On the national stage, however, Redcar & Coatham had the best run in the FA Cup for a team from the north-east in the pre-Football League era.

After beating Sunderland again and Lincoln Lindum F.C., and receiving a bye, the club finally got a measure of revenge over Middlesbrough by winning 2–1 in a snowstorm at the Cricket Ground.

[7] The win put Redcar into the quarter-finals, but the club was unlucky with the draw, being forced to travel to Birmingham to meet Small Heath Alliance on a Coventry Road pitch so notable for its furrows and divots that richer sides had previously paid the Heathens to switch venues, although the local media were optimistic that Redcar had drawn "the weakest club of the lot to tackle".

[9] With professionalism now allowed in football, the larger towns of Sunderland and Newcastle, as well as Middlesbrough, now started to take the game more seriously, and Redcar was unable to retain its best players.

The club only won one more FA Cup tie before qualifying rounds were introduced and it retreated to the "non-league" game, playing junior football.