1970–71 FA Cup

Calendar

Qualifying rounds

Most participating clubs that were not members of the Football League competed in the qualifying rounds to secure one of 28 places available in the first round.

The winners from the fourth qualifying round were South Shields, Bradford Park Avenue, Scarborough, Rhyl, Bangor City, Great Harwood, Wigan Athletic, Hereford United, Tamworth, Grantham, Boston United, Chelmsford City, Barnet, Oxford City, Wycombe Wanderers, Cheltenham Town, Slough Town, Aveley, Bishop's Stortford, Hendon, Ringmer, Crawley Town, Walton & Hersham, Margate, Wimbledon, Yeovil Town, Minehead and Weymouth.

Those appearing in the competition proper for the first time were Great Harwood, Aveley, Bishop's Stortford, Ringmer, Crawley Town and Minehead. Of the others, Rhyl had last featured at this stage in 1962–63 and Slough Town had last done so in 1945-46 (during their short-lived Slough United amalgamation).

The once-mighty Rhyl had qualified for the first round of the FA Cup in a competition-record 15 consecutive seasons up to and including 1962-63. This season the club played in 12 matches across seven rounds of the tournament, defeating Pwllheli & District, Porthmadog, Oswestry Town (after a replay), South Liverpool (after a second replay), Hartlepool and Barnsley (after another second replay) before going out to Swansea City at Vetch Field in the third round. However, as if to emphasize their recent decline, this season also saw Rhyl's consecutive qualification record finally broken by Hereford United in that club's penultimate non-league season before being voted into the Football League.

Results

First round proper

At this stage the 48 clubs from the Football League Third and Fourth Divisions joined the non-league clubs who came through the qualifying rounds. To complete this round, four additional non-league clubs were given byes. Macclesfield Town and Telford United were the finalists from the inaugural FA Trophy competition held during the previous season, while Enfield and Dagenham were the finalists from the previous season's FA Amateur Cup.

Matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 21 November 1970, with the exception of the Great Harwood–Rotherham United match which was played the following Tuesday. Nine matches were drawn, with Scunthorpe United and Tranmere Rovers needing a second replay at Goodison Park to settle their tie (in Scunthorpe's favour).

Second round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 12 December 1970. Six matches were drawn, with replays taking place later the same week or the week after. The Lincoln City–Bradford City match required a second replay, which was played on the 21 December.

Third round proper

The 44 First and Second Division clubs entered the competition at this stage. The matches were scheduled Saturday, 2 January 1971, but ten were played at later dates. Seven matches were drawn and went to replays. Yeovil Town, Rhyl, Wigan Athletic and Barnet were the last non-league clubs left in the competition.

Fourth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 23 January 1971. Seven matches were drawn, of which one required a second replay.

Fifth round proper

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 13 February 1971 with one fixture and two replays played three or four days later.

Sixth round proper

The four sixth round ties were played on the 6 March 1971. There were two replays in the midweek fixtures of the following week.

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday, 27 March 1971 with the Arsenal–Stoke match needing a replay. Liverpool and Arsenal came through the semi-final round to meet at Wembley.

Hall

Ritchie

Replay

Kennedy

Third place playoff

Between 1970 and 1974, a third place playoff between the two losing semi-finalists was held.

Ritchie
Ball

Final

Main article: 1971 FA Cup Final

The 1971 FA Cup Final was contested by Arsenal and Liverpool at Wembley on the 8 May 1971. Arsenal won 2–1 after extra time, with all three goals coming in the added half-hour. Steve Heighway scored for Liverpool first, before Arsenal equalised with a scrambled goal from substitute Eddie Kelly - the first time a substitute had ever scored in an FA Cup final. Charlie George scored the winner six minutes into the second period.

George

TV Coverage

The rights to show FA Cup games were, as with Football League matches, shared between the BBC and ITV network. All games were shown in a highlights format, except the Final, which was shown live both on BBC1 and ITV. The BBC football highlights programme Match Of The Day would show up to three games and the various ITV regional network stations would cover up to one game and show highlights from other games covered elsewhere on the ITV network. The ITV region Anglia showed highlights of the second round tie between Colchester United and Cambridge United, it would be the last game from outside the third round covered by ITV until 1982. Highlights of replays would be shown on either the BBC or ITV.

References

;General

• The FA Cup Archive at TheFA.com
• English FA Cup 1970/71 at Soccerbase
• F.A. Cup results 1970/71 at Footballsite ;Specific
• https://sites.google.com/site/motdlistings/home/1970-71 MOTD listings

References

1. [http://footballsite.co.uk/Statistics/Articles/SOS-YoungEngland-FAC3-4.htm The annual ENGLAND v YOUNG ENGLAND fixture is replaced by an F.A. Cup match - the 3rd and 4th Place Play-Off.] {{Webarchive. link. (2019-04-27 , Football Site.)