1902–03 FA Cup
association football tournament concluding in 1903

The 1902–03 FA Cup was the 32nd season of the world's oldest association football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (more usually known as the FA Cup). Bury won the competition for the second and (as of 2024) final time, beating Derby County 6–0 in the final at Crystal Palace. This scoreline stood as a record victory in an FA Cup final until Manchester City equalled it by beating Watford 6–0 on 18 May 2019.
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 would be played.
Calendar
The format of the FA Cup for the season had a preliminary round, five qualifying rounds, an intermediate round, three proper rounds, and the semi-finals and final.
Intermediate round
The Intermediate Round featured ten ties played between the winners from the fifth qualifying round and ten teams given byes. First Division side Middlesbrough was entered into this round, as were Bristol City, Preston North End, Woolwich Arsenal, Burnley and Lincoln City from the Second Division and Reading, Bristol Rovers, West Ham United and Millwall Athletic from the Southern League.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “1902–03 FA Cup” is association football tournament concluding in 1903. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through association, football and tournament, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “association football tournament concluding in 1903” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1439285. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1902, 2024 and 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “1902–03 FA Cup” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.