Swansea City v Aston Villa - 2nd Feb 1924

SWANS v ARSENAL

FA CUP 6^th ROUND 6^th MARCH 1926

In the distant past of the "roaring twenties", seventy years before the Champions League and the spectre of £50,000 weekly wages for supposedly gifted footballers, there saw the emergence of a team that was to dominate English football throughout the 1930's.

Sound familiar ? - that team was Arsenal.

It was the first season of the tenure of Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman, rated by many as the best English club manager of all time, who guided Huddersfield Town to three successive Division One titles in the early 1920's, then left to join Arsenal in 1925, with whom he repeated that feat in the 1930's.

Chapman's first signing was Charles Buchan from Sunderland, one of the icons of English football both pre and post World War 1, and the Arsenal side for this match also included two Welshmen, Brain and John.

The visit of such distinguished opposition resulted in a fever of cup tie excitement, with the police estimating the queuing crowd (first come, first served basis) to be at over 10,000 at noon, three hours before kick-off.

Before a crowd of over 25,000 the Swans tore into the mighty Arsenal and they eventually took a first half lead, McPherson, Nicholas and Thompson combining for Thompson to beat a defender and crash his shot home. The second half saw the Swans wingers putting Arsenal under increasing pressure, and an inevitable second goal arrived when Hole found Fowler, who cut between two defenders and fired in a piledriver which gave Harper no chance. Even though Mackie pulled a goal back almost immediately for the visitors, the Swans held their nerve to claim a deserved victory, with the Daily Mail objectively reporting that "if Swansea had won by four clear goals they would not have been flattered."

The Evening Post report of the match concluded that "the final whistle at the Vetch Field on Saturday was the signal for the most amazing outburst of enthusiasm that Welsh soccer has ever known. It was a roar of relief as well as joy. A dense mass of almost hysterical supporters - shouting, cheering, brandishing flags, rattles, sticks and even leeks - yelled in unison for the heroes of the afternoon. Several women were in tears with joy." - Nothing much changes in the world of football support !

A feature of the day's Quarter Final cup ties was that all four matches involved Second division sides at home to First Division opposition, with the Swans the only one to emerge triumphant. The other ties saw Man Utd beat Fulham 2-1, Man City beat Clapton Orient 6-1, and Nottingham Forest and Bolton draw 2-2, with Bolton winning a second replay to become the Swans semi-final opponents.

The match programme is a standard 10.5 x 8.5 inches, printed on pink paper, at a rather skimpy 4 pages. The centre pages contain the team line ups in the "W" formation, Match notes and the current Division Two league table, which shows the Swans sitting promisingly in fourth place, whilst the back page shows the fixtures and results for both the First team and Reserves. Adverts include the usual sports outfitters of the time, motor dealers, and Taylor's Café in Castle Square, proudly proclaiming its amenities of "Ladies Retiring Rooms and Gents' Smoking Rooms."

Estimated value of a reasonable condition copy of this programme - £600 - 700

Photo: Action Images

Colchester United Polls