For May 22nd I'm going back 39 years to 1982 and my first ever FA Cup Final.
FA Cup Final tickets, especially in the 1970's and 1980's, tended to be highly sought after with demand always far outstripping supply despite there being 100,000 tickets available. Every year complaints emanated from fans of the two competing teams that too many tickets went to the game's "hangers on". In fact, attendance at the Wembley Final has always been something of a privilege bestowed by the FA with tickets going to every club entering the competition, to members of the various County FA's and so on in recognition of their work done voluntarily and without payment. More recently I believe that the proportion of tickets going to the finalists has been increased but the FA continues to bestow tickets as a privilege to this day. In 1982, as both a Spurs and York City supporter I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of my support for the two clubs and pick up an FA Cup Final ticket from York City's allocation. This was on the condition that I travelled down to Wembley on the City minibus and did not seek to sell my ticket to a tout. There was no chance of that! It was every schoolboy's dream to be able to go to an FA Cup Final and I wasn't about to sell my dream for filthy lucre!
Thinking about Wembley, as I'm writing this article I'm getting ready to attend my first football matches in almost five months. Today I'm going to Wembley again! Non-League Finals Day comprises the final of two national Competitions in the form of the FA Vase (Binfield v Warrington Rylands) and the FA Trophy (Hereford v Hornchurch) and the two matches feature as a double-header at Wembley today. As with all matches in these Covid19 times, there is a limit on today's capacity which I believe will represent about 25% of Wembley's 88,000 or so places. I managed to secure a ticket for today's games earlier this week via the Rylands website so I don't believe that I've denied anyone from Warrington that wanted to go the opportunity. I can't tell you how excited I am! Football's back!
Back to the 1982 final, Spurs were the holders of the FA Cup having beaten Manchester City the previous season and, given that QPR were a Second Division outfit, were hot favourites. It was Tottenham's seventh FA Cup Final and they had a proud record of never having lost an FA Cup Final to preserve.
You may remember that 1982 was also notable for the Falklands War which pitted Britain against Argentina in battle and impacted Tottenham Hotspur because two of their players were Argentinians (or in Sunspeak: Argies). Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa, both of whom had been part of the victorious Argentina squad at the 1978 World Cup were Tottenham players that season. At the outset of hostilities Ardiles had decided to go out on loan to PSG in France whereas Villa remained at Spurs. When the Cup Final came around he made the difficult decision to make himself unavailable due to the amount of criticism he was getting from the press back home in Argentina. Spurs would need to win the Cup without Villa on this occasion!
On the road to Wembley that season Spurs had beaten Arsenal, Leeds United, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Leicester City (in the Semi-Final at Villa Park) and I'd managed to attend the Leeds and Villa games in that run. Unfashionable QPR, being managed by future Spurs and England boss Terry Venables had had an easier path in overcoming Middlesbrough, Blackpool, Grimsby Town, Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion (in the Semi-Final at Highbury).
My first FA Cup Final was by no means a classic. In fact it was rather a dull game as these things often seem to be. It was goalless after 90 minutes and, when Tottenham took the lead thanks to Glenn Hoddle in the 110th minute it looked like Spurs were on their way to victory. They reckoned without QPR's tenacity however and a well-worked long throw in set piece led to their equaliser headed home by future Spur Terry Fenwick. It finished 1-1 after extra time and everyone would have to come back to Wembley the following Thursday for the Replay. Everyone that is except me. With such a short turnaround between the two games there was no time for the FA to distribute tickets far and wide meaning that London-based supporters of the two clubs got the lion's share. I would have to sit at home and watch Spurs win the replay 1-0 but I was still glowing in the knowledge that I'd actually been there for the original game. Now that's magic!
CRB Match No. 183
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