Cech and Chelsea won their fourth Cup in six years.

Dave Beasant

Wimbledon

The Crazy Gang had developed quite a reputation for uncompromising play having emerged from non-league football just 11 years earlier, but few expected them to beat an imperious Liverpool side − recently crowned league champions − in the Cup final in 1988. Intimidated in the tunnel, rattled by an early thumping tackle from Vinnie Jones on Steve McMahon and down, 1-0, following a goal from Lawrie Sanchez, Liverpool were handed a chance to draw level in the second half after winning a penalty. But John Aldridge, having scored 11 spot-kicks in a row for the Reds, saw Beasant throw himself to his left and turn the ball around the post. Beasant was the first man to save a penalty in an FA Cup final and the first goalkeeper to win the trophy as captain. It was quite an achievement for a side that enjoyed a night on the booze on the eve of the game.