 An illustration of the FA Cup trophy awarded in 1876 | |||||||
| Event | 1875–76 FA Cup | ||||||
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| Final | |||||||
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| Date | 11 March 1876 | ||||||
| Venue | Kennington Oval, London | ||||||
| Referee | W. S. Buchanan (Clapham Rovers) | ||||||
| Attendance | 3,500 | ||||||
| Replay | |||||||
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| Date | 18 March 1876 | ||||||
| Venue | Kennington Oval, London | ||||||
| Referee | William Rawson (Oxford University) | ||||||
| Attendance | 3,500 | ||||||
The 1876 FA Cup final was an association football match between Wanderers F.C. and Old Etonians F.C. on 11 March 1876 at Kennington Oval in London. It was the fifth final of the world's oldest football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (known in the modern era as the FA Cup). The Wanderers had won the Cup on two previous occasions. The Etonians were playing in their second consecutive final, having lost in the 1875 match after a replay. Both teams had conceded only one goal in the four rounds of the competition prior to the final. In the semi-finals, the Wanderers defeated the Swifts and the Etonians beat the 1874 Cup winners Oxford University.
The match ended in a 1–1 draw, the second consecutive FA Cup final to finish level and require a replay. John Hawley Edwards scored for the Wanderers, but the Etonians equalised with a goal credited in modern publications to Alexander Bonsor, although contemporary newspaper reports do not definitively identify him as the scorer. A week later, the teams met again at the same venue. The Etonians were forced to make several changes to their line-up due to players being unavailable, and the revised team lost 3–0. Charles Wollaston and Thomas Hughes scored a goal apiece in a five-minute spell before half-time, and Hughes added the third early in the second half.