The 1990–91 FA Cup was the 110th season of the world's oldest knockout

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 ...

competition, The Football Association Challenge Cup, or

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 ...

for short.

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

won the competition after coming from 1–0 behind in the final against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

to win 2–1 and take the trophy. It gave Tottenham their eighth victory in nine

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

s and their first since their wins in 1981 and 1982.

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 Fleetwood Town, Stafford Rangers, Witton Albion,

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 ...

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth ca ...

, Spennymoor United,

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 ...

Whitley Bay Whitley Bay is a seaside town in the North Tyneside borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It was formerly governed as part of Northumberland and has been part of Tyne and Wear since 1974. It is part of the wider Tyneside built-up area, being around ...

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 ...

, Aylesbury United, Tamworth, Halesowen Town, Telford United, Barnet, Atherstone United, Chelmsford City, Boston United, Kidderminster Harriers, Yeovil Town, Farnborough Town, Littlehampton Town, Tiverton Town,

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

, Hayes, Wycombe Wanderers,

Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil () is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil, daughter of K ...

, Welling United and

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1887, ...

. Appearing in the competition proper for the first time were Littlehampton Town and Tiverton Town, while Fleetwood Town had not featured in the first round since 1980–81 and Witton Albion had not done so since 1966-67. All other successful qualifiers had participated in the main draw of the Cup on at least one occasion in the previous five seasons. Curiously, this would be the last time (as of 2025) that Wycombe Wanderers featured in the FA Cup qualifying rounds. Awarded byes to the first round in the next two seasons, the club would be promoted into the Football League in 1993. Again as of 2025, they are the only club to have joined the League via promotion in the 20th century and enjoyed continuous membership since.

First round proper

The 48 teams from the Football League Third and Fourth Divisions entered in this round along with the 28 non-league clubs from the qualifying rounds and Barrow, Leek Town,

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

and Sutton United who were given byes. The first round of games were played over the weekend 17–18 November 1990, with replays being played on 20–21 November. The round included three clubs from the various competitions at Step 8 of the English football system: Spennymoor United from the

Northern Counties East League The Northern Counties East Football League is a semi-professional English football league. It has two divisions – Premier Division and Division One – which stand at the ninth and tenth levels of the English football pyramid respectively. ...

, Tiverton Town from the Western League, and Littlehampton Town from the Sussex County League. Spennymoor's transfer to the Northern Counties East League during the previous summer meant that this was the first Cup competition since 1970-71 in which no clubs from the Northern League qualified for the first round.

Second round proper

The second round of games were played either over the weekend 7–8 December 1990, with replays being played on 11–12 December; or they were played in the midweek, from 10 to 12 December, with replays being played on 17 December. Whitley Bay, from the

Northern Premier League First Division The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English football league system. Geographically, the league c ...

at Step 7 of English football, was the lowest-ranked team in the round.

Third round proper

Teams from the Football League First and Second Division entered in this round. The third round of games in the FA Cup were played over the weekend 5–7 January 1991, with replays being played on 8, 9, 16, 21 and 28 January. The lowest-ranked team in the draw,

from the Isthmian League Premier Division at Step 6, defeated Second Division opponents

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

4–2 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. ...

Fourth round proper

The fourth round of games were mainly played over the weekend 26–27 January 1991, with replays being played on 29–30 January. The Arsenal-Leeds United game ended in a draw three times, with the two extra replays being played on 13 and 16 February. Because Nottingham Forest did not finish their third-round tie until 28 January, their fourth round match was not played until 13 February with a replay on 18 February. Woking was again the lowest-ranked team in the draw and, by this stage, was the last non-league club left in the competition.

Fifth round proper

The fifth set of games were mainly played over the weekend 16–18 February 1991, with replays being played on 20 February. The

Merseyside derby The Merseyside derby is an association football match between Everton F.C., Everton and Liverpool F.C., Liverpool, two clubs based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is the longest running top-flight local derby, derby in England, with its fi ...

went to an extra replay played on 27 February, the last FA Cup tie to go to multiple replays before a rule change the following season limited ties to one replay.

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time as well as one of Celtic's, Liv ...

resigned as Liverpool's manager between the two replays. Because Nottingham Forest did not win their fourth round tie until 18 February, their fifth round match was not played until 25 February with a replay on 4 March. Similarly, Arsenal were late beating Leeds United in the previous round and so played Shrewsbury Town on 27 February. Shrewsbury, Crewe Alexandra and Cambridge United, from the Third Division, were the lowest-ranked teams in the draw, with Cambridge defeating Second Division Sheffield Wednesday to progress to the Sixth Round for the second consecutive season.

Sixth round proper

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

Semi-finals

Tottenham's 3–1 triumph over Arsenal, marked by a

Paul Gascoigne Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and one of the best English footballers of ...

goal from 35 yards, ended their opposition's chances of the double. Nottingham Forest beat Second Division West Ham United 4–0 to reach their first FA Cup final for 32 years and give

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

the chance of winning his first FA Cup to add to the two European Cups, one league title and four League Cups that he had already won with them. ----

Final

An own goal by

Des Walker Desmond Sinclair Walker (born 26 November 1965) is an English football coach and former player who played as a defender. At club level he played in seven cup finals for Nottingham Forest at Wembley, winning five of them. He was Forest's play ...

in extra time gave

their eighth FA Cup triumph, a record at the time.

went off with a knee injury in the opening 15 minutes, and

Gary Lineker Gary Winston Lineker ( ; born 30 November 1960) is an English Sports broadcasting, sports broadcaster and former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Lineker is the only player t ...

had a first-half penalty saved by

goalkeeper

Mark Crossley Mark Geoffrey Crossley (born 16 June 1969) is a football coach and former Wales international footballer. As a player, he was a goalkeeper from 1988 until 2011 and he has previously played for numerous clubs in England's top flight, notably fo ...

Media coverage

For the third consecutive season in the United Kingdom, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

were the free to air broadcasters while

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

(formerly The Sports Channel on BSB), were the subscription broadcasters. The live matches on the BBC were: Crystal Palace vs

(R3);

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 ...

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 ...

(R4);

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 ...

vs Everton (R5);

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

(QF); both

and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

(SF); and

(Final). The BBC did not show a goal live until the quarter-finals.

References

External links

The FA Cup
at TheFA.com
FA Cup
at BBC.co.uk
FA Cup news
at Reuters.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:1990-91 FA Cup FA Cup seasons