1959 FA Cup Final

1959 FA Cup Final
Event 1958–59 FA Cup
Date 2 May 1959
Venue Wembley Stadium, London
Referee Jack Clough (Bolton)
Attendance 100,000

The 1959 FA Cup Final was contested by Nottingham Forest and Luton Town at Wembley. Forest won 2–1, with goals from Roy Dwight and Tommy Wilson just four minutes apart. Dave Pacey scored Luton's consolation goal.

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.

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.[1]

During the game the Forest fans were heard to sing the theme tune to the then popular television programme Robin Hood, this being the first time that popular television culture had made its way into a terrace song during a cup final.

Match details

2 May 1959
15:00 BST
Nottingham Forest 2–1 Luton Town
Dwight  10'
Wilson  14'
Report Pacey  66'
Wembley, London
Attendance: 100,000
Referee: Jack Clough
Nottingham Forest
Luton Town
1 Scotland Chick Thomson
2 Guernsey Bill Whare
3 Scotland Joe McDonald
4 England Jeff Whitefoot
5 Scotland Bobby McKinlay
6 England Jack Burkitt (c)
7 England Roy Dwight
8 Scotland Johnny Quigley
9 England Tommy Wilson
10England Billy Gray
11Scotland Stewart Imlach
Manager:
England Billy Walker
1 England Ronald Baynham
2 Republic of Ireland Brendan McNally
3 England Ken Hawkes
4 England John Groves
5 England Syd Owen (c)
6 England Dave Pacey
7 Northern Ireland Billy Bingham
8 Scotland Allan Brown
9 England Bob Morton
10Republic of Ireland George Cummins
11England Tony Gregory
Manager:
England Syd Owen

References

  1. "1959 FA Cup Final: Nottingham Forest vs Luton Town". therollingball. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
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