The 1968–69 FA Cup was the 88th season of the world's oldest

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

cup competition, 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 Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

won the competition for the fourth time, beating Leicester City 1–0 in the final at Wembley, through a goal from

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

. 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 (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play 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 only if the game is required t ...

would be played. The 1968–69 tournament was remarkable in that no second replays were required at any point throughout the main event.

Calendar

Qualifying rounds

Most participating clubs that were not members of the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

competed in the qualifying rounds to secure one of 30 places available in the first round. The winners from the fourth qualifying round were Tow Law Town,

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...

, Goole Town,

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester, southwest of Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2021 United Kingdom ce ...

, Morecambe, Skelmersdale United, Bangor City, Hereford United, Kidderminster Harriers, Macclesfield Town,

Bilston Bilston is a market town in the City of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, south east of Wolverhampton city centre and close to the borders of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough, Sandwell ...

, Kettering Town,

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

, St Albans City,

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

, Bury Town, Chelmsford City,

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...

, Brentwood Town,

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...

, Ware, Oxford City, Barnet, Wealdstone, Canterbury City,

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

, Cheltenham Town, Weymouth, Yeovil Town and Waterlooville. Bilston, Bury Town, Brentwood Town, Ware and Waterlooville were appearing in the competition proper for the first time, while Woking had last featured at this stage in 1958–59 and St Albans City had last done so in 1926-27. Brentwood Town was the first club from that centre to participate in the main draw of the FA Cup since 1885–86, the season before the original Brentwood FC moved to Leyton and was renamed ''Crusaders''.

Results

First round proper

At this stage the 48 clubs from the Football League Third and Fourth Divisions joined the 30 non-league clubs who came through the qualifying rounds. The final two non-league sides in the competition proper, Leytonstone and Chesham United were given byes to this round as the champions and runners-up from the previous season's FA Amateur Cup. Matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 16 November 1968. Ten were drawn and went to replays two, three or four days later.

Second round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 7 December 1968. Nine matches were drawn, with replays taking place later the same week.

Third round proper

The 44 First and Second Division clubs entered the competition at this stage. The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 4 January 1969. Seven matches were drawn and went to replays. Kettering Town was the last non-league club left in the competition.

Fourth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 25 January 1969. Six matches were drawn and went to replays.

Fifth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 8 February 1969. However, for the first time in history, the entire fifth round draw for the FA Cup was unable to be played due to heavy snowfall across England, and the matches were replayed at various times after this date. Most took place by the following Wednesday (one of these requiring a replay), two were played a fortnight later, but the final match was not played until 1 March and required a replay two days later.

Sixth round proper

The four quarter-final ties were scheduled to be played on 1 March 1969, although due to the late completion of Leicester City's fifth round tie, their match with Mansfield Town was not played until 8 March. There were no replays.

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday 22 March and Saturday 29 March 1969.

Final

The 1969 FA Cup Final was contested by

and Leicester City at Wembley on Saturday 26 April 1969. The match finished 1–0 to Manchester City who, behind West Ham United in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, are the second-last all-English team to win the FA Cup.

References

;General
The FA Cup Archive
at TheFA.com
English FA Cup 1968/69
at Soccerbase

at Footballsite ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1968-69 FA Cup FA Cup seasons