The 1961 FA Cup Final was the 80th final of the
FA Cup. It took place on 6 May 1961 at
Wembley Stadium and was contested between
Tottenham Hotspur and
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
.
Tottenham won the match 2–0, with
Bobby Smith and
Terry Dyson
Terry Dyson (born 29 November 1934) is a retired footballer who played as a winger.
Career
Dyson was spotted playing football for the British Army during National Service After being demobbed in 1955 he joined Tottenham Hotspur from non-leagu ...
scoring the goals. Having already won the
League
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
, Spurs became the first club to achieve the
Double
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* ...
since
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Par ...
in
1897
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.
* January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puniti ...
.
Road to Wembley
Tottenham Hotspur
''Home teams listed first.
Round 3 Tottenham Hotspur 3–2
Charlton Athletic
Round 4 Tottenham Hotspur 5–1
Crewe Alexandra
Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...
Round 5
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Par ...
0–2 Tottenham Hotspur
Round 6
Sunderland 1–1 Tottenham Hotspur
:''Replay Tottenham Hotspur 5–0 Sunderland''
Semi-final Tottenham Hotspur 3–0
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...
(at
Villa Park,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
)
Leicester City
''Home teams listed first.
Round 3 Leicester City 3–1
Oxford United
Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...
Round 4 Leicester City 5–1
Bristol City
Round 5
Birmingham City
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...
1–1 Leicester City
:''Replay Leicester City 2–1 Birmingham City''
Round 6 Leicester City 0–0
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
:''Replay Barnsley 1–2 Leicester City (
a.e.t.)''
Semi-final Leicester City 0–0
Sheffield United
Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...
(at
Elland Road,
Leeds)
:''Replay Leicester City 0–0 Sheffield United (
a.e.t.) (at
City Ground
The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445.
The stadium was a venue when En ...
,
Nottingham)''
:''2nd Replay Leicester City 2–0 Sheffield United (
a.e.t.) (at
St Andrew's,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
)''
Match summary
Leicester frustrated Tottenham Hotspur in the early exchanges but when full-back
Len Chalmers damaged his right
leg
A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element c ...
twenty
minutes into the match,
[''Wide World of Sports'' Highlights: 1960s – ESPN.com.](_blank)
Retrieved 29 November 2011. Tottenham looked to capitalise. They were unfortunate to see Cliff Jones' goal disallowed for offside in the 38th minute and the first half ended goalless.
The second half kicked off in the same vein as the first had ended until the deadlock was broken in the 66th minute. England striker
Bobby Smith latched on to a pass from
Terry Dyson
Terry Dyson (born 29 November 1934) is a retired footballer who played as a winger.
Career
Dyson was spotted playing football for the British Army during National Service After being demobbed in 1955 he joined Tottenham Hotspur from non-leagu ...
, turned neatly and smashed the ball past
Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional caree ...
. The goal naturally lifted Spurs and nine minutes later victory was sealed, when Smith returned the compliment and crossed to Dyson to head home the second to complete the Double.
Coverage
The match was broadcast live by the BBC with live coverage to twelve other European countries. In the United Kingdom the match commentator was
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 min ...
, former player
Walley Barnes
Walley Barnes (16 January 1920 – 4 September 1975) was a Welsh footballer and broadcaster. Whilst playing as a defender he featured for Southampton and Arsenal and captained the Welsh national side.
Early career
He was born in Brecon to Engli ...
was also pitchside with a radio cameraman to capture the atmosphere before the game and also interview the players during the buildup. He was called upon only once during the match itself to comment on the injury to Chalmers. Many other countries broadcast either a full delayed match cast or edited highlights. The telecast was shown in its entirety in the
United States by the
American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Califo ...
on ''
Wide World of Sports'' two
weeks later on 20 May. The contest was the first overseas event to appear on the sports
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a diffe ...
. The Chalmers storyline was played up to the point that "Poor old Chalmers" became a familiar phrase among
fans of the
television program.
Almost all the television, radio and newspaper commentators predicted a comfortable Tottenham victory but in post game reports all agreed that Spurs had looked out of sorts during the opening fifteen minutes and it was only when Chalmers was injured that they began to dominate the game, again leading to cries for the introduction of substitutes in future. For their part Leicester were considered a little unlucky, though few reporters were willing to go as far as to say that the result would have been any different had the injury to Chalmers not occurred.
Chalmers himself left the field with ten minutes of the game remaining, at which point Tottenham were comfortably in front and any likely chance of a Leicester victory had evaporated. He was unable to return to collect his loser's medal.
The match was broadcast in black and white as a cup final special edition of the Saturday afternoon sports programme
Grandstand however cinema viewers experienced a first when the traditional pre movie newsreels of both
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...
and
Movietone broadcast their match reports in colour.
Match details
References
External links
Game statisticsat soccerbase.com
{{Leicester City F.C. matches
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 con ...
FA Cup Finals
FA Cup Final 1961
FA Cup Final 1961
FA Cup Final
FA Cup Final