John Hawley Edwards scored for the Wanderers, but the Etonians equalised with a goal credited in modern publications to Alexander Bonsor, although contemporary newspaper reports do not definitively identify him as the scorer.

[6] The members of the Wanderers club were wealthy gentlemen who had attended some of the leading English public schools, including Harrow and Eton College.

Old Etonians, the team specifically for former pupils of Eton,[7] first entered the FA Cup in the 1873–74 season but withdrew without playing a match.

[12][13] At the quarter-final stage, the Wanderers took on Sheffield, the only team left in the competition from the north of England, and won 2–0, and the Etonians gained a 1–0 victory over Clapham Rovers.

The Etonians beat the 1874 FA Cup winners Oxford University 1–0 in the first semi-final on 19 February, and a week later Wanderers clinched their place in the final, defeating the Slough-based club Swifts 2–1.

[18] Three sets of brothers played in the match: Francis and Hubert Heron lined up for the Wanderers, while the Etonians' team included Hon.

[24] A reporter for The Observer noted that "the game was carried on with great spirit by both sides without much advantage to either" for 35 minutes until Charles Wollaston eluded Thompson and passed the ball to John Hawley Edwards.

With what a reporter for The Daily Telegraph called a "very fine kick", he put the ball into the Etonians' goal to give Wanderers the lead.

[18][27] Following their equaliser, the Etonians had the better of the play for a short time before their opponents began to dominate, the Wanderers' forwards passing the ball between themselves well.

[26] The referee had the option to order thirty minutes of extra time but chose not to exercise this due to a number of players struggling with injuries.

The Wanderers fielded an unchanged team, but the Etonians had to make a number of changes, as Meysey was injured and three other players were unavailable due to other commitments.

One of the replacements, Edgar Lubbock, had not long recovered from a bout of illness and was noted as being out of practice, and Kinnaird was still suffering the after-effects of an injury sustained in the original match.

[30] William Rawson, who had played for Oxford University in the 1874 final, was the referee, replacing W. S. Buchanan, who had undertaken the role for the original match.

[33] The Etonians began the match playing in a rough manner,[30] and there were many appeals from the players of both teams for handball, which resulted in a series of free kicks, all of which came to nothing.

[33] After around half an hour, the Wanderers' forwards surged towards their opponents' goal and Wollaston got the final kick which sent the ball past Wilson.

[33] Shortly afterwards, Edwards, Francis Heron, and Jarvis Kenrick combined in a skilful attack and set up Hughes to score his second goal of the game.

[28][31][35] After this, according to The Daily Telegraph's report, William Kenyon-Slaney of the Etonians "dribbled the ball beautifully down the ground", resulting in the game's first corner kick.

[39][40] A week after the replay, four of the victorious Wanderers players were included in a select team which represented London in a match against an equivalent side from Sheffield.

[45] They reached the final again four years later but lost to Blackburn Olympic, the first occasion on which a team from a working-class background had won the Cup.