The 1958–59 FA Cup was the 78th staging of the world's oldest

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

cup competition A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

won the competition for their second time, as of 2022, beating

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

2–1 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. This is Luton Town's only appearance in an FA Cup final as of 2022. 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-minute period of

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

would be played. The competition saw the remarkable progress of

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

, then a

Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the ...

team, to the semi-finals, defeating

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

along the way, before losing in a replay to Luton Town. The "59 Cup Run" takes a notable place in Norwich's club history.

Calendar

First round proper

At this stage clubs from the

Third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

and Fourth divisions joined the 30

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

clubs having come through the qualifying rounds. To complete this round,

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

and Ilford given byes. Matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 15 November 1958, although the Bury–York City match was postponed. Ten were drawn and went to replays, with one of those going to a second replay.

Second round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 6 December 1958. Six matches were drawn, with replays taking place later the same week. One match went to a second replay.

Third round proper

The 44

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

clubs entered the competition at this stage. The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 10 January 1959, although six matches were postponed until later dates. Six matches were drawn and went to replays.

Fourth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 24 January 1959, with three matches taking place on later dates. Six matches were drawn and went to replays, which were all played in the following midweek match.

Fifth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 14 February 1959. Four matches went to replays in the following midweek fixture, with two of these requiring a second replay to settle the tie.

Sixth round proper

The four quarter-final ties were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 28 February 1959. Three of the four games went to replays.

Semi finals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday, 14 March 1959. Nottingham Forest and Luton Town won their matches to meet in the final at Wembley. ---- ;Replay

Final

The FA Cup final took place on 2 May 1959, at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

and was won by

, beating Luton Town 2–1.

References

;General
The FA Cup Archive
at TheFA.com

at Footballsite ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1958-59 FA Cup FA Cup seasons