With their home stadium already booked to host a Rugby International game, Palace were forced to move the tie to neutral territory, and an estimated 1,500 fans made the trip to Stamford Bridge to watch them triumph 4–0 to ensure a place in the draw for the First Round.
The Magpies fielded a side featuring ten internationals, whilst Palace could count only four players who had tasted the Football League.
[2] The stadium was filled with 28,000 Newcastle fans, while no more than a dozen Londoners had made the trip,[2] with Palace themselves believing only two or three of their own supporters were in the crowd.
[6] It was a cold and wet January day, with a light breeze, and the Newcastle fans gave the Palace team a good reception, rather than the hostile one they might have been expecting.
Dickie Roberts, playing on the wing for Palace, was too much for Newcastle's Scottish international defender Andy McCombie, and whilst his crosses were mostly coming to nothing, they were starting to unsettle the crowd.
The opening twenty minutes were largely chance free, but then Roberts turned McCombie once again and had the ball in the net, only for the goal to be disallowed controversially as off-side.
Reports differ as to whether Astley seized on a clearance[2] or received a pass from George Woodger,[8] but the old Millwall opportunist managed to evade the Newcastle defenders and crash a shot past an astonished Jimmy Lawrence.
Both men were injured, and whilst Newcastle pushed Speedie out wide, Palace left Ryan in the middle but also pulled back Woodger, Astley and Harker in an attempt to close the game down.
[2] Hewiston came under terrible pressure for the remainder of the match, with Newcastle forcing a corner which led to a tremendous goal-mouth scramble, ended when the keeper calmly asserted his authority.
[4] With some of the team remaining in the North-East to spend time with family, a depleted squad made the six hour journey home, arriving at midnight.
When the rest of the team returned home on the Monday, an even larger crowd gathered to hoist captain Innerd along to Anerley and back.
[3] While Newcastle featured in five FA Cup finals during the time it was played at Crystal Palace,[1] their only victory came courtesy of a replay at Goodison Park in 1910.
[9] Of the Crystal Palace players involved in the match George Woodger would go on to play for Oldham Athletic and represent England on one occasion, while Charlie Wallace would move to Aston Villa and win both the League in 1910 and the FA Cup in 1913 and 1920.