The David V Goliath encounters of the past, some of the biggest shocks in English football
Forget the Sunderland v Liverpool, Burnley v Manchester United, and Wigan v Chelsea, these are the upsets that occur every other day in world football but there are some wins that come as a shock to audiences worldwide and there is no better place to look for such mishaps than the world football’s oldest competition, The F A Cup and you don’t have to look too far as only this season division one’s (third tier) Leeds United beat the old Trafford giants in the FA Cup to dump the English champions out of the competition.
As Portsmouth prepare for one final high profile outing this season against Chelsea in the F A Cup final at Wembley on Saturday, they will be hoping to cause an upset of mammoth proportions, make no mistake it wont be anything short of that should they do it in just over 24 hrs.
For their inspiration I have lined up some of the mightiest shocks that shook the world audiences.
Starting as early as 1901 when Tottenham beat Sheffield 3-1 in the final after a 2-2 draw that forced a replay. Spurs became the only non-league in history to win the famous cup when they beat the then giants Sheffield United 3-1 at Brunden Park. United actually were up and running early through a Fred Priest Goal but second half goals from Sandy Brown, Tom Smith and john Cameron took the cup to white hart lane for the first time.
In 1973 came the biggest shock of all when Sunderland beat Leeds United to become the first side outside the top tier to win the FA Cup after the Albion’s in 1931. The World expected the match to be nothing more than a formality and all Leeds had to do was just to turn up but the wearsiders perhaps hadn’t read the script. But Montgomery’ heroics between the posts and Pottrfield’s winner are etched in history as one of the most romantic fairytales in FA Cup history.
In 1976 Manchester United finished third in the English top division and Southampton were sixth in division two no contest was it? But the men from the south coast caused one of the biggest upsets at the old Wembley when Bobby Stokes slammed in the winner in the 83rd minute to steal the glory, limelight and trophy from their illustrious opponents.
Just two years later in 1978 Ipswich met Arsenal in the Cup final, Sir Bobby Robson’s Ipswich were a far inferior side going into the contest but on the verge of what turned out to be the greatest spell in their history, Arsenal were the firm favourites to win the trophy after a seven year gap but the country cousins from Suffolk made a mockery of their opponents superior reputation and hit the frame of the goal three times in the match before Roger Osborne scored the winner in the 77th minute and such was the magnitude of his emotion that he had to be substituted just a minute later.
More shocks to follow in part two of David and Goliath.
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