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| Event | 1969–70 FA Cup | ||||||
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| Chelsea won after areplay | |||||||
| Final | |||||||
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| Afterextra time | |||||||
| Date | 11 April 1970 | ||||||
| Venue | Wembley Stadium,London | ||||||
| Referee | Eric Jennings (Stourbridge) | ||||||
| Attendance | 100,000 | ||||||
| Replay | |||||||
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| Afterextra time | |||||||
| Date | 29 April 1970 | ||||||
| Venue | Old Trafford,Manchester | ||||||
| Referee | Eric Jennings (Stourbridge) | ||||||
| Attendance | 62,078 | ||||||
←1969 1971 → | |||||||
The1970 FA Cup final was contested byChelsea andLeeds United. The match took place on 11 April 1970 atWembley Stadium and ended 2–2, making it the first FA Cup final to require areplay since1912. The replay was staged atOld Trafford and played on 29 April; after four hours of fiercely contested football, Chelsea eventually won 2–1. To date, this is the last time both the final and replay were scheduled to be played in April; all subsequent FA Cup final ties have been scheduled to be played in May, with only the2020 FA Cup final (played in August) and the2023 FA Cup final (played in June) played later due to theCOVID-19 pandemic and the2022 FIFA World Cup respectively.
Leeds and Chelsea were two of England's top teams that season, having finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in theFirst Division. The match marked a clash offootballing contrasts: Chelsea were regarded as "flamboyant"[1][2]southerners, whereas Leeds were seen as uncompromisingnortherners. Neither had won the FA Cup before, though both had recently been runners-up, Leeds in1965 and Chelsea in1967.
The replay was the only time between 1923 and 2000 that an FA Cup final was played at a stadium other thanWembley. The replay attracted a British television audience of more than 28 million, the second highest UK audience for a sports broadcast (behind the1966 World Cup final), and the sixth highest audience for any UK broadcast.[3] It has been ranked among the greatest ever FA Cup finals,[4] and named as the "most brutal game" in the history of English football, due to the large number of fouls committed by both teams.[5]
The match was the first FA Cup final to be reported on by a woman, asMary Raine provided a match report forRadio 4'sSix O'Clock News.[6]
Home teams listed first.
Chelsea[edit]Round 3: Chelsea 3–0Birmingham City Round 4: Chelsea 2–2Burnley
Round 5:Crystal Palace 1–4 Chelsea Round 6:Queens Park Rangers 2–4 Chelsea Semi-final:Watford 1–5 Chelsea (atWhite Hart Lane,London) | Leeds United[edit]Round 3: Leeds United 2–1Swansea City Round 4:Sutton United 0–6 Leeds United Round 5: Leeds United 2–0Mansfield Town Round 6:Swindon Town 0–2 Leeds United Semi-final:Manchester United 0–0 Leeds United (atHillsborough Stadium,Sheffield)
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The final at Wembley was scheduled for 11 April, around a month earlier than was typical for FA Cup finals, due to the FA's wish for theEngland national team, who wereworld champions and were defending their trophy inMexico, to have time to acquaint themselves to theMexican climate.[7] The poor state of the pitch is sometimes erroneously explained by the Horse of the Year Show being held there a week before. The Horse of the Year Show was held at Wembley Arena. The International Horse Show was held at the stadium the previous July, but the pitch was relaid later in the year.[8][9]
In a game where Leeds were generally seen to have had the best of the play – withwingerEddie Gray, named man of the match, in particular givingDavid Webb a torrid time – theYorkshiremen took the lead after 20 minutes whenJack Charlton's downward header from a corner did not bounce in the muddy pitch, defending Chelsea playerEddie McCreadie mis-timed his attempted clearance and the ball rolled over the line. Towards the end of the first half, Chelsea'sPeter Houseman drove a low shot from 20 yards (18 m), which rolled under goalkeeperGary Sprake's body for the equaliser. Leeds appeared to have secured the game six minutes from full-time when anAllan Clarke header hit the post andMick Jones reacted first to put the ball into the net, but two minutes laterIan Hutchinson headed in the equaliser fromJohn Hollins' cross. There were no more goals scored during the 30-minute extra time and the two squads took a joint lap of honour.
The Wembley pitch, after the game, was in such appalling condition, as it was for much of the game itself, that the Football Association decided to stage the replay at Manchester's Old Trafford stadium.[citation needed]
The replay atOld Trafford, watched by atelevision audience of 28 million,[10] a record for an FA Cup final, became one of the most notorious clashes in English football for the harshness of play, which exceeded the previous game at Wembley. The referee in charge of both games, 47-year-oldEric Jennings fromStourbridge, in his last season as a Football League referee, allowed rough play by both sides throughout, playing theadvantage to its full extent. He booked only one player, Ian Hutchinson of Chelsea, during the game.
Only one change was made in either line-up, withLeeds United replacing goalkeeperGary Sprake withDavid Harvey.
Modern-dayrefereeDavid Elleray reviewed the match in 1997, and concluded that in the modern era, the sides would have received sixred cards and twentyyellow cards between them, while fellow refereeMichael Oliver thought 11 reds could have been given.[11] Tommy Baldwin and Terry Cooper, admittedly two of the quieter men in the two sides, were kicking lumps out of one another, as the battle began. Not long into the game, Chelsea'sRon "Chopper" Harris caught winger Eddie Gray with a kick to the back of theknee, an action which neutralised the Scottish winger for the rest of the game.Norman Hunter and Ian Hutchinson tradedpunches while Eddie McCreadie, in his own penalty area, made a flying kick toBilly Bremner's head andJohnny Giles also lunged at a Chelsea opponent. Charlton kneed andheadbuttedPeter Osgood while Chelsea's goalkeeperPeter Bonetti was injured after being bundled into the net by Leeds' Jones, who, minutes later, shot past the limping Bonetti for the opening goal.
Chelsea equalised twelve minutes before the end, after a flowing move, from which Osgood scored with a diving header from aCharlie Cooke cross. Jackie Charlton should have been marking Osgood but had 'lost' him while chasing Hutchinson to exact retribution for adeadleg administered in the Chelsea penalty area a minute or so earlier. In scoring, Osgood became the last player to date to have scored in every round of the FA Cup. With the game ending 1–1, the final once again went intoextra time. One minute before the first period of extra time was to end, Chelsea's Hutchinson sent in a longthrow-in that missed almost every player in thepenalty area but came off Charlton's head towards the far post, before being put into the unguarded net by Webb to give Chelsea the lead for the first time in the two games. They kept the lead until the end, securing their first FA Cup win.[12]
The two teams, at the time, were praised for their determination and for providing fans and audiences with two "splendid games", but there was also criticism among football professionals and media for the very physical play.[13] In the modern era, however, the two games are often denoted as "epic" and "iconic".[14]
In thefollowing season, neither team would reach the quarter-final stage of the Cup. Chelsea were eliminated from the competition in the 4th round, after losing 0–3 toManchester City at home, while, in the 5th round, Leeds United were upset in a 2–3 away defeat byFourth Division outsidersColchester United.
Chelsea, however, went on to reach thefinal of theEuropean Cup Winners' Cup, played inPiraeus, Greece, atKaraiskakis Stadium, where they facedReal Madrid. After yet another cup final that went into a replay, the first game ending 1–1 and the second one 2–1 to Chelsea, the English team won its first European trophy.
The Yorkshire side also succeeded in Europe, beating Juventus of Italy in the final of theInter-Cities Fairs Cup. The score was 3–3 after completion of the two legs, Leeds winning on the away goals rule after a 2–2 draw in Turin.
| Chelsea | 2–2 (a.e.t.) | Leeds United |
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Houseman 41'Hutchinson 86' | (Report) | Charlton 20' Jones 84' |
      Chelsea | Leeds United |
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 Chelsea | Leeds United |
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