The History of the FA Cup Told Through 10 Forgotten Players

For most fans, these FA Cup headlines are known: Matthews at Wembley, Cantona’s volley goals, Gerrard and his goals at Cardiff, and Wigan shocking Manchester City. But there is a hidden story you can trace through the entire history of the competition, through names that barely show up in pub debates and pundit discussions, the players whose moments shaped the FA Cup but who have now slipped into the footnotes.

With the FA Cup now coming up, here is an interesting article that encompasses the entire history of this English competition through the lens of 10 forgotten figures, who have been obscured behind the scenes in this modern era. The players range from Victorian gentlemen in heavy cotton shirts to part-time carpenters and modern-day relegation heroes.

1. Morton Betts - The Man Behind the First FA Cup Final Goal (Wanderers, 1872)

The story of the FA Cup began with a pseudonym. In the first final in 1872, the Wanderers FC beat the Royal Engineers 1-0 at The Oval, and the only goal was scored by Morton Betts. This was all well and good except for the fact that he was written in the team sheet as “A.H. Chequer”, a nod to his former club Harrow Chequers.

Betts was actually a full-back who got pressed into service further forward. His 15th-minute strike was the only goal in the inaugural final of a competition that would become the central knockout tournament in English football, according to the official FA Cup sources. The Wanderers were an amateur side made up largely of ex-public schoolboys, while the Engineers were a military team famous for pioneering the “combination game”, which is basically early passing football, which was radical for a time when the main tactic was individual dribbling.

Betts never became a star footballer like Bloomer or Goodall, but that scrappy goal in front of 2,000 spectators gave the FA Cup its first defining image: a single moment, one swing of a boot, deciding a national final. It set the tone and template for everything that followed.

2. Sandy Brown - The Non-League Goal Machine Who Tore Up 1901 (Tottenham)

The next player is from three decades later, during a time when the FA Cup had become a national obsession but still had room for wild anomalies. It was in this environment in 1901 that the Southern League side Tottenham Hotspur became the only non-Football League club ever to win the FA Cup, beating Sheffield United after a replay, according to the official Tottenham Hotspur website.

Their spearhead was Sandy Brown, a Scottish forward whose name is barely mentioned now but who delivered one of the greatest individual Cup runs in history. Brown scored in every single round that year, becoming the first player ever to do so, finishing with 15 goals in the competition. He hit both of the Spurs’ goals in the 2-2 draw in the final, then scored again in the 3-1 replay win at Bolton.

Brown’s feat came in an era before substitutes, squad rotation or TV and radio fame. Yet his goal-a-round rampage embodies the Cup’s early decades: regional leagues, muddy pitches, and the possibility that a well-organised outsider could turn the country upside down.

3. Jimmy Speirs - Cup-Winning Captain, Died at Passchendaele (Bradford City, 1911)

By 1911, the FA Cup had spread far beyond London’s amateur elite. Bradford City AFC, a relatively new club from a booming industrial town, reached the final and drew 0-0 with Newcastle United at Crystal Palace before a replay at Old Trafford.

In the replay, Scottish inside-forward Jimmy Speirs, Bradford’s captain, scored the only goal of the game, heading in after 15 minutes to secure the club’s first and only major trophy, according to the Bradford City website. The trophy itself was brand-new, commissioned from Bradford jewellers Fattorini’s; Speirs was the first man to ever lift that Cup.

Six years later, he had volunteered for the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. He won the Military Medal for bravery and was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, aged 31. His story reminds you how tightly the early FA Cup history is bound to wider British history: a working-class hero cheered by 100,000 in Bradford, then lost in the mud of Flanders.

4. Bert Freeman - The Quiet Marksman of the “Royal Cup Final” (Burnley, 1914)

In 1914, just months before Europe descended into the Great War, the FA Cup final moved to the old Crystal Palace for the last time. Burnley faced Liverpool in a game nicknamed the “Royal Cup Final” because King George V became the first reigning monarch to attend an FA Cup final.

The key figure on the pitch was centre-forward Bert Freeman. With the game still goalless on a scrappy, tense afternoon, Freeman smashed in a half-volley in the 58th minute to give Burnley a 1-0 win, securing the club’s major honour and, as of the 2020’s, their only FA Cup triumph according to official Burnley sources.

Freeman had already been a prolific league goalscorer for Everton and Burnley, but his Cup winner came to symbolise a lost world: pre-war football played in bowler hats and heavy boots, just before an entire generation of players and fans were drawn into the First World War. When people talk about the “magic of the FA Cup”, they rarely mention Freeman, but his goal closed the book on the competition’s Edwardian era.

5. Stan Mortensen - The Hat-Trick Hero in the “Matthews Final” (Blackpool, 1953)

If you know one name from the 1953 FA Cup final, it’s almost certainly Stanley Matthews. According to The Telegraph, Blackpool’s 4-3 comeback win over Bolton Wanderers at Wembley is literally called “the Matthews Final”, celebrated for the 38-year-old winger’s late surge of brilliance.

But the man who actually scored the hat-trick that day was centre-forward Stan Mortensen. Bolton led 3-1 before Mortensen pulled one back from a Matthews cross, then curled in a 20-yard free-kick to make it 3-3 before Bill Perry grabbed the winner in stoppage time. He remains the only player ever to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup final at the original Wembley.

At the time, some reports even gave one of his goals as an own goal; only the FA’s yearbook two months later confirmed all three for Mortensen. His overshadowed heroics tell you a lot about the post-war era: as television turned certain stars into national icons, quieter figures who did the scoring could still be half-forgotten by history.

6. Gerry Byrne - The Full-Back Who Played With a Broken Collarbone (Liverpool, 1965)

Liverpool’s first FA Cup win in 1965, a 2-1 extra-time victory over Leeds United, normally filed under Bill Shankly’s revolution and Roger Hunt’s goals. But ask anyone who was there and one name keeps coming up: Gerry Byrne.

The tough left-back broke his collarbone in the third minute at Wembley after a hefty challenge from Leeds captain Bobby Collins. With substitutions not yet allowed in the FA Cup, he simply carried on…  for 117 minutes.

Byrne even overlapped down the flank to help create Liverpool’s opener, crossing for Hunt to score in extra time. Only after the game did the extent of the injury become public. As per The Independent, Shankly later called him the hardest player ever to represent Liverpool. Byrne’s display captures the 1960’s FA Cup perfectly: brutal pitches, heavy tackles, no subs, and a trophy Liverpool needed desperately to prove they were a new powerhouse. Want to know more about Liverpool FC? Find out more about these interesting Liverpool FC facts.

7. Mike Trebilcock - The “Reserve” Who Turned the 1966 Final (Everton)

A year later, another relatively anonymous name changed FA Cup history, on one mad five-minute spell. The 1966 final at Wembley saw Everton trail Sheffield Wednesday 2-0, looking dead and buried. Into this walked Mike Trebilcock, a little-known winter from Cornwall. According to the official Everton website, Trebilcock had only just broken into the Everton side, yet manager Harry Catterick picked him ahead of England international Fred Pickering for the final. 

Trebilcock justified the gamble spectacularly: he scored twice in quick succession to haul Everton level at 2-2 before Derek Temple hit the winner for a 3-2 comeback. Despite that, Trebilcock never fully established himself at Goodison and moved on within two years. His brief blaze at Wembley embodies a core FA Cup truth: you don’t have to be a superstar to win the biggest stage for half an hour.

8. Ronnie Radford & Ricky George - The Giant-Killers from the Mud (Hereford United, 1972)

The FA Cup’s reputation for giant-killers owes a huge debt to a semi-professional side on a quagmire pitch. In 1972, Southern League Hereford United faced First Division Newcastle United in a third-round replay at Edgar Street. The BBC sent a young John Motson to commentate; the expectation was a short highlight, nothing more.

With Newcastle 1-0 up and time running out, midfielder Ronnie Radford won a tackle in midfield, exchanged a one-two and lashed a 30-yard shot into the top corner, sparking a pitch invasion and one of the most replayed goals in FA Cup history. But Radford’s strike was only the equaliser. In extra time, the substitute Rickey George took a pass from Dudlry Tyler, turned and shot low into the corner to make it 2-1 and complete one of the Cup’s greatest upsets.

The game effectively launched Motson’s TV career and later lent its name to the FA’s Ronnie Radford Giant-Killing Award. According to The Sun, Radford and George together represent the Cup’s most romantic archetype: part-timers humbling the elite in ankle-deep mud.

9. Roger Osborne - The Factory Worker Who Froze Wembley (Ipswich Town, 1978)

The 1978 FA Cup final is one of those results that still looks odd on paper: Arsenal 0-1 Ipswich Town. Under Bobby Robson, Ipswich were a fine side, but their Wembley hero came from the margins of fame, midfielder Roger Osborne. In front of 100,000 fans, Ipswich dominated, hitting the woodwork three times before Osborne finally broke through with a left-foot shot on 77 minutes. According to the official Ipswich Town website, this win remains the club’s only FA Cup triumph. Osborne was so overwhelmed that he felt faint after scoring and was substituted shortly afterwards.

Unlike Arsenal’s array of international superstars, Osborner went back to a relatively ordinary football life, later playing in the lower leagues and working outside the game. His moment illustrates how, by the late 1970’s, the FA Cup had become a true national TV event, yet it could still produce a one-goal, one-day hero from a provincial club.

10. Ben Watson - The Modern-Era Underdog Who Stunned Manchester City (Wigan Athletic, 2013)

Fast-forward to the era of billionaires and super-squads. In 2013, Manchester City arrived at Wembley as heavy favourites against regulation-threatened Wigan Athletic. Most assumed the FA Cup giant-killers belonged to the past and were no serious threat to the elite. Enter Ben Watson, recovering from a broken leg, who started the final on the bench. With the score 0-0 and City down to 10 men, Wigan won a corner in stoppage time. Shaun Maloney swung it in, Watson attacked the near post and glanced a header over Joe Hart to seal a 1-0 shock, widely described by official sources like The Guardian, as one of the biggest upsets in FA Cup finals history.

The funny thing is that Wigan had been relegated from the Premier League just three days later, yet the club will always be remembered as the FA Cup winner against the billionaire Manchester City. Watson’s goal is the perfect modern coda to this timeline: even in a hyper-commercial era, a squad assembled on a fraction of their opponent’s budget could still walk into Wembley and write a result that bookmarkers and analysts considered almost impossible.

FA Cup’s History: One Written by the “Lesser Names”

From Morton Betts playing under an alias in 1872 to Ben Watson rising off the bench in 2013, the FA Cup keeps proving that its story is as much forgotten or underrated as it is about global stars.

If you strip away the marketing and the myth, the FA Cup is still what it always was: a tournament where anyone can become an immortal for 90 minutes… and then, just as quickly, slip back into obscurity. The history lives in those forgotten names; you just have to look for them. Want to attend the FA Cup fixtures? Book your tickets via 1BoxOffice for genuine tickets with a 150% money-back guarantee.