Portsmouth 4…..Wolverhampton Wanderers 1
Parker 2                Dorsett
Barlow
Anderson

Wembley…..29/4/39…..99,370…..referee…..T.Thompson [Lemington-on-Tyne]

The Route to the Final.

Portsmouth: West Bromwich Albion (h) 2-0, West Ham United (h) 2-0, Preston North End (h) 1-0, Huddersfield Town s/f 2-1.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Leicester City (h) 5-1, Liverpool (h) 4-1, Everton (h) 2-0, Grimsby Town s/f  5-0.

Porstmouth: Walker, Morgan, Rochford, Guthrie, Rowe, Wharton, Worrall, McAlindon, Anderson, Barlow, Parker.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Scott, Morris, Taylor, Galley, Cullis, Gardiner, Burton, McIntosh, Westcott, Dorsett, Maguire.

The Story

Freddie Worrall was the only survivor of Portsmouth’s Cup Final side of 1934.

Future Wolves players Jimmy Mullen and Billy Wright were boot boys at this time. As well as being a boot room boy, future Wolves and England skipper Wright was having to prepare the baths and clean towels for the players and lay the kit out by each peg in the dressing room before matches. Years later Billy Wright recalled Wolves reaching the Cup Final, “What a day that was for we ground boys! When Stanley Cullis, Dennis Westcott and other stars prepared to leave for Wembley I could not have felt more thrilled had I been playing, while the sight of Major Buckley in morning dress and carrying a top hat, made me appreciate the inportance of the occasion.

Wolves only goal was scored by Dicky Dorsett. Nicknamed ‘the Brownhills Bomber,’ he was the nephew of Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion brothers, George and Joe Dorsett. Dorsett’s match boots are still in existance and owned by his family. During WW II whilst serving with the RAF and guested for Liverpool, Grimsby Town, Brentford, Queen’s Park Rangers and Southampton.
His team mate, the popular character Stan ‘Dizzy’ Burton, who also played for Doncaster and West Ham United, moved on to play for Scarborough after the War. It was rumoured that he was deaf.

On returning defeated to Molyneux, one of the players said to Billy Wright, “Who knows, maybe you and Jimmy Mullen may one day have your chance to bring the Cup back to Wolverhampton.” Both ground boys would be a part of the winning 1949 Cup Final side.

The Wolves side, featured Stan Cullis, who’d joined them in 1934, became captain at the age of 19 and England skipper at 22. Cullis played for Wolves until 1947, after which he became assistant manager and then almost immediately manager. He built Wolves into one of the most formidable sides of the 1950s, remaining in charge until 1965. After five years managing Birmingham City he retired in 1970 passing away in 2001. The stand built on Molyneux’s North Bank in 1992 was named The Stan Cullis Stand. His team-mate Joe Gardiner would return to Wembley as Wolves trainer for the 1949 Final. This year the Cup was presented by King George VI.

Portsmouth hero Bert Barlow became the only Pompey player to win an FA Cup winner’s medal and the 1st Division Championship with the club, the second honour coming ten years after the first. Barlow died in 2004 aged 87.

Little did Portsmouth and their manager, Jack Tinn, know that World events would leave them as holders of the FA Cup until 1946, allowing supporters to claim that their team have held the FA Cup for a longer unbroken run than any other club! For the duration of WW II the Cup was hidden away in the Guildhall at Portsmouth.