1970 FA Cup final

The final at Wembley was scheduled for 11 April, around a month earlier than was typical for FA Cup finals, due to the FA's wish for the England national team, who were world champions and were defending their trophy in Mexico, to have time to acquaint themselves to the Mexican climate.[7] The poor state of the pitch is sometimes erroniously explained by the Horse of the Year Show being held there a week before. The Horse of the Year Show was held at Wembley Arena. The International Horse Show was held at the stadium the previous July, but the pitch was relaid later in the year.[8][9]

In a game where Leeds were generally seen to have had the best of the play – with winger Eddie Gray, named man of the match, in particular giving David Webb a torrid time – the Yorkshiremen took the lead after 20 minutes when Jack Charlton's downward header from a corner did not bounce in the muddy pitch, defending Chelsea player Eddie McCreadie mis-timed his attempted clearance and the ball rolled over the line. Towards the end of the first half, Chelsea's Peter Houseman drove a low shot from 20 yards (18 m), which rolled under goalkeeper Gary Sprake's body for the equaliser. Leeds appeared to have secured the game six minutes from full-time when an Allan Clarke header hit the post and Mick Jones reacted first to put the ball into the net, but two minutes later Ian Hutchinson headed in the equaliser from John Hollins' cross. There were no more goals scored during the 30-minute extra time and the two squads took a joint lap of honour.

The Wembley pitch, after the game, was in such appalling condition, as it was for much of the game itself, that the Football Association decided to stage the replay at Manchester's Old Trafford stadium.

The replay at Old Trafford, watched by a television audience of 28 million,[10] a record for an FA Cup final, became one of the most notorious clashes in English football for the harshness of play, which exceeded the previous game at Wembley. The referee in charge of both games, 47-year-old Eric Jennings from Stourbridge, in his last season as a Football League referee, allowed rough play by both sides throughout, playing the advantage to its full extent. He booked only one player, Ian Hutchinson of Chelsea, during the game.

Only one change was made in either line-up, with Leeds United replacing goalkeeper Gary Sprake with David Harvey.

Modern-day referee David Elleray reviewed the match in 1997, and concluded that the sides would have received six red cards and twenty yellow cards between them, in the modern era of football.[11] Tommy Baldwin and Terry Cooper, admittedly two of the quieter men in the two sides, were kicking lumps out of one another, as the battle began. Not long into the game, Chelsea's Ron Harris caught winger Eddie Gray with a kick to the back of the knee, an action which neutralised the Scottish winger for the rest of the game. Norman Hunter and Ian Hutchinson traded punches while Eddie McCreadie, in his own penalty area, made a flying kick to Billy Bremner's head and Johnny Giles also lunged at a Chelsea opponent. Charlton kneed and headbutted Peter Osgood while Chelsea's goalkeeper Peter Bonetti was injured after being bundled into the net by Leeds' Jones, who, minutes later, shot past the limping Bonetti for the opening goal.

Chelsea equalised twelve minutes before the end, after a flowing move, from which Osgood scored with a diving header from a Charlie Cooke cross. Jackie Charlton should have been marking Osgood but had 'lost' him while chasing Hutchinson to exact retribution for a deadleg administered in the Chelsea penalty area a minute or so earlier. In scoring, Osgood became the last player to date to have scored in every round of the FA Cup. With the game ending 1–1, the final once again went into extra time. One minute before the first period of extra time was to end, Chelsea's Hutchinson sent in a long throw-in that missed almost every player in the penalty area but came off Charlton's head towards the far post, before being put into the unguarded net by Webb to give Chelsea the lead for the first time in the two games. They kept the lead until the end, securing their first FA Cup win.[12]