Pre-match Build-up
The favourites to win the match were Sheffield United. They had combined a successful FA cup run with a strong league campaign where they finished 6th overall but only three points behind the League winners. Their defence was one of the best in the league but they had not managed to score many goals.
Chelsea were statistically the weaker side, whilst they had scored more goals than Sheffield United in the league, their defence was poor and they had conceded many more and lay in the relegation zone. They had however beaten several strong clubs away from home during the FA cup competition and the programme noted that the underdogs had won on six occasions in the previous ten years.
Chelsea also had injury problems: Bob Thomson, their leading goal scorer that season, had been injured in a league game at Bolton Wanderers ten days earlier and was doubtful. Vivian Woodward an amateur and England international who played for Chelsea in peacetime but was currently serving in the British Army, had been given leave to play in the final. However Woodward sportingly insisted that as Thomson had helped the club reach the final, he ought to play in it. There was bad news when Thompson suffered an eye injury, but he played.
Read more about this topic: 1915 FA Cup Final