There were more Cup lowlights than highlights between the wars. It started in the first season, 1919-20, with another home defeat by a non-League side (the last until the 1990s), this time Swindon Town who were 2-1 winners. In the other 19 seasons, there were three memorable Cup sequences, two involving the team as a whole and the third an individual achievement.
In last inter-war campaign, 1938-9, Fulham were paired with Bury in an all-Second Division Third Round tie at the Cottage and emerged 6-0 winners.
The Shakers' task was not made easier by injuries to key players in the days before substitutes, but this should not detract from the remarkable performance of Cottagers' centre forward Ronnie Rooke, who scored all six of his team's goals.
This set a new club record for first-class competitions, passing the five that Fred Harrison had scored in a League match in 1908. Rooke's feat has not been equalled since – in League or Cup. At the time, the win set up a Fourth Round meeting with neighbours Chelsea, who won as easily as the 3-0 scoreline implies. The tie, however, attracted a crowd of 69,987 to the Bridge, the largest for any game involving Fulham up to that point.
Everton feature three times in Fulham's list of major Cup triumphs, the first coming in the Third Round in 1925-6. At a time when the club was struggling at the wrong end of Division Two, they were faced with the daunting prospect of a visit to Goodison Park to take on a First Division side spearheaded by the great Dixie Dean. The 46,000 who turned up to see the formality of a Toffees' victory where disappointed when the visitors snatched a draw.
The replay took place the following Thursday afternoon on a snow-bound Craven Cottage pitch. In freezing conditions, not only did the Cottagers snatch an improbable 1-0 win, thanks to a goal by Bert White, but a new star was born. Teenager Ernie Beecham had been third choice goalkeeper at the start of the season, but was given a chance a few weeks before the Cup tie. On the day, he defied Dean and his international colleagues with a series of breath-taking saves and, when the final whistle went, he was deservedly chaired from the pitch by ecstatic supporters.
In Round Four, Fulham welcomed Everton's neighbours Liverpool (twice League champions in the early 1920s) to the Cottage and almost 37,000 saw the underdogs triumph 3-1, with Albert Pape scoring twice and Fulham's David McNabb getting the better of his brother, Liverpool's, John. Another First Division scalp was claimed in Round Five, Notts County by a lone Bill Prouse goal at Meadow Lane, but hopes of Wembley died in the quarter finals. Hampered by an injury to Alec Chaplin, Fulham lost by the odd goal in three. By doubling prices for the match, moreover, they succeeded in annoying the supporters and keeping the crowd down to just under 27,000.