Cardiff City 1…..Arsenal 0
Ferguson

Wembley…..referee…..W.F.Bunnell [Preston]

The Route to the Final.

Cardiff City: Darlington (a) 2-0, Bolton Wanderers (a) 2-0, Chelsea (a) 0-0, 3-2, Reading s/f 3-0.

Arsenal: Port Vale (a) 2-2, 1-0, Liverpool (h) 2-0, Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) 2-1, Southampton s/f 2-1.

Cardiff City: Farquarson, Nelson, Wilson, Keenor, Sloan, Hardy, Curtis, Irving, Ferguson, Davies L, McLachlan

Arsenal: Lewis, Parker, Kennedy, Baker, Butler, John, Hulme, Buchan, Brain, Blyth, Hoar.

The Story

During the previous rounds of the 1926-27 F.A. Cup, Cardiff had disposed of Darlington, Bolton, Chelsea and Reading and arrived at Wembley with their army of fans full of expectations. Their tough, gritty, skipper was the experienced Fred Keenor, a Welsh International of seven years standing who’d been with Cardiff since 1913. Keenor had featured in the 1920 International when Wales beat England for the first time in forty years. In this 1927 final, Cardiff also fielded another Welsh International; Len Davies who’d represented his country for five years. Davies still holds the club record for aggregate league goals, netting 128 times between 1920 and 1931. Their inside right was former Dundee player and Irish International Sam Irving, who impressed Chelsea so much when Cardiff defeated then en route to the Final that they secured his services the following season.

Cardiff started as Riverside in 1889.

Arsenal had begun life in 1886 as Dial Square, the Woolwich Armaments works team, who soon became Woolwich Arsenal, playing their matches on Plumstead Common. A potential merger with Fulham was knocked on the head and in 1915 the club dropped the ‘Woolwich’ to became Arsenal.
They faced an Arsenal side containing six Internationals: the Welsh keeper, Dan Lewis, Caerphilly born Bob John, another Welsh International, and England players, Baker, Butler, Joe Hulme and Charlie Buchan. Arsenal’s tall, willowy captain Buchan, had begun his amateur career with The Gunners before being transferred to Sunderland in 1911.Bob John could have been playing for either side in this Final, as Arsenal triumphed over Cardiff City in a bid to sign him in 1922. Manager Herbert Chapman bought him back in 1925 for £2,000 with £100 for every goal the thirty-three year-old scored in his first season, which was to total 19. He also notched uo a first over three months earlier on becoming the first player to score during a live radio broadcast, when he netted against Sheffield United on January 27th.  Chapman’s opposite number for this match was Cardiff manager Fred Stewart.
Before the game, Henry Lyte’s famous hymn Abide With Me was sung for the first time at a Wembley Cup Final.

Arsenal, playing in their first-ever Cup final, dominated the match from the off, but nerves crept in resulting in a series of free-kicks breaking up the pattern of the game. There was a distinct lack of cohesion among the Cardiff forwards, and despite the odd break-through were little threat to The Gunners. The first half ended 0-0.

Arsenal were again masters of the pitch at the beginning of the second-half, with Buchan’s brilliant dribbling and masterful execution of passes, bewildering the Welsh side. Cardiff had their fair share of the ball, the highly visible bald head of Billy Hardy fired the odd salvo at the Gunners and against the run of play, twenty-five minutes into the second-half Cardiff scored. From a throw-in, Hugh Ferguson took a pass and avoiding a tackle drove it low, hard and diagonally at Dan Lewis in the Arsenal goal. The keeper appeared to have it covered, but in getting harassed by the forwards Len Davies and Sam Irving, the ball seemed to twist off his chest as he made a grab for it and it trickled over the goal-line. It was ironic that a mistake from the Welsh goalkeeper, Lewis, should result in the F.A.Cup going to Wales for the only time in the history of the Tournament. King George V presented the trophy to a jubilant welsh side. The beaten finalists drowned their sorrows by stopping off for a beer on the way to Marylebone Station.

In commemoration of the Welsh sides great moment, the London and SE supporters are known as the 1927 Club.

The following year Charles Buchan would leave Arsenal to become invloved in newspaper work, writing for the Daily News and later the News Chronicle for whom he covered International matches. In 1947, he and three other journalists founded the Football Writers Association, with Buchan suggesting that every year they should vote for a Footballer of the Year. His idea is still a feature of the game today. In 1951, Buchan founded his own highly successful magazine Charles Buchan’s Football Weekly, which ran in various forms until 1974. Charlie Buchan died in 1960, five years after publishing his autobiography, A Life In Football.

 Arsenal’s Bob John made 421 league appearances for the London side, played in 50 Cupties, three Cup Finals (winning a winner’s medal) and three Championship medals. After 16 years service, he moved to West Ham United before becoming Cardiff’s trainer.