When Chelsea beat Wrexham in the FA Cup – after 300 minutes of football

Guardian Sport

by Steven Pye

March 5, 2026

The teams meet again on Saturday and in 1982 it took three matches in nine days to find a winner By That 1980s Sports Blog In some ways, history is repeating itself. In 1982, Chelsea and Wrexham met in the FA Cup after they had beaten Hull and Nottingham Forest respectively in previous rounds. The same has happened in 2026; but this is where the similarities end. When the clubs met 44 years ago they were in the second tier and had huge debts. With Chelsea reportedly £1.6m in the red, the future of Stamford Bridge was in doubt as property developers hovered. Relegation-threatened Wrexham spent most of the 1980s merely trying to survive. Continue reading...

Verticals

sports

Originally published on Guardian Sport on 3/5/2026