 An illustration of the FA Cup trophy awarded in 1874 | |||||||
| Event | 1873–74 FA Cup | ||||||
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| Date | 14 March 1874 | ||||||
| Venue | Kennington Oval, London | ||||||
| Referee | Alfred Stair (Upton Park F.C.) | ||||||
| Attendance | 2,000 | ||||||
←1873 1875 → | |||||||
The1874 FA Cup final was afootball match betweenOxford University andRoyal Engineers on 14 March 1874 atKennington Oval in London. It was the third final of the world's oldest football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (known in the modern era as theFA Cup). Both teams had previously reached the final but been defeated byWanderers. The Engineers had reached the final with comparative ease, scoring sixteen goals and conceding only one in the four previous rounds. Oxford's opponents in the earlier rounds had included two-time former winners Wanderers.
The final was decided by two goals from Oxford in the first twenty minutes. Their opponents had spent two weeks training for the match, an innovative concept at the time, but were repeatedly thwarted byCharles Nepean, the Oxfordgoalkeeper. The Engineers were said to have missed their bestback, Lieut.Alfred Goodwyn, who had been posted overseas.
Oxford University and theChatham-basedRoyal Engineers were among 28 entrants to the competition in the1873–74 season. Both teams were ranked among the strongest in the country at the time, especially the Engineers who played 86 games between 1871 and 1875 and lost only three, scoring a total of 240 goals and conceding only 20.[1]
Both teams progressed through the first round of the competition with little difficulty, Oxford defeatingUpton Park 4–0 and the Engineers winning 5–0 againstBrondesbury. In the second round, the University beatBarnes 2–0 and the "Sappers", as the Engineers were nicknamed, beatUxbridge 2–1.[2]
The Engineers comprehensively defeated their quarter-final opponents,Maidenhead, winning 7–0, the first time a team had ever scored as many as seven goals in an FA Cup match.[2][3][4] Oxford, on the other hand, were paired withWanderers, who had won the competition in both its first two seasons and never lost an FA Cup match. They had defeated the Engineers in the1872 final and Oxford in the1873 final.[3][4] The first match finished in a 1–1 draw, necessitating a replay which Oxford won 1–0 to end Wanderers' grip on the competition.[2]
Both semi-final matches were played atKennington Oval, the home ofSurrey County Cricket Club, as specified by the rules in use at the time. Royal Engineers defeatedSwifts in the first match to be played, and Oxford booked their place in the final a month later with a 1–0 win overClapham Rovers.[2]
Oxford were able to call on their first-choicegoalkeeper,Charles Nepean, who had been unable to play in the previous year's final, which Oxford lost. They also selectedWilliam Rawson, whose brotherHerbert was in the Engineers' team. The Engineers, who represented the British Army'sCorps of Royal Engineers, had undertaken two weeks of special training before the match, an innovative concept in an era when little importance was placed on training,[5] but were unable to fieldAlfred Goodwyn, considered to be their bestback, as he had been posted to India earlier in the year.[6] Oxford's players were not all students, as the team includedArthur Johnson, an ordained clergyman and Fellow ofAll Souls College.[7] Around 2,000 spectators were in attendance, a smaller crowd than had attended the previous final.[8]
Oxford won thecoin toss and elected to begin the game defending the Harleyford Road end of the stadium.[9]Charles Mackarness gave Oxford the lead after just ten minutes. Following an Oxfordcorner kick, a melee developed in front of the Engineers' goal, and the ball fell to Mackarness, who shot it over the crowd of players and past goalkeeperWilliam Merriman.[10]Frederick Patton doubled the lead ten minutes later after some skillfuldribbling by captainCuthbert Ottaway andRobert Vidal, who was nicknamed the "prince of dribblers" for his skill in that aspect of the game.[11] Just before the call of time, Oxford got the ball between the posts a third time, when a free-kick from near the corner-flag went straight in, but the University did not appeal for a goal;[12] at the time thelaws of the game required all free-kicks to be indirect.
The best effort for the Engineers came whenHenry Renny-Tailyour's shot struck the goalpost. Late in the game the "Sappers" mounted a series of attacks on the Oxford goal but were unable to score, being repeatedly thwarted by Nepean. Oxford thus won 2–0 and secured the cup.[13]
      O. University |     R. Engineers |
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As occurred each year until 1882, the winning team did not receive the trophy at the stadium on the day of the match, but later in the year at their annual dinner.[14] The secretary of the Royal Engineers club, in his official report, stated that Oxford had thoroughly deserved their victory.[10] Some time after the match, the Engineers discovered that Alfred Goodwyn, their absent star player, had died in India on the day of the final of injuries sustained in a fall from a horse.[6]
