Many clubs have set personal records and competition records in this season’s FA Cup, some of which will be remembered for ever and some of which the club would most likely want to be quickly forgotten. And the records started tumbling even before a ball was kicked!
Formed in 1881, Norfolk based Downham Town finally got its first taste of FA Cup football 142 years later, making it the longest a club has had to wait since formation before participating in this famous knock-out competition. A 1-0 defeat at fellow Eastern Counties League Premier Division side Kirkley and Pakefield may not have been the result the club would have wanted, but the Town can claim this FA Cup record all the same.
And the records continued to tumble not long after the first matches of the campaign kicked off. At 7.48pm on Friday 4th August Jay Malshankyj opened the scoring for Southern League Division One South side Bishop’s Cleeve in their 3-3 draw with Thornbury Town. It’s the earliest date & time in a new season that a goal has ever been scored in FA Cup.
Midland Football League side Wolverhampton Casuals posted a more unwanted FA Cup record following their 3-1 defeat at Sutton Coldfield Town. It was the twenty-fifth time the club had exited the FA Cup in the Extra Preliminary Round, a new competition record.
In the Preliminary Round a 5-1 defeat for Melksham Town at lower level AFC Stoneham meant that the Southern League side set another unwanted FA Cup record. It was the club’s ninety-ninth FA Cup campaign this season and they have yet to appear in the ‘Proper’ rounds of the competition, the most campaigns any club has ever had without ever appearing in the 1st Round.
Better news for another Southern League club, Kettering Town, who posted three consecutive one-nil victories from the 1st Qualifying Round onward to overtake Tottenham Hotspur as the top scoring club in FA Cup history. The Poppies have now netted 912 times in their 126 FA Cup campaigns, one more goal than has been scored by Spurs.
Non-League FA Cup specialists Yeovil Town were on the record breaking trail once again this season despite having been relegated to the sixth tier at the end of last season. A 2-0 victory over higher level Southend United in the 4th Qualifying Round took the Glovers into the 1st Round ‘Proper’ for the fifty-third time as a non-league club, extending their own competition record set two years ago.
Conversely, the news was not so great for another National League South side, Bath City. A 2-0 defeat at Worthing FC meant the Romans exited the FA Cup in the 4th Qualifying Round for a competition record thirty-second time.
Records continued to tumble as the competition moved into the ‘Proper’ Round stages. National League side Aldershot Town had a remarkable 7-4 victory at EFL 2 Swindon Town in the 1st Round becoming the first non-league club to score seven goals away at Football League opponents in the competition’s history.
Not such great news for two fellow National League clubs, Maidenhead United and Bromley FC, who have both now failed to progress beyond the 1st Round in their last 15 and 17 appearances in the round respectively. It is now 137 years since Maidenhead United last appeared in the 2nd Round, second only to Uxbridge FC for whom it has been 150 years.
EFL 1 club Barnsley FC became the first Football League side to be disqualified from the FA Cup for 17 years after fielding an ineligible player in their 1st Round replay victory over Horsham FC.
National League champions Chesterfield FC became only the fifth non-league club since the competition’s current format was put in place for the 1925-26 season to reach the 3rd Round for a third successive season.
EFL Championship side Queens Park Rangers extended their own unwanted FA Cup record following defeat to AFC Bournemouth in the 3rd Round. It was the R’s fifty-first exit in the 3rd Round of the competition since the 1925-26 season structural change, and their fifty-second time in total, both of which are FA Cup records.
When Leeds United were drawn out of the hat at home to face fellow Championship side Plymouth Argyle in the 4th Round it brought to an end a record run of 13 successive away draws that the West Yorkshire club had had to endure in the competition.
For the first time since the 1982-83 season no club from the third tier reached the 4th Round of the FA Cup.&
The 4th Round replay between Premier League sides Aston Villa & Chelsea FC will now go down in history as last ever ‘Proper’ Round FA Cup replay to kick off. The 4th Round replay between Nottingham Forest & Bristol City, however, will be known as last ever ‘Proper’ Round replay to finish as Nottingham Forest eventually won that game 5-3 on penalties after extra time.
Maidstone United of National League South became the last non-league club standing by reaching the 4th Round. Not only was it a club record FA Cup run for the Stones, but It was also the fourth successive season there had been non-league representation in the 4th Round of the competition, a feat last achieved in the 1977-78 season.
Maidstone United then went on to become the lowest ranked club to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup since Blyth Spartans in 1978, and only the eleventh non-league club ever to make it that far since the current structure was put in place in the 1925-26 season.
For the first time in 25 years all eight FA Cup Quarter Finalists were past winners.
Premier League club Manchester United reached a competition record forty-eighth FA Cup Quarter Final. The Red Devils then went on to extend their own competition record in the Semi-Finals reaching the last four for the thirty-second time.
Their local rivals Manchester City became the first club in FA Cup history to appear in the Semi-Finals in six successive seasons.
For the first time in FA Cup history both Semi-Finals were contested by clubs with the same pair of initial letters – C vs M – Chelsea FC vs Manchester City and Coventry City vs Manchester United.
Following their Semi-Final penalties victory, Manchester United created another FA Cup record and will be contesting a twenty-second FA Cup Final this season.
The 2024 Final is a repeat of the 2023 Final, only the second time in FA Cup history that two consecutive Finals have been contested by the same two clubs. The last occasion being 139 years ago when Blackburn Rovers won 2-0 against Queen’s Park a year after they’d beaten the Scottish side 2-1 in the 1884 Final.
FA Cup Factfile 