1959_FA_Cup_Final

1959 FA Cup final

1959 FA Cup final

Football match


The 1959 FA Cup final was contested by Nottingham Forest and Luton Town at Wembley. Forest were playing in their second FA Cup final, while Luton were making their first final appearance in their history. Forest won 2–1 to win their second title, with goals from Roy Dwight and Tommy Wilson just four minutes apart. Dave Pacey scored Luton's consolation goal. As of 2023, this is Forest's most recent FA Cup title.

Quick Facts Event, Nottingham Forest ...

Road to Wembley

Nottingham Forest

More information Round, Home team ...

Luton Town

More information Round, Home team ...

Match summary

The game was notable for an unusually large number of stoppages due to injury, particularly to Nottingham Forest players, which was put down to the lush nature of the Wembley turf. The most notable of these stoppages occurred when goalscorer Roy Dwight was carried off the pitch after breaking his leg in a tackle with Brendan McNally after 33 minutes.

This also proved a turning point in the game as Forest had been the more dominant team to that point, leading by two goals at the time. Luton gradually took control of the match from this point on, scoring midway through the second half.

Forest were reduced to nine fit men with ten minutes remaining when Bill Whare was crippled with cramp, being forced to play wide on the wing where he was little more than a spectator.

The high volume of injuries during the second half led to four minutes of additional time being added on by the referee, during which time Luton twice came close to forcing extra time as Allan Brown headed narrowly wide of goal before Billy Bingham hit the side netting. Given the condition of the Forest team at that time it would have been a remarkable feat for them to have won the game or even forced a replay in extra time had Luton equalised.

At the final whistle the Forest manager Billy Walker entered the field to congratulate his team and was chased by a steward who tried to marshall him back off. The steward mistook Walker to be a pitch invader.

Match details

More information Nottingham Forest, 2–1 ...
Attendance: 100,000
Referee: Jack Clough
Nottingham Forest
Luton Town
1Scotland Chic Thomson
2Guernsey Bill Whare
3Scotland Joe McDonald
4England Jeff Whitefoot
5Scotland Bobby McKinlay
6England Jack Burkitt (c)
7England Roy Dwight
8Scotland Johnny Quigley
9England Tommy Wilson
10England Billy Gray
11Scotland Stewart Imlach
Manager:
England Billy Walker
1England Ronald Baynham
2Republic of Ireland Brendan McNally
3England Ken Hawkes
4England John Groves
5England Syd Owen (c)
6England Dave Pacey
7Northern Ireland Billy Bingham
8Scotland Allan Brown
9England Bob Morton
10Republic of Ireland George Cummins
11England Tony Gregory
Player-Manager:
England Syd Owen

Coverage

The game was televised live on the BBC Grandstand programme, which introduced score captions into their broadcast for the first time in an FA Cup final. This however caused much annoyance in Nottingham where their team's name was displayed on the screen at regular intervals as Notts Forest. Commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme apologised live on air for the mistake, stating that the caption should read Nott'm Forest.[2]

During the game the Forest fans were heard to sing the theme tune to the then-popular television programme The Adventures of Robin Hood (the legendary outlaw who was allegedly from Nottingham). This was the first time ever that popular television culture had made its way into a terrace song during a cup final.[citation needed]


References

  1. Smales, Ken (2006). Nottingham Forest The Official Statistical History. Pineapple Books. ISBN 978-0954-357627.
  2. "1959 FA Cup Final: Nottingham Forest vs Luton Town". therollingball. Retrieved 1 April 2015.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article 1959_FA_Cup_Final, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.