The 1955–56 FA Cup was the 75th staging of the world's oldest football cup competition, 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 ...

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

won the competition, beating

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. The team compete in the ...

3–1 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

at Wembley,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. 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 (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 30 places available in the first round. The winners from the fourth qualifying round were

Shildon Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first , built in 1825, and locomotive works on ...

, Easington Colliery Welfare, Durham City,

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

, Crook Town, Ashton United, Netherfield, Rhyl, Burton Albion, Halesowen Town, Northwich Victoria, Goole Town, Worksop Town, Boston United, Hereford United, Peterborough United, Skegness Town, Bedford Town, March Town United, Southall, Ramsgate Athletic,

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...

, Hastings United,

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

, Wycombe Wanderers, Dorchester Town,

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

, Weymouth, Lovell's Athletic and Yeovil Town. Those appearing in the competition proper for the first time were Easington Colliery Welfare, Halesowen Town, Skegness Town, March Town United, Ramsgate Athletic, Salisbury and Burton Albion. Albion was the fifth club from

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

to qualify for the main draw of the FA Cup, following ''Swifts'', ''Wanderers'', ''United'' and ''Town'' respectively. Of the others, Shildon and Southall had last featured at this stage in 1936-37, Margate in 1935-36, Wycombe Wanderers in 1932-33, Durham City in 1927-28, Worksop Town in 1926-27 and Northwich Victoria in 1892-93.

Results

First round proper

At this stage the 48 Third Division North 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 ...

clubs joined the 30 non-league clubs who came through the qualifying rounds along with

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham, England, Durham. M ...

and

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

, who were given byes to this round as the champions and runners-up from the previous season's FA Amateur Cup. The matches were played on Saturday, 19 November 1955. Seven matches were drawn, with replays taking place later that week. Two ties needed a second replay, which took place on the following Monday, 28 November 1955.

Second round proper

The matches were played on Saturday, 10 December 1955. Seven matches were drawn, with replays taking place later that week.

Third round proper

At this stage the 44 Second Division and First Division (top-flight) teams entered the competition. The matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 7 January 1956, though four were postponed until later that week because of bad weather. Four matches were drawn, with replays taking place later that week. Boston United, Worksop Town, Bedford Town and Burton Albion were the last non-league sides left in the competition.

Fourth round proper

The matches were played on Saturday, 28 January 1956. Four matches were drawn, three of which were settled in a single replay. The fourth, between

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

and Chelsea, was eventually decided in Chelsea's favour in the fourth replay, played 18 days after the date of the original tie.

Fifth round proper

The matches were played on Saturday, 18 February 1956. Three matches were drawn, with replays taking place later that week.

Final rounds

Sixth round proper

---- ---- ----

Replay

Semi-finals

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Final

The final took place on Saturday, 5 May 1956 at Wembley and ended 3–1, with goals scored by Joe Hayes, Bobby Johnstone and Jack Dyson for Manchester City and Noel Kinsey for Birmingham City. The attendance was 100,000. The match is remembered for an incident where Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann sustained a neck injury diving at the feet of Birmingham attacker Peter Murphy; he completed the game in considerable pain, and later examination discovered he had broken a bone in his neck.

References

The FA Cup Archive
at TheFA.com
Results on Soccerbase

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:1955-56 FA Cup FA Cup seasons