Tommy Cooks up a Brighton hat-trick to feed Everton FA Cup humble pie
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Brighton & Hove Albion had something of a reputation as giantkillers. Some of the biggest clubs in the country came unstuck against Charlie Webb’s Division Three South outfit in the FA Cup with the biggest shock of all the shocks reserved for the visit of Everton to Brighton in the 1923-24 season.
Everton were good. In fact, their team of the early 1920s was one of the finest that the Toffees have ever had. They never won a trophy – it took Dixie Dean’s arrival in 1925 to bring the Division One title to Goodison Park – but they really should have done.
When the FA Cup second round draw sent Everton to Brighton on February 2nd 1924, their chances of ending that trophy drought looked good.
The Albion may have caused a bit of a stir by eliminating Division Two Barnsley in the previous round via a replay, but the Seagulls would surely be no match for the mighty Evertonians.
That is what the Liverpool newspapers would tell anyone who would listen. On the eve of the match, one particularly bullish piece from Merseyside read: “There has never been quite so good an Everton as now. Their attack has no superior in the country. Everton’s middle line hasn’t an equal, so that all round the prospects seem distinctly favourable for the Tofeemen.”
Even The Athletic News, the voice of football until the emergence of Sunday newspapers in the late 1920s, said of Everton: “No team in the country has served up more delightful football.”
Such faith in Everton was understandable. They had six full internationals in their stating XI; England’s Sam Chedgzoy and Jack Cock, Alec Troup and Neil McBain of Scotland, and Ireland’s Alf Harland and Bobby Irvine. It appeared on paper a total mismatch.
As we all know though, football is not played on paper. Brighton had a pretty handy player of their own, a certain Tommy Cook, and for all the internationals Everton possessed, they could find no way to contain the Albion’s record scorer who bagged a hat-trick in a stunning 5-2 FA Cup triumph.
A record Goldstone crowd of 27,450 turned up to watch Everton’s star-studded line up. They left with the name of Cook firmly on their lips and a year after his heroics against the Toffees, he would become the first Brighton player to earn an England cap – an extraordinary achievement for someone playing third tier football at the time.
Things looked like they were going to be as comfortable for Everton as the newspapers were expecting when Cock put the visitors 1-0 ahead in the seventh minute.
Three minutes later and Cook equalised, only for Wilf Chadwick to put the visitors back into the lead. Just before half time and Brighton again levelled through Wally Little from the penalty spot.
Little was an extraordinarily good penalty taker, scoring 26 times from 12 yards in his Brighton career – a club record. He left Harland in the Everton goal with no chance, despatching in his favoured place of the top corner, just inside the post. Oh to have a Brighton player who could take penalties like that in 2021.
Tug Wilson and Jimmy Hopkins had caused Everton problems that they probably not expecting throughout the first half. In the second half, Brighton’s wide forwards kicked things up another notch to produce three unanswered goals as the Albion ran riot.
Shortly after the break and Hopkins hit a fierce drive which Harland could only parry, leaving Cook to produce a clinical poacher’s finish from the rebound.
Everton were reeling and their afternoon was about to go from bad to worse when Cook rounded off his hat-trick with 63 minutes played. Andy Neil then completed the rout late on to leave the football world stunned.
Back on Merseyside and there should have been a lot of humble pie to be eaten by pundits afterwards. Except of course not many in Liverpool were willing to give the Albion the credit they deserved.
One newspaper said: “Brighton’s best were Wilson, at outside left, (Jack) Nightingale at outside right, and (George) Coomber, at centre half, together with the snap-chance artist Cook.”
“Cook did not stand out on his own in spite of his three goals. He just kept his position, kept the ball going, and shot instantly the chance showed itself. That was why Brighton scored so heavily.”
A third tier striker scoring a hat-trick against one of the best clubs in the land not standing out on his own? Sounds like a report which could be a forerunner of Teams Like Brighton…
The national press were happier to honour the Albion for their achievement. The Sunday Post said that the result, “was one of the biggest surprises of the round, but none would deny that it was deserved.”
Cook was described as, “one of the most dangerous centres in England,” whilst another newspaper reported on Brighton 5-2 Everton in the FA Cup as “sending shockwaves around the country.”
The biggest praise though came from Albion manager Webb himself. When looking back over his 28 years in charge at the Goldstone upon his retirement in 1947, Webb said of his side that beat Everton: “They gave the best cup exhibition of any Albion team under my management.”
Given that the man oversaw all of Brighton’s other famous giant killing acts of the 1920s and 1930s, that is pretty high praise – and why Brighton 5-2 Everton must rank as the Albion’s greatest ever FA Cup result.
Brighton: Billy Hayes, Jack Thompson, Jack Jenkins, Billy McAllister, George Coomber, Wally Little, Jack Nightingale, Andy Neil, Tommy Cook, Jimmy Hopkins, Tug Wilson.
Scorers: Cook (3), Little, Neil.
Everton: Alf Harland, Dugald Livingstone, John McDonald, William Brown, John Peacock, Neil McBain, Alec Troup, Sam Chedgzoy, Jack Cock, Bobby Irvine, Wilf Chadwick.
Scorers: Cock, Chadwick.
Attendance: 27,450
