For May 9th I'm going back 29 years to 1992 and another FA Cup Final. It was my fifth FA Cup Final out of seven that I've been lucky enough to attend.
Yes it's Liverpool again, in a Final this time, against Sunderland and it's yet another shameful FA candidate for "Worst Programme Covers of Our Time". Who was on the committee that decided that a green and blue blurry smudge would capture the essence of the beautiful game? I'm not colour blind but I wonder what this looks like to those that are? Perhaps it's one of those pictures that you have to focus on and the image reveals itself? No? Thought not!
Once York had exited the competition against Tranmere Rovers in the 2nd Round and Spurs had lost to Aston Villa in the 3rd, I was rooting for Sunderland to win the Cup that season because of their York City connections. I had met their recently installed manager Malcolm Crosby in 1979 when returning from a City away game at Aldershot. We'd gone down on the train courtesy of Persil's 2-for-1 train ticket offer and who should be lucky enough to be sat amongst the York fans on the train journey home but Malcolm who was returning to his native North-East for a christening after playing that very day for Aldershot against York. He was happy to chat and seemed like a thoroughly nice bloke. Imagine my delight when he joined City in 1981 as part of an exchange deal which sent Ian McDonald to the Shots. Crosby became part of York's legendary 1983/84 Fourth Division Championship side before moving into the coaching side under Denis Smith. He followed Smith to Sunderland in 1988 and took over from him in a caretaker capacity when Smith was sacked three years later. Unexpectedly, Crosby steered Sunderland through each round of the FA Cup that season until they reached the Final at which point the Sunderland Chairman was embarrassed into finally confirming him as the new permanent manager. It was only Sunderland's fourth ever FA Cup Final!
Another York City connection at Sunderland was their striker John Byrne who had scored in every round of the competition up to the Final. Byrne had managed 63 goals in 199 appearances for York before leaving for QPR in 1984. Denis Smith signed him for Sunderland in 1991 and in just a little over a year at the club he scored 15 goals in 44 appearances for the Rokermen (nowadays they're nicknamed the Black Cats following their move away from Roker Park). But did you know that Byrne picked up a winners medal that day? It was handed to him in error.
Liverpool turned up for the Final in sensible leisure wear. It would be another four years before their "Spice Boys" arrived at Wembley resplendent in cream coloured suits as if they were going to a wedding. Talking of fashion disasters, what do you make of Sunderland's away shirt worn in the 1992 Final? They must have lost the toss for the right to wear their home shirt, and because red and white stripes would have clashed with Liverpool's red shirt with three white adidas stripes generously applied, Sunderland wore white shirts with a dark blue drug-induced pattern on the shoulders. Horrible!
Playing in front of a crowd of 79,544, Byrne and Paul Bracewell both had excellent chances for Sunderland before Liverpool scored the first goal. Former Arsenal favourite Michael Thomas, who will forever be remember for scoring the goal that won the League title against Liverpool in 1989 got Liverpool's first with a stunning half volley. Ian Rush scored the second and to this day remains the player who has scored the most FA Cup Final goals with five. Liverpool had won the Cup in their centenary year. All that was left was for skipper Mark Wright to go up the 39 steps and collect the Cup. You don't need to be an expert lip reader to see that when he turns away from the Duchess of Kent holding the trophy aloft he screams "You fucking beauty". I don't think he was referring to the Duchess.
CRB Match No. 780
Comments
Post a Comment