1922 FA Cup final

1922 FA Cup final

Official programme
Event	1921–22 FA Cup
Huddersfield Town Preston North End 1 0
Date	29 April 1922
Venue	Stamford Bridge, London
Referee	John W. D. Fowler (Sunderland)
Attendance	53,000

The 1922 FA Cup final was the deciding match of the 1921–22 FA Cup competition, contested by Huddersfield Town and Preston North End at Stamford Bridge. It was the last final before the opening of the Empire Stadium at Wembley the following year.

Huddersfield won by a single goal, a contentious penalty scored by Billy Smith in the second half. This remains the only time Huddersfield have won the Cup.

In the semi-finals, Preston beat the Cup holders Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 at Hillsborough, reversing the scoreline by which they had lost to the same opponents at the same stage and at the same venue the previous season.^[1] Preston's scorers in the semi-final were Archibald Rawlings and Billy Roberts.^[2]

In 1922, Huddersfield Town was still a relatively young club. It had been founded in 1908 and had only been playing in the Football League since 1910.^[3] In 1919, the club had become involved in the fallout of the scandal that led to Leeds City being expelled from the League for making illegal payments to players during wartime.^[4] Amid their own financial troubles, Huddersfield's chairman proposed a merger with the newly-formed Leeds United, although ultimately the plan did not materialise.^[3] Huddersfield survived to win promotion to the First Division in 1920, and they also reached the FA Cup final that year, where they lost to Aston Villa after extra time.^[3] Herbert Chapman, whose lifetime ban in connection with the Leeds City scandal had been overturned, was appointed as Huddersfield's manager in 1921.^[5] Huddersfield finished 17th in the First Division in the 1920–21 season and were again beaten in the FA Cup by Aston Villa.^[6][5]

Eight of Huddersfield's team had played for them in the final two years earlier, while Clem Stephenson had played for Aston Villa in that match before signing for Huddersfield later that year.^[7][8] The other newcomers were both recent England internationals: Sam Wadsworth, who had been released by Blackburn Rovers after serving with the Royal Garrison Artillery in the First World War,^[9] and the outside-left Billy Smith, who had missed the 1920 final through suspension.^[10][11] Wadsworth replaced Fred Bullock, who had captained the 1920 side, at left-back.^[5]

Preston had won the Cup once before, in 1889, and had been promoted back to the First Division for the first post-war season having been relegated twice during the previous decade.^[12] They finished 16th in the First Division in both 1919–20 and 1920–21, and were also struggling against relegation in 1921–22.^[6] Between their semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur on 25 March and the Cup final on 29 April, Preston had endured a remarkable loss of form. They played nine League fixtures in this period and had failed to win any of them,^[1] to sink into the lower half of the table with the same number of points as Huddersfield.^[13] The last of these, on 22 April, was a 6–0 defeat to Huddersfield at Leeds Road, when Smith and Ernie Islip both scored hat-tricks,^[5] although only five of Preston's team in this match went on to play in the Cup final.^[1] The week before, the two teams had drawn 1–1 at Deepdale, so the Cup final was their third meeting in a fortnight.^[6] Preston's record away from home in the League was extremely poor: they had failed to win any of their away League fixtures, and had only scored in four of them, while at home they had lost only two League matches.^[6]

In contrast to their opponents, none of Preston's players had played in the FA Cup final before, although their Scottish right-back Tom Hamilton had won the Scottish Cup in 1920 with Kilmarnock. Their 35-year-old captain Joe McCall had won his last international cap in October 1920 as the captain of England,^[14] while Archibald Rawlings had a single cap^[15] and the 37-year-old Frank Jefferis, one of the oldest players in Cup final history at that time, was capped twice before the War.^[2][16] Preston's goalkeeper, James Mitchell (also known as Fred), was an eccentric amateur who had played for Great Britain at the 1920 Olympic Games,^[17] wore a 'bandeau', or bandana, round his head during matches^[7][18] and was to become the first, and only, player ever to wear spectacles in an FA Cup Final.^[18][19]

For the third year running, the final was to be played at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge stadium, although it had already been decided that in 1923 it would move to the new Empire Stadium at Wembley.^[20] The capacity of Stamford Bridge at that time was 85,000, of which 7,500 were seated, but in the two previous finals the stadium had not been full, and the pitch was heavily used and in poor condition.^[21] It was the first final to be contested by two First Division teams since 1915,^[13] and the third Yorkshire-Lancashire 'Roses' Cup final, after the finals of 1890 and 1907.^[22]

The match kicked off at 3pm in warm weather^[20] to an attendance of 53,000.^[7] Owing to the recent death of Lord Leopold Mountbatten, the King did not attend, so the guest of honour was the Duke of York, accompanied by Prince George.^[20][23] The referee was John W. D. Fowler, who had recovered from serious injuries sustained in the First World War, and the linesmen, D. H. Asson and W. E. Russell, went on to referee the next two FA Cup finals respectively.^[22][7] Both clubs named the same teams that had played in the semi-final.^[13]

The game quickly degenerated amid a series of fouls by both teams, including "two of the most villainous fouls imaginable" on Roberts and Islip, and there were few goalscoring chances.^[20] The decisive moment came around halfway through the second half, when Huddersfield's Smith dribbled past Preston's right-back Hamilton, who tripped him from behind. Reporters considered the foul to have taken place outside the penalty area, although Smith fell inside, and despite protests from Preston's players, the referee awarded a penalty to Huddersfield.^[20][23] As Smith prepared to take the kick, Preston's goalkeeper Mitchell tried to distract him by jumping around on the goal-line "like a circus clown"^[7] and "with a manoeuvre of dervish leaps",^[18] but Smith scored with a shot to the goalkeeper's right.^[24]

Huddersfield created a further chance with a move involving several players that ended with a shot by Stephenson, but Preston's ineffective forward line were unable to create any chances and the match finished 1–0 to Huddersfield.^[24][23] The Huddersfield team received the trophy from the Duke of York.^[20]

29 April 1922

15:00 BST

Huddersfield Town	1–0	Preston North End
Smith 67' (pen.)	(Report)

Stamford Bridge, London

Attendance: 53,000

Referee: John W. D. Fowler (Sunderland)

Huddersfield Town

Preston North End

GK Sandy Mutch RB James Wood LB Sam Wadsworth RH Charlie Slade CH Tom Wilson (c) LH Billy Watson OR George Richardson IR Frank Mann CF Ernie Islip IL Clem Stephenson OL Billy Smith Manager: Herbert Chapman

GK James Mitchell RB Tom Hamilton LB Alex Doolan RH Tom Duxbury CH Joe McCall (c) LH Johnny Williamson OR Archibald Rawlings IR Frank Jefferis CF Billy Roberts IL Roland Woodhouse OL Peter Quinn Manager: None

The 1922 final was widely castigated by contemporary journalists as one of the worst in the competition's history, both for the general quality of the play and for the excessive number of deliberate fouls.^[20][24][25] The reporter from The Daily Telegraph described the final as "positively bad" and "in every particular the worst I have witnessed".^[23] These views are endorsed by subsequent FA Cup historians and football writers.^{[2][4][7][26]} It was the first FA Cup final to be decided by a solitary penalty, and has been described as the last of the three "forgotten finals" that took place between the end of the First World War and the event's move to the Empire Stadium at Wembley, all of which attracted below-capacity crowds and ended in a 1–0 scoreline.^[2]

On the same afternoon as the final, Arsenal's 2–0 win over Bradford City assured both Huddersfield and Preston of their places in the First Division for the following season.^[27] Huddersfield paraded the trophy at St George's Square on the Monday after the final,^[5] and beat Middlesbrough and Chelsea in their last two League fixtures to finish 14th.^[6] Preston recorded their only win away from home all season in their last match, against Birmingham, and finished 16th.^[6]

Huddersfield's defence of their FA Cup ended in the third round the following season with defeat to a Bolton Wanderers team that went on to win the first final at the Empire Stadium in chaotic circumstances.^[2] However, Huddersfield's victory in 1922 continued a run under Herbert Chapman that saw them become the most successful team in English football during the 1920s.^[28] They became the first team to win the League title three years in succession, between 1923–24 and 1925–26, and were runners-up in the FA Cup in 1928 and 1930 under Tom Wilson's captaincy.^[2][6] In contrast, Preston continued to struggle and they were relegated to the Second Division in 1925.^[6]

Mitchell's antics during the penalty incident led to a change in the law, whereby goalkeepers were not allowed to move to distract the kicker before the penalty had been taken.^[7] Mitchell moved to Manchester City shortly after the final and won an England cap in 1924.^[17] Huddersfield's goalkeeper, Sandy Mutch, was also transferred after the final, and was in the Newcastle United team that reached the 1924 FA Cup final, although he missed the match through injury.^[29]

In later years the 1922 final retrospectively gained significance when Huddersfield and Preston met again in the final in 1938, when Preston reversed the scoreline to win 1–0 with another disputed penalty.^[2] However, the 1938 FA Cup remains the last time either team has won the competition.^[12]

• FA Cup Final lineups