The (Long and Winding) Road to Wembley

It's the fourth round proper. A vivid memory of the fourth round for me is 30th January 1988. A tough away trip for Blues at Barnsley. I was there with my good friend (despite being a Villa fan) Martin (see recent Brighton third round trip). The OPTA stats of the match were something like this... Possession - Barnsley 99%, Blues 1% Corners - Barnsley 20, Blues 0 Shots On Target - Barnsley 35, Blues 0 Goals - Barnsley 0, Blues 2 Barnsley manager, Allan 'Sniffer' Clarke (Leeds Utd legend) was proper miffed. The local support were also most dis-chuffed, encouraging the Blues fans (plus Martin) to leave South Yorkshire at the earliest opportunity. Which was a pity because both me and Martin were living in South Yorkshire at the time. We didn't let on. Barnsley had a run of getting knocked out of the FA Cup by top quality outfits. Arsenal 1987 (5th round), Blues 1988 (4th round), Everton 1989 (5th round).  Blues - no shots on target, 2 goals. That's

Welcome to 2020, The Twenties and the third round.  Blues beat Blackburn (with, arguably, the rub of the green...?) and the Villa are out (focus on The Carabao Cup lads). There were plenty of attractive ties to choose from, but the blue and white of Brighton against the blue and white of Wednesday, The Seagulls versus The Owls, was too good to turn down. I have history with Sheffield Wednesday in the 80's. Imre Varadi. A man with almost as many clubs as Steve Claridge (see earlier post, second qualifying round) and on his day, what a player. Saw him score a fantastic hat-trick. Can't remember who against. I also saw a couple of five goal whippings at Hillsborough.  1. (1986) Wednesday 5 Blues 1 - enjoyed the "we want six" chants from the Blues fans in the now infamous Leppings Lane end. David Geddes scored for Blues. 2. (1988) Wednesday 1 Liverpool 5 (John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Craig Johnston etc) - honestly some of the best football I've ever seen