The 1972–73 FA Cup was the 92nd season of the world's oldest football 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 knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

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 ...

Sunderland won the competition for the second time, beating holders

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

with a goal from Ian Porterfield. 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 would be played.

Calendar

Results

First Round Proper

At this stage clubs from the Football League Third and Fourth Divisions joined 28

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. To complete this round, Stafford Rangers, Barnet, Hendon and

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

were given byes as finalists of FA Trophy and FA Amateur Cup the last season. Matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 18 November 1972. Nine matches were drawn, of which one went to a second replay.

Second Round Proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 9 December 1972, with the exception of the Walsall–Charlton Athletic game which was played three days later. Five matches were drawn, with replays taking place later the same week.

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

clubs entered the competition at this stage. The matches were scheduled Saturday, 13 January 1973, with the exception of the Reading–Doncaster Rovers game, which was played on the following Wednesday. Eleven matches were drawn, of which two required a second replay.

Fourth Round Proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 3 February 1973. Five matches were drawn, of which two required a second replay.

Fifth Round Proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 24 February 1973 with one replay played three days later.

Sixth Round Proper

The four quarter-final ties were played on the 17 March 1973. There was one replay three days later.

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday, 7 April 1973 with no replays being needed. Sunderland and Leeds United won their respective matches to go on to the final at Wembley.

Third place playoff

Between 1970 and 1974, a third place playoff between the two losing semi-finalists was held.The annual ENGLAND v YOUNG ENGLAND fixture is replaced by an F.A. Cup match - the 3rd and 4th Place Play-Off.
, Football Site.

Final

The final took place on Saturday, 5 May 1973 at

and ended in a victory for Sunderland over

by one goal to nil. The attendance was 100,000.

References

;General
The FA Cup Archive
at TheFA.com
English FA Cup 1972–73
at Soccerbase

at Footballsite ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1972-73 FA Cup FA Cup seasons Fa Eng