Arsenal: The Reason Behind A Welsh Team Winning Its First And Only FA Cup

It is a little late to post this but, April 23, 1927 will be remembered as the day a non-English team won the FA Cup for the first and only time. It was the Welsh club Cardiff City, who won it against Arsenal with a 1-0 scoreline. 

The FA Cup is one of the oldest and the most prestigious tournaments that has ever taken place and since its inception back in 1871, the trophy has always been won by English teams. During the 1927 season, no one had doubts about who the winning team was. The Londoners could already feel the cup in their hands and shining in their trophy cabinet once they learned of their final opponent.

The modest Cardiff was taken as a victim despite having already been finalists a couple of years earlier. 91,000 people were packed inside Wembley to see the match. Forecasts marked as clear favorite English team by a wide margin annotations.

A curious fact is that the Londoners fielded two Welsh players on that day, goalkeeper Dan Lewis and midfielder Bob John. For its part, the only Englishman in Cardiff City was the coach Fred Stewart, the rest of the squad was made up of Welsh, Scottish and Irish. As expected, Arsenal had all the early possession in the game, but fruitless attacks claimed shortly after the final bill. A shot by Hughie Ferguson which was scuffed by the goalkeeper Lewis led to the opening goal which proved to be the match winner. Delirium of the minority Welsh crowd, invaded the Wembley after the final whistle was blown.

Dan Lewis blamed his new sweater for the mistake he made that afternoon. That failure allowed his country to lay their hands on a trophy that had previously been exclusive to the English.