The Cup Shall Come South!

Meet the West Ham team of 1923, about to contest the first FA Cup final to be held at Wembley Stadium.

A simple film, showing close-up portraits of West Ham’s starting XI for the upcoming FA Cup final against Bolton Wanderers at Wembley. All eleven players are captioned and filmed one by one. They smile awkwardly, or grin and laugh at off-camera antics. There’s an intriguing underlying discomfort on display, an unfamiliarity with the form. West Ham ultimately lost 2-0, the game overshadowed by the chaos caused by the huge number of people that tried to enter the stadium.