1956 FA Cup Final

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The 1956 FA Cup Final took place at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 5 May 1956. It was contested between Manchester City and Birmingham City. Manchester City won 3-1 to secure their third FA Cup win. The match is best remembered nowadays for the heroics of Manchester City's goalkeeper, Bert Trautmann, who continued playing despite breaking a bone in his neck.

1 Players and Officials
2 Match review
3 Road to the final
- 3.1 Manchester City
- 3.2 Birmingham City
4 External links

[edit] Players and Officials

Manchester City Light blue shirts/White shorts/Blue socks	3 — 1 (final score after 90 minutes)	Birmingham City Blue shirts/White shorts/White socks
Manager: Les McDowall Team: 01 Trautmann (GK) 02 Leivers 03 Little 04 Barnes 05 Ewing 06 Paul 07 Johnstone 08 Hayes 09 Revie 10 Dyson 11 Clarke Scorers: Joe Hayes Bobby Johnstone Jack Dyson	Half-time: 1-1 Competition: FA Cup (Final) Date: 15.00 BST Saturday May 5, 1956 Venue: Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 100,000 Referee: A. Bond Match rules: 90 minutes. 30 minutes extra-time if necessary. Replay if scores still level. No subsititutes.	Manager: Arthur Turner Team: 01 Merrick (GK) 02 Hall 03 Green 04 Newman 05 Smith 06 Boyd 07 Astall 08 Kinsey 09 Brown 10 Murphy 11 Govan Scorers: Noel Kinsey

[edit] Match review

Birmingham were unable to produce the kind of football against Don Revie-inspired Manchester City that had carried them to Wembley, and could only hold their rivals by employing methods which resulted in their tiring visibly in the last half‑hour. Manchester scored twice during this period to win the match.

Revie, a late inclusion for the injured Spurdle, was the key player as Manchester controlled the game with their ‘Hungarian style' play, which involved keeping the ball on the ground and building up attacks in a slow and deliberate way.

Within three minutes of the start Revie began the move near his own penalty‑area which led to the unmarked Hayes sweeping the ball past Gil Merrick to put Manchester ahead. Birmingham's confidence was shaken, but they fought back to equalize in the fifteenth minute through Welsh international inside‑forward Noel Kinsey.

Merrick saved at the feet of Hayes.

Both teams seemed to lose their touch immediately after half‑time, but then, after an hour's play, Manchester regained their stride and suddenly went two goals ahead. Following a bout of interpassing on the right wing, Dyson was put clean through to score. Three minutes later Bobby Johnstone grabbed a third from Jack Dyson's pass.

An unexpected chance for Birmingham occurred when Manchester's German goalkeeper Trautmann was badly injured making a typically heroic save at Peter Murphy's feet. He played out the last fifteen minutes in great pain, and examination later revealed a broken neck.