The 1981 FA Cup Final was the 100th Final. Spurs 3-2 Manchester City (replay).
The 1981 FA Cup
Final was the 100th Final. Spurs 3-2 Manchester City (replay).
This is the 9th article in my series of classic games I’ve been to.
The first match (Cup
Final); it took place on Saturday 9 May 1981 at Wembley and finished 1–1 after extra-time.
Right-winger Tommy Hutchinson gave Manchester City lead in the Final at the
half-hour mark, and they were cruising towards the title before the same player
got his name on the score sheet with an own goal eleven minutes from the final
whistle. There were no more goals in extra time as an FA Cup final went to
replay for the first time in eleven years. Even though we walked away
disappointed, we had a great day out and was looking forward to the replay.
We got to that
position by beating QPR, after a draw, Hull City, Coventry, Exeter, and Wolves
in the semi-Final. The first game went to a 2-2 draw, the second we thrashed
Wolves 3-0.
The League cup
wasn’t so good. After beating Leyton Orient twice, Palace after a draw, then beating
Arsenal 1-0, we finally lost to the Hammers at Upton Park 1-0.
The day of the Match (replay)
I remember we, Spurs fans, managed to buy tickets for this match (the replay) well before City fans. Why? Who knows… lucky probably. We also occupied more than half of Wembley for this match. Perhaps because it was midweek and City fans had further to come.
I remember getting
up early, having breakfast then to the West End. But first said goodbye to my
then-wife Christine, my son Martin (who was a just over a month old) and the
two girls. Made my way to the train station and then onto Paddington. From
there to the west end, looked around, got something to eat – the time quickly
rushed by – then made my way to Wembley. Remember, this was the old Wembley, a
Wembley that had class and history behind it, unlike the poor job they erected
in its place.
Got myself a
programme, met up with friends, then to the pub, chatted, laughed and
speculated on the result (of course, us winning). We also talked about the
first game and how the season panned out. We had finished in 10th
position, behind Villa (who won the title), Ipswich, Arsenal, WBA, Liverpool,
Southampton, Manchester United and Leeds.
Norwich, Leicester and Palace were relegated. Then we made our way to
our entrance, through, then got ourselves another drink and to our seats.
The Band played, music blared and whatever else was going around to entertain us; it did what it said on the tin. The players came out to warm up, back in… then finally out (but didn’t do the hokey-cokey). Then they got into position, and the referee blew. We cheered, showed our support, waved flags, whistled etc.
Our players got off
the block quicker than City and then forcefully won control reaching our
opponent penalty box as early as the fourth minute. In terms of formation, both
teams fielded a 4-4-2.
Despite losing out in early possession, it was the Manchester club who created early opportunities. The first corner in the match was a strike towards the goal by Mackenzie, only to be cleared by Chris Hughton. Seconds later, Reeves broke past our offside trap, but a last-minute block from Villa prevented a perfect scoring opportunity. A few minutes later, a moment of genius from Ardiles gifted the opening goal to Spurs.
From a throw, Villa
got past Power with an overhead kick with his second touch. He took one more
touch before evading McDonald with his fourth touch, and a second later he had
got past Bennett near the edge of Blues penalty box. His slanting shot hit
Archibald whose close-range shot was saved first time by Corrigan, but Villa
was following up, and he scored a perfect goal.
We were jubilant,
stir crazy and had barely stopped celebrating when suddenly 19-year-old
MacKenzie scored. A City free-kick was weakly cleared by Spurs defence before
Reid headed the clearance towards their midfielder, who was just outside the
box. MacKenzie struck a full-volley with his right foot as the ball whistled
past our keeper and into the top left corner. 90,000 strong crowd had already
witnessed two goals of high quality.
We didn’t seem worried by the equaliser as we continued to push as a Hoddle free-kick thundered off the framework. Aleksic came out of his line just in time to punch the ball away to stop a dangerous City side counter at the other end. A couple of minutes before the half-hour mark, another dangerous set-piece from Manchester blues team was headed away by centre-forward Crooks with Caton following up. We managed to convert their possession into a good chance on 34th minute as a Villa long ranger was saved by Corrigan after we had won custody thanks to some sloppy passing from our opponents.
The bearded one (Ricky
Villa) was once again in action seven minutes later as he was released by a
wonderful over-head pass from Hoddle, but his shot from a narrow-angle was effortlessly
saved. On 43nd minute Villa set-up Crooks after cutting into the penalty box
from left-wing but the shot went over the post. Despite us being the dominant
side overall, the first half ended 1-1.
As the players left
the field, we made our way to the food area to replenish our starving stomachs
(“starving”? Yes, really!). All washed down with copious amounts of beer. Once
we felt satisfied, we made our way or staggered back to our seats and settled
down for the battle to commence once more.
Five minutes into the second half, the meanies of Manchester pulled ahead. A somewhat soft penalty was awarded to them as Dave Benett went down in the box. We booed, screamed, in the hope that Reeve would miss, but no such luck, he made no mistakes from the spot. Desperate for an equaliser, we changed to a more offensive 4-3-3 formation with Villa pushing up as a striker and Ardiles playing a more central role. The change in formation had an immediate impact as Hoddle forced off a good save from their goalkeeper. Seconds later we were appealing for a penalty as Steve Archibald shot bounced off old McDonald (he who had no farm), but the referee waved on. They were lucky.
Our constant pressure paid off on 70th minute, resulting in a pictographic goal. Ricky Villas square pass found Hoddle, whose precisely chipped pass found Archibald yard away from the goal. Archibald passed to Crooks who easily beat Corrigan from close range. Just like the first goal, this too came after some delightful footwork from our midfield. The screams and shouts went up once more, we were ecstatic. Some of our fans looked like they were even having kittens… or cockerels.
As good as three of the four goals were in this final they would be overshadowed six minutes later during some of the most memorable moments in world football. Galvin broke out from his own half along the left touchline and found Villa, who was almost 20 yards away from the goal. Advancing into the penalty box, Villa swerved past Cayton and Ranson with a body curve. With four City players closing in, he pulled back slightly and dismembered the gap between two of them. He took two more touches before rolling the ball beneath an advancing Corrigan. This goal was a brilliant, distinctive strike. We were mesmerised by Villas smooth jousting. He scored, and I think it was a few seconds of realisation, then we hit the roof with screams, shouts of joy, grabbing whoever was beside us and either hugging them or high fives. This moment of happiness seemed to go on for hours, but probably was only seconds.
Ricky Villa’s wonder goal knocked seven bells of shit out of Manchester City side, and their players were almost in a stupor in a matter of minutes. Near the end of the game, City had several chances to pull level, but two long-range efforts from Tueart went wide. Our hearts were in our mouths. Finally, the whistle went, and we repeated all over again, our crazed excitement. Was the Ricky Villa manoeuvring through the opposition the best we had ever seen? Methinks so!
Steve Perryman
walked up the Wembley stairs and was presented with the Cup. He lifted the
trophy, and we screamed and yelled the house down. Then a lap around the pitch
and more celebrations from the fans and players. While all this was happening
the City fans slinked away and back to where they had come from (humiliated by
slick playing and one brilliant moment of ball control). Strangely, somebody
over my shoulder shouted, “now who has the biggest testicles”. Then somebody shouted
“bollocks”, we then fell about laughing.
We had managed to maintain our unique record of never losing an FA Cup final when the final whistle went up. The 100th FA Cup final delivered on the big occasion and Villa had made a place for himself in our hearts. Years later, I managed to talk to him about this. It was on an away game abroad – the European Final I think. We were all waiting in the airport lounge together.
Event 1980–81 FA Cup
Tottenham Hotspur Manchester
City
Final
Tottenham Hotspur Manchester
City
1 1
Date 9 May 1981
Venue Wembley Stadium, London
Referee Keith Hackett (South
Yorkshire)
Attendance 100,000
Replay
Tottenham Hotspur Manchester
City
3 2
Date 14 May 1981
Venue Wembley Stadium, London
Referee Keith Hackett (South
Yorkshire)
Attendance 92,000
What an enjoyable day. A Memory that will live on, not only in our
minds but also in the history of Tottenham Hotspur FC.
All that was left was for me to go home – on cloud 9 – and then I was quickly
brought down to earth. I had chores to do… and if I remember rightly I was
going to Guernsey for a marriage… no, not mine… Christine’s dad… or was that
another year? One’s memory does start to deteriorate… but what hasn’t
deteriorated was my memories of my Spurs travels.
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