AS Chelsea and Arsenal prepare to do battle in the FA Cup final today, Roy Cavanagh goes back 116 years to recall a final replay at Burnden Park dubbed 'The Pork Pie Final'

TODAY'S FA Cup final and the recent last match to be played at Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane ground sparked memories of an unusual final Spurs took part in at Bolton Wanderers' Burnden Park ground.

Amazingly for a non-league team, the north Londoners won the cup on a memorable night on Saturday, April 27, 1901.

Wanderers, of course, have themselves gone down in FA Cup folklore with their memorable exploits at the old Wembley Stadium, winning the first-ever final in 1923 and lifting the trophy twice more in that decade – in 1926 and 1929.

When you recall their part in the famous 'Stanley Matthews Final' of 1953 against Blackpool and the emotional 1958 victory over Manchester United, the magic of the FA Cup and the town of Bolton go hand in hand.

The 1901 final replay followed the previous Saturday’s match played at the Crystal Palace between Tottenham and Sheffield United, who were then a First Division side.

That was not the ground of the present football club but a massive stadium and grounds in the area which actually held all the FA Cup finals from 1895 until 1914.

The original match in 1901 drew a crowd variously recorded at anything between 110,000 and 120,000 spectators to see if this magical cup run of Tottenham’s – then a Southern League team – could continue. Indeed, there was nearly no need for a replay in the first game which ended 2-2 as Sheffield United equalised from a goal which was agreed by many to have come from an offside position and that the ball had not crossed the line.

Interestingly, this was also the first final to be covered by Pathe News, but there were no replays in those days!

Originally the replay was arranged for Everton’s Goodison Park, but as Liverpool had a home match in the league against Nottingham Forest that day they objected so it was switched to the relatively new Burnden which had been opened five years earlier and offered the advantage of hosting large crowds.

With a lot of attention paid to the game, and the fact such a large crowd had attended the original final, arrangements were made for another big turnout with catering at the top of the list.

Thousands of scones and pork pies were ordered for the big day, which was then thrown into chaos by the fact Bolton railway station was being redeveloped and that the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways would not offer cheap train travel for the Tottenham supporters.

This, added to the fact it took six hours to get there, caused most of them to give the final a miss.

The result was an attendance of just over 20,000 – and lots of leftover pork pies.

This gave rise to the day being referred to as ‘Pie day in Bolton!’

Although very few Tottenham fans made the trip, when the victorious team got back to London in the early hours of the following morning, thousands were there to welcome the first, and still only, non-league side to win the FA Cup.

The following season, Sheffield United had the consolation of winning the final themselves, although again it took a replay, as they beat Southampton 2-1.