 Illustrated programme | |||||||
| Event | 1923–24 FA Cup | ||||||
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| Date | 26 April 1924 | ||||||
| Venue | Empire Stadium,London | ||||||
| Referee | W. E. Russell (Swindon) | ||||||
| Attendance | 91,695 | ||||||
| Weather | Rain | ||||||
←1923 1925 → | |||||||
The1924 FA Cup final was the deciding match of the1923–24 FA Cup, contested byNewcastle United andAston Villa. It was the second final to be held at theEmpire Stadium, Wembley, and took place three days after the opening of theBritish Empire Exhibition. It was an all-ticket match in response to the severe crowd congestionthe previous year.
The final was played on a heavy pitch as a consequence of torrential rain in the hours before the match. Newcastle won 2–0, with the goals scored in the last eight minutes byNeil Harris andStan Seymour. It was the second time they had won the competition.
As First Division clubs, Newcastle United and Aston Villa entered the competition in the first round proper, in which 64 teams competed.
| Round | Opposition | Score | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Portsmouth | 4–2 | Fratton Park (a) |
| 2nd | Derby County | 2–2 | Baseball Ground (a) |
| 2nd (replay) | Derby County | 2–2 aet | St James' Park (h) |
| 2nd (2nd replay) | Derby County | 2–2 aet | Burnden Park (n) |
| 2nd (3rd replay) | Derby County | 5–3 | St James' Park (h) |
| 3rd | Watford | 1–0 | Vicarage Road (a) |
| Quarter-final | Liverpool | 1–0 | St James' Park (h) |
| Semi-final | Manchester City | 2–0 | St Andrew's (n) |
Newcastle's FA Cup run began with a 4–2 win away toPortsmouth of the Third Division South, when they recovered from falling two goals behind in the first half.[1] They then required four matches to beat Second DivisionDerby County, withNeil Harris scoring a hat-trick in an eventual 5–3 win after the first three matches between the teams had all been drawn 2–2. After beating another Third Division South team,Watford, and the reigning First Division championsLiverpool, Newcastle facedManchester City in the semi-finals atSt Andrew's. City's team included the 49-year-old forwardBilly Meredith. Newcastle won 2–0 with two further goals from Harris to reach the final.[2]
| Round | Opposition | Score | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Ashington | 5–1 | Portland Park (a) |
| 2nd | Swansea Town | 2–0 | Vetch Field (a) |
| 3rd | Leeds United | 3–0 | Villa Park (h) |
| Quarter-final | West Bromwich Albion | 2–0 | The Hawthorns (a) |
| Semi-final | Burnley | 3–0 | Bramall Lane (n) |
Aston Villa's route to the final was rather more straightforward than that of their Wembley opponents, as they scored 15 goals and conceded just one in five consecutive wins. After beating lower league teamsAshington,Swansea Town andLeeds United in the early rounds, they then defeated two previous Cup winners from the lower half of the First Division,West Bromwich Albion andBurnley.[2] Their goals in the semi-final came fromDicky York, who scored twice, andBilly Kirton.[3]Len Capewell scored six goals in their cup run, including at least one in each of the first four rounds.[2]
At the time of the1923–24 season, Aston Villa had already won the FA Cup six times under the management ofGeorge Ramsay, most recently againstHuddersfield Town in1920. The club was celebrating its golden jubilee in 1924.[4] They had reached the first finals at both theCrystal Palace andStamford Bridge, and were now appearing in the second final at theEmpire Stadium.[5] By contrast, Newcastle had only one previous success in the competition, in1910, although they had been runners-up four times between 1905 and 1911. Their first Cup final, in1905, had ended in a 2–0 defeat to Aston Villa, withHarry Hampton scoring both goals.[2] Newcastle had failed to win any of their previous FA Cup final fixtures in London, with their previous finals all having been played at the Crystal Palace and their only victory coming in the 1910 replay againstBarnsley atGoodison Park, Liverpool.[6]
On 12 April, the Empire Stadium hosted its first international match, whenEngland playedScotland in the last match of that season'sHome Championship.[7] The result, a 1–1 draw, left England in last place in the competition. Newcastle'sCharlie Spencer made his England debut, and faced his club team-matesBilly Cowan andNeil Harris, who were both making their first appearances for Scotland. Aston Villa'sTommy Smart,Frank Moss andBilly Walker were also in England's team, andGeorge Blackburn was an unused squad member.[8] Moss captained England, and Walker had the honour of scoring England's first goal at the new stadium.[9]
During the1923–24 First Division season, both Newcastle and Aston Villa occupied a position in the top half of the table, as they had each season since the end of the First World War. Newcastle beat Aston Villa 4–1 atSt James' Park on New Year's Day, but when the teams met again atVilla Park on Easter Monday, just five days before the Cup final, Aston Villa won convincingly, 6–1, with Walker scoring a hat-trick.[10] Walker had scored another hat-trick against Newcastle in a League match four years earlier.[11] It was Villa's biggest League win of the season and the first time Newcastle had conceded six in a League match since 1909.[12] Newcastle fielded a virtual reserve team for this match, with onlyWillie Gibson keeping his place for the Cup final, but their Scottish goalkeeperSandy Mutch suffered a serious knee injury that ruled him out of the final and prematurely ended his career.[13] Mutch had played for Huddersfield Town in two previous finals, including the 1920 match against Aston Villa.[14]
The match was hugely anticipated, withThe Times recalling the clubs' previous meeting in 1905 as "the best that has been played since the Cup was first instituted" while also noting the tendency for more recent finals to produce "negative football" and that the two teams "do not approach the old standard of play".[15]The Manchester Guardian stated that the finalists "represent all that is best and most clever in English football".[4] Aston Villa were the favourites, and were described as having "a more skilful line of half-backs, and superior defence".[16] Their defensive record was among the best in the First Division that season.[12] Their captain, Moss, who played with shrapnel in his knee as a result of action at theBattle of Passchendaele,[17] described their team as having "a rattling good defence, strong halves and a nippy front rank".[1] Villa's team retained five players who had appeared in the club's previous final in 1920: Smart, Moss, Walker, the inside-rightBilly Kirton, who had scored the only goal in extra-time in that final, and the outside-leftArthur Dorrell. Six of their team were England internationals, withTommy Mort,Dicky York and the Newcastle-born Kirton also having won international caps.[18][19] They fielded just one Scotsman –Vic Milne, a qualified doctor – who had come into the side at centre-half in November after the murder ofTommy Ball.[20] Since the transfer ofClem Stephenson to Huddersfield in 1920, the skilful Walker had become the leader of the attack: the right-back, Smart, referred to Villa's team of the period as consisting of "Billy Walker and ten others".[21]
In contrast, the three players who had made their debuts in the recent England-Scotland fixture were the only internationals in Newcastle's line-up, which contained five Scotsmen.[14] Scottish players dominated the forward line, led by the pacy and powerful centre-forward Harris, and the EnglishmanStan Seymour, the outside-left, also had experience playing in Scottish football withMorton.[15][22] Harris and Seymour had each scored more than twenty times in the 1923–24 season.[23] Newcastle were the older team on average, andThe Times highlighted their half-back line as a relative weakness, with their inexperienced centre-half Spencer having turned in a "sorry display" in the recent international match and their full-backsFrank Hudspeth andBilly Hampson having "arrived at an age when they are slowing down".[15] Hampson was aged 39 but for many years was incorrectly named as the oldest known player to have appeared in the final, at 41.[24]
On Saint George's Day, three days before the final, KingGeorge V visited the Empire Stadium to open theBritish Empire Exhibition, which was being held in the adjoiningWembley Park, and delivered a speech that was broadcast by radio, the first such transmission by a reigning monarch.[25][26] That evening, around 300 Newcastle supporters set sail for London on board the tramp steamer, SS Bernicia.[24] Scores of special trains carried spectators to London on the morning of the match, not only from the north-east and the Midlands but also from other major cities across Britain: these included Cardiff, with manyCardiff City supporters reported as having booked advance tickets before their team was knocked out byManchester City in a quarter-final replay.[14] One of these trains, travelling from Coventry, was involved in a collision in which four people were killed and more than fifty were injured.[27]
In response to the major crowd congestion that had occurred during thefirst Wembley final the previous year, an all-ticket policy was introduced, with loudspeakers used to assist with crowd control, and at 91,695 the attendance was substantially below the stadium's capacity.[16] No significant disorder was reported either in crowds queueing for the British Empire Exhibition or in those entering the stadium.[28] There had been an expectation that theKing would attend, but he was represented instead by theDuke andDuchess of York, withPrince Arthur of Connaught, the Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald and his daughterIshbel, the Home SecretaryArthur Henderson and the Secretary of State for the ColoniesJ. H. Thomas also present.[28]
The weather in the days before the final had remained unsettled and heavy rain fell in the hours before the match started.[28] Storms caused damage across the south-east, includingEpsom Racecourse,[29] and the nearby Indian Pavilion of the British Empire Exhibition "became a lake".[30] As a consequence, the pitch was "greasy and treacherous".[31][32] The pitch markings were washed away and had to be repainted.[30] Neither captain considered the conditions to be beneficial to his team's style of play.[5]
Aston Villa won the toss and played with the wind in the first half.[32] The match was the penultimate final to be played under the three-playeroffside law, and Villa's use of the one-back system caughtHarris offside on several occasions.[32] Newcastle had the first scoring chance after four minutes, but Harris slipped as he shot from a promising position.[32] Aston Villa had more possession but could not capitalise and their forwards were described as having "no adventure in their shots".[16] Nevertheless, Newcastle's stand-in goalkeeperBradley made several good saves, notably fromWalker andKirton.[32] Towards the end of the first half,York sent in a cross that forced Bradley to concede a corner. Walker, following in to challenge the goalkeeper, collided with agoalpost and "relapsed like a log".[30] Although he returned to the pitch five minutes later,The Times reported that Aston Villa's inside-left was "never himself again"[32] and Walker stated afterwards that he had been knocked out in the incident.[9]
Although by the second half the rain had stopped and the sun had come out, the Aston Villa players tired as they played into an increasing wind.[32][33] Bradley made another save fromCapewell andJackson stopped a header fromCowan close to the goal-line.[32] Harris then had a clear chance when he charged down a clearance fromSmart, but his shot was "a very weak effort".[32] With the match still goalless as it moved into the closing stages, a flurry of activity took place in the last eight minutes. First Newcastle took the lead with a fine goal by Harris after a combination move begun bySpencer and also involvingMcDonald and Cowan.[16] Immediately after the restart, Kirton headed a cross fromDorrell off-target from close range.[32] Then Newcastle's outside-leftSeymour scored a decisive second goal with a "glorious shot" just under the crossbar from 25 yards.[16]
The Duke of York presented the Cup to Newcastle's captain,Hudspeth, and the crowd dispersed quickly and without incident after the match.[28]
Much attention was paid to the quality of Newcastle's two goals and their goalkeeper's performance, especially in the first half, when Aston Villa had dominated.The Times described Harris as the "outstanding forward on the Newcastle United side" and noted the contribution ofMilne, but also commented that Villa were affected by injuries to Walker andBlackburn.[32] Hudspeth praised Bradley's "brilliant goalkeeping" andMoss agreed that "some of his saves were remarkable".[5]The Scotsman described the match as "a stirring battle between two well-matched teams",[33] andThe Manchester Guardian as "one of the best that has been seen this twenty years".[30] With this victory, Newcastle reversed the scoreline from the final of1905. By recovering from a heavy League defeat to beat the same opponents in the final the following week, they emulatedBlackburn Rovers, who lost 7–1 toNotts County in a League match in March 1891 but then beat them in theCup final a week later.[5][12]
         Newcastle United |     Aston Villa
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The Newcastle team celebrated with a champagne reception at theHotel Russell on the evening of the final and visitedEastbourne the following day.[34] They returned to Newcastle by train on the Monday after the final, where they were received by theLord Mayor Stephen Easten and a huge "cheering throng" of supporters before progressing to the Empire Theatre.[35] The Aston Villa team stayed at the Euston Hotel, visited Brighton on the Sunday after the match and returned to Birmingham on the Monday.[28]
On the Wednesday after the final, Aston Villa won their last League match of the season 3–1 at home toHuddersfield Town, three days before Huddersfield pippedCardiff City to win the title on goal average. Villa finished sixth in the table, the same position as in the previous season, and Newcastle, who had already completed their League programme, finished ninth.[12] Thefollowing season, Newcastle lost in the second round of the Cup to Second DivisionLeicester City, while Aston Villa were beaten byWest Bromwich Albion in the third round.[2]
Both teams remained among the strongest in the country in the years after the final. Newcastle won the League championship in1926–27 and next won the Cup in1932, when they beatArsenal in the final. While continuing to challenge into the 1930s, Aston Villa did not win another major honour until they won the FA Cup in1957, which remains their last success in the competition. They continued to hold or share the record for most FA Cup wins until 1991, when their total of seven was overtaken byTottenham Hotspur.[36]
Stan Seymour went on to become Newcastle's manager and in1951 became the first man to win the Cup as both a player and manager of the same club.[6]Billy Walker won the Cup twice as a manager, withSheffield Wednesday in1935 andNottingham Forest in1959.[2]
Memorabilia from the match have attracted high prices at auction, with programmes selling for thousands of pounds.[37][38] In 2024, the collection of Newcastle's goalkeeperBill Bradley, including his winner's medal, sold for more than £10,000.[39]
| External images | |
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 SS Bernicia leaving Newcastle for London for the 1924 FA Cup Final |
