Resident
statto John Heyda takes a look at the City team from the 20's and of course the FA Cup run
that brought Cardiff City it's unique piece of history.
April 23rd, 1927, always remembered.
Today marks the 75th anniversary of Cardiff City's
winning the 1927 FA Cup. To mark the occasion I've thrown together a few stats on
this most beloved of cup-winning sides.
* The Bluebirds who won the FA Cup were a bit different than today's cup winners, the
Arsenals, Chelseas, Liverpools, and Manchester Uniteds that finish at or near the top of
the table year after year.
The 1926-27 Bluebirds finished 14th in Division One,
with a record of 16 wins, 9 draws, and 17 losses. Not that a bottom-half finish was
the norm for the club at the time. This was City's sixth year in the top flight and
only their second finishing in the bottom half of the table. The year before the
Bluebirds had finished 16th.
* City's first opponent on their way to winning the FA Cup: Aston Villa. City topped
them 2-1 at Ninian Park in a 3rd round match on January 8, 1927. (The 1925-26 cup
competition was the first in which top-flight clubs entered only in the 3rd round).
Villa would go on to finish 10th in Division One. The next opponent:
relegation-bound Second Division outfit Darlington. City whipped them 2-0 on January
29 at Feethams Ground. The Bluebirds moved on to the 5th round and drew Bolton
away. Bolton would finish 4th in Division One that year but City had their number on
this occasion and beat them 2-0 on February 19 to reach the quarterfinals.
City met 2nd-Division Chelsea in the quarters and battled them to a 0-0 draw at Stamford
Bridge on March 5, setting up a replay at Ninian Park four days later. City won that
3-2, then drew another 2nd-Division side, Reading, in the semis. The Bluebirds won
3-0 at Molineux March 23 and found themselves back in the final, this time against an
Arsenal side that would finish 11th. When City beat the Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley on
April 23, the win was City's third against a top-half-of-the-table opponent during their
triumphant cup run.
One might wonder what happened to the cup dreams of the First Division's top three clubs
that year. Newcastle United would go on to win their fourth Division One title that
season, but their hopes of doing the double would end with a 5th round 2-1 loss at Second-
Division Southampton. Runnersup Huddersfield were bounced out in the 3rd round, falling to
Division 3-S entrant Millwall 3-1 at Cold Blow Lane. Sunderland, 3rd-place finishers
in the league, lost at Leeds 3-2 in the 3rd round. Leeds would be relegated from the
First Division at the end of the year.
* City's winning the FA Cup capped a fine seven-year span for the club in this particular
competition. The 1920-21 Bluebirds, then in the Second Division, got as far as the
semifinals before losing a replay to Wolves at Old Trafford. In 1921-22, and up in
the top flight, City got to the quarterfinals before falling in a replay at Spurs.
The 1922-23 campaign saw City go out in the 3rd round, at home to Spurs, but in 1923-24
the Bluebirds put another run together, getting as far as the quarterfinals before falling
to Manchester City in a replay at Ninian Park. The 1924-25 cup run took City all the
way to Wembley, where the club lost to Sheffield United 1-0 in the final, and after going
out in the 4th round to Newcastle United in 1925-26, City took it all the next year.
Seven-year totals: An FA Cup, another appearance in the final, a semifinal, and two
quarterfinals. Not too shabby. Sadly, City haven't been back to the
quarterfinals since these halcyon days. Maybe next year.
