Programme of the Day - 26th April

 

 

FA Cup Final

Newcastle United  (Harris 83, Seymour 86) 2 Aston Villa 0

Newcastle United : Bradley ; Hampson, Hudspeth ; Mooney, Spencer, Gibson ; Low, Cowan, Harris, McDonald, Seymour

Aston Villa : Jackson ; Smart, Mort ; Moss, Dr V.E. Milne, Blackburn ; York, Kirton, Capewell, Walker, Dorrell

Referee : W.E. Russell (Swindon)   Attendance : 91,695  Receipts £14,280

 

The Match

 

Lessons were learned from the chaotic staging of  The Stadium’s first Cup Final the previous year, and admission to the meeting of two of the giants of early English football was by ticket only.   The restricted crowd and the day’s torrential rain made for an altogether different atmosphere at Wembley, although there was plenty for visiting football fans to see on their trip to London, as the Empire Exhibition was still open in the surrounding parkland.

           The first half was a fine, open game, in which each side gave as good as they received.   Newcastle were the more determined team after the interval, although it was not until the dying stages of the game that their second half superiority was turned into goals.

            The Geordies’ centre forward Harris was their best forward, always keen to take on the Villa defence, and with seven minutes to play his shot was only partially stopped by goalkeeper Jackson.  The club archives give the goal to Harris, although contemporary newspapers credit it to Cowan, who followed through.

           Stan Seymour, who had a quiet afternoon, burst into life three minutes later and scored a memorable second goal with an unstoppable shot.     It was too late for Villa to respond, and throughout the game they failed to counter the busy Cowan, nor subdue Gibson, whom many considered to be the game’s best player.

           Newcastle avenged their defeat when the teams had met previously in the 1905 Final, and it was the Geordies who received the cup from the Duke of York.

 

The Programme

 

In stark contrast to the handbook-sized issue for the first Wembley final, the page size for the second occasion was twice as large.   The front cover, printed in four colours on a matt card, featured a sketch of match action, both teams wearing the strips of that day’s combatants, and an aerial sketch of the stadium.

           The inside pages were numbered from 1 (ie the cover was not included) and started with an ornate design surrounding the words “Programme & Souvenir of the Football Association’s English Cup competition, Final Tie 1924, in the stadium at The British Empire Exhibition, Wembley.”    This was printed in a grey-green colour, making this programme one of the first to incorporate a spot colour to augment the black print

            A portrait of the Prince of Wales, President of the British Empire Exhibition, was on page 3, and the “Story of the Cup” filled a further two pages.  There were portraits of the President and Secretary of the FA, and the match referee , and a page on how the teams reached the final.

           Following centre spread team lines – in 2-3-5 formation – both teams had two pages of pen pictures and two of head and shoulder photographs.  A list of previous finals, Programme of Music and a page on the British Empire Exhibition completed the text of the 24 internal pages.

           Advertisers included Gibbs Cold Cream Shaving Soap, Sanitas Embrocation, The Daily Chronicle, Sunripe Cigarettes, Jay & Turner watches, the Daily Mirror, Watney’s Ale and Reid’s Stout.

 

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