Cardiffdaffs
Well-known member
Of those four fixtures had the first two been the other way round I would definitely liked to have seen them. Yes to the third and fourth.
FA Cup lost appeal?
- Thread starter Northerner
- Start date
FA Cup Grandstand long forgotten .. as a previous poster said as a school kid you would get excited about the FA Cup final a game you could actually watch live on TV including hours and hours of build up
First 1 i can recall at 47 is the Norman Whiteside Final where Kevin Moran was sent off, then Liverpool v Everton, Coventry v Spurs (Keith Houchen), the crazy gang winning the cup against all the odds, liverpool v everton (again), the Ian Wright final Palace v Man Utd (with the left back who's name escapes me getting the winner in the replay where Jim Leighton was dropped), the Gazza final where Lineker misses a penalty (Forest at this point were getting to cup finals whether it be the FA/Littlewoods or SIMOD Cup) which incidently is the first season i remember a Wembley semi final between Spurs and Arsenal which was the start of ruining semi finals!
The Mackems reaching the Final as a 2nd tier club (1st NE team too since they won it in 73), Arsenal v Sheff Wed (which i think was also the line up for the league cup final that season?) Then after that im struggling with years/seasons ... there was the spice boys final where Cantona got the winner, followed by the fastest goal (at the time) in an FA Cup Final (less said about that 1 the better), the Mags reaching 2 concecutive finals (and thankfully losing) followed by Chelsea v Villa at the Old Wembley
The magic must have wore off for me by this point as i can only remember the Steven Gerrard final at Cardiff (the last of 6 played there) looking at the results didnt Sunderland lose to Millwall in one of those semi finals and we also lost to Arsenal with a Festa og?
Since Wimbledon won it in 88 only portsmouth, Wigan and Leicester are the unfashionable clubs to have lifted the trophy, but leicester have been premier league champions.
First 1 i can recall at 47 is the Norman Whiteside Final where Kevin Moran was sent off, then Liverpool v Everton, Coventry v Spurs (Keith Houchen), the crazy gang winning the cup against all the odds, liverpool v everton (again), the Ian Wright final Palace v Man Utd (with the left back who's name escapes me getting the winner in the replay where Jim Leighton was dropped), the Gazza final where Lineker misses a penalty (Forest at this point were getting to cup finals whether it be the FA/Littlewoods or SIMOD Cup) which incidently is the first season i remember a Wembley semi final between Spurs and Arsenal which was the start of ruining semi finals!
The Mackems reaching the Final as a 2nd tier club (1st NE team too since they won it in 73), Arsenal v Sheff Wed (which i think was also the line up for the league cup final that season?) Then after that im struggling with years/seasons ... there was the spice boys final where Cantona got the winner, followed by the fastest goal (at the time) in an FA Cup Final (less said about that 1 the better), the Mags reaching 2 concecutive finals (and thankfully losing) followed by Chelsea v Villa at the Old Wembley
The magic must have wore off for me by this point as i can only remember the Steven Gerrard final at Cardiff (the last of 6 played there) looking at the results didnt Sunderland lose to Millwall in one of those semi finals and we also lost to Arsenal with a Festa og?
Since Wimbledon won it in 88 only portsmouth, Wigan and Leicester are the unfashionable clubs to have lifted the trophy, but leicester have been premier league champions.
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TeaCider
Well-known member
One of the reasons the FA Cup used to be bigger is because it was one of the few matches on live tv, that's no longer the case.
You can watch live football every day now.
I don't think Man United skipping a year is the reason for the decline, as some of have said, it was just another sign that it had already set in.
You can watch live football every day now.
I don't think Man United skipping a year is the reason for the decline, as some of have said, it was just another sign that it had already set in.
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Looking back at the league cup i think the first one i can recall is Nigel Pearson lifting the cup for the Owls and that wasnt until 1991 but looking back the leage cup has given alot of unfashionable teams a crack of winning a domestic trophy after Liverpool's dominance 81-84 we saw finals including norwich v sunderland, oxford v qpr, luton town v arsenal, notts forest v oldham (who i seem to recall had 2 good cup runs in both cups), Liverpool v bolton, aston villa v leeds, leicester v boro, leicester v tranmere, blackburn v spurs, boro v bolton, birmingham v arsenal and last but not least swansea v bradford in 2013 (the last final not won by one of the big 6)
The FA Cup winners earned a spot in the Cup Winners Cup, who was the first team to qualify for the UEFA Cup by winning the League Cup? (We know we can trace it back to 2004)
Im not convinced the runners up got the place if a top4 team won it unlike the FA Cup. I think only the winners of the FA Cup now get a route into Europe too but its hard to workout as its usually a champions league team that wins the cup.
Hull City got a place in Europe i seem ti recall off the back of a cup final but didnt get very far
The FA Cup winners earned a spot in the Cup Winners Cup, who was the first team to qualify for the UEFA Cup by winning the League Cup? (We know we can trace it back to 2004)
Im not convinced the runners up got the place if a top4 team won it unlike the FA Cup. I think only the winners of the FA Cup now get a route into Europe too but its hard to workout as its usually a champions league team that wins the cup.
Hull City got a place in Europe i seem ti recall off the back of a cup final but didnt get very far
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atypical_boro
Well-known member
May have already been said but we once beat Man Utd in mid-Jan in the FA Cup and the Riverside was half full. 2001/2002 I think.
I appreciate the argument about United’s withdrawal from the cup after they won the CL in 1999 for one year, but that was 23 season ago. I don’t think it can be solely blamed for the reduced interest.
If you look at how many clubs have actually won it in the last 40 years, it’s not hard to see why not many fans outside the “big 6” (ok, plus Everton) care about it.
There will have been a time when it felt like anyone could win it. Outside of that big 7, since 1980ish, there’s been about 4 single time winners. Cov, Wimbledon, Pompey and Wigan. You’re lucky if it’s one per decade.
I appreciate the argument about United’s withdrawal from the cup after they won the CL in 1999 for one year, but that was 23 season ago. I don’t think it can be solely blamed for the reduced interest.
If you look at how many clubs have actually won it in the last 40 years, it’s not hard to see why not many fans outside the “big 6” (ok, plus Everton) care about it.
There will have been a time when it felt like anyone could win it. Outside of that big 7, since 1980ish, there’s been about 4 single time winners. Cov, Wimbledon, Pompey and Wigan. You’re lucky if it’s one per decade.
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I'm almost sure that was due to the ticket prices and the game being live on the BBC (as was the Everton game) I think both clubs have to agree on the pricing and as we know Man Utd like to set theirs as high as possible
atypical_boro
Well-known member
Ticket prices were same as a league game tho. If people viewed the tournament as equally important, they’d still go.
I'm trying to answer my own question and have come up with an interesting stat via wikipeida with regards to Pompey finishing runners up of the FA Cup in 2010 wiki says they were denied their place in the Europa League due to not having a UEFA licence
Liverpool in effect qualified for Europe due to this
Liverpool in effect qualified for Europe due to this
- England (ENG): Portsmouth, the runners-up of the 2009–10 FA Cup to Champions League-qualified Chelsea, did not obtain a UEFA licence, meaning they could not qualify for Europe. Portsmouth had appealed to UEFA, the Premier League and the English FA, but the latter two would not allow late applications for the licence.[11] As a result, the seventh-placed team of the 2009–10 Premier League, Liverpool, claimed the Europa League spot in the third qualifying round.
Corcaigh_the_Cat
Well-known member
Yes, corruption isn't limited to FIFA. Our FA is just as bad.
Capybara
Well-known member
It was a dinnertime* kick-off, it was live on the telly, and Boro charged full price. That's why people stayed away. Opposition was irrelevant.
* although @willoughby famously missed it by staying in the pub as he thought it was a 3 pm kick-off
atypical_boro
Well-known member
If it had been a PL match it would have had a bigger attendance than it had. Hence, the fact it was the FA Cup was relevant.
Cardiffdaffs
Well-known member
If we had drawn Man United in the Cup at home, played at 3pm and not on Sky my considered guess would be we would get a considerably bigger crowd. Particularly now when games against Premier League opposition are precious.
Capybara
Well-known member
I didn't say it wasn't. It was entirely relevant. The ground was still mostly season tickets but people were reluctant to shell out on an extra game for the reasons I quoted. The club charged full price because it was Manyoo. They learned a lesson that day.
atypical_boro
Well-known member
I agree now it would be, but at the time it was just seen as a run of the mill match and even beating United around that time wasn’t rare. I think the PL held bigger appeal to more of our fans in those days, and since then most PL fans have had the same approach.
atypical_boro
Well-known member
But my point was that if fans really did cherish the FA Cup back then (in my opinion they didn’t and had stopped caring about the early rounds of the FA Cup long before that) they’d have expected to pay full price. but they don’t and haven’t for a long time.
It is a long time since an early rounds FA cup match has been viewed on a level pegging with a PL match for most PL fans (including us when we were in it).
Capybara
Well-known member
Fair enough. I'm not sure that it came out of not holding the FA Cup in high regard, more that it was because of the season ticket culture which arose when we moved to the Riverside. Prior to that people used to pick and choose which games they went to but by 2001 most people had season tickets so an FA Cup game was an extra game to purchase
atypical_boro
Well-known member
I’m sure there’s some truth in that, and I’m sure the reasons for the low attendance were down to a combination of factors, but my overarching point is really just that I think at some point in the late 90s (and not just after United didn’t enter) PL fans started to view the PL as a much more important competition and the FA Cup as just a Brucie Bonus. Football had a lot of new fans in the 90s, many of whom I dare say just weren’t that acutely aware of the FA cup’s tradition/history etc.
I think this is driven by the fact that in the 90s the big 4-5 started to win the FA cup almost every year (depending on your view of the big 5 which did include Spurs/Everton in the early 90s), unlike the 80s and 70s where it seemed to be shared out a lot more.
If I’m being brutally honest I don’t really care if we lose next week. I’d care more if we were in the PL and I thought we had a team that had the smallest chance of actually winning the cup.