1965 Football League Cup final

The 1965 Football League Cup Final, the fifth to be staged since the competition's inception, was contested between Leicester City and Chelsea over two legs. Leicester, the holders, were aiming to become the first side to retain the trophy while Chelsea were seeking to become the first London side to win it. Chelsea won 3–2 on aggregate, with all the goals coming in the first leg.

Route to the final

Chelsea

Round 2 Birmingham City 0–3 Chelsea Round 3 Chelsea 4–0 Notts County Round 4 Chelsea 3–2 Swansea City Round 5 Workington Town 2–2 Chelsea Round 5 replay Chelsea 2–0 Workington Town Semi-final (1st leg) Aston Villa 2–3 Chelsea Semi-final (2nd leg) Chelsea 1–1 Aston Villa (Chelsea won 4–3 on aggregate)

Leicester City Round 2 Leicester City 0–0 Peterborough United Round 2 Replay Peterborough United 0–2 Leicester City Round 3 Grimsby Town 0–5 Leicester City Round 4 Leicester City 0–0 Crystal Palace Round 4 Replay Crystal Palace 1–2 Leicester City Round 5 Coventry City 1–8 Leicester City Semi-final (1st leg) Plymouth Argyle 0–1 Leicester City Semi-final (2nd leg) Leicester City 3–2 Plymouth Argyle (Leicester City won 4–2 on aggregate)

Match reviews

The final was contested over two home-and-away legs, as was customary for the League Cup at the time.

First leg

The first leg took place on 15 March 1965 at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's home ground. Chelsea took the lead in the match twice, first through Bobby Tambling and then through a penalty kick by captain Terry Venables, but Leicester City equalised on both occasions, via defender Colin Appleton and forward Jimmy Goodfellow. With ten minutes left, Chelsea's Eddie McCreadie received the ball on the edge of his own penalty area and went on a sixty-yard run, dribbling past several Leicester players before slotting the ball past goalkeeper Gordon Banks. The match ended 3–2 in Chelsea's favour. This was in spite of the fact that Chelsea only had ten players on the pitch for most of the match, after Allan Young – in his first and only appearance of the season – had suffered an early injury. (Substitutions were not allowed at the time.)

McCreadie was actually Chelsea's starting left-back by trade; however, due to an injury to forward Barry Bridges, Chelsea manager Tommy Docherty had been forced to deploy McCreadie as an emergency forward, instead of in his usual spot, for the first leg.

Second leg

McCreadie's goal in the first match would ultimately prove to be the difference in the tie. The second leg was played at Leicester's Filbert Street on 5 April and ended in a 0–0 draw, giving Chelsea a 3–2 aggregate win and the League Cup championship. Although Leicester applied strong pressure and were in control of much of the match, they were unable to make a critical breakthrough in their home leg, as both sides kept clean sheets. Chelsea centre-halves Frank Upton and John Mortimore – neither of whom had played in the first leg – performed admirably in the second leg and were instrumental in preventing Leicester from creating chances.

For Chelsea, this marked the first-ever domestic cup title in the club's history (they would not win their first FA Cup until 1970).

Players and officials

First leg

GK 1 Template:Flagicon Peter Bonetti CH 2 Template:Flagicon Marvin Hinton FB 3 Template:Flagicon Ron Harris FB 4 Template:Flagicon John Hollins CH 5 Template:Flagicon Allan Young CH 6 Template:Flagicon John Boyle OR 7 Template:Flagicon Bert Murray MF 8 Template:Flagicon George Graham FW 9 Template:Flagicon Eddie McCreadie MF 10 Template:Flagicon Terry Venables (c) OL 11 Template:Flagicon Bobby Tambling Manager: Template:Flagicon Tommy Docherty

GK 1 Template:Flagicon Gordon Banks CH 2 Template:Flagicon John Sjoberg FB 3 Template:Flagicon Richie Norman FB 4 Template:Flagicon Len Chalmers CH 5 Template:Flagicon Ian King WH 6 Template:Flagicon Colin Appleton (c) W 7 Template:Flagicon Billy Hodgson IR 8 Template:Flagicon Graham Cross FW 9 Template:Flagicon Jimmy Goodfellow IL 10 Template:Flagicon David Gibson W 11 Template:Flagicon Tom Sweenie Manager: Template:Flagicon Matt Gillies

Second leg

GK 1 Template:Flagicon Gordon Banks RB 2 Template:Flagicon Clive Walker LB 3 Template:Flagicon Richie Norman MF 4 Template:Flagicon Bobby Roberts CH 5 Template:Flagicon John Sjoberg CH 6 Template:Flagicon Colin Appleton (c) W 7 Template:Flagicon Billy Hodgson IR 8 Template:Flagicon Graham Cross FW 9 Template:Flagicon Jimmy Goodfellow IL 10 Template:Flagicon David Gibson W 11 Template:Flagicon Mike Stringfellow Manager: Template:Flagicon Matt Gillies

GK 1 Template:Flagicon Peter Bonetti CH 2 Template:Flagicon Marvin Hinton FB 3 Template:Flagicon Eddie McCreadie FB 4 Template:Flagicon Ron Harris CH 5 Template:Flagicon John Mortimore CH 6 Template:Flagicon Frank Upton OR 7 Template:Flagicon Bert Murray MF 8 Template:Flagicon John Boyle FW 9 Template:Flagicon Barry Bridges MF 10 Template:Flagicon Terry Venables (c) OL 11 Template:Flagicon Bobby Tambling Manager: Template:Flagicon Tommy Docherty

Sources:

External links

• League Cup 1965 at The English Football Archive
• First leg facts Template:Webarchive at soccerbase.com
• Second leg facts Template:Webarchive at soccerbase.com
• Final line-ups at Football Focus