Our Holy Grail

[sickbeggar]

The trouble with the FA Cup nowadays in our case is its a bit like committing to buying a Euromillions ticket at the expense of your gas bill. While a  mid-table championship side can and has got to the final its very much the preserve of the top4 teams having a (comparitively) bad season and we're not going to beat a side like that 9 times out of 10. With the poor quality of the league and the play-off system, even a team as shit as us are still very much in with a chance of a premiership Golden Ticket so you have to prioritize that really. I'm sure if our season turns into damp squibb of mid-table nothingness then people will look back on yesterday as another missed chance for a cup run, but meh, losing in the quarters or semi's compared to yesterday..... has any team got promoted to the premiership and had a long cup run?  Our squad can hardly cope with 1 competition.

[SoccerHQ]

How about 2010?

Get that penalty against Chelsea and go 1 up (o.k we'd have tired out and conceded two second half goals as John Terry used to point out around that time....)

Anyway win that and it would've been relegated Pompey in the final although I remember watching that and they did play really well against Chelsea, missed a penalty at 0-0.

[ChicagoLion]

I really like the FA cup, but every time we get dumped out early, I just have to ignore it because it is not the same watching a competition that we are not part of.
So instead of looking forward to the draw I will pretend it is not happening.
I have given up thinking we will win it in my life time.

[curiousorange]

1992 was the opportunity. Wasn't it three second division sides and Liverpool left in the semis? That BFR side against Sunderland at Wembley? No contest. What annoys me most about it is that Liverpool side was mince. Probably their least celebrated Cup win.

2000 was the most level playing field and I was convinced we'd win it. There was no excuse not to give it a go in the way we did. 2015, after the semi final, I would have backed us totally. But then came the Southampton and Burnley games and I knew. I just knew what happened would happen. I'm still angry about it.

And to echo other sentiments, I don't think I'll ever see us win it.

[brian green]

I have seen us win it but if yesterday is anything to go by I shall not even see a quarter or semi final ever again.

[garyshawsknee]

You're getting carried away Brian, we'll be lucky to see the dizzy heights of a 5th round tie.

[TheMalandro]

I have seen us win it but if yesterday is anything to go by I shall not even see a quarter or semi final ever again.

I’ll take your ashes to the 2070 Final Mr Green. I’m not sure which planet it will be played on.

[dave.woodhall]

1992 was the opportunity. Wasn't it three second division sides and Liverpool left in the semis? That BFR side against Sunderland at Wembley? No contest. What annoys me most about it is that Liverpool side was mince. Probably their least celebrated Cup win.

Two second and a third, I believe. Before us they'd played Bristol Rovers, Ipswich and another lower division team. We were talking about it yesterday.

[garyshawsknee]

1990 still stings for me, I guess our defeat coincided with our loss of form in the league.

[LeeB]

1990 still stings for me, I guess our defeat coincided with our loss of form in the league.

Having to play on that fucking fake pitch didn't help. It's no coincidence that QPR, Luton and Oldham had probably the best form of there otherwise mediocre histories with those pitches.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Belittling Oldham here. They had a fantastic team and it wasn't the pitch that played us off the park.

[wittonwarrior]

It was horrible that plastic. Not as boy did they beat us but also saw Everton off the round before and West Ham in the semi of the league cup. Plus the outside of the ground was a bog

[Damo70]

To be fair West Ham beat Everton and Arsenal after beating us in the quarters in 1980. Even if we had managed to beat West Ham and Everton we probably would have been underdogs in the final against Arsenal. Even if we had managed to get past Arsenal in quarters in 1983 we would have had to play BFR's Manure in the semis. In 2000 we didn't really turn up for the final against Chelsea or the semi against Bolton. We didn't turn up in 2015 either. 1992 was the year for me. We played well at Anfield in the quarters but the referee Phillip Don didn't give us a thing. We would have gone on to play Portsmouth in the semis and Sunderland in the final, who finished 9th and 18th in the second division that year. We had a great season in the league and cup in 1989/1990 but we just didn't turn up for the QF at Boundary Park, even allowing for the plastic pitch.

[wittonwarrior]

All ifs and buts I know but 91 we should have beaten little Oldham who were 2nd division then.  I always think back to 1980 - ignoring a one off 78 in the 3rd round we had an Indian sign over Everton so would have been quite up beat at the probability of beating them.  Should have done better in 1996 and the 2000 final was just a big  let down.  Don't think too many of us actually thought we would beat Arsenal in 2015.


At the moment just cant see when our next run in the cup is going to come.  We would  be better having some away ties such at the smallthorns or similar to progress.