The 1919–20 FA Cup was the 45th season of the world's oldest

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (more usually 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 compet ...

), and the first since the cancellation of all football competitions due to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

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 Park, ...

won the competition, beating Huddersfield Town 1–0 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 con ...

at Stamford Bridge,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. 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. 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 at neutral venues 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 only ...

would be played.

Calendar

The format of the FA Cup for the season had two preliminary rounds, six qualifying rounds, four proper rounds, and the semi finals and final.

First round proper

42 of the 44 clubs from the First and

Second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ea ...

divisions joined the 12 clubs who came through the qualifying rounds. Two sides,

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...

and

Rotherham County Rotherham County F.C. was an England, English association football, football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. They spent a number of years in the English Football League before merging with rivals Rotherham Town F.C. (1899), Rotherham ...

were entered instead at the Sixth Qualifying Round. Rotherham County were newly elected to

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, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

due to its expansion in the 1919–20 season, while Port Vale were entered into the League after eight games, following the failure of

Leeds City Leeds City Football Club was the leading professional club in Leeds, England, before the First World War. It was dissolved in 1919 due to financial irregularities, after which Leeds United was established as a replacement. History The club w ...

. Port Vale came through the qualifier, while Rotherham went out. Ten non-league sides were given byes to the First Round to bring the total number of teams up to 64. These were: *

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

* Millwall * Queens Park Rangers * Crystal Palace * Swindon Town *

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings wh ...

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

32 matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 10 January 1920. Eight matches were drawn and went to replays in the following midweek fixture.

Second Round Proper

The 16 Second Round matches were played on Saturday, 31 January 1920. One match was drawn, with the replay taking place in the following midweek fixture.

Third round proper

The eight Third Round matches were scheduled for Saturday, 21 February 1920. There were no replays.

Fourth round proper

The four Fourth Round matches were scheduled for Saturday, 6 March 1920. There were no replays.

Semi-Finals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday, 27 March 1920. Aston Villa and Huddersfield Town won and went on to meet in the final. ----

Final

The Final, the first since the end of the

, was contested by

and

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence i ...

at Stamford Bridge. Aston Villa won 1–0, with the goal coming in extra time from

Billy Kirton William John Kirton (2 December 1896 – 27 September 1970) was a footballer in the early years of professional football in England, who played over 200 games for Aston Villa and is best known for scoring the only goal in the 1920 FA Cup Final. ...

Match details

References

;General
Official site; fixtures and results service
at TheFA.com
1919-20 FA Cup at soccerbase.com
;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Fa Cup 1919-20 1919-20 FA

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cl ...