The 1953–54 FA Cup was the 73rd 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 ...

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

won the competition for the fourth time, beating Preston North End 3–2 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 ...

. 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.

Calendar

First round proper

At this stage clubs from the

Football League Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated t ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

joined those

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 d ...

clubs having come through the qualifying rounds (except Harwich & Parkeston and Walthamstow Avenue that given byes to this round). Matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 21 November 1953. Seven were drawn and went to replays.

Second round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 12 December 1953. Eight matches were drawn, with replays taking place later the same week. The Wrexham–Brighton & Hove Albion match went to a second replay, which finished in Wrexham's favour.

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, 9 January 1954. Fifteen matches were drawn and went to replays, with three of these requiring a second replay. The Blackpool–Luton Town match then went to a third replay, which was won by Blackpool.

Fourth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 30 January 1954, with two matches taking place on later dates. Six matches were drawn and went to replays, which were all played in the following midweek match. The Scunthorpe United–Portsmouth match went to a second replay.

Fifth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 20 February 1954. Two matches went to replays in the following mid-week fixture.

Sixth round proper

The four quarter-final ties were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 13 March 1954. Two matches went to replays, with the Leicester City–Preston North End match going to a second replay.

Semifinals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday, 27 March 1954. Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion won their ties to meet in the final at Wembley. ----

Final

The 1954 FA Cup final was contested by

and Preston North End at

. West Brom won 3–2, with goals from

Ronnie Allen Ronald Allen (15 January 1929 – 9 June 2001) was an English international football player and manager. He was a professional footballer for nineteen years, between 1946 and 1964, making 638 appearances in the Football League, and scoring 2 ...

(2) and Frank Griffin. Angus Morrison and

Charlie Wayman Charles Wayman (16 May 1921 – 26 February 2006) was an English footballer. Wayman, who was born in Chilton, Bishop Auckland, was a prolific centre-forward in the first decade after the Second World War. Newcastle United signed him from Sp ...

scored for Preston.

Match details

References

;General
The FA Cup Archive
at TheFA.com

at Footballsite ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1953-54 FA Cup FA Cup seasons