1924–25 FA Cup

The 1924–25 FA Cup was the 50th season of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Sheffield United won the competition for the fourth time, beating Cardiff City 1–0 in the final at Wembley.

Fans of Sheffield United sang the popular song of the era " It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" during the match.

Matches were scheduled to be played at the stadium of the team named first on the date specified for each round, which was always a Saturday. Some matches, however, might be rescheduled for other days if there were clashes with games for other competitions or the weather was inclement. If scores were level after 90 minutes had been played, a replay would take place at the stadium of the second-named team later the same week. If the replayed match was drawn further replays would be held until a winner was determined. If scores were level after 90 minutes had been played in a replay, a 30 minutes of extra time would be played.

Calendar

The format of the FA Cup for this season had two preliminary rounds, six qualifying rounds, four proper rounds, and the semi-finals and final. This was the last season of the tournament in this format, as from the following season, the fifth and sixth qualifying rounds would be renumbered as the first and second rounds proper (with later rounds also consequentially renumbered).

Qualifying rounds

37 Football League clubs joined the participating non-league teams entering this season's tournament in the qualifying rounds. Two Second Division sides, Port Vale and Coventry City, and 21 Third Division sides were entered in the fifth qualifying round, with the remaining Third Division teams having been entered in the fourth qualifying round.

Both Second Division sides won their first matches (in contrast to previous seasons), while four clubs from the Third Division were eliminated from the tournament in the fourth qualifying round and a further 14 were knocked out in the fifth qualifying round.

However, in a generally unproductive tournament for non-league football, only four League teams were defeated by non-league opponents. Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic lost to Yeovil & Petter's United in the fourth qualifying round, while Lincoln City lost to Alfreton Town, Brentford lost to St Albans City, and Merthyr Town lost to Weymouth in the fifth qualifying round.

This season's Cup competition was ultimately the first (and only) edition of the tournament in which no non-league sides qualified for the first round proper. The twelve winners from the sixth qualifying round were Barrow, Darlington, Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City, Bristol Rovers, Accrington Stanley, Hartlepools United, Exeter City, Bradford Park Avenue, Doncaster Rovers, Coventry City and Port Vale.

The final non-league side in the sixth qualifying round was Crook Town (as Yeovil had been knocked out by Bristol Rovers in the fifth qualifying round). Crook was the most successful of the 152 clubs entered in the extra preliminary round, defeating Chester-le-Street Town, Craghead United, Thornley Albion, White-le-Head Rangers, Sunderland West End, Stockton and Chilton Colliery Recreation before going out to Bradford Park Avenue.

First round proper

42 of 44 clubs from the Football League First and Second Divisions joined the 12 Second and Third Division clubs who came through the qualifying rounds. Indeed, had the FA not exempted amateur side Corinthian from the first round proper, this stage would have been an all-League affair for the only time in the competition's history. This would also be the last time that First Division teams started at this stage, with significant format changes set to be introduced to the tournament in 1925.

To bring the number of teams up to 64, nine Third Division South sides were given byes to this round. These were:

*Watford
*Brighton & Hove Albion
*Luton Town
*Swindon Town
*Northampton Town
*Bristol City
*Millwall
* Swansea Town
*Plymouth Argyle

32 matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 10 January 1925. Six matches were drawn and went to replays in the following midweek fixture, of which two went to another replay. The Tie 2 replay at Holker Street

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