Saturday 19th February 1921 SOUTHEND UNITED 1-4 TOTTENHAM
F.A.Cup Round 3
A year ago it was accepted that the Sheffield United game had to be switched as clearly the Kursaal at the time without a stand, couldn't have coped with the match. So when this game was confirmed as being played at the Kursaal a lot of work was done to improve the ground. The terrace behind the Beresford Road was trebled and crush barriers erected, and an extra entrance built. It was claimed that the ground could hold 23,000 although 20,000 was more realistic. However the London press had published exaggerated reports of the ground and this undoubtedly deterred many.
On the day the gates opened shortly before 12.30 and a mad rush took place to secure the best viewpoints, many bringing their dinner and liquid refreshments with them. By 2.30 about 10,000 were in the ground, but in the last half hour the misty rain turned the rush into a trickle, and the rain must have put some of the latecomers off, officially the attendance was 11,661.
The game started at a hectic pace and Spurs were struggling to hold Southend, and Joe Walters scored what looked like a perfectly good goal but the referee disallowed it to the boos of the crowd. On fifteen minutes Nicholls put right that wrong and put the Blues one up. A good shout for a penalty was denied by the referee as Southend dominated, and the First Division outfit resorted to playing the one back game.
After 39 minutes against the run off play Tottenham headed an equaliser. Southend pressed again and after a blatant push the referee finally had no choice but to give a penalty. Whalley placed the ball but the referee readjusted the ball, Whalley didn't want the seam of the ball facing him and went to change it again, but the referee refused to allow him. This obviously unsettled Whalley and he put the penalty wide of the right post.
From this point onwards the game totally changed and Tottenham took control and ended up 1-4 winners. Team: Capper; Newton and Evans; Wileman, Whalley and Martin; Nicholls, Nuttall, Fairclough, Walters and Dorsett.
To put the game in perspective Tottenham had only just been promoted from the second division as Champions but were having a successful season in the first division. By beating Southend in round 3 they had reached the Quarter Final and 52,000 at White Hart Lane saw Spurs beat Villa 1-0. In the Semi Final they played Preston North End at Hillsborough. In front of 49,668 spectators who saw Spurs win 2-1 and into the final.
Before the war Cup Finals had been held at Crystal Palace but during the war this ground had been requisitioned for use as an arms dump. Following the war the ground was never restored and it never hosted a football match again. The Football Association instead chose to play the final at Stamford Bridge as it had the largest capacity of any ground in London at that time.
Spurs were playing Second Division Wolverhampton Wanderers, and the gates opened at 10:30 am, (the Final was not all ticket until 1924), and the heavens opened about then as well. The Stamford Bridge pitch was a quagmire and the sun only came out for about five minutes just before the kick-off.
The two teams slogged out an eminently unwatchable game - indeed it would seem no photographers watched it as only one photo is known to exist of the winning goal and that was taken from the terraces. Spurs hung on in the grim weather and again became the only Southern professional club to lift the FA Cup twenty years after achieving that feat for the first time.
Incidentally Wolves had three ex-Southend players in G. Marshall, M. Woodward and F. Burrill who had all been transferred for substantial fees.
Extracts from the "Forgotten Years of the Kursaal" by Peter William Baker
