Robert Paton opened the scoring for Vale of Leven, but Rangers equalised courtesy of an own goal from John McDougall.

[4] This was the first final not to feature Queen's Park – who had won all three previous tournaments – after they were defeated by Vale of Leven in the quarter-finals.

[2][3] Vale of Leven's previous best run in the competition saw them reach the semi-finals in 1875–76 before losing to eventual winners Queen's Park.

[5] They began the competition with a tightly contested match at North Street Park, Alexandria on 30 September 1876 which they won 1–0.

Vale of Leven became the first team to defeat Queen's Park in the competition's history, ending their stranglehold on the trophy in the process, after winning 2–1 on 30 December 1876.

[11][12] The aftermath of the victory was marred by tense exchanges between the two clubs – whose representatives had already fallen out over arranging a friendly a year earlier – regarding the alleged use of illegal spiked boots by the Vale of Leven players[13] (local businessmen made attempts to resolve this in a positive manner with the creation of the Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup, but the Alexandria club refused to participate in its first year in a further dispute over gate receipt sharing).

[2] They faced Ayrshire side Mauchline in the fourth round, winning 3–0 at Kinning Park thanks to goals from Watson, Marshall and Campbell.

Soon after the start of the second period, Rangers claimed a goal after a goalbound shot crashed off the bar and was punted out by Wood,[25] which caused a pitch invasion of delighted fans, but the umpires agreed the ball had not crossed the line.

Rangers equalized soon after the start of the second half, thanks to a comedy of errors in the Vale defence - a long shot from Campbell was mis-kicked by Wood, who had come out of his goal; McLintock rushed back to clear it, but, seeing McIntyre behind him, hesitated, and McIntyre, perhaps distracted, missed his kick as well, the ball slowly going into the Vale goal.

[33] The Vale was welcomed back to Alexandria by a crowd of 3–4,000, who had been keeping tabs on the match via telegrams sent to the post office, and the players paraded around Main Street and the town centre fountain, serenaded by pipes and rockets.

[39] One sour point was that the Vale withdrew from the Glasgow Charity Cup because of "that most outrageous and unfair reception given to our team...it is hard enough to play a football match and to win it before fair spectators, but to play a match for a public benefit to those who hurl at you only the lowest epithets is doubly hard, and to win it, almost impossible.