1951-1960
More southern pain as Newcastle with 3 wins lead the way for the North / Midlands domination of the FA Cup in the fifties.
We had one or two blinding finals in this period. Of course the most famous is probably the 1953 or Matthews Final, but spare a thought also for Bert Trautmann, Manchester City's German goalkeeper and former POW. In the 1956 Final, following a collision with Birmingham's Peter Murphy, Trautmann has continued playing, unbeknownst to him that he had broken his neck (remember there were no substitutes at this time).
Spare a thought too for Bolton Wanderers. In the 1958 final their opponents Manchester United had recently been decimated by the Munich Air Disaster. United had beaten Sheffield Wednesday, West Bromwich and Fulham in the weeks immediately after the disaster to reach the final on a wave of sympathy from the nation. Bolton it seemed couldn't win. Everyone outside of Bolton wanted them to lose anyway, and if they did win they'd be seen as having beaten an under strength opponent.
