The 1971–72 FA Cup was the 91st 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 ...

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 ...

won the competition for the first time, beating holders

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 ...

1–0 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

. Several records were set during this FA Cup season. This was the third year in which the losing semi-finalists were required to compete in a " match for third place"; following a goalless 90 minutes,

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 ...

beat Stoke City in a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, the first time this method had been used to determine the result of an FA Cup match. In the first round proper,

Ted MacDougall Edward John MacDougall (born 8 January 1947) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a forward. He was a prolific goalscorer who played for eight teams, scoring 256 goals in 535 League appearances and winning seven full international cap ...

's nine goals for

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth ( ) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. ...

as they beat

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 ...

11–0 remains the record for goals scored in a match in the FA Cup proper. The fourth qualifying round tie between

Alvechurch Alvechurch ( ) is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Bromsgrove (district), Bromsgrove district in northeastern Worcestershire, England, in the valley of the River Arrow, Worcestershire, River Arrow. The Lickey H ...

and Oxford City became the longest FA Cup tie ever, lasting a total of eleven hours before Alvechurch won the fifth replay 1–0. 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 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 28 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 ...

, Blyth Spartans,

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 ...

, Bangor City, Ellesmere Port Town,

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 ...

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 ...

, Nuneaton Borough, Rossendale United, Frickley Colliery, Boston United, Hereford United, Redditch United, Kettering 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 ...

, Maidenhead United, Enfield, Guildford City,

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, Barnet,

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 ...

, Basingstoke Town, Witney Town, Bridgwater Town,

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1896 as Crawley Foo ...

and Weymouth. Those appearing in the competition proper for the first time were Ellesmere Port Town, Redditch United, Alvechurch, Basingstoke Town and Witney Town. Rossendale United was appearing at this stage for the first time since predecessor outfit Rossendale FC had entered the competition in 1887-88. Of the others, Frickley Colliery, Maidenhead United and Bridgwater Town had last qualified for the first round in 1963-64 and Dover had last done so in 1960-61.

Results

First round proper

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

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. To complete the round, four additional non-league clubs received byes to this stage. Telford United and Hillingdon Borough were the finalists from the previous season's

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

competition, while Skelmersdale United and

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fo ...

were the finalists 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, 20 November 1971, although the

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 ...

match was delayed until 24 November because Alvechurch's fourth qualifying round tie against Oxford City had gone to a fifth replay which took place on 22 November, two days after the date set for the first round ties. Also of particular note,

set a goalscoring record for the FA Cup proper with nine goals for Third Division

as they beat

of the Southern League 11–0. Nine drawn matches in this round were settled by a single replay.

Second round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 11 December 1971. Six matches were drawn, one of which required a second replay.

Third round proper

The 44 First and Second Division clubs entered the competition at this stage. The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 15 January 1972; the tie between

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 ...

and Hereford United at

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

was twice postponed because of a waterlogged pitch on which snow had fallen. Ten matches were drawn, each of which was settled by a single replay. The replay between Hereford and Newcastle, also the subject of several postponements and eventually played on the day scheduled for the fourth round ties, was voted "best FA Cup tie ever" in a 2007 poll hosted in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' newspaper. It was the first time a First Division club had been eliminated from the competition by non-league opponents since Sunderland's shock loss to Yeovil Town in 1948–49.

Fourth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 5 February 1972; Hereford United, unable to complete their third-round replay until this date, played their match later that week (and the subsequent replay early the following week). Five matches were drawn, of which one required a second replay. After their heroics in the previous round, Hereford was the last non-league club left in the competition.

Fifth round proper

The matches were played on Saturday, 26 February 1972. Two matches were drawn, of which one required a second replay.

Sixth round proper

;Replay

Semi-finals

;Replay

Match for third place

For the third time in what turned out to be a five-year experiment, the losing semifinalists were obliged to play off for third and fourth place. The match was held over until immediately before the 1972–73 season. After a goalless 90 minutes, the result was determined by a

, the first time this method was used to settle a match in the FA Cup.

Final

The final took place on Saturday, 6 May 1972 at

and ended in a victory for

over

by 1–0. The goal was scored by Allan Clarke. The attendance was 100,000.

TV coverage

The rights to show FA Cup games were, as with Football League matches, shared between the BBC and ITV network. All games were shown in a highlights format, except the Final, which was shown live both on BBC1 & ITV. The BBC football highlights programme Match Of The Day would show up to three games and the various ITV regional network stations would cover up to one game and show highlights from other games covered elsewhere on the ITV network. No games from Rounds 1 or 2 were shown. Highlights of replays would be shown on either the BBC or ITV. Third round ''BBC'' Swindon Town v Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers v Leicester City, Blackpool v Chelsea, Manchester United v Southampton (Midweek-replay), Hereford United v Newcastle United (Saturday-replay) ''ITV'' Southampton v Manchester United (Southern & Granada), West Ham United v Luton Town (LWT), Leeds United v Bristol Rovers (Yorkshire), Peterborough United v Ipswich Town (Anglia), Derby County v Shrewsbury (ATV), Sunderland v Sheffield Wednesday (Tyne-Tees). Fourth round ''BBC'' Liverpool v Leeds United, Preston North End v Manchester United ''ITV'' Reading v Arsenal (Southern & LWT), Birmingham City v Ipswich Town (ATV), Huddersfield Town v Fulham (Yorkshire), Everton v Walsall (Granada), Coventry City v Hull City (Anglia-covered game out of region), Leeds United v Liverpool (Midweek replay-All regions). Fifth round ''BBC'' Orient v Chelsea, Cardiff City v Leeds United, Manchester United v Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough v Manchester United (Midweek-replay) ''ITV'' Everton v Tottenham Hotspur (Granada & LWT), Birmingham City v Portsmouth (ATV), Huddersfield Town v West Ham United, Stoke City v Hull City (Anglia-covered game out of region). Sixth round ''BBC'' Leeds United v Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United v Stoke City ''ITV'' Orient v Arsenal (LWT), Birmingham City v Huddersfield Town (ATV & Yorkshire) All regions covered those two games. Semi-final ''BBC'' Birmingham City v Leeds United ITV Arsenal v Stoke City All regions covered this game Arsenal v Stoke City (Midweek Replay All Regions) Final Arsenal v Leeds United Shown Live on both BBC & all ITV regions

Notes

:A. : Match played at Gigg Lane, Bury. :B. : Match played at

The Hawthorns The Hawthorns is an All-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F.C. ...

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ), commonly known as West Brom, is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is northwes ...

. :C. : Match played at

Maine Road Maine Road was a football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England, that was home to Manchester City from 1923 to 2003. It hosted FA Cup semi-finals, the Charity Shield, a League Cup final and England matches. Maine Road's highest attenda ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. :D. : Match played at Filbert Street,

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

References

;General
The FA Cup Archive
at TheFA.com
English FA Cup 1971/72
at Soccerbase

at Footballsite

MOTD listings

ITV regional listings & Midweek games for both BBC & ITV ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1971-72 FA Cup 1971–72 FA Cup, FA Cup seasons