The 1931–32 FA Cup was the 57th 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 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, 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 ...

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

won the competition for the third time, beating

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

2–1 in the final at

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 the London Borou ...

. 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.

Calendar

Qualifying rounds

Most teams 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 25 places available in the first round. The 24 winners from the fourth qualifying round were West Stanley, Crook Town,

Blyth Spartans Blyth Spartans Association Football Club is an association football club based in Blyth, Northumberland. They are currently members of and play at Croft Park. They were founded in September 1899 by Fred Stoker, who was the club's first secre ...

, Lancaster Town,

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road, A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to ...

, Manchester Central, Yorkshire Amateur, Scunthorpe & Lindsey United,

Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a Association football, football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the English Football League, Football League i ...

, Newark Town, Burton Town, Peterborough & Fletton United, Hayes, Enfield, Barnet,

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

, Northfleet United,

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...

, Tunbridge Wells Rangers, Guildford City,

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, Metropolitan Police,

Nunhead Nunhead () is an inner-city suburb in the London Borough of Southwark, England,Southwark Council Nunhead and Peckham Rye Community Council southeast of Charing Cross. It is the location of the Nunhead Cemetery.BBC London Nunhead Cemetery/ref> ...

and Yeovil & Petter's United. Due to the uneven number of teams (49) contesting this season's fourth qualifying round, Bath City, having won through to that stage from the preliminary round, received a bye to the first round proper. Those appearing in the main competition for the first time were Yorkshire Amateur, Burton Town, Enfield, Chelmsford and Metropolitan Police, while Darwen had last featured at this stage in the Intermediate Round of the 1903-04 tournament. Additionally, Burton was the first club from that town to qualify for the FA Cup competition proper since Burton United in 1906-07. Blyth Spartans became the second club in the competition's history to progress from the extra preliminary round to the second round proper, defeating Shankhouse, Scotswood, Wallsend Boys Club, Walker Celtic,

Jarrow Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. Historically in County Durham, it is on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. The 2011 census area classed Hebburn and the Boldons as ...

, Stockton and Lancaster Town before losing to Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic at

Dean Court Dean Court, currently known as Vitality Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England, and is the home ground of AFC Bournemouth. The stadium has a capacity of 11,307. History I ...

First round proper

At this stage 42 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 compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

joined the 25

non-league Non-League football describes association football, 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 ...

clubs that came through the qualifying rounds.

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

and

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

were given byes to the third round. To make up the requisite number of matches, non-league

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

was given a bye to this round. 34 matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 28 November 1931. Eight were drawn and went to replays in the following midweek fixture, of which one went to two more replays. Notable in this round is the home win awarded to Burton Town due to Wigan Borough folding and resigning from

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

just after the start of the season.

Second round proper

The matches were played on Saturday, 12 December 1931. Three matches were drawn, with replays taking place in the following midweek fixture.

Third round proper

The 44

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and Second Division clubs entered the competition at this stage, along with

and amateur side Corinthian. The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 9 January 1932. Twelve matches were drawn and went to replays in the following midweek fixture.

, Bath City, Burton Town and Crook Town were the last clubs from the qualifying rounds left in the competition, but all remaining non-league sides (including Corinthian) went out in this round.

Fourth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 23 January 1932. Three games were drawn and went to replays in the following midweek fixture, of which two went to second replays.

Fifth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 13 February 1932. There was one replay, between Chelsea and Sheffield Wednesday, played in the next midweek fixture.

Sixth round proper

The four Sixth Round ties were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 27 February 1932. There were no replays.

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday, 12 March 1932. Newcastle United and Arsenal won their matches to meet in the final at

. ----

Final

The 1932 FA Cup Final was contested by

and

in what became known as the "Over The Line" final. Newcastle won 2–1, both of their goals scored by Jack Allen.

Match details

References

;General
Official site; fixtures and results service
at TheFA.com
1931-32 FA Cup at soccerbase.com
;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1931–32 FA Cup FA Cup seasons