1872 FA Cup final

The 1872 FA Cup final was an association football match between Wanderers and Royal Engineers on 16 March 1872 at Kennington Oval in London. It was the final of the first staging of the Football Association Challenge Cup (known in the modern era as the FA Cup), which became the primary cup competition in English football and the oldest football competition in the world. Fifteen teams entered the competition in its first season and, due to the rules in place at the time, Wanderers reached the final having won only one match in the four preceding rounds. In the semi-finals, they drew with the Scottish club Queen's Park, but reached the final when the Scots withdrew from the competition as they could not afford to return to London for a replay.

The final was decided by a single goal, scored after fifteen minutes by Morton Betts of Wanderers, who was playing under the pseudonym "A. H. Chequer". Royal Engineers were noted for their innovative use of passing, then referred to as the "Combination Game", at a time when most teams relied almost solely on dribbling tactics. Despite this, they could not manage to score a goal. The winning Wanderers team received the trophy the following month, when it was presented to them at the club's annual dinner at the Pall Mall Restaurant.

Background

The Football Association Challenge Cup (commonly known in the modern era as the FA Cup) was the first formal competition created for the sport of association football, which had first been codified in England in 1863. The Football Association (the FA) had been created in an attempt to formalise a standard set of rules for football, as no universally agreed rules for the sport existed; many clubs adopted what came to be known as association football, but others continued to use differing rules.