Burnley won the competition for the first and (as of 2025) only time, beating Liverpool 1–0 in the final at Crystal Palace, London.
If scores were level after 90 minutes had been played, a replay would take place at the stadium of the second-named team later the same week.
The 12 teams that won through to the main competition from the fifth qualifying round were Football League Second Division club Glossop along with non-league sides Port Vale, South Shields, Southend United, Merthyr Town, Chesterfield, Swansea Town, Chatham, Stoke, Gainsborough Trinity, Norwich City and Gillingham.
The most successful of these were future Football League members Ashington and West Midlands heavyweights Dudley Town, who both reached the fourth qualifying round before going out to Willington and Crewe Alexandra, respectively.
Their meeting at the Vetch Field was the first all-Welsh tie in the main draw of the English Cup competition since Druids had faced off against Chirk in the third round of the 1884–85 tournament.
Fourteen Southern League sides were given byes to the first round to bring the total number of teams up to 64.
The game was the last final at Crystal Palace and was played in front of a reigning monarch, George V, for the first time.