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More than four decades ago, a young kid was given the ultimate treat. Sent to bed early, he was woken up just before midnight to watch something “special.”
Live in glorious monochrome, the 1972 FA Cup Final served to hook that young kid on soccer forever – even if it was constantly called football by his English grandmother.
I’m pretty sure there are many people of my vintage who became hooked on the round ball game in exactly the same way, as the FA Cup final was the only game ever televised live in Australia.
It was English football’s grand finale, the final game of the season in most years, in front of 100,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. The striking all white strip of Leeds United looked the goods on a black and white TV in that 1972 final and I’ve had an affinity for the club ever since, my allegiance tested only when Leeds play Sheffield Wednesday.
It’s somewhat sad that the Cup final has been moved to a late afternoon kick off in recent years, meaning a 2.15am wake up in East Coast Australia. Had that always been the case I may have missed a treasure trove of memories of one of sport’s great events.
Like 1973, when Sunderland did the impossible and beat the mighty Leeds United in the final’s greatest upset. This was not pleasing to me at the time: how could this team I’d faithfully adopted lose to a bunch of blokes almost 40 places lower than them? I had just witnessed my first cup giant-killing act. The image of Sunderland’s eccentric manager Bob Stokoe running to his goalkeeper Jim Montgomery, who had pulled off what is to this day still the greatest save I’ve seen, is still clear to me today.
And I didn’t have long to wait for another one. In 1976, Southampton, then of the 2nd Division, went to Wembley as rank underdogs against Manchester United, although this was a Man United who had unthinkably just bounced back from relegation themselves. Southampton defied the odds and won 1-0, and it was my grandmother who schooled me on the concept of backing the underdog. The FA Cup final had become our tradition, and we didn’t miss one for the next two decades.
The next time a 2nd Division side made the cup final, it was West Ham United, and almost predictably they won the cup by beating Arsenal 1-0 in 1980. That was the last time a club from outside the top tier have won the FA Cup.
The Cup was of course now in glorious colour, and in 1981, us night owls got a double dose of cup final goodness. For the first time in my cup-watching career, the final went to a replay, and that replay remains one of the best cup finals of all time. After a 1-1 draw in the first game, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur had us Eastern Time Zone fanatics rubbing the sleep out of their eyes for a 5.00am midweek kick-off. This was the final where Argentinian Ricky Villa scored one of the great cup final goals to win the game 3-2 for Spurs. Amazingly, the next two finals also went to replays.
In 1986, Craig Johnston became the first Australian to score in a final as Liverpool and Everton ensured Merseyside took over London for the day. Kenny Dalgliesh became the first player-manager to win the league and cup double as he guided Liverpool in that season.
I should not have liked Coventry City for the 1987 FA Cup. After all, they’d eliminated Sheffield Wednesday in the quarters, and then Leeds United in the semis (a Leeds-Sheffield Wednesday semi final? Too good to be true!) But their 3-2 extra time win over Tottenham in the final that year was just as good as that aforementioned 1981 replay, and Coventry manager George Sillet was one of the last great characters of the managerial game.
The 1990 final could without any exaggeration have been the match to change the course of history. Manchester United were losing patience with their manager of four seasons, and the unofficial edict given to him was to win some silverware or be on your way. United came from 3-1 down in extra time against rank outsiders Crystal Palace to draw 3-3 and won the replay 1-0, probably saving Alex Ferguson’s job. What might have happened to the course of English football history had Palace hung on?
The FA Cup semi finals came to Wembley in 1993 and for me, it was a wonderful personal memory. The Steel City emptied as Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United played a memorable semi, won 2-1 by the Owls. Wednesday played Arsenal in the Final and my grandma and mum got to see their hometown team in the final – twice, as it turned out. Another replay, and Arsenal scored in the last minute of extra time in an exhausting replay to win 2-1. Very cruel.
It was by then the mid nineties and the English Premier League widened the gap in quality between the top tier of English football and the rest. As a result, those romantic cup runs by lower tier sides became more and more infrequent, and the cup was dominated by the so-called “Big Four”. The advent of the European Champions League to replace the European Cup seemed to dilute the importance of the FA Cup. It was also not quite as “special” anymore as it was not the only live football broadcast but us Generation X devotees kept on watching, rubbing the midnight grit from our eyes, hoping sides like Millwall, Portsmouth or Cardiff City could write their names into giant-killing folklore.
The cup romantics will be hoping Wigan Athletic can defy the odds and beat Manchester City in this weekend’s final, although they would probably swap a Cup winners medal for Premier League survival. Such is the way of the modern football world.
That and 2.15am kick offs.
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