The 1904 FA Cup final was a football match between Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City on 23 April 1904 at Crystal Palace in London.

Bolton reached the final in 1894, but were beaten comfortably by Notts County, losing 4–1 at Goodison Park despite a strong performance by goalkeeper John Sutcliffe.

A club record crowd of 30,022 watched the quarter-final against Middlesbrough,[3] but a 0–0 draw meant a replay at Ayresome Park was required, which City won 3–1 to set up a semi-final against The Wednesday.

As a Second Division team with a poor away record, Wanderers were clear underdogs in the quarter-final, particularly in view of Sheffield United's strong home form.

Manchester City arrived on 21 April, and were joined the following day by the Bolton Wanderers,[14] who had spent the earlier part of the week at a training camp in Norbreck, near Blackpool.

[15] London's Morning Leader described the relaxed nature of the Manchester City players, commenting that "they might have been a tug of war eleven out for a holiday".

[18] Also in attendance was Willie Maley, brother of Manchester City's manager Tom and manager of Celtic whose team had won the Scottish Cup the week before by beating Rangers 3-2[19] Manchester City entered the field of play first, led by captain Billy Meredith, with the Bolton team emerging shortly after.

Manchester City won the toss, and elected to play towards the southern end of the ground in the first half,[4] with the wind at their backs.

[20] The opening exchanges were fairly even, the Athletic News reporting that "For some time there was little to choose between the rivals", but that "Manchester were the more systematic and scientific".

[21] Twenty minutes into the game, a pass to the right wing by George Livingstone eluded Bolton's Archie Freebairn,[22] and reached Meredith, who dribbled beyond Bob Struthers for a run on goal.

Match rules Manchester City captain Meredith received the trophy from the serving prime minister,[30] Arthur Balfour, a patron of the club.

Noting that "the game is a good deal changed", he emphasised how the final had demonstrated the importance of teamwork, in contrast to his day when "each man played for himself".

[18] While most of those in attendance behaved well, with few reports of disturbances, later in the day several young men "with provincial accents" appeared at a west London police court charged with drunken disorder.