1959 FA Cup Final

The 1959 FA Cup Final was contested by Nottingham Forest and Luton Town at Wembley. Forest won 2–1, with goals from Roy Dwight and Thomas Wilson just four minutes apart. Dave Pacey scored Luton's consolation goal.

The game was notable for an unusually large number of stoppages due to injury, particularly to Nottingham Forest players, which was put down to the lush nature of the Wembley turf. The most notable of these stoppages occurred when goalscorer Roy Dwight was carried off the pitch after breaking his leg in a tackle with Brendan McNally after 33 minutes.

This also proved a turning point in the game as Forest had been the more dominant team to that point, leading by two goals at the time. Luton gradually took control of the match from this point on, scoring midway through the second half.

Forest were reduced to nine fit men with ten minutes remaining when Whare was crippled with cramp, being forced to play wide on the wing where he was little more than a spectator.

The high volume of injuries during the second half led to four minutes of additional time being added on by the referee, during which time Luton twice came close to forcing extra time as Alan Brown headed narrowly wide of goal before Billy Bingham hit the side netting. Given the condition of the Forest team at that time it would have been a remarkable feat for them to have won the game or even forced a replay in extra time had Luton equalised.

At the final whistle the Forest manager Billy Walker entered the field to congratulate his team and was chased by a steward who tried to marshall him back off. The steward mistook Walker to be a pitch invader.

The game was televised live on the BBC Grandstand programme who introduced score captions into their broadcast for the first time in an FA cup final. This however caused much annoyance in Nottingham where their team's name was displayed on the screen at regular intervals as "Notts Forest". Commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme apologised live on air for the mistake, stating that the caption should read "Nott'm Forest".

During the game the Forest fans were heard to sing the theme tune to the then popular television programme "Robin Hood", this being the first time that popular television culture had made its way into a terrace song during a cup final.

Match Details

footballbox
date=1959-05-02 15:00 BST
team1=Nottingham Forest
score=2 – 1
team2=Luton Town
report= [http://www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk/1959.htm Report]
goals1=Dwight goal|10
Wilson goal|14
goals2=Pacey goal|66
stadium=Wembley, London
attendance=100,000
referee=Jack Clough

External links

* [http://www.sportingchronicle.com/FACUP/1959.html Line-ups]
* [http://www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk/1959.htm Cup report]
* [http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/English_Football_League/FA_Cup_Finals/1950-1959.html Team kits]