The 1964–65 FA Cup was the 84th staging 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 ...

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 ...

won the competition for the first time (despite having reached two finals previously), beating

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

2–1 after

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 ...

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

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

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...

, Annfield Plain, Kendal Town,

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 ...

, Macclesfield Town,

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

Bangor City Bangor City Football Club () was a Welsh football club from the City of Bangor, Gwynedd. Founded in 1876, Bangor City have been founder members of the North Wales Coast League, the Welsh National League, the North Wales Combination, the W ...

, South Liverpool,

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team competes in the National League North, the sixth level of the English football league system. Formed in ...

, Spalding United, Corby Town, Kettering Town, Wisbech Town,

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 ...

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...

, Gravesend & Northfleet, Canterbury City,

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 ...

, Chelmsford City, Hayes, Guildford City, Barnet,

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 ...

, Weymouth,

Bideford Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, South West England. It is the main town of the Torridge District, Torridge Districts of England, local government district. Toponymy In ancient records Bi ...

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 ...

, Bath City and Welton Rovers. Those appearing in the competition proper for the first time were Canterbury City, Bideford and Welton Rovers. Of the others, Spalding United had last featured at this stage in 1957-58, Kidderminster Harriers in 1952-53, Hayes and South Liverpool in 1946-47, and Annfield Plain in 1928-29. Barnet participated in seven rounds of this season's competition, defeating Harlow Town, Hertford Town, Stevenage Town, Walthamstow Avenue, Cambridge United and Enfield before going out to the previous season's runner-up

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

in the third round.

Results

First round proper

At this stage the 48 clubs from the Football League Third and Fourth Divisions joined the 30

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 who came through the qualifying rounds. The final two non-league clubs in this round, Crook Town and Enfield were given byes as the champions and runners-up from the previous season's

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footb ...

. Matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 14 November 1964. Eight were drawn and went to replays three or four days later. Two of these replayed matches required a second replay to complete the fixture, with those games played the following week.

Second round

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 5 December 1964. Five matches were drawn, with replays taking place later the same week. The Stockport County–Grimsby Town game was played midweek on 7 December, however.

Third round

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. The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 9 January 1965. Ten matches were drawn and went to replays, though none of these then resulted in a second replay. Barnet was the last non-league club left in the competition.

Fourth round

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 30 January 1965. Six matches were drawn and went to replays. The replays were all played two, three or four days later.

Fifth round

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 20 February 1965. Two games required replays during the midweek fixture, and the Aston Villa & Wolverhampton Wanderers match went to a third game the following week, with Wolves the victors.

Sixth round

The four quarter-final ties were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 6 March 1965. Two of these matches, however, were not played until Wednesday, 10 March. In addition, the Leicester City–Liverpool match went to a replay on this date. Peterborough United reached this stage for the first time in only their fifth season as a Football League club.

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday, 27 March 1965. Leeds United and Liverpool came through the semi-final round to meet at Wembley. ;Replay

Final

The 1965 FA Cup final was contested by

and

on Saturday 1 May 1965. The match finished 2–1 to Liverpool, with all three goals coming in

References

;General
The FA Cup Archive
at TheFA.com
English FA Cup 1964/65
at Soccerbase

at Footballsite ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1964-65 FA Cup FA Cup seasons