1934 FA Cup Final

The 1934 FA Cup Final was won by Manchester City in a 2-1 win over Portsmouth. The cup is most remembered for a young Frank Swift's heroics in goal and the predictions of City forward Fred Tilson. The match was also refereed by future FIFA president Stanley Rous, in his penultimate game as an official.

The tournament

The FA received 554 entrants for the 1933–34 tournament. As usual, these were whittled down to just 64 in the Third Round proper.

Route to the Final

Manchester City started off against Blackburn Rovers. Blackburn, although cup winners in 1928, had disappointed since. After a 3–1 home win, the City were drawn against Hull City. They drew away, 2–2, but the Blues resoundingly won the replay 4–1. Sheffield Wednesday were the opponents in the Fifth Round. Once again a score draw was fought out. However, Manchester City won the replay by two goals to none. The Sixth Round was another away tie, this time at Stoke City. The Potters were beaten 1–0, setting up an intriguing semi-final against Aston Villa, who had knocked out the three-time champions Arsenal in the previous round. The game was played at Leeds Road in Huddersfield, and produced a big shock. A lot of people were expecting a close game,Who|date=December 2007 but the Blues romped home with a 6–1 thrashing.

Portsmouth started away to Manchester United. Following a 1–1 draw, Portsmouth won the Fratton Park replay 4–1. Under the guidance of Jack Tinn, Portsmouth managed to only concede five goals in the whole competition, two of those in the First Round. After defeating Grimsby and Swansea 2–0 and 1–0 respectively, they faced Bolton Wanderers in the quarter-finals. Bolton had scored 12 goals in three FA Cup games thus far, however they could not get a goal against Portsmouth, who won emphatically, 3–0. Leicester were the opponents in the Birmingham semi-final, which was won 4–1.

The final

The 1934 final was played in a thunderstorm. The storm made the ground very sluggish and slow. A shot by Rutherford span away from Frank Swift and the ball curled very nicely in the corner of the net.

At half time, Frank was blaming himself for what had happened with the goal. He was the youngest player in the team and felt he had let the team down. However, Man City's bustling forward Tilson came up to him and said "You don't need to worry, I'll plonk (score) two in (the) next half".

With just seventeen minutes to go, Jimmy Allen, Portsmouth's tall defender, left the field injured. Man City now had a man advantage. Busby took a throw in and played the ball to Brook. Brook played the ball through to Tilson, who had plenty of time to place the ball home. Gilfallan, the Portsmouth goalkeeper was out of place and Tilson had equalised. There was more to come however, as, with three minutes to go, Tilson latched on to a cross from Herd, to rifle the ball home. True to his word, Tilson had notched two goals.

At the other end of the pitch, Frank knew that all his team had to do was hold on for another two minutes and they would win. A photographer behind the goal was making him more nervous by counting down the seconds on his watch. When the game ended, Frank fainted in relief. The young goalkeeper went on to captain England in the future, his goalkeeping error forgotten.

Match details

Road to Wembley

External links

* [http://www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk/1934.htm Match report at www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk]
* [http://www.sportingchronicle.com/FACUP/1934.html FA Cup Final lineups]