Manchester City and the magic of the FA Cup! | OneFootball

As Manchester City get ready for our FA Cup clash with Salford City on Saturday, we take a look at our proud history in the prestigious competition.

The world’s oldest surviving football competition, this will be the 144th anniversary of the FA Cup with the first back in 1871/72 won by Wanderers.

City have been one of the great FA Cup sides over the years, with so many memories - both good and bad - in a competition that remains one of the best in the world.

Get in the mood for our third round clash at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday at 17:45 (UK) with a look at our history in the FA Cup.

How it all began

The popular Victorian seaside resort of Fleetwood on the coast of Lancashire had just ended its summer season in September 1892 when it would become the historic site of our first ever FA Cup match.

Then called Ardwick, we faced Fleetwood Rangers, dissolved seven years later, in the Preliminary Round clash at The Copse with the game finishing 1-1 with Scottish winger Bob Milarvie scoring our first ever FA Cup goal.

The replay at Hyde Road finished in a 2-0 defeat with the home side possibly a bit too complacent!

Our charismatic secretary Josh Parlby was reported as saying: “I have not a bit of doubt about which team will win,” according to the Fleetwood Chronicle. At half-time that changed to: “Your lads are playing well,” and at the full-time whistle: “I must give in, the best team has won!”

City’s first game in the first round proper was a 6-0 defeat to the all-conquering Preston North End side in 1897, which remains our heaviest margin of defeat, and our first win came the following season beating Wigan County 1-0.

Long history

City won the trophy for the first time in 1904, to achieve the Club’s first major honour.

And the 119 years between that triumph and our win in the 2023 Treble-winning season means that we boast the longest period between our first FA Cup success and our most recent.

After beating Sunderland, Arsenal, Middlesbrough and eventual First Division champions The Wednesday, we faced Bolton Wanderers in the final at The Crystal Palace.

Some City fans travelled down the night before and slept on Euston Station to ensure they would be able to see the game while Prime Minister Arthur Balfour and legendary cricketer WG Grace were among the VIPs in the more-than 60,000-strong crowd.

The great Billy Meredith scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory and the team returned to a parade through the streets of Manchester from the Town Hall to Ardwick.

Glory days

With seven wins in total, City are joint sixth on the list of most successful Clubs in the FA Cup, lifting the trophy in 1904, 1934, 1956, 1969, 2011, 2019 and 2023.

Finishing runners-up on six other occasions, our 13 FA Cup final appearances is joint fifth overall.

Pep Guardiola is the only City manager to win the FA Cup twice with Arsene Wenger is the only other non-British coach to win it more than once.

Roberto Mancini, Joe Mercer, Les McDowall, Wilf Wild and Tom Maley were the other managers to lead City to the trophy.

In total, we have played 384 FA Cup ties, winning 203 and losing 71, but the nature of the competition does mean that a defeat spells the end of a Club’s participation for that season.

Memorable matches

While finals and Wembley day outs are the showpiece occasions, much of the drama of the FA Cup happens at the earlier stages of the competition.

On the way to winning the trophy we’ve survived some tricky games at lower league clubs – fighting back from two goals down to beat Championship side Swansea 3-2 in 2019, a late Edin Dzeko equaliser in a 1-1 draw with third tier Notts County in 2011, and a 1-0 win at Third Division South side Southend in 1956 at a waterlogged Roots Hall.

Back in March 1934, Maine Road hosted Stoke City in the fifth round, winning 1-0 in front of an official attendance of 84,569, which is still the biggest ever crowd in English football outside of Wembley.

Then there was the remarkable comeback in February 2004 against Tottenham when trailing 3-0 at half-time with only 10 men, we pulled off one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of the competition to win 4-3.

Our two biggest wins in the competition came in the 1930s, beating Swindon 10-1 in 1930 and Gateshead 9-0 three years later.

Unhappy days

With only one team going on to win the trophy, it’s not surprising that most years end in disappointment which is why collecting the trophy is so special.

But it also has to be acknowledged that some of the magic of the FA Cup comes from seeing a big club beaten by a lower league side and City have been the victims of that several times.

Painful as they were, those defeats are a part of our rich history and clubs such as Oldham, Halifax, Cardiff, Shrewsbury, Grimsby Town and Bradford Park Avenue have all experienced great nights at our expense.

Even in our 2017/18 season when we collected our record 100 points to win the Premier League, incredibly one of only three domestic defeats all season was at League One Wigan in the FA Cup!

And spare a thought for Denis Law, who memorably hit six goals in an abandoned cup tie at Division Two Luton in 1961, and was on target again in the 3-1 defeat that stood four days later.

New faces

Salford will be hoping to join that list of giantkillers when they come to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

We will meet them for the first time and the Ammies will be the 85th opponent to play City in the FA Cup.

The random draw is another one of the joys of the competition and we have faced a vast array of clubs over the decades including Corinthians, Glossop North End and West Manchester, amongst others.

Leicester and Tottenham are the sides we have faced the most, with 15 matches against each.

Our homes Maine Road, the Etihad and Hyde Road are obviously where we have placed our most FA Cup matches, followed by Wembley, Villa Park – hosting six semi-finals – and Preston’s Deepdale.

Record breakers

As well as the longest span between trophies and record attendance outside Wembley, the record books are littered with mentions of the Blues.

Ilkay Gundogan has scored the quickest goal in an FA Cup final when he struck after just 12-seconds in the 2-1 win over Manchester United in 2023.

The 6-0 win over Watford in the 2019 final is the joint highest victory in the showpiece occasion, equalling the score-line in Bury’s win over Derby 120 years earlier.

Triumph over the Hornets also meant City became the first club to secure a domestic Treble with the FA Cup the final piece of the jigsaw after winning the Carabao Cup and Premier League title.

Sergio Aguero is also the joint record goal-scorer in the FA Cup born outside the British Isles, with 20 goals alongside Dwight Yorke although ‘Kun’ took just 22 appearances to reach the milestone - some 20 games fewer.