FA Cup 1945-46

The FA Cup of 1945-56 was the first official football competition in England after World War Two had ended.

Hull City and New Brighton from the Third Division (North) did not enter as neither had a ground available and strangely Second Division Newport County were not given a bye to the Third Round as other First and Second Division clubs were, and entered the competition at the First Round stage.

Conversely, Third Division clubs Cardiff City, Chester, Crystal Palace and Norwich City were all awarded byes to the Third Round.

Chester had finished the 1938-39 Third Division (North) season in 6th place, while Crystal Palace had finished 2nd (behind promoted Champions Newport) in the South with Cardiff City in 13th. Norwich City were newly relegated from the Second Division.

Every tie of the competition from the First Round to the Quarter-Final was played on a two-leg Home and Away basis with the ties drawn on a regional basis. 

The two-leg arrangement was made in order to give clubs additional revenue, as the Football League would not resume its normal schedule until August 1946.

In the event of aggregate scores being level after 90 minutes of the second leg had been played, the FA rules were that the match should be "played to a finish".

Of the 34 First Round ties, only the tie between Mansfield Town and Gainsborough Trinity needed extra-time. Mansfield won the first leg 3:0 but were losing by the same score after 90 minutes in the second leg. Twenty minutes of extra-time was played with Mansfield winning the tie 5:4 on aggregate.

None of the 17 Second Round ties needed extra-time, but in the Third Round there were four ties still undecided after 90 minutes of the second leg had been played. All second leg matches were played in midweek with 2pm kick-off times, and all four undecided ties were played on Wednesday, 9th January.   

Two of the four - the Everton v Preston North End and York City v Chesterfield ties - were tied at 3:3 on aggregate.

Preston's penalty was scored by Bill Shankly, and this is possibly the only 'golden goal' in FA Cup history. Coincidentally, Joe Fagan also scored on this day, twice for Liverpool in a 2:1 win over Chester.

It's unclear whether the rules were meant to mean 'next goal wins' once a 20 minute extra-time period had been completed, or whether additional extra-time periods should be completed until a winner was decided, but apparently Everton decided enough was enough. Rules are made to be broken and if there was a provision for a Golden Goal, it wouldn't have been a new idea since this rule was in place for the Youdan Cup played in 1867, a competition which preceded the FA Cup by four years. 

Norfolk beat Bromhall 1:0 after sudden death overtime. 

The same 'sudden death' rule was also agreed by the captains of Garrick and Wednesday in the Cromwell Cup Final played at Brammall Lane the following year after 90 minutes of play had seen no goals. 

The other two ties without a winner were Nottingham Forest v Watford who had drawn both their matches 1:1 and Queen's Park Rangers v Crystal Palace who had failed to score a goal between then in 180 minutes.  

Both matches, then went into extra time with ten minutes each way to be played, but with no further scoring in this additional period, the ties remained unsettled.

At Crystal Palace, the second period of extra-time was ended after 7 minutes when "the referee called the players off the field in almost total darkness", while at Watford the second 20 minutes of extra-time was completed, but after three minutes of a third, and a total of 133 minutes of play, the referee abandoned the game. With the matches kicking off at 2pm in mid-January, this is understandable.

 

It appears that there had been no thought given to this outcome, but it was quickly ruled by the FA that the ties should be replayed on a neutral ground.

The Queen's Park Rangers v Crystal Palace tie was played at Fulham's Craven Cottage, and won 1:0 by QPR while Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane hosted the Watford v Nottingham Forest replay which was won 1:0 by Watford. 

In the Fourth Round, the tie between Middlesbrough and Blackpool was 5:5 on aggregate after 90 minutes of the second leg, and an hour of extra-time was played before the game was abandoned due to bad light.

The precedent had been set and the replay was held at Leeds United's Elland Road with Middlesbrough winning 1:0. 

Other clubs requiring extra-time to advance from the Fourth Round were Sunderland (who beat Bury) and Preston North End (again) who defeated Manchester United with Bill Shankly again among the scorers.

No Fifth Round or Quarter-Final ties required extra-time, but the second leg of the Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City tie in the Quarter-Final round was marred by tragedy when 33 spectators died in a crush. The incident happened shortly after kick-off and played was stopped after 15 minutes due to encroachment. Players left the field for 26 minutes before the match resumed. The referee, George Dutton, was made aware that there had been fatalities, but stated that he did not pass this information on to the two captains. 

There were no goals in the game and Bolton advanced due to their 2:0 win at Stoke in the first leg. The disaster was the worst in British football at the time. 

The Semi-Final tie between Derby County and Birmingham City needed a replay and extra-time. 

On Saturday, 23rd March, the two teams met at Hillsborough, Sheffield and drew 1:1. Four days later, the replay was held at Maine Road, Manchester and at the end of 90 minutes there had been no goals. A 30 minute period of extra-time was played during which Derby scored four goals.

Derby met Charlton Athletic in the Final and once again required extra-time after Charlton's Bert Turner scored an own goal in the 85th minute and another for his own side a minute later.

In extra-time, Derby scored three more goals, all by the two players who had scored in the semi-final extra-time - Peter Doherty and John Stamps.

Aliens in the English Cup

For many years, the FA Cup was known as the 'English Cup' but there is a long history on clubs from outside England participating in, and on one occasion (Cardiff City in 1927) winning, the competition.

In the early days of the tournament, clubs from both Scotland and Ireland played in the FA Cup.

The first competition was in the 1871-72 season and Queen's Park reached the semi-final without playing a match. In the First Round they were drawn against Donnington School, but both clubs were allowed to advance to the second round "because they could not agree on a venue."

In the Second Round, the same two clubs were again drawn together, and this time the school club withdrew from the competition, meaning that Queen's Park progressed to the quarter-final, still without having played a match.

Queens' Park then drew a Bye in the Third Round, thus advancing to the Semi-Final without having played a match. All Semi-Final matches as well as the Final were at Kennington Oval, but after Queen's Park drew 0:0 with Wanderers, they declined the offer from Wanderers to play thirty minutes of extra-time, and later withdrew from the competition as they could not afford to make a second journey from Glasgow.

The second competition in 1872-73 saw Queen's Park again enter, and to save on travel costs, they were given a Bye in each of the First, Second and Third Rounds meaning they reached the Semi-Final where they were drawn to play Oxford University. Queen's Park then withdrew anyway.

Queen's Park took no further part in the FA Cup until the 1876-77 season, but another team from Glasgow, Clydesdale, entered in 1875-76 but their First Round opponents South Norwood were awarded a walkover.

In 1876-77, Queen's Park were again awarded a Bye in the First and Second Rounds, before being drawn once again against Oxford University in the Third Round, and similar to four seasons earlier, Oxford University were awarded a walkover.

The 1879-80 competition marked the first of four consecutive seasons which saw Queen's Park enter the tournament, be drawn as the away side in the First Round, and for the home side to be awarded a walkover. The 1879/80 season saw Queen's Park return but once again they didn't play a match, with Sheffield being awarded a walkover in their First Round tie.

The following season, Queen's Park were drawn at The Wednesday in the First Round, and again the home side were awarded a walkover.

Queen's Park (Glasgow, Scotland) were beaten finalists in 1884 and 1885, winning a semi-final in Edinburgh in 1885, while in an 1886 tie Partick Thistle of Scotland beat Cliftonville of Ireland 11-0. 

The last Scottish side to play in the competition proper was Gretna who reached the 1st Round in 1991/92 (when in the Northern League) and 1993/94 (when in the Northern Premier League).

In 1991/92, Gretna hosted Rochdale in the First Round, drawing 0:0 before falling 1:3 in the replay.

Two seasons later, Gretna faced Bolton Wanderers away in the First Round and lost 2:3. 

Rochdale and Bolton are the only two league clubs to have eliminated a Scottish team from the FA Cup proper, although several clubs that are now league clubs achieved this prior to the formation of the league in 1888.

Bolton eliminated Third Lanark in the 1886/87 competition, with Blackburn Rovers doing the same against Queen's Park in both 1883/84 and 1884/85 and and Preston North End beating Queen's Park in the First Round in 1886/87 and Renton in the Third Round. 

Other current league sides to have achieved this once are The Wednesday (a walkover versus Queen's Park in 1880/81), Grimsby Town (another walkover versus Queen's Park in 1882/83), and Aston Villa (a 3:1 win in the 1886/87 Semi-Final v Rangers).

As for current league clubs eliminated by a Scottish club, Crewe Alexandra have suffered from this misfortune twice (a 0:10 defeat versus Queen's Park in 1883/84 and a much improved 1:2 defeat against the same side a season later), with Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Everton, Lincoln City, Nottingham Forest, Notts County, and Stoke losing once each. 

Aston Villa lost 1:6 to Queen's Park in 1883/84 and in 1884/85 Queen's Park walked over Stoke in the First Round before beating both Nottingham clubs in Home replays - Notts County 2:1 in the Quarter Final and Nottingham Forest 3:0 in the Semi-Final. 

In 1886/87, the First Round saw several English clubs lose to Scottish opponents. There were home defeats for Blackburn Rovers, who lost 0:2 v Renton, Blackburn Olympic (1:3 v Partick Thistle), and Darwin Old Wanderers (1:4 v Cowlairs).

English clubs losing away were Higher Walton (0:5 at Third Lanark), Accrington (0:1 at Renton) and Everton who forfeited their tie against Rangers.

In the Second Round, Rossendale lost 1:10 to Cowlairs, Fleetwood Rangers lost 0:7 at Partick Thistle, Church loat 1:2 at Rangers and Renton defeated Blackburn Rovers 2:0 in a replay after a 2:2 draw. 

In the Fifth Round, Lincoln City lost 0:5 at Rangers who beat Old Westminsters 5:1 in the Quarter-Final.