1963 FA Cup final

1963 FA Cup final
Event	1962–63 FA Cup
Date	25 May 1963
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	Ken Aston (Ilford)
Attendance	99,604
	← 1962 1964 →

The 1963 FA Cup final was the final of the 1962–63 FA Cup, the 82nd season of England's premier club football competition. The match was played at Wembley Stadium (which was fully roofed for the first time) on 25 May 1963 and contested by Manchester United and Leicester City. United won 3–1, with a goal from Denis Law and two from David Herd, lifting the trophy for the third time, while Leicester had now played in three FA Cup finals and had still yet to win the trophy. Ken Keyworth scored Leicester's goal.

Match

Build-up

Despite fielding nine internationals United had struggled during the season while their opponents City had performed well, doing the league double over United in the process and thus entered the final as slight favourites. The importance of televised coverage came to the fore this year as the two sides tossed for choice of colours despite traditionally wearing red and blue shirts respectively. Those colours would look identical to the viewers on their black and white televisions, so Leicester, having lost the toss, switched to white.

Game

The opening fifteen minutes of the game were error strewn and Leicester could easily have found themselves three goals in front as United's goalkeeper, David Gaskell, presented them with three opportunities to fire into an unguarded net. On each occasion, Keyworth, Stringfellow and Gibson in turn were unable to finish the moves off with a last-ditch United challenge keeping the scoreline level.

Having survived the third scare in the fifteenth minute, United took a stranglehold on the match which they never relinquished, peppering Gordon Banks goalmouth with several shots off target before finally taking the lead after half an hour. A Bobby Charlton shot had been saved comfortably by Banks, who then bowled the ball out to Gibson. Paddy Crerand read the throw and raced in to intercept the ball 25 yards from the Leicester goal before passing to Denis Law, who turned and fired past Banks and two defenders to open the scoring. Indeed, Law could have had a second goal ten minutes later when he took the ball around Banks but was unable to steer the ball into the goal under pressure from two defenders.

Leicester improved at the start of the second half and were presented with yet another chance by the nervous Gaskell, who dropped the ball at the feet of Cross who was unable to get his shot on target. United though gradually regained their supremacy and deservedly sealed Leicester's fate after 57 minutes when a cross field ball from Giles found Charlton unmarked. He raced into the box and shot at Banks who could only parry the shot into the path of David Herd who tapped into the empty net, triggering victorious choruses of "When the reds go marching in" from the United fans.

Leicester got a lifeline with ten minutes left when a speculative Frank McLintock shot was met by Ken Keyworth, who scored with a well-placed diving header. This raised the tension levels but there remained little sign of a Leicester fightback as United continued to dominate, with Law hitting the post with a header a minute before the game was finally won in the 85th minute. The otherwise competent Banks came for a Giles cross and fumbled the ball into the path of Herd, who turned and fired past two defenders on the goal line to complete the victory.

Broadcasting

The game was broadcast live on BBC Television as a cup final special edition of Grandstand, making it the 19th cup final to be broadcast live on television.^{[citation needed]} The programme was presented by David Coleman from the pitch side, where he spent the build-up to the game interviewing the players and officials as they walked onto the field an hour before kick-off. He then handed over to commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme, who was acting as the television commentator for his 11th FA Cup final. The match was broadcast in black and white, so the BBC requested that one team change kit, as the red of Manchester United and blue of Leicester would be indistinguishable to the viewers; Leicester was the team to change, wearing their white away kit. A newsreel broadcast was also shown in cinemas that evening by both Pathé and Movietone, both in colour. BBC Radio coverage was provided by Raymond Glendenning and Alan Clarke, with a young Brian Moore acting as pitchside reporter.

National anthem

In those days, the national anthem was also played after the cup and medals had been presented, but the United players were criticised in the press for not respecting this tradition as they began hoisting Cantwell onto the shoulders of Quixall and Crerand as the band began to play. Nearby journalists had to tell the United players to stop. The playing of the anthem after big matches at Wembley eventually ceased in the 1970s.

Post-match

BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme speculated that United's victory was as a result of the team's greater match sharpness, having had to play to avoid relegation right to the end of the season, while Leicester had lost their sharpness with nothing to play for in the closing weeks of the season.

When interviewed after the match by David Coleman this was a view shared by United manager Matt Busby, who felt that his team were a side of "big game players" while winning captain Noel Cantwell felt that their poor league placing had made it increasingly hard for the team as the season had gone on. Neither Leicester manager Matt Gillies nor captain Colin Appleton offered any excuses, and both merely felt that their side had underperformed on the day and been outplayed by a better team, Appleton adding "I can't understand how that team (United) finished where they did in the league."

Match details

25 May 1963

Leicester City	1–3	Manchester United
Keyworth 80'	Report	Law 30' Herd 57', 85'

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 99,604

Referee: Ken Aston

Leicester City

Manchester United


GK	1	Gordon Banks
RB	2	John Sjoberg
LB	3	Richie Norman
RH	4	Frank McLintock
CH	5	Ian King
LH	6	Colin Appleton (c)
OR	7	Howard Riley
IR	8	Graham Cross
CF	9	Ken Keyworth
IL	10	Dave Gibson
OL	11	Mike Stringfellow
Manager:
Matt Gillies


GK	1	David Gaskell
RB	2	Tony Dunne
LB	3	Noel Cantwell (c)
RH	4	Pat Crerand
CH	5	Bill Foulkes
LH	6	Maurice Setters
OR	7	Johnny Giles
IR	8	Albert Quixall
CF	9	David Herd
IL	10	Denis Law
OL	11	Bobby Charlton
Manager:
Matt Busby

Linesmen:
Hanley (Staffordshire FA)
Pegg (Cambridgeshire FA)

Match rules

90 minutes
30 minutes of extra time if necessary
Replay if scores still level

External links

Line-ups

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Finals	1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
History List of finals Semi-finals Final referees Winning managers Non-English clubs Scottish clubs Non-League clubs in the 5th Round Giant-Killing Award

v t e Leicester City F.C. matches
FA Cup Finals	1949 1961 1963 1969 2021
League Cup Finals	1964 1965 1997 1999 2000
FA Community Shields	1971 2016 2021
Football League play-off Finals	1992 Second Division 1993 First Division 1994 First Division 1996 First Division
Notable league matches	Leicester City 6–6 Arsenal (1930) Southampton 0–9 Leicester City (2019)