There are few football fans who do not love a great FA cup upset, there have been many since this great competition begun in 1871, to name a few; Wimbledon beating the mighty Liverpool in 1988 and of course last year’s winners Wigan toppling the free spending Man City. But there are a few truly great stories that do not receive as much press and attention as I believe they deserve. So I thought I would get nostalgic and take a trip down FA cup memory lane. FA cup fever is real and great cup runs can re-galvanize teams, embarrass the big guns, bring towns together and most of all have fans jumping up and down on the sofas, hoping the underdogs can keep going.
Now for one of the memorable cup runs in my life time, Chesterfield had an epic first leg semi-final against Middlesbrough in 96-97 which went to extra time and ended 3-3, the game swung back and forth between the two sides and had to be settled with another 90 minutes. A star studded Middlesbrough team with the likes of Ravanalli and Juninho were stunned by Chesterfield who led 2-0 before the Boro knew what had hit them. The main talking point was when Chesterfield had a goal ruled out for offside, there was controversy surrounding the decision as the Chesterfield player was clearing onside and many Chesterfield fans will never forgive David Ellery for that decision. History could have been very different if that goal had been allowed as Chesterfield would have been 3-0 to the good and surely would have had one foot in the final. It was not meant to be, the momentum swung in favour of Middlesbrough straight after and they were awarded a penalty and suddenly the game was back on.
The Premier league outfit then recovered and got themselves into a winning position at 3-2, and thought they were heading into the final but the FA cup fairy was not finished yet. In the 119th minute of extra time, a long looping ball found its way into the box and an astounding header by Hewitt, sent the Chesterfield fans into raptures. In one of the most of topsy-turvy games of football, a reply had to be played to separate the teams, this time around there was no shocks or dramas, Middlesbrough cruised to a 3-0 win and proceeded to the final. As hard done by as Chesterfield may have felt after the disallowed goal, they have secured a great stories for all the fans and players who were present that day and once again proved the FA Cup is a magical competition.
With this year’s FA Cup underway and the 4th round draw already done both Southend and Stevenage will be looking to add to the history books and knockout Premier League opposition, will there be more great FA cup runs to come this season?
Matt Palmer
Follow on Twitter @mattpalmersport
This is an extract from an article which first appeared on Opinion Football http://opinionfootball.com/fairy-tale-fa-cup/
Memory added on January 20, 2021
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