This extraordinary FA Cup year
Towards the end of last season, I wrote here that while I was growing up from 1966 to 1978, the FA Cup had 13 different winners in 13 seasons. I said that the Cup desperately needed an unexpected winner soon, with only four different sides having won it since 1995.
Nobody could have imagined a year on - or even this time last week - that this season's semi-finals would comprise and . All four have won the Cup, but only have won it - or even been in the final - since the war, and even then not since .
As I explained in my last blog, we picked as our live quarter-final game, thus enabling to show Manchester United v Portsmouth live on Saturday lunchtime. I have to admit those of us gathered at for the 91Èȱ¬ watched events unfold at Old Trafford feeling we'd missed out on . What did we know? Not much, as usual.
The in South Yorkshire on Saturday evening ranks amongst the most enjoyable in which any of us has been involved. John Motson has worked on more Cup ties than anyone on the team, and he rated it as up there with any he's covered, including and .
It was different, in that Barnsley are in the second tier of the league, but at the same time, Chelsea are a bigger scalp, as the Cup holders and a permanent fixture at or near the top of the league. The closest parallel I could draw in terms of the current standing of the two clubs was , only without the need for miraculous goalkeeping.
From the access we were given in the build-up, to our camera being allowed to join in , to the sheer uncontained joy of everyone we encountered afterwards, we couldn't have asked for more from the day. But the most important ingredient was the Barnsley team who, spurred on by a fantastic atmosphere, . And it wasn't just the hoped-for which won the day, but some excellent football, too. It was an achievement of a kind which isn't supposed to be possible any more at all, let alone in successive rounds against two of the "Big Four".
We were also glad that Mick McCarthy had agreed to be our studio guest. The programme was all the better for and being there to admire a famous victory, and to add his usual good humour and straight-talking common sense to proceedings. Our coach pulled out of Barnsley at about nine o'clock, with the town poised for a richly-deserved night of celebration.
And so . I've written before about how personal and professional hopes sometimes pull us in different directions. Never was that more true than on Sunday. After Saturday's incredible events, I knew, as a Boro fan, that this was in my lifetime of returning to Wembley and expunging . Post-match, however, as a 91Èȱ¬ person, I had to recognise that Cardiff's contributed yet further to of all time. I tried hard not to sulk all the way home on the coach, and even managed to watch West Brom's slightly flattering at Bristol Rovers without reflecting (aloud anyway) on what might have been.
This most extraordinary of FA Cup seasons is now heading for Wembley. A round too early, . And a few hours too early, some at 91Èȱ¬ Sport might argue. When it was decided by the FA that both semis would take place at Wembley on the same weekend we hoped for a live semi at our preferred kick-off time of 5.15pm on the Saturday, with Sky showing the other in their established slot of 4pm on Sunday. With the also in the 91Èȱ¬ One schedules for the Saturday afternoon of April 5th, we were hoping to inherit a large audience for a double-header of top live sport. The football audience might not quite reach the 8.8 million who watched the closing stages at Barnsley, but it would be large nonetheless, we hoped.
Although Barnsley v Cardiff is a dream semi for both sides, and features the two teams whose shocks we showed live at the weekend, we have opted for West Brom v Portsmouth as . Pompey are the and Albion, by common consent, play the most to be found outside the Premier League. The winners will be the favourites to lift the Cup and it all has to be settled on the day, even if it takes extra-time and penalties.
Unfortunately, as I've mentioned before, the will not generally permit Saturday teatime kick-offs in the capital, though they are allowing Arsenal v Boro to kick-off at 5.15pm in the Premier League this coming Saturday. However, that involves far fewer out of town fans than the semi, which has now moved to the somewhat less spectator- and viewer-friendly kick-off time of 12.15 Saturday lunchtime, live on 91Èȱ¬ One. The other semi is confirmed as a 4pm kick-off on the Sunday, live on Sky and with 91Èȱ¬ highlights on .
Not exactly as we would have liked it in an ideal world, but it will be an intriguing weekend nonetheless. Whatever happens, no-one at 91Èȱ¬ Sport will ever have worked on an FA Cup final featuring either of this year's finalists. Even Motty wasn't working for MOTD in 1968!
