For May 18th I'm going back 30 years to 1991 and another FA Cup Final.
Ever since I started watching football I had wanted to go to every game in a victorious Tottenham FA Cup campaign. I had almost achieved it in 1987 but, sadly, they lost the Final. 1991 presented another opportunity and this time we had Gazza! Paul Gascoigne is without doubt the best player that I have ever seen on a regular basis and many of his finest moments in a Tottenham shirt came on this particular "Road to Wembley". I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that he single handedly hauled Spurs through more than one round on that Road with moments of sheer brilliance.
Spurs had been drawn away to Blackpool in the 3rd Round and on a terribly stormy day they squeezed through 1-0 (you can find the programme from this game on my blog). In the 4th Round Spurs beat Oxford United 4-2 at White Hart Lane with Gazza scoring twice. Spurs were away again in the 5th Round and again Gazza got two as they came from behind to beat Portsmouth 2-1 (see my blog). It was back in London again for the Quarter Final as Spurs once again came from behind to beat Notts County 2-1 with Gazza netting the winner. Then that legendary Semi-Final victory at Wembley saw Gascoigne net a famous opener as double-chasing Arsenal were vanquished 3-1. So six goals for Gascoigne in the FA Cup that season and we shouldn't forget that he was struggling with a hernia throughout!
For their own part, Nottingham Forest, had had to play nine games to reach the Final beating Crystal Palace (in a second replay), Newcastle United (in a replay), Southampton (in another replay), Norwich (at Carrow Road at the first time of asking!) and West Ham United in the Semi-Final at Villa Park by 4-0. There was sizeable public sentiment in the build-up to the Final that Brian Clough should win the FA Cup since it was the only domestic trophy that he had never won.
If the day was supposed to be about Clough, they forgot to tell talisman Gazza. You could see that he was hyped up even before the match and in the early exchanges he was somewhat reckless even before committing a nasty foul on Gary Charles. Post match, the referee attracted criticism for not having already booked Gascoigne for an earlier foul with the logic being that the effect of a yellow card would have been to calm Gazza down. I seriously doubt that. I've always wondered however whether Terry Venables could have been more proactive pre-match in attempting to deal with Gazza's over-excitement? What we didn't know at the time was that Gascoigne had come off much the worse from that tackle on Gary Charles. He had ruptured cruciate ligaments in his right knee and he would be out of the game for the entirety of the following season which was all very inconvenient for Tottenham as they had already agreed to sell him to Lazio and were in dire financial straights. In my view, although Gazza did effect a recovery he was never as good post-injury as he had been before.
To cap it all, from the resultant free-kick Stuart Pearce put Forest in front. It was all going wrong for Spurs with Gascoigne being carted off to hospital on a stretcher whilst Clough sat there stony-faced. Next you know and Gary Lineker had scored a perfectly good equaliser that was wrongly ruled out for offside. A few minutes later and Spurs hopes were dashed yet again as Lineker saw his penalty saved by Forest's keeper Mark Crossley. Still Clough sat stony-faced. Behind at half-time Spurs had the momentum however and Paul Stewart finally secured an equaliser in the 55th minute. It finished 1-1 and we had another 30 minutes of extra time to enjoy/endure. Incredibly Clough didn't leave the bench prior to the start of the extra period whereas Venables was very much active. I wonder how much of a factor this had on the final result?
Four minutes into the added period and the football gods were to prove the old adage that "what goes around comes around". If you recall, Spurs had lost in the 1987 Final courtesy of a Gary Mabbutt own goal winner. Now it was Tottenham's turn to profit from an own goal as Forest's Des Walker planted a firm header into his own net! Spurs had won the Cup for the eighth and (so far) last time. Stony-faced Clough had failed in his 34th attempt at winning the FA Cup. He never did capture that trophy.
CRB Match No. 721
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