The 1959 FA Cup Final was contested by

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 ...

and

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 ...

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 ...

. Forest won 2–1, with goals from

Roy Dwight Royston Edward Dwight (9 January 1933 – 9 April 2002) was an English footballer. He scored the opening goal in the 1959 FA Cup Final for Nottingham Forest. Career Fulham Although a winger, he was renowned for his shooting ability. Dwight sco ...

and Tommy Wilson just four minutes apart.

Dave Pacey David Pacey (2 October 1936 – 6 September 2016) was an English professional association football, footballer best known as a player for his home-town club Luton Town F.C., Luton Town. Career Pacey was born in Luton and began his career with ...

scored Luton's consolation goal. Forest were playing in their second FA Cup final, while Luton were making their only final appearance in their history.

Road to Wembley

Nottingham Forest

Luton Town

Match Summary

The game was notable for an unusually large number of stoppages due to injury, particularly to Nottingham Forest players, which was put down to the lush nature of the Wembley turf. The most notable of these stoppages occurred when goalscorer

was carried off the pitch after breaking his leg in a tackle with

Brendan McNally John Brendan McNally (22 January 1935 — 6 July 2011), known as Brendan McNally, was an Irish professional footballer who played as a defender. Career Born in Dublin, McNally first played football for a small local club, St. Finbarrs. As a sc ...

after 33 minutes. This also proved a turning point in the game as Forest had been the more dominant team to that point, leading by two goals at the time. Luton gradually took control of the match from this point on, scoring midway through the second half. Forest were reduced to nine fit men with ten minutes remaining when

Bill Whare William Whare (14 May 1925 – 28 May 1995) was a professional footballer from Guernsey who played as a right-back. Career Born in Guernsey, Channel Islands, Whare spent his entire professional career with Nottingham Forest, making 298 appearan ...

was crippled with cramp, being forced to play wide on the wing where he was little more than a spectator. The high volume of injuries during the second half led to four minutes of additional time being added on by the referee, during which time Luton twice came close to forcing extra time as Allan Brown headed narrowly wide of goal before

Billy Bingham William Laurence Bingham (5 August 1931 – 9 June 2022) was a Northern Ireland international footballer and football manager. As a player, his first professional club was Glentoran, whom he played for between 1948 and 1950. Making the move ...

hit the side netting. Given the condition of the Forest team at that time it would have been a remarkable feat for them to have won the game or even forced a replay in extra time had Luton equalised. At the final whistle the Forest manager Billy Walker entered the field to congratulate his team and was chased by a steward who tried to marshall him back off. The steward mistook Walker to be a pitch invader.

Match details

Coverage

The game was televised live on the BBC ''

Grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

'' programme, which introduced score captions into their broadcast for the first time in an FA Cup final. This however caused much annoyance in Nottingham where their team's name was displayed on the screen at regular intervals as ''Notts Forest''. Commentator

Kenneth Wolstenholme Kenneth Wolstenholme, DFC & Bar (17 July 1920 – 25 March 2002) was an English football commentator for BBC television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best remembered for his commentary during the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final; in the closing minu ...

apologised live on air for the mistake, stating that the caption should read ''Nott'm Forest''. During the game the Forest fans were heard to sing the theme tune to the then-popular television programme ''

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...

'' (the legendary outlaw who was allegedly from

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

), this being the first time that popular television culture had made its way into a terrace song during a cup final.

References

External links

Line-ups

{{DEFAULTSORT:1959 Fa Cup Final FA Cup Finals

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

FA Cup Final 1959 FA Cup Final 1959

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 ...