* The Unofficial "Official" FA Cup: Boro v Brighton. Match-Day Thread *

r00fie1

Well-known member
🏆

"I believe in the players. I believe in the squad and we`ll go out to win the game"


0_FA-Cup-Boro.jpg
Michael Carrick is no stranger when it comes to winning football trophies. He had to wait right untill the end of his career before he won the FA Cup with Manchester United. For him "as a kid...I dreamed of winning the FA Cup". That fire and dream hasnt faded one little bit. At his [pre-Brighton] media conference he reasserted his belief in the magic of the FA Cup. In the nature of things he said he saw it as another opportunity to improve and for the team "to put in a good performance". Asked by a journalist from a National, about prioritising League games over the FA Cup (?) Did that worry hm about picking the team? His replie was amusing, if not what you normally expect to hear from Managers: "I`m not worried about it at all if I`m honest......". Michael Carrick is the ultra-professional. He repeated what Boro fans have been hearing from the moment he walked into our club: players and staff are here to win footbasll matches. It doesnt matter whether its the League or Cup games. They all count. He commented that Boro will judge their progress in the League at the end of the season. For now, its the FA Cup and thats the next challenge. Bring on the Seagulls!

Michael Carrick:
1673030618774.png
"I`m a massive fan of the FA Cup.
Its an important part of our game,
in the history of this country and through-out the world".


As a player and a Manager:
"Its what you play football for.
For the big occasions"

To test yourself.

Team for the game?
"We are going to need everyone in the group".
In recent games and in training: "The reaction, the attitude and application has been spot on".

"I value it [FA Cup] immensley and the players do, so we are looking forward to it".

"I believe in the players.
I believe in the squad and we`ll go out to win the game"!
 
BANNER MAIN.jpg

A Seagull`s Eye View:
1673030981411.png

By Charlie Hanson.

1673031016743.png
Albion begin their journey in this season’s Emirates FA Cup on Saturday when they head to Middlesbrough.

We reached the fourth round of the competition last season after beating West Bromwich Albion 2-1 before suffering a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham.

Boro reached the quarter-finals, beating Manchester United on penalties before seeing off Spurs in the fifth round. Their fine run was brought to an end by Chelsea, who won 2-0 at the Riverside.

Former United and England midfielder Michael Carrick took over as Boro boss from Chris Wilder in late October and has seen his side embark on a terrific run in the Championship. They have won seven of their last nine league games and have climbed to fifth in the table, although they did lose to League One Barnsley 1-0 at home in the Carabao Cup back in August.

Team news

Speaking ahead of the game, Roberto De Zerbi said that Danny Welbeck is fit and will be in the squad. Deniz Undav is also available after missing the last two games to offer another option up front but Adam Webster is still out. De Zerbi hinted that it will be a strong squad heading north. "I have the Charlton experience in my head, it's an important game for us."

We last met Boro, also in the FA Cup, five years ago when Glenn Murray fired home in the 90th minute to secure a 1-0 victory in a fourth round tie. Of the squad used that day only Lewis Dunk and Pascal Gross are still at the club.

The only previous FA Cup meeting between the clubs took place back in 1906, when Middlesbrough won 3-1 after two 1-1 draws. Our FA Cup victory in 2018 is one of only ten wins we have had in 47 meetings against them. Albion won twice there in 2013, 2-0 in April and 1-0 in December but they were our first wins against Middlesbrough since a 1-0 victory at the Goldstone in February 1990 when Mark Barham scored the only goal in front of just 5,504 fans.

Player to watch
BRIGHTON_-_HOVE_ALBION_BLACKBURN_ROVERS_01APR17_BD07
[Photo: By Bennett Dean]. Chuba Akpom joined Albion on loan from Arsenal in 2017.


Former Albion striker Chuba Akpom is enjoying the best form of his career in front of goal. His effort in Monday’s 3-1 win at Birmingham City was his 13th of the season and ninth since the arrival of Michael Carrick. It included a hat-trick in the 4-1 victory over Wigan Athletic on Boxing Day. Akpom was an Arsenal player when Chris Hughton signed him on loan in January 2017. He started just once, in a 1-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers during the promotion run-in, and made eight further appearances off the bench, including the 2-1 Amex victory against Wigan which clinched promotion.

The stats

  • Brighton have won three of their last five away games against Middlesbrough in all competitions (D2), with these coming between 2013 and 2018. They'd only won one of their first 19 visits against them (D6 L12).
  • Since promotion to the Premier League in 2017, Brighton have lost just one of their nine FA Cup ties against sides from a lower division, losing 1-0 to Sheffield Wednesday in the third round in 2019-20.
  • Brighton have won 11 of their last 13 FA Cup third round ties, only going out at this stage in this run in 2015-16 (against Hull) and 2019-20 (against Sheffield Wednesday).
 
Saturday 21st March 1983.
The Season Brighton and Hove Albion Nearly Won The FA Cup.


1673032275194.png
It was the season Brighton were relegated following their brief stay in the old First Division.
Their opponents, Manchester United, had finished third in the First division and were clear favourites to win the match. Brighton had never been to an FA Cup Final before, but they didnt turn up just to be spectators. On their journey to the Final, they beat Newcastle United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday! They were a formidable side, in spite of their relegation. Somehow, when it mattered, they turned it on for the FA Cup. Story is told that unlike every summer Saturday, it was the trains leaving Brighton for London which were packed to standing. Even if they hadnt a ticket - Brighton fans headed to London to make it a grand day out. It was ecstacy and agony for Brighton. Having taken the lead on the 14th minute, they were outfoxed twice by Manchester United, with the Seagulls waiting untill three minutes from the end of normal time for Gary Stevens to equalise.


1673032902248.png
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_FA_Cup_Final

In those days - Cup Games had such things as "replays" - including the final!

Phillip Cornwall in an article - "My Favourite Game" recollected on the time Brighton and Hove almost brought the famous cup back to the South Coast.


Back in the 1980s the FA Cup final was a huge event but my friend and I, aged 15, somehow managed to get tickets to this replay

It is hard for anyone much under 40 to grasp how important the FA Cup final used to be, how simultaneously desirable going to the Wembley showpiece was to an English football fanatic growing up in the 1970s and 80s. One of only two matches you knew would be televised live (along with England v Scotland), it overshadowed league football in a way unthinkable today.

In 1983, aged 15, I travelled to watch the 1983 final at the home of a Manchester United-supporting friend who lived at the far end of the London Underground line that runs through Wembley. Neither my friend Simon nor I settled down to watch United play Brighton with any thought of what might happen next.

What should have happened is that Brighton – just relegated from the top flight – should have added their name to the honoured list of small teams to shock the mighty. After a 2-2 draw, in the dying seconds of extra time, Michael Robinson teed up Gordon Smith, who had scored the first goal of the game. The moment has gone down in history to the words of Peter Jones’s Radio 2 commentary – “And Smith must score!” – but we watched it unfold in the company of John Motson: “There’s somebody to his right – it’s Smith – and Bailey saved! What an amazing opportunity for Brighton to win the Cup!”

Brighton’s Gordon Smith (far right) is foiled by the Manchester United goalkeeper, Gary Bailey, in the last moments of extra time during the first final.

Brighton’s Gordon Smith (far right) is foiled by the Manchester United goalkeeper, Gary Bailey, in the last moments of extra time during the first final.
Photograph: Colorsport/Shutterstock

Moments later, the game finished 2-2. For the third year in a row, there would be a replay – and tickets would go on sale at Wembley the next morning. Smith’s “amazing opportunity” to win the Cup had suddenly turned into one for us to try to get to a final.
Delicate telephone negotiations ensued, for permission to be out on a school night, with O levels looming. But the next morning, we caught the first train from Chesham to Wembley.
A ticket to the 1983 FA Cup final replay.

A ticket to the 1983 FA Cup final replay. Photograph:
Ben Ramos/Alamy

The Wembley queue was daunting in length from the first. Soon it was so tightly packed that at one point I lifted up my feet to see what happened and I just carried on moving forward, albeit slowly. People had to beg the police to be let out of the queue, over the barriers, to use the toilet and be let back in. The police started to turn newcomers away, then sent some people home, a few hundred behind us in the line. But eventually we made our way up the steps, through the turnstiles, and ran to what I think were greyhound-betting booths converted into ticket offices.

After a few days of bragging at school, we set out for heaven on the Thursday afternoon. We peered through the fencing and across the greyhound track as Bryan Robson gave United the lead and Norman Whiteside then became, at 18, the youngest scorer in an FA Cup final. Brighton battled, Bailey having to tip a shot over, but just before half-time Robson scored his second. Unlike the first game it was no thriller, but we were there, enthralled.
Manchester United fans enjoying themselves at Wembley before the replay.

Manchester United fans enjoy themselves at Wembley before the replay.
Photograph: PA

A fourth goal came, to Simon’s delight, from an Arnold Muhren penalty. But the moment that sticks firmest in the memory came just before that from Steve Foster, the Brighton captain, who had failed in a high-court attempt to overturn a suspension that ruled him out of the Saturday. The section of the crowd we were in struck up a chorus to the tune of Bread of Heaven: “Stevie Foster, Stevie Foster, What a difference you have made, What a difference you have made.”
1673034049531.png
Arnold Muhren (No 8) turns away after slotting the ball home from the spot as his teammates celebrate Manchester United’s fourth and final goal.
Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

I have been to Wembley well over a hundred times now and seen some great moments but few compare with simply being there that night. Gordon Smith’s FA Cup nightmare made my final dream a reality.
 
So Near Yet So Far. 🏆
Boro`s 1981 FA Cup Run

1673037030251.png
Swansea 0 Boro 5.
3rd of January in 1981 - Boro took the long trip to South Wales to face Swansea City in the FA Cup. What happened that day became part of the legend which is the FA Cup. Boro thumped the Welsh team 5-0 in front of 18,015 fans, with goals from Billy Ashcroft, Terry Cochrane, Mike Angus and David Hodgson (x2).
1673037506143.png
Boro 1 West Brom 0
January 24th and 28,285 crammed into Ayresome Park to see Boro dispatch West Bromwich Albion with a goal from Ian Bailey. We were on our way.

FA Cup 5th Round - Boro 2 Barnsley 1
On Valentines Day - 14th March, somehow, 37,557 managed to crowd into Ayresome Park to see "Big Bosco" and Mark Proctor seal the deal and progress to the 6th Round of the FA Cup! I seem to remeber being carried 10 yards forward and 10 yards sideways when we scored the 2nd. The Holgate that day was rocking.
1673037105908.png
FA Cup Quarter Final - Boro 1 Wolves 1
This was the game the whole town was talking about. It was our turn to get through to the semi-finals and take the ultimate prize (?) We`de failed miserably against Orient only years earlier and everyone remembered Billy Ashcroft missing that sitter. 36,382 were in the ground. The atmosphere was electric. But it ended in a draw. Terry Cochrane scored for Boro and Andy Gray for Wolves. I`ve never liked the bloke ever since!
1673036971503.png
FA Cup Quarter Final Replay - Wolves 3 Boro 1
10th March 1981: 40,524 packed Molineux to the rafters. We were nervous. The players looked nervous. Alas, the pain of losing 3-1 meant not only goodbye to the FA Cup for another year - but, ultimately the break up of John Neale`s young side and the Boro`s slide towards almost oblivion in 1986.
We never recovered from that defeat. We had chances to bury them at Ayresome. But it wasnt to be. As Leon Wobschall opines in the article below, we were
so near yet so far.


Terry Cochrane, Craig Johnston, David Armstrong and Middlesbrough’s 1981 FA Cup run

“AND Terry Cochrane scores one of the most spectacular goals of the season” uttered the late, great David Coleman – that doyen of sports commentary on one of his increasingly rare forays into football in the early Eighties.

By Leon Wobschall
11th Jan 2021, 6:00am

Middlesbrough player David Armstrong (r)  (Picture: Tony Duffy/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)

David Armstrong.
Match of the Day viewers – back in 1980-81, it was aired on Sunday afternoons and not Saturday nights – watched on as Swansea City, riding high in the second tier and ultimately destined for the top flight under John Toshack, were humbled 5-0 by Division One mid-tablers Middlesbrough in a one-sided FA Cup third-round tie at the Vetch Field. Boro’s party piece arrived late on when tricky winger Cochrane – a Northern Irishman who would make his home on Teesside – scored a sublime overhead kick as Coleman waxed lyrical. That January weekend 40+ years ago represented the start of a Cup run which would have big ramifications for Boro in the short, medium and long term.


1673034913080.png
John Neal’s side had rich promise in Aussie tyro Craig Johnston, a striker with pace to burn in David Hodgson and a local lad making his name in midfield in Mark Proctor. There was also the wonderfully consistent David Armstrong, highly regarded in top-flight circles.

Hodgson (2), Billy Ashcroft, Mike Angus and Cochrane netted in their big win in Wales, earning Boro a fourth-round home tie with West Brom – with full-back Ian Bailey scoring the only goal of the game. In the last 16 in February 1981, Boro faced fellow Yorkshire side Barnsley at Ayresome Park, with a crowd of 37,557 swelled by around 10,000 travelling supporters.

Goals from Proctor and the late Bosco Jankovic in a 2-1 win saw Boro reach the quarter-finals, a hurdle which proved so notoriously difficult to overcome for the club. In 1974-75, they lost 1-0 at Birmingham City in the last eight and were embarrassed in a replay at second division Orient three seasons later in 1977-78 as the O’s reached the semi-finals.

In that 1980-81 campaign, there was expectation as Boro welcomed Wolves in front of 36,382 at Ayresome. But it ended in a 1-1 draw with Cochrane cancelling out Andy Gray’s opener.

The replay at Molineux – in front of the last 40,000 crowd there – saw Wolves win 3-1 after extra time, a crushing blow for thousands of visiting Boro fans. Johnston would soon be sold to Liverpool and Southampton bought Armstrong in a close season which also saw Neal leave as his side was broken up.

Boro were relegated under Bobby Murdoch in the following 1981-82 season. Hodgson would depart for Liverpool in August 1982 with the club back in the second tier and dark times arriving – culminating in the club almost going to the wall in 1986.
 
Last edited:
Congratulations also to AJ Bridge who has signed his first pro-contract with the Boro today [Friday].
A Boro lad, born in 2005, he plays left midfield and joined the academy at under-15 level.
(y)

1673039723286.png
 
Up For The Cup!

BP1.jpgchesterfield v boro.pngBoro v Blackburn.pngBoro v Chesterfield.pngBP3.jpgindex.jpgBoro v Villa.pngBoro v Man utd.png

Boro 2 Sunlun 0
Saturday 6th January 2018.
Gestede and Braithwaite put the game to bed and sent the deckchairs home for another season.

1673040738762.png
 
Last edited:
I seem to remember Steve Foster desperately trying to get sent off in a league game so that his ban would be served before the final. The ref was having none of it.
 
I really couldn’t care less about tomorrow….waste of energy and not interested in the cup because if we go a long way it’ll start to impact our league form….play well tomorrow and get beat 3-4 with them getting a lucky own goal or something…
 
Its only a few games away. Michael Carrick had to wait towards the end of his playing career to win the FA Cup and has described it as one of his memorable achievements. Could it be he fly`s Boro over the moon and wins us the FA Cup [at last] ?
1673081296249.png
 
Does anyone know if my iFollow subscription covers cup game.

When I tried to swipe the word subscription it kept coming up S7DiscoDown. And people think ai is gonna take over the world.
 
Its only a few games away. Michael Carrick had to wait towards the end of his playing career to win the FA Cup and has described it as one of his memorable achievements. Could it be he fly`s Boro over the moon and wins us the FA Cup [at last] ?
View attachment 50602
Probably not roofie. Need to see the teams today to see if we have a Chuba chance
 
Back
Top