The Wanderers, who were considered firm favourites to win the Cup for the third consecutive season, took the lead after only five minutes through Jarvis Kenrick, but the Engineers quickly equalised.

[13] The Wanderers were allocated a home match against Panthers in the first round and easily defeated their opponents 9–1, with Hubert Heron scoring four goals.

[13][14] The Wanderers were considered strong favourites to secure another victory when they faced Barnes in the third round,[16] but the match ended in a 1–1 draw, necessitating a replay.

[14][19] In the quarter-finals the Wanderers defeated Sheffield 3–0 and then, with an uneven number of teams remaining in the competition, they received a bye into the final.

[13][21] The "Sappers", as the Corps of Royal Engineers is traditionally nicknamed, went on to defeat Pilgrims 6–0 and Druids 8–0 in the second and third rounds respectively,[13] with a hat-trick in both matches from Lieut.

[29] James Kirkpatrick played in goal for the Wanderers; having turned 37 the previous day he was the oldest player to appear in a Cup final to date.

[10][31] The Wanderers, who were considered the firm favourites by the book-makers,[32] won the pre-match coin toss and chose to defend the Harleyford Road end of the ground in the first half.

[32][33] Immediately after falling behind, according to a report published in the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, the Engineers "charged desperately on the opening goal" and their opponents "had rather a rough time of it".

Modern sources list Kinnaird as the goalscorer,[7] but some contemporary reports suggest that, following his free kick, another goalmouth scramble ensued in front of the Engineers' goal before the ball was forced over the line, again making the actual scorer unclear.

[34][39] Shortly before half-time, Charles Wollaston took a shot for the Wanderers but it went wide of the goal; at the break his team held a 2–1 lead.

[34][40] Shortly after the half-time interval, Hedley appeared to have brought the scores level once again, but the goal was disallowed due to an infringement of the offside rule.

[40] After around twenty minutes of the second period, Heron of Wanderers made a run down the left side of the pitch and crossed the ball into the centre; Morris missed the ball and Heron regained control of it and passed it to Kenrick, who scored his second goal of the game, giving the Wanderers a 3–1 lead.

[34] As was the norm until 1882, the winning team were not presented with the trophy at the stadium on the day of the match, but later in the year at their annual club dinner.

The match between the winners of England and Scotland's national football competitions generated significant interest, but the size of the crowd was impacted by very bad weather.

[11] Wanderers' fortunes declined rapidly, partly because many of the team's leading players opted to play instead for the clubs set up specifically for the former pupils of individual schools.

The team last took part in the FA Cup in the 1879–80 season,[47] and by the mid-1880s the Wanderers club had ceased to play matches altogether.