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Now we're alive and kicking you. Just.
Cannot write scripts like this. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to
The Final Countdown, the podcast looking back at great finals
within the game of football. I'm Lewis here my Co host.
Adam, Hello. It is the 2014 FA Cup final.
As we've discussed last week, the oldest cup competition in
the world historic history. 133rd this would be look.
At that, let's straight off the top of the Dome memory.
That is excellent. Real quick last.
Week. Yeah, that's true.
We are talking about, in a way, a bit of a similar cup final in
terms of we have a heavy favorite and an underdog from
the same division. So we are talking about the 2014
FA Cup final between Arsenal and Hull City.
I agree with heavyweight but I wouldn't say it's they're the
same level of heavyweight. This.
This was the Wenger Out years, wasn't it?
I'm so glad you've started with that.
So I went in looking like when is the earliest Wenger Out
thing? There are a few like spatters of
it in 2011, 2012, but it doesn't really pick up steam until this
season. So this is the season where
people are like, OK, you've done incredible amounts for us and
just skip ahead. Arsenal are on a nine year gold
drought so they haven't won a trophy since gold drought.
Sarah, this is. Amazing they stayed in the
Division every game. Nil.
Nil. 40.38 points was just enough.
Incredible. So a trophy drought, I should
amend that to say 2005 was their last trophy, which was the FA
Cup. Yeah, because again, Wenger had
a bit of a specialty with the FA Cup.
He won it quite a lot early on. But yeah, 2005 S 9 years.
So the criticism was Wenger had overseen the stadium move and
had kind of accepted. 2006. Yeah, that's right.
So he had overseen it. He had They accepted the kind of
shackling of the transfer system during that period, and it
worked under those constraints. But people kind of thought,
well, we're well and truly in the new stadium now.
We've got the extra money. They'd signed Mesut Ozil, who
was like a big statement signing for them.
And yet they hadn't pushed on in any way.
It was still kind of like, hey, we finished fourth.
Hey, we. That was the thing, wasn't it?
Is he got accused of just kind of accepting the Champions
League qualification and not really doing anything in the
tournament was enough. I know they got to the final
once, didn't they? To because they lost the
Barcelona? Yeah, yeah.
Other than that, they spent a lot of time in the Champions
League, losing the Champions League, qualifying again, and
they went again, Yeah. And I think Arsenal fans were,
well, certain Arsenal fans were certainly getting tired of it.
Yeah. And in a way it's a little bit
mirrored with Arteta at the moment, which is Arteta has
taken them. Well, I'm glad you said that,
mate. There we go.
Nothing against Arteta, by the way, but I do feel like I'm the
one that brings it up. Yeah, I'm intrigued by why he
seems to get a pass. I think in a way it's very
similar to Wenger, what the state they were in beforehand,
the post Wenger years, Arteta was the first manager that comes
in and establishes them as a top two Premier League team, which
from where they were, it is progress and it is a yeah and
this year. I don't want him out.
I just wonder how many goes he gets.
If that's another 10 and so be it.
I'm not particularly hungry for him to be.
Fired for asking him to be back at the.
Top of the I just like Wenger got essentially 8-9 years just
really of kind of what mediocrity is such a ridiculous
word when you're never in fact but mediocrity in comparison to
what they had known in the early Wenger years when they won the
league twice and. Yeah, well, they won the league
and then obviously he had this romance with the FA Cup, but it
seems inconceivable now. Nine years without a trophy.
Yeah, so he didn't even have the FA Cups to cover up.
It's like, oh, finishing fourth, but we quite often win a cup.
But they did get to Champions League final in 2006.
Yeah, 2006, which you are right, that is a feather in the cap and
they did lose to a Barcelona team, but even without kind of
Messi and Javi and Niesta was still I guess.
You can even argue then like 2006, that's eight years before,
Yeah. So even that, even if that's
counted as some degree of success, it's still 8 more years
of nothingness. Yeah.
I didn't. It didn't jump out at me as
much. Creating this match report back
now that we're discussing it, nine years without a trophy is
astonishing. And then he obviously carries on
for another three years. I was.
Just about to ask that when does he go?
I think it's three or four years in the future, but spoiler
alert, there are a few more FA Cup wins on the horizon for
Arsenal. So there is kind of rejuvenation
and we'll talk about that in this match report.
So Arsenal Shock Horrid finished fourth in the Premier League
this year. Olivier Giroud was a top scorer
with 16 league goals. So again, it's again not a very
not a bad Arsenal team by any stretch of the imagination.
But when Giroud is your And I do think Giroud's having a hell of
a career and still is playing. I wouldn't call it.
No. And when he, yeah, when he is,
you know, you don't have a Ormri or a Van Persie or anyone to
hang your hat on. But they had been eliminated
from the fourth round of the League Cup.
They'd exited the Champions League in the round of 16.
So it was pretty, again, mediocre in terms of a club that
should have had more ambition. Hull, on the other hand, managed
to finish 16th in the Premier League this year.
And it's worth saying this is the pinnacle of Hull City as a
football club this final this season.
Finding this a little bit, aren't we with these minnows
that kind of peak in a cup final, yeah.
Yeah, and it's kind of like they have their one moment in the sun
and then unfortunately the sunsets and they're not really
seen off again at the. Highest cancer table.
Yeah, so to talk about that, this was the best ever points
total in the Premier League, 37 points, which was enough to
finish 16th back then, which again does away with the myth of
40 points being survival. 40 points has made you finish about
14th, 15th, 16th in recent Premier League, not even recent
over the last decade or so. 40 points, a bit of a myth.
You basically will almost always survive on about 3536 points,
which is interesting. But as I said, this was their
first season back in the Premier League after promotion and this
was the first ever final in 110 years for whole City as a
football club. So it's it really is the peak of
anything the whole City fan can hope for.
They've managed to get some efficate funnel.
They're in the top division in England, They've managed to
avoid relegation. And the question is, is this
going to be a catalyst for them, you know, taking it up a notch
or establishing themselves as a a mid table Premier League team
Spoiler that doesn't happen. So to talk about Arsenal's root
in this FA Cup final, they enter the third round as all Premier
League sides do. They beat Tottenham 2 nil at
home in the third round. So a little North London Derby
on the way, they battered Coventry City 4 nil and then
they managed to beat in the 5th and the 6th round.
Two scouts teams. So Liverpool and Everton went by
the wayside. So it was a it was a tricky cup
run for Arsenal, Tottenham obviously Northland Derby not
easy. Liverpool.
Everton was probably a Gimme let's be honest.
Hey, this is under. Who was after Moist?
Was it Martinez, who we spoke about, had taken over?
Yeah, promised much, delivered a little.
Yeah, exactly. The semi final, this is where
Arsenal struggled somewhat surprisingly against Wigan
Athletic. So it's.
The big dogs, That's it. Yeah, the the Latics with their
their taste of FA Cup glory, they managed to take Arsenal to
extra time, which Arsenal eventually won 41 penalties.
So we can really took them to the wire and a little bit of
kind of like, oh, here we go again for Arsenal where you
know, we're going to fall short yet again.
Is this another Wenger moment? But they did manage to get past
FA Cup holders. Wigan Athletic won all in the
semi finals. It's worth knowing this was
Arsenal's 18th FA Cup final in their history, which matched the
record for appearances held by do you know which club?
Chelsea. No United.
Yes, Manchester United had until this point held the record for
the most FA Cup final appearances whole.
However, their route was very, very different.
I think we touched on this last episode so I'm not going to talk
about too much, but had a considerably easier route to the
final. So they beat Middlesbrough 2
nil, they beat Southend United 2 nil, they beat Brighton, won all
and then it went to a replay. Beat them.
Beat the model. Beat the model.
Strong result?
Yeah, exactly. Which gave the momentum to them.
Beat them a second time 2-1 in the replay they beat Sunderland
three nil and then in the semi final they had an absolute Ding
Dong against Sheffield United 5 three so they were given the
neutrals what they wanted. So incredible stuff.
But as I've mentioned, Whole City's first ever pants in FA
Cup final and in their path four of the opponents were from lower
divisions, so not Premier League, which is really why
finding. That a little bit, aren't we?
When these minnows make it, do any of them beat anybody?
So not to make this an England pod, but we always do.
Exactly where we can, we will. This is my hesitancy about this
golden era that we've lived through under Southgate is are
we in 10 years time going to look back and go?
Not only like should we have won, but generally speaking our
routes to the finals or semi finals have been pretty generous
compared to what we could have. Drawn when we met a heavyweight.
We Yeah. We failed.
And is it what I'm going to say? Well, it's more of will it ever
be this good for us because we might have better England teams,
we might have better managers in Southgate, but the draw might
just screw us over for the next 4 tournaments.
We might just get really tricky. And I know the argument is, you
know if you want to be the best you've got to beat the best.
But there is an element we've spoken like this, an element in
cup runs that is just down to luck and you think some of the
runs we've had, some of the opponents, you think that was
going to be our moment. Yeah.
I mean, I assume you're talking mostly about Croatia in 2018.
But that run in particular, yeah, was very soft, really.
But then Netherlands was a tough game, but historically they are
a heavyweight national. Team but, but are they?
Historically, as in the they've won major titles, they've got to
finals major more so than Croatia.
Yes, yeah, they've. Got to one final, yeah.
Definitely more so than Croatia. I know history doesn't really
count for much. Really like a team in the 70s.
Germany, right? They they know what they're
doing. Well, I mean, that's national
mentality thing, I think. Yeah, true.
Yeah. I don't know.
I don't. It's it's a tricky one in it
because with football, everything comes down to such
small margins. And I don't know if you can
generalize it so simply like the game we lost doing Bappy and Co,
they missed the penalty. Yeah, yeah.
Scores the penalty. Who knows?
Yeah. Like, you don't know, do you?
That's the sport. Yeah.
No, you're right. And every time you talk about
some margins, all I think about is the shootout.
And I just think when Rashford's penalty hit the post, yeah, if
that was one inch to the right, that's going in one inch.
That's you relive that if you don't.
I don't know why that one bothers me, because he's, I
think it's because it's so stark, because he sends the
keeper completely the wrong way. He does all the hard work so the
goal looks enormous. When you go back and watch it,
you're like. How did you miss?
Yeah, you've got 80% of the goal because you've sold the keeper
so well or the keepers die the wrong way, whichever way it is.
And I'm just like just one inch to the right Rashford and you're
you're a national hero. But anyway, back away from
England. We'll be able to talk about that
plenty with the World Cup this summer, but we will head back to
the FA Cup final and actually talk about the match itself.
Beat. The.
Culture Club made on the 17th of May 2014 at Wembley with 89,000
people in attendance. Arsenal took to the the hallowed
turf of Wembley very much firm favourites against Hull City.
As we discussed Arsenal, whilst not being the the juggernaut of
Man City that we'd spoken about previously, they are still very
much front and centre expected to win this one.
So Arsenal had a team that lined up with still relatively
established names. They had Fabianski as their
number one goalkeeper, they had Sagna, Mertzacker, Koscielny,
Kieran Gibbs. That was a faint moment.
I know someone that went schooled him, said he was a
knob. So I'll just, you know, leave
that hanging in there. Your mate was a knob.
That is also very, very likely. Shout out to Jacob if you're if
you're here. Mikhail Arteta was captain and
starting centre midfielder for Arsenal.
So there's a lovely little bit of, I've not seen symmetry,
that's not the right word, but just a little bit of
foreshadowing. Foreshadowing.
Yeah, next to Aaron Ramsay, the assassin who would claim another
victim. The killer.
Yeah, exactly. Then Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil,
Lucas Podolski, the German, Wayne Rooney and Olivier.
You call him that. He when he first burst onto the
scene, it looks equally as exciting.
But yeah, Santi Cazorla. So you've got some kind of
really iconic Arsenal players here.
So you've got Ramsey, Arteta, Cazorla, Ozil, Koscielny, who
obviously eventually pissed off the fans for posing the wrong.
Are they? Iconic for being underachievers.
I mean, you say iconic, but I mean ultimately for me, that
list of players just reminds me of a team that promised much and
didn't deliver a lot. No, I, I think you are.
I think you're on the side of the facts there.
I'm on the side of the oh, I remember them.
Yeah, but you like the individual player.
Yeah, I do. And interestingly, I guess
someone like Mesut Ozil, who was a massive coup when they signed
him from Real Madrid, it was a real statement signed.
He then eventually became emblematic of the vendor.
Years, he's just like. You're promising so much, but
actually you're not delivering. He was nowhere near as bad as
people were saying towards the end of his career, but it was
kind of like, this is what will take us to the next level.
And yet nothing really changed. And because of the way Ozil
would move around the pitch, a lot of people.
Yeah, Exactly. Yeah, Arsenal looked as usual to
kind of play with patience, play with possession, which is what
they did. Arteta would sit deep and Ramsey
was really in his kind of like box to box midfielder era.
Aaron Ramsey, again, a midfielder that I don't think
gets a lot of credit for, for probably 3 or 4 years he was up
there as one of the best midfielders in the Premier
League. I think up there maybe with
Gerard Lampard, not not for as long, but I do think he was.
Did you just say that? I do.
Up there with Gerard Lampard for about three seasons.
Why would you say Aaron Ramsey was the Bournemouth of that era?
No, I think he's much more a Newcastle trying to break into
the top 4. On their day, they can win a bit
of silverware. On that day, first time in 72
years. Yeah, good point.
Moving on to Hull, however, they played five at the back,
depending on how you view it, but they basically have men
behind the ball. They had a few interesting
players. I'd like to point out.
Tom Huddleston, Jake Livermore. Yeah, yeah, once, once England
future prospects. They never actually counted too
much, but in particular I want to highlight Alex Bruce is.
That Bruce's son it. Is Bruce's son.
Do you know who's manager of Hull City at this point?
It's Steve Bruce. Nepotism alive and well.
Alex Bruce. Starting centre back for his for
his dad's team. Sold them at like 1212 year old
kids club energy isn't it? Steve Bruce?
Man of the match goes to Alex Bruce.
Oh, that's convenient, isn't it? Steve Bruce has just become a
figure of fun in my head because of the amount of times I've sent
you that. Beam me, you say?
A lot of people at parties. Just not then.
I'm sure everyone listening knows.
Just look up Steve Bruce meme, you'll find it.
Yeah, exactly the thing. He's probably most famous.
So Hull decided to do what most London underdog teams do, just
keep it as tight as they can at the back and try and make
something from set pieces. Huddleston in particular
basically was Huddleston and Arteta that was sat in those
quarterback roles trying to dictate things for their teams.
But interestingly enough, and we've spoken about this in the
past, normally FA Cup finals or any cup final tend to be
tentative. They tend to be let's you know,
feel each other out. Let's see what's going to
happen. Hull decide to RIP up the
script. So 4 minutes into the game, go
on Hull City take a shock one nil lead over Arsenal from James
Chester. There's a set piece taken by
Stephen Quinn and it is a real like scolds the edge of the box.
Huddleston is waiting on. Everyone is is piling into the
air expecting the ball to be chucked in the mixer.
Huddleston's waiting on the edge of the area.
This great set piece gets floated in.
Huddleston lines up and you're like go on son, absolutely smash
it. It's really, really inviting and
you're like, this is going to be on the FA wake up.
Grace unfortunately scuffs his shot somewhat.
It drills. It is teammate James Chester
who, for a centre back, sorts his feet out really, really well
and manages to kind of divert the ball towards the Arsenal
goal and it's finishing to the bottom corners and absolutely
impeach. Yeah, you've set me up.
Here I know it's it's amazing, but 4 minutes in I'll take the
lead. Stunned Arsenal's defence before
and they'd even really got started, so an incredible
moment. And then shock turns to absolute
chaos. So minutes later, minute 9.
I think I'm beginning to remember this final.
Minute 9 The cat is amongst the pigeons.
Whole City have turned up to Wembley smelling blood and
they've gone after Arsenal again, another set piece.
So how good? You know that Tom Huddleston
deep free kick he floats into was the far post who should be
there? Alex Bruce doing his dad proud
saying dad look at me, look at me.
And he headers the ball powerfully against the post as
it as it comes back out. Whole captain Curtis Davies
reacts quickest, smashing the rebound in from quite a tight
angle and Hull, incredibly, despite being massive underdogs,
go 2 nil up within 10 minutes. It's another cross in the
queuing up again, Fabiowski makes the save, Hull has scored
it's two nil, Curtis Davis has bundled the ball in and Arsenal
all over the place. Well, it's just going from bad
to worse now. We're not winning first headers,
we're not stopping crosses, we're just not picking up in the
box. Absolutely amazing stuff.
So Hull scored twice from their three first three shots on goal,
Hull have come out and they have absolutely slaughtered.
That's gonna be a heartbreaker. It's gonna be a heartbreaker.
I know it is. I don't remember what happened.
Yeah, so Wenger shock horror, just demanded calm and patience
and after the second goal goes in it flicks him in his dugout
and he's just doing the universal gesture for calm down
hands just patting an imaginary dog.
Just calm down. But to be fair to Finger,
Arsenal calm down, they start to regain their composure and only
6 minutes later they start to get back in the game through a
moment of pure magic. This one, the FA Cup final goals
that I've forgotten about until I rewatched the highlights and
it is an astonishing free kick from Santi Cazorla.
Oh yeah, yeah. So absolutely amazing stuff.
So I love Cazorla for two reasons.
One, because recently he's gone back to his hometown club, the
Rail Oviedo got them promoted to La Liga for the first time in
years, scoring a winning goal in like the semi final.
Great kind of Cinderella story going back home and rising up,
however. Cinderella did that, yeah.
You know, she went back and she was like.
She played for. Her own time and.
He had one boot though, yeah. Nice one footed player in the
generation. Which is actually a segue into
the second reason I love Santi Gazola.
It's just he was one of those footballers that didn't know
which was the stronger foot. So he would take corners, left
footed and right foot. He would take penalties, left
footed, right foot and he didn't know which was the strongest.
Truly an amphibious player. Enjoyable.
But this free kick is amazing. He's about 2528 yards out
towards the kind of slight left of the goal and it's just an
outrageous free kick. He's got one thing on his mind.
He curls it an absolute Peach into the far corner and Alan
McGregor holds. Goalkeeper has no chance of
getting there. It's just so aesthetically
pleasing to watch. On the replay, you do see
McGregor gets fingertips to it, which is amazing, but can't keep
it out. And then, but really I think
that is the story of the cup final in as much as I think if
it goes on longer, Arsenal get nervy, they get a bit light off,
we falling short again. But the fact that 6 minutes
after going 2 nil down, they pull goal back I think allows
them to then almost reset and go, OK, we've got a lot of the
game left, we can still go and do something about this.
So the next kind of 20 minutes or so, Arsenal dominate
possession, Erzil starts getting involved, Cazorla and Podolski
send some long range shots against McGregor to keep him
busy, and Hull eventually kind of revert to type and start
sitting further and further back, getting deeper and deeper
and deeper. Half an hour in, Giroud gets a
really good header on a Santi Cazorla cross, but McGregor
manages to tip it wide. However, the last chance really
for Hull comes in 36 minutes. Alex Bruce again.
He's heading. He is, and it's a diving
clearance from Kieran Gibbs, that man on the line which
manages to keep Arsenal within the game rather than making a
hole. It's a really good goal line
clearance. But Alex Bruce again.
But Dad. How can I do?
You frown. Oh, just a little.
Just a little short, a little bit.
You just think it's going to be awkward around the the dinner
table for a big Sunday. I'll write you.
I'll write you into the next book.
Yeah. So Arsenal were fully in control
heading into the second-half, but they hadn't managed to get
that equalizer. So in the second-half, normal
services resumed. Arsenal starts to turn the
screw. They dominate possession.
They are camped in holes half and hole drop to a 541 and
basically it this is kind of. They were just trying to hold on
then, yeah. It's unfortunately it's almost
like hole we're beginning to believe at the start.
Is beginning. And then they kind of realize,
oh, actually the odds are against us.
And I think it's one of those things when you start to panic,
don't you? Because when you don't have the
ball for 5 minutes at a time, when you do get it, you think we
have to do something with it. And your kind of decision making
goes out the window. And the hull can't even manage
any kind of established attacks. There's no quick breaks, there's
no counter attacking. They just kind of get the ball,
punt it away and just are starting to panic.
So 68 minutes in, this is an equalizer that comes from Lauren
Koscielny. So as a controversial corner
that was actually awarded, replay showed that it should
have been a goal kick. So Stevie Bruce at the end of
the game would highlight this as one of the turning points.
And I'm kind of like, I I get it.
But the goal probably would have came anyway if it hadn't been
this quarter, it probably would have been something else.
Sanya's header is rebounded off of the goal scorer James Chester
for Hull and it falls to Lauren Koscielny, who manages to turn
and score from six yards. Because all this corner and he's
turned in from very close range by Laurent Koscielny, he's the
one the Arsenal players jump on. It's another defender and Arsene
Wenger's team have come back from 2 nil down at Wembley.
Gregor rushes out to try and block it and absolutely
annihilates I. Just want to get injured.
Yeah, that's right. But nevertheless, Arsenal
managed to score. Whole players protested, but the
goal stood. And now it's kind of right,
handing over to Arsenal. They've come back from 2 nil
down, it's 2. All big.
MO is with her, is with them. Sorry.
We're gonna bring us on Big MO. Big MO She's.
Summer signing the. 12th man and then in the kind of last 10
minutes or so of the game there is a few more chaotic moments.
So 78th minute there is a penalty appeal, Arsenal claiming
for handball against Curtis Davies.
It does hit his hand, but it's one of those where it's like he
hasn't done it intentionally. Given neither, wouldn't it?
Well. It would, yeah, absolutely
would, but nevertheless it's waved away in this one.
Kieran Gibbs gets a chance. He goes for A12 with Ozil but
blasts over from 10 yards with the goal is mercy.
Could have happened to a nicer bloke from reports.
I I have no no idea Jacob. Yeah, I have no idea if Kieran
Gibbs is actually. Could be, absolutely.
Yeah, he could be could be the nice guy in the world, but when
he was a 15 year old kid, he was apparently just arrogant and.
Full of himself. Well, if you're if you're 15
year old and you play for a Premier League club, I probably
would be a little bit full of myself too, yeah.
I mean, when you were 15 you were full of yourself.
Exactly. Premier League club.
No I did not, but I was probably the fittest player on my under
sixteens pitch so. Fittest as in best looking?
I'll let the There's a reason this is an audio media, ladies
and gentlemen, in the 83rd minute, Sanogo, which he's a
kind of a player that's lost to Arsenal folklore because he did
absolutely nothing for his entire time there.
But yeah, yeah. Sanogo replaces Lucas Podolski,
the German Wayne Rooney and it. But to be fair, it's Sanogo's
energy that starts creating loads of chaos amongst the whole
back line and that's my memory of Yaya Sanogo.
He's just a striker that just ran a lot I.
Had no memory of him. No, it's because he doesn't
score goals, which as a striker is something that you would.
Kind of selling is. It no, but he's buzzing around
like a family and that's, to be fair, what brings about the kind
of exhaustion of holds back line which creates the chaos that
allows Arsenal to take the lead. So the game itself does head
into extra time right at this point, Hull are they're they're
blowing, they are out on their feet and yet again, Arsenal just
relentless pressure camping out in holes.
Half Giroud Manchester get his massive head on the ball 105
minutes in, but it goes against the crossbar and she's really
putting himself about whole hanging on by willpower alone.
But the decisive moment comes just 4 minutes late. 109 minutes
in, Arsenal finally get the breakthrough and what would turn
out to be winning goal. And it was that man, Aaron
Ramsey. Celebrities everywhere started
writing their wills hearing Aaron Ramsey scoring.
But it's a really, really good goal.
So yeah, yeah. So no go creating a load of
confusion with his running buzzing around like a family.
Bull gets played through to Giroud, who's running away from
the goal. Ramsey starts charging into the
box and it's Giroud's like presence of mind.
It's a really, really classy assist.
He back heels the ball perfectly into Ramsey's path, who kind of
stabs with the outside of his foot to score at the near post
is a really good finish from Ramsey, very inventive, really
great precision with it. But it's all about Giroud's
assist, he's going away from goal, notices Ramsey running
over behind his shoulder, there's a great back heel and to
be fair, it's a it's a goal worthy of winning an FA Cup
final. But Hull go through heartache,
Arsenal are jubilant and Arsenal lift the FA Cup trophy for a
record time. Well, you have just witnessed 90
of the most terrific minutes of European football you'll ever,
ever see. The good.
News is there's more to come, so the final went to extra time and
it's our extra time now. The wing gave Arsenal a joint
record 11th FA Cup title with Manchester United.
Arsenal would go on to win a few more and take that title
outright in the future. Arsenal would already qualified
for the Champions League, so we spoke about with their league
position, which meant that Hull qualified for the Europa League
and it was on the 1st on the last time.
Sorry that that rule would be in place where if you were the
runner up in the Cup final you would make your way into Europe.
It would go down a league position.
Exactly, exactly. It's.
Much more fitting. I think that's more correct
because you've done. More Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, you have earned it over. But it does mean less romance
and moments like this where the underdog can find themselves,
however. Get the job done, then Hull.
Well, yeah, Hull, unfortunately, we'll talk about that in a
second. But Curtis Davies, the Hull
captain and one of the goal scorers, was quoted afterwards
just saying when Arsenal lifted the cup I started to crime eyes
out. We were that close.
Which that's when you feel for it.
Like you just think is the pinnacle not just of this guys
career but of the club, of the town.
You're kind of like you've got so much.
And they were to go 2 nil up against Arsenal, but
unfortunately, it had been thrown away.
A little bit of trivia here. A new version of the FA Cup
trophy was present for the first time in this final.
It was made of sterling silver, was heavier and more.
Yeah. So apparently it's more robust.
People were worried about the old FA Cup literally getting
crumpled and kind of bashed. It was bigger.
That's correct. Yeah.
So they'd kind of gone to the new one.
It's a little bit of nostalgia for you.
Leona Lewis sang Abide With Me in the national anthem.
Bleeding Love. Yeah.
Just keep Bleeding, Love. I always thought it was funny
that her video for that song was her up against loads of
radiators. Is that right?
It's just doing that for plumbing.
She loves plumbing that girl. Keep bleeding rats.
So there's no way to go from that jovial to this.
Some somber news with a good segue.
So I'll just say it as it was. At Wembley, spectators observed
a 56 minute applause to commemorate the 56 victims of
the 1985 Bradford City Stadium fire.
It was the 29th anniversary just five days beforehand.
No, six days beforehand. Sorry.
So it was just to commemorate the people that had lost their
lives. So I thought it was a nice touch
for the fans and for the FA to obviously have made the
announcement that there would be, I mean, it's applause to
kind of remember those victims. Arsenal fans at the end of the
game would spill onto the pitch during the final whistle really.
So pitch invasion for their first trophy in nine years at
Wembley. Then they could do that.
Well, I guess no one's going to stop you, are they?
But it was kind of a bit of half hearted pitch invasion.
A lot of fans got onto the pitch, but also you can see a
lot of fans in the stands. Like really a little bit.
Kind of like small. Club mentality it's a bit
Arsenal as well and you don't quite get the job done.
Looks nice though. Yeah, I mean like struggling to
an extra time win against Hull and then like storming the
pictures and quite the same if it was the other way around.
You can imagine the whole fans doing it, and quite.
Right, doesn't fit. Does.
It no, it's a little bit tin pot and I don't mind saying that.
So we mentioned that Hull as runners up would get to appear
in European competition the next season.
However, it does not go to plan. So they did have to go through a
Europa League playoff round. They beat AS Trensin, who I
actually don't know where they're from, let's say some
Romanian teams. The name looks Romanian but I
have no idea. They managed to beat them, but
they were knocked down the next round by Lochran on away goals.
So they drew 2 all over 2 legs and unfortunately they didn't
even make it into the Europa League proper, which, and we've
seen this with clubs like Leicester and stuff that
overstretched themselves. It meant that Hull, even though
they didn't get into Europe, clearly the emotion, the
pinnacle, whatever it was, meant that they couldn't repeat the
glory that they had next season and got relegated.
I think sometimes it might be different with Leicester because
they obviously we're in the Champions League, but I think
there's something where with Hull, Europe surely would have
just been the final was the day, yeah.
And Europe's the novelty, yeah. The kind of like cool bit that
you get to do, but you're not really as bothered surely?
I guess so, but then you kind of think for a lot of these Hull
City players, when are they gonna play?
For not they wouldn't want to, but just they'll look back and
they'll remember the final. Yeah, more than playing AS Trent
in deepest Bucharest. Yeah, no, no, you are quite
right. And yeah, whether it was just
that, like you say, that they had achieved the pinnacle of
their careers and and realistically probably like,
well, it doesn't really get better than this for Hull.
And yeah, they were relegated that season and same.
Season as they got to the final. No, sorry.
The season after Yeah, the the the.
Wish you could argue extra games in Europe.
Well, yeah, it was, it was only four extra games, but yeah, I, I
just think your head's turned, isn't it you?
Kind of think. Well, that's as good as it gets.
And they wouldn't have the squad to cope with that kind of
demand. No, exactly.
So unfortunately that was as good as it got for whole in 110
years. The only other bit of trivia
that I have is that ITV were hosting the FA Cup final on
domestic television this year and they had 10 million viewers,
which realistically that's like one in six people, one in seven
people watching the FA Cup final.
So even in the mid 2000s it's still an enormous event.
And I just think often we talk about how the FA Cup final isn't
what it used to be, but there there is still some appeal to
this. I know this is a decade ago now,
but 10 million people watching the live the FA Cup final was
kind of. I think people have an eye on
the FA Cup final. I don't think it's what it was
in the 80s where it's like sit down on occasion for for
whoever's in it. But I still think it's a it's
difficult. You can't compare it with the
Champions League because like Champions League has got the
pull of AI mean you could argue the world that alone the
continent. But I think when it's your
Nations Cup final, I do think if you're a football fan, you, you
will know what's going on. Yeah.
And if you you know, you can watch it.
You will watch it if you're free.
Like I don't, I don't think people like I cannot be asked
with the. FA no, Final no, although you do
get that attitude with people with the international break and
that that makes me sick to my stomach.
People this week have been complaining on my group chat.
So you're like, oh it's bloody international week and then
yeah, it's international week. Get beyond your country, Stop
going on Tommy Robinson marches and get yourself to Wembley.
Start supporting our nation. Get behind you better flag
making sure everybody saw you. Yeah, exactly.
I was wearing my England top. Terry Butcher with the Band of
Drama. Gary Neville's coming for you,
mate. I'm with that ominous sentence.
Join us next week to find out who wins 2015 FA Cup.