1949 FA Cup final

1949 FA Cup Final
Event	1948–49 FA Cup
Date	30 April 1949
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	Reg Mortimer (Huddersfield)
Attendance	98,920
	← 1948 1950 →

Last updated February 18, 2025

The 1949 FA Cup final was the 68th final of the FA Cup. It took place on 30 April 1949 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City. Wolves had finished sixth in the First Division that season and had several England internationals among their ranks, while Leicester had narrowly avoided relegation from the Second Division and were making their first Wembley appearance.

Road to Wembley

Leicester City

3rd Round	Leicester City	1–1	Birmingham City
3rd Round (Replay)	Birmingham City	1–1	Leicester City
3rd Round (2nd Replay)	Leicester City	2–1	Birmingham City
4th Round	Leicester City	2–0	Preston North End
5th Round	Luton Town	5–5	Leicester City
5th Round (Replay)	Leicester City	5–3	Luton Town
6th Round	Brentford	0–2	Leicester City
Semi-final	Portsmouth	1–3	Leicester City ^[1]
	(at Highbury)

Wolverhampton Wanderers

3rd Round	Wolverhampton Wanderers	6–0	Chesterfield
4th Round	Sheffield United	0–3	Wolverhampton Wanderers
5th Round	Wolverhampton Wanderers	3–1	Liverpool
6th Round	Wolverhampton Wanderers	1–0	West Bromwich Albion
Semi-final	Wolverhampton Wanderers	1–1	Manchester United
	(at Hillsborough)
Semi-final (Replay)	Manchester United	0–1	Wolverhampton Wanderers
	(at Goodison Park)

Match summary

Wolves started determinedly and took a 13th-minute lead when Jesse Pye, who had been preferred to Dennis Wilshaw, stooped to head in an inch-perfect Hancocks cross. Leicester kept Wolves at bay until almost half-time, when Pye collected the ball in the penalty area with his back to goal, after the Foxes had struggled to clear a corner, and turned to slam it home for his second.

Leicester brought the game to life immediately after the interval courtesy of Mal Griffiths, who flicked the ball home after Williams parried Chisholm's initial effort. Within minutes, they believed they were level only for a narrow offside decision to rule out Chisholm's finish. Sammy Smyth quickly turned the game around when he picked up the ball in the centre circle and drove through the Leicester defence before hitting the ball low into the far corner to make it 3–1 and clinch the cup for Molineux men for the third time in their history. It was the first of five major trophies that they would win under the management of Stan Cullis.

Leicester were without two of their key players for the game, both of them ruled out by injury. Goalkeeper Ian McGraw was unable to play due to a broken finger, while Don Revie had suffered a nose injury.

Match details

30 April 1949

15:00 BST

Leicester City	1–3	Wolverhampton Wanderers
Griffiths 47'	Report	Pye 13', 42' Smyth 64'

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 98,920

Referee: R. A. Mortimer (Huddersfield)

Leicester City

Wolverhampton Wanderers



	1	Gordon Bradley
	2	Ted Jelly
	3	Sandy Scott
	4	Walter Harrison
	5	Norman Plummer (c)
	6	Johnny King
	7	Mal Griffiths
	8	Jack Lee
	9	Jimmy Harrison
	10	Ken Chisholm
	11	Charlie Adam
Manager:
Johnny Duncan



	1	Bert Williams
	2	Roy Pritchard
	3	Terry Springthorpe
	4	Billy Crook
	5	Bill Shorthouse
	6	Billy Wright (c)
	7	Johnny Hancocks
	8	Sammy Smyth
	9	Jesse Pye
	10	Jimmy Dunn
	11	Jimmy Mullen
Manager:
Stan Cullis

References

↑ "The Giant Killers". Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2019.

External links

Match report

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[1] "The Giant Killers". Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2019.

[1]

v t e FA Cup
Seasons	1871–72 1872–73 1873–74 1874–75 1875–76 1876–77 1877–78 1878–79 1879–80 1880–81 1881–82 1882–83 1883–84 1884–85 1885–86 1886–87 1887–88 1888–89 1889–90 1890–91 1891–92 1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Qualifying rounds	1888–89 1889–90 1890–91 1891–92 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Finals	1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
History List of finals Semi-finals Final referees Winning managers Non-English clubs Scottish clubs Non-League clubs in the 5th Round Giant-Killing Award

v t e Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. matches
FA Cup Finals	1889 1893 1896 1908 1921 1939 1949 1960
Football League Cup Finals	1974 1980
Football League War Cup Final	1942
FA Charity Shields	1949 1954 1958 1959 1960
Football League play-off finals	1987 Fourth Division 2003 First Division
Football League Trophy Final	1988
UEFA Cup Final	1972
Other matches	Wolverhampton Wanderers 3–2 Budapest Honvéd (1954)

v t e Leicester City F.C. matches
FA Cup Finals	1949 1961 1963 1969 2021
League Cup Finals	1964 1965 1997 1999 2000
FA Community Shields	1971 2016 2021
Football League play-off Finals	1992 Second Division 1993 First Division 1994 First Division 1996 First Division
Notable league matches	Leicester City 6–6 Arsenal (1930) Southampton 0–9 Leicester City (2019)