The 1949–50 FA Cup was the 69th 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, 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 ...

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 ...

won the competition for the third time, beating

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

2–0 in the final at Wembley, through two goals from Reg Lewis. 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 participating clubs 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 25 winners from the fourth qualifying round were Billingham Synthonia,

North Shields North Shields ( ) is a town in the borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. The population of North Shields at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom cens ...

, Stockton, Netherfield,

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

, Rhyl,

Mossley Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, south-east of Oldham and east of Manchester. The town grew ...

, Bromsgrove Rovers, Witton Albion, Goole Town, Nuneaton Borough,

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

, Hereford United,

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

, Wealdstone,

Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a Tilbury Fort, 16th century fort ...

, Gravesend & Northfleet, Walthamstow Avenue, Chelmsford City, Gillingham, Hastings United, Leytonstone,

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

, Weymouth and Gloucester City. Those appearing in the competition proper for the first time were Fleetwood, Mossley, Nuneaton Borough, Wealdstone, Tilbury and Hastings United, while Goole Town had not featured at this stage since 1914–15. Mossley was also the most successful team from the extra preliminary round, progressing to the second round proper by defeating Ashton United,

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester, southwest of Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2021 United Kingdom ce ...

, Northwich Victoria,

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the High Peak, Derbyshire, Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Alston, Cumbria also claims this, but lacks a regu ...

, Droylsden,

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Runcorn is on the south bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It is upstream from the port of Live ...

and Witton Albion.

First round proper

At this stage 41 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 clubs that came through the qualifying rounds. Rotherham United,

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic were given byes to the third round. To make the number of matches up, non-league sides Yeovil Town and

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

were given byes to this round, Yeovil after reaching the fifth round of the previous FA Cup tournament and Bromley as the champions from the previous season's FA Amateur Cup. 34 matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 26 November 1949. Three were drawn and went to replays.

Second round proper

The matches were played on Saturday, 10 December 1949. Six matches were drawn, with replays taking place later the same week. One of these replays went to a second replay.

Third round proper

The 44 First and Second Division clubs entered the competition at this stage along with Rotherham United,

and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic. The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 7 January 1950. Nine matches were drawn and went to replays, with one of these going to a second replay. Weymouth, Yeovil Town and Nuneaton Borough were the last non-league clubs left in the competition.

Fourth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 28 January 1950. Six games were drawn and went to replays, which were all played in the following midweek match.

Fifth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 11 February 1950. There were three replays in total, each taking place four days later.

Sixth round proper

The four quarter-final ties were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 4 March 1950. There were no replays.

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were intended to be played on Saturday, 18 March 1950, although the Liverpool–Everton fixture was not played until the week after. The London derby clash of Arsenal–Chelsea went to a replay, with Arsenal eventually winning their tie to meet Liverpool in the final at Wembley. ---- ;Replay

Final

The 1950 FA Cup Final was contested by

and

at Wembley. Arsenal won 2–0, with both goals scored by Reg Lewis. Future legendary Liverpool manager

Bob Paisley Robert Paisley (23 January 1919 – 14 February 1996) was an English professional football manager and player who played as a wing-half. He spent almost 50 years with Liverpool and is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. ...

was famously dropped for the final, even after scoring the winning goal against

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

Everton in the semi-final.

Match facts

References

;General
Official site; fixtures and results service
at TheFA.com
1949-50 FA Cup at soccerbase.com
;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1949-50 FA Cup FA Cup seasons