1937 FA Cup final

As First Division clubs, Sunderland and Preston both entered the competition at the third round stage. Sunderland began with an away tie against Second Division Southampton, who they met in the third round for the third time in seven seasons. Sunderland won 3–2, with goals from Bobby Gurney, Cecil Hornby and Patsy Gallacher. In the fourth round, they were held to a 2–2 draw by Third Division South team Luton Town, before goals from Len Duns, Jimmy Connor and Raich Carter gave them a 3–1 win in the replay.

After beating another Second Division team, Swansea Town, 3–0 in the fifth round, Sunderland required three matches to eliminate Wolverhampton Wanderers in the quarter-finals. They eventually won 4–0 in the second replay at a neutral venue, Hillsborough in Sheffield, after the first two matches had ended in draws. Sunderland's scorers in this second replay were Gurney, Carter, Gallacher and Charlie Thomson.

In the semi-finals at Leeds Road, Huddersfield, they faced the Third Division South giantkillers Millwall, who were the first team from that level to reach the last four since the Third Division was formed in 1920. Millwall had scored 22 goals in six consecutive wins in their Cup run, including home wins against First Division teams Chelsea, Derby County and Manchester City, with their captain and inside-forward Dave Mangnall scoring nine of them.^[1] Mangnall made a late recovery from a thigh injury to start the semi-final, and opened the scoring after ten minutes, but Sunderland replied with goals from Gurney and Gallacher to reach their first final since 1913.^[2]

Preston's FA Cup run began with a 2–0 home win in a third round match against Newcastle United, who had won the Cup as recently as 1932 but who had been relegated to the Second Division two years later. They then scored five in consecutive home wins against First Division Stoke City and Exeter City of the Third Division South, with their Scottish forward Frank O'Donnell scoring hat-tricks in both matches.

Preston defeated another Second Division former FA Cup-winning team, Tottenham Hotspur, 3–1 at White Hart Lane in the quarter-finals, with their goals coming from Frank O'Donnell, his younger brother Hugh and another Scottish player, Jimmy Dougal. Frank O'Donnell and Dougal both scored twice more when Preston returned to London to beat the 1935 runners-up, West Bromwich Albion, 4–1 in the semi-finals at Highbury.

In all, Preston scored 19 goals in their five matches to reach the final, with Frank O'Donnell contributing ten of them and scoring in every match.^[1]

Sunderland were the League champions from the previous season, when they had won their sixth championship by a large margin of eight points, but had slipped to eighth position in 1936–37.^[3] They had never previously won the FA Cup, and had only once before reached the final, when they lost 1–0 to Aston Villa in 1913.^[4][5] Preston finished 14th in the First Division after the final league matches of the season were completed on the same day as the final, their lowest position since returning to the top flight in 1934.^[3] Like their opponents, they had not played in an FA Cup final at Wembley before, with their most recent appearance in the final having been a 1–0 defeat to Huddersfield Town at Stamford Bridge in 1922. The club's only previous victory in the competition had come in 1888–89, when the Preston 'Invincibles' team won the League and FA Cup double.^[4]

The two League matches between the finalists that season had both ended in victories for the home team, with Sunderland winning 3–0 at Roker Park in September 1936 and Preston winning 2–0 in the return fixture at Deepdale in January 1937. Both teams showed patchy form in the weeks leading up to the final, with Sunderland having suffered heavy defeats at Grimsby Town (6–0) and Leeds United (3–0), and Preston having lost 5–2 at home to the champions-elect Manchester City before winning their last League fixture 1–0 away to Portsmouth.^[3]

Sunderland's star player was their captain and inside-right, Raich Carter, who was described by hs England team-mate Stanley Matthews as "a man who could lay claim to football genius".^[6] Their other leading players included the centre-forward, Bobby Gurney, who went on to become the leading goalscorer in the club's history, and the goalkeeper, Johnny Mapson, who had been signed after the sudden death of Jimmy Thorpe the previous year.^[7][8] Carter and Frank O'Donnell had faced each other only two weeks before the final, when O'Donnell scored on his debut as Scotland overturned a half-time deficit to beat England 3–1 in front of an international record crowd of more than 149,000. Preston's left-back Andy Beattie also played for Scotland in the match.^[9][10][11]

Thousands of Sunderland fans travelled from the north-east to London on special trains before the match, and the team occupied a special carriage pulled by a LNER "Footballer" Class B17 locomotive which was named after the club and decorated with red and white ribbons.^[12] Supporters' onward travel to the stadium was affected by a London busmen's strike that continued for four weeks.^[13] Attendance at May Day political meetings in the north-east was said to be reduced because of the number of people following the broadcast of the match.^[14]

The match was the first FA Cup final attended by the new king, George VI, and Queen Elizabeth, and took place eleven days before the coronation.^[1][15] King Farouk of Egypt was also in attendance.^[16] Part of the match was broadcast by the BBC, before the final was televised in its entirety for the first time the following year.^[17][18] Because of a contract dispute with Wembley Stadium, the match was not covered by Pathé News but instead a short film was produced by the Featurettes Company.^[16]

Frank O'Donnell opened the scoring for Preston shortly before half-time with a low shot after a pass by Dougal, making the score 1–0 to the Lancashire team at half-time. In the second-half, Carter nodded a corner from Burbanks to Gurney to equalise with a header from close range, and then took Gurney's pass to shoot past Preston's diving goalkeeper Burns to put Sunderland ahead with 18 minutes remaining. Gallacher set up Burbanks to secure the victory with a powerful shot.^[19][11] It was only the third time in Wembley history that a team had come from a goal down to win the Cup.

Queen Elizabeth presented the trophy to Sunderland's captain, Carter.^[19]

Match rules

• 90 minutes.
• 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary.
• Replay if scores still level.

Sunderland celebrated their first FA Cup victory with an open-top bus tour of the town and a reception at Roker Park.^[20]

The two clubs came close to meeting again in the final of the FA Cup the following season. Sunderland reached the semi-finals after four successive 1–0 victories in the early rounds, but were defeated 3–1 by Huddersfield Town, who were in turn beaten 1–0 after extra-time by Preston in the final.^[1] By the time of the 1938 final, Preston's manager Tommy Muirhead had departed, their captain Billy Tremelling had retired, and their team retained only four players who had started the 1937 final – Frank Gallimore, Andy Beattie, Bill Shankly and Hugh O'Donnell.^[19]

The clubs' successes in the competition did not continue after the Second World War. Sunderland have only won the Cup once since, in 1973, while Preston were runners-up in 1954 and 1964 but have not won the trophy since 1938.^[4]

Two of Preston's players in the 1937 final went on to take significant management roles. In 1954, while manager of Huddersfield, Beattie became the first man to take charge of the Scotland national team at the World Cup Finals, and Shankly managed Liverpool for 15 years, winning three League titles and two further FA Cups.

The last survivor from the winning side was Sunderland's goalkeeper Johnny Mapson, who died in August 1999 at the age of 82.^[21] The last surviving player from the game, Preston's Jimmy Dougal, died two months later at the age of 86.

• Match report at www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk
• FA Cup Final lineups