ST GEORGE'S DAY-A WELSH CELEBRATION!

It is St George's Day (April 23rd) and it would be good to tell you about the success of an England club but unfortunately in 1927, on this day, the unthinkable! The English FA Cup was taken out of the country for the first time and so far, for the ONLY time, when Cardiff City beat The Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley. Cardiff fielded the youngest ever player to appear in an FA Cup Final; Cardiff's Ernie Curtis, who died in November 1992 at the age of 85, was the last surviving player from the final. He had been the youngest player in the match, aged 19 years and 317 days.

and their keeper, Tom Farquarson, was rumoured to be a member of the IRA, who always carried a gun with him....in the goal? 

Oh and by the way, whilst Herbert Chapman's Arsenal were star studded, the Cardiff squad went for a round of golf at Royal Birkdale. Round the course, a small black cat, called Trixie, followed the lads from hole to hole and so the players regarded it as a good luck omen....Team captain, Hughie Ferguson, persauded the cat owner to let the team take it to the game and the owner could not refuse because he was given a Cup Final ticket!

The Final was a dull affair but in the 74th minute Ferguson shot to the bottom right of the Arsenal goal , Arsenal's Welsh goalie dived, appeared to gather the ball, but it slithered out of this grasp and he knoCked the ball into the goal with his elbow! It was/is the first time the FA Cup has not been won by a club from England! Who knows what happened to Trixie?

Meanwhile, Cardiff were unable to add to their solitary FA Cup win in the 2008 FA Cup Final, but their opponents on the day, Portsmouth, also had something to celebrate on this day in 1949, when they won their first ever League Title, beating Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park, capping their Golden Jubilee in style.