Super statto John Heyda from Middletown, Ohio has avoided the US soap opera that is
the Presidential Election by concentrating on a far more serious matter. John has compiled
a trainspotters guide to City's history in Rd 1 of the FA Cup. Cheers John.
On Sunday FA Cup action comes to Ninian Park for the fifth year in a
row. Should City get past Bristol Rovers it will mark the sixth consecutive season
that the club has advanced to the second round. If that happens, the six-in-a-row string
will match the club record established over the six-year span beginning with the 1919-20
season and running through to the 1924-25 season.
This sounds impressive, but what's even more impressive is that the club didn't even have
to make its first postwar appearance in the first round until 1975, its second until 1982,
its third until 1985. Sadly, City hasn't missed a date with first-round play since '85.
(In both the 1945-46 and 1946-47 seasons City didn't enter the competition until the third
round in spite of its status as a lower-division club. I don't know why City had this
exemption.)
Here's some more data on City's record in FA Cup first round clashes.
* City's participated in the first round 33 times, advancing to the next round 21 times
while getting knocked out 11 times (with this year's result pending, of course).
* City's all-time record in first-round matches stands currently at 21 wins, 11 losses,
and 13 draws. The record since the end of WWII is a bit less impressive: 11 wins,
six losses, and five draws.
* City has won its last five first-round matches at Ninian, with the last loss at home
coming against Bath back in 1992. This run of five straight at home is an all-time
club record; the fifth straight, against Orient last year, established the new club mark.
The club's all-time record in first-rounders at Ninian: 15 wins, three losses, and
six draws. City's won 11 of the last 13, the other two matches showing a draw (a
1990-91 nil-niller with Hayes) and a loss (that encounter with Bath).
* Sunday's match with Bristol Rovers marks only the second time that City has drawn a
first-round opponent occupying so lofty a perch asthe Second Division. The only
other time City has drawn a first-round opponent from this tier was in 1991-92, when
the Bluebirds met Swansea City (then in the Old Third Division) at the Vetch.
Swansea won 2-1. Sunday's match will mark the first time since before WWII that
City has drawn a first-round home opponent from above dungeon level.
* Since WWII, City's first-round record against dungeon opponents (old Div 4/new Div 3)
stands at four wins, a draw, and two losses. Against non-league opponents, City has seven
wins, four draws, and three losses. As mentioned above, City's mark against third
tier opposition (old Div 3/new Div 2) shows no wins, no draws, and that one loss at
Swansea City.
* The loss at home to Bath in '92 was City's first defeat at Ninian in a first-round match
in 57 years! City lost to non-league Dartford at home in 1935. The only other
club to defeat City at Ninian in first-round play: Reading, in 1934.
* City's biggest first-round win came in 1931 when CCFC blasted Enfield 8-0. Eight
of City's 11 losses have been by a single goal. Only twice has City lost by as many as
three -- in 1932 to Bristol Rovers by a 4-1 count, and in 1935 to Dartford by a 3-0
margin. The club's only other defeat by more than a single goal came in 1914, a 2-0
loss to Bristol City.
Some ancient history:
* Prior to the 1925-26 competition, clubs in the top two divisions entered in the first
round. This meant that City played in the first round in each of its first five
seasons in the league, advancing each time. City took out Division 1 side Sunderland
in 1920 while a member of Division 2. In 1921-22, City's first season in
Division 1, the club advanced at the expense of Manchester United, winning 4-1 at Old
Trafford. Manchester United was relegated from Division 1 that season.
* In 1919-20, City's last season as a non-league entrant, the club defeated Oldham of
Division 1, 2-0. Rothman's Book of Football Records lists this win as one of the
five best FA Cup giant-killing acts of the prewar period.
* Beginning with the 2-0 win over Oldham in 1919, City ran off a 12-match unbeaten string
in first-round matches (seven wins, five draws). City did not lose a first-round
match as a league side until its 13th year in the league, when in 1932 the club lost at
Bristol Rovers, 4-1.
