There was barely a flicker of resistance or a whisper of a protest when the FA announced that there will no more replays at the quarter-final stage of the FA Cup from this season. As time had also been called on replays at both the semi-final stage and the final many years ago, this latest move was viewed as almost inevitable. But a look back at some of the glorious and memorable FA Cup replays suggests that more fuss should have been made about the loss of this quintessential element of knockout football.
Whittling down the congested fixture list seems to have taken precedence over any sense of tradition or history and the removal of all replays from the whole competition does not feel too far away. There is something distinctive being swept away as there have been some truly wonderful matches that possessed a certain quality that is now being eroded. We still retain replays for the earlier rounds but, just to prove how much we are going to miss them for their heightened sense of drama and significance, it is an opportune moment to look back at the last of their kind.
What turned out to be the last quarter-final replay was appropriately enough the last FA Cup tie to be played at Upton Park. Having been denied victory at Old Trafford in the original game by a late Anthony Martial equaliser, West Ham were expecting to sign off in style from the Boleyn Ground. Louis van Gaal’s faltering side showed resilience and a touch of class in ruining the Hammers’ farewell FA Cup party, which took place a full month after the first game. Once again teenager Marcus Rashford showed how his maturity is well-suited to the big stage by curling in a sumptuous opener – an impudent and delightful piece of finishing from a player who meets every new challenge with commendable aplomb.
Manchester United seemed to have wrapped up the match when Marouane Fellaini bundled home the second, but West Ham fought back with a James Tomkins goal to set up a frantic finale as David De Gea resisted everything thrown at him in the United goal with a string of fine saves. Ultimately, this hard-earned victory gave Van Gaal the chance to deliver a trophy from his tempestuous and generally underwhelming two-year reign so at least the irascible Dutchman will look back at this replay with a certain fondness as will a young man who is steadily building an impressive reputation.
Manchester United were also involved in the last semi-final replay back in 1999 when Van Gaal’s erstwhile assistant was responsible for one of the most iconic moments in FA Cup history. Ryan Giggs not only scored a memorable goal but also indulged himself in such a wild celebration that it has almost overshadowed the goal and the game itself. This was the year of the treble and the FA Cup would prove to be the middle element of that extraordinary trio. Appropriately enough their opponents were their closest domestic challengers, Arsenal.
The previous season had been Arsène Wenger’s first full season in charge and had ended pretty well when they emulated United by securing their second double. Going into this semi-final both sides were on long undefeated runs and were battling it out at the top of the league, so this was very much the clash of the titans. However, the original semi-final was an anti-climax: a dull, goalless affair that proffered very little prospect of the intense, intoxicating excitement that lay ahead in the replay three days later at Villa Park. David Beckham’s opening goal was a characteristically spectacular strike from 25 yards that flew past David Seaman’s outstretched right hand as it arrowed into the far corner.
While Denis Bergkamp’s equaliser was from a similar distance it was not as clean a strike, taking a deflection en route. Then, when Roy Keane was sent off for a second yellow card in 75th minute, the pendulum seemed to have swung to the Gunners. The penalty awarded to Arsenal in added time gave Bergkamp the chance to wrap it up but his kick was thwarted by Peter Schmeichel, whose excellent save was then embellished by his swaggering celebration.
The momentum had shifted again and, despite the one-man advantage, Arsenal did not put Schmeichel under any concerted pressure during the first period of extra time. The prospect of penalties was looming until that moment of genius from Giggs. The goal has been replayed countless times since but is worth watching again and again to marvel at the slalom past the Arsenal defence. Giggs bamboozled Martin Keown, Lee Dixon and Tony Adams along the way, which was just the prelude to as emphatic a finish as Seaman is ever likely to have witnessed from close range. It flew over his head into the roof of the net. In fact, emphatic does not really cover it.
This was one of those rare goals, which leaves the audience slightly stunned and in need of a moment’s reflection to fully absorb then comprehend what has just happened. We were all shaken out of our collective reveries by the sight of Giggs removing his shirt and whirling it above his head like a demented banshee as he sprinted back to the halfway line, leaving his team-mates in his wake – much like he had done with his opponents a few seconds before. The image of the bare-chested hirsute Welshman has been firmly imprinted in our minds ever since. It was a fitting epitaph and as the last ever goal to be scored in a semi-final replay could hardly be bettered for quality, significance or impact. Not bad for a second-half substitute.
The last FA Cup final replay in 1993 also involved Arsenal. It did not quite match the heady heights of that evening at Villa Park but it was notable for being the only time that the same clubs contested both domestic cup finals. Sheffield Wednesday had already lost the League Cup final in a game that was remembered mostly for Steve Morrow’s misfortune at having his arm broken when Tony Adams dropped him over his shoulder during the post-match celebrations. When the FA Cup final ended in a 1-1 draw, a third meeting at Wembley in the space of a month beckoned.
Having scored in the original game, Ian Wright continued his run of scoring in FA Cups, adding a fourth to his personal tally (he scored two for Palace in 1990) before Chris Waddle equalised and the game went to extra time. It was going to be a late night as the kick-off had been put back by 30 minutes already because of traffic problems and it was close to 11pm when Andy Linighan popped up in the 119th minute to nod in the winner, broken nose and all. It may well have been one of the latest ends to a match at Wembley but in terms of action on the pitch it was mere chicken feed to the marathon Arsenal and Wednesday endured during the third round in 1979.
After a couple of 1-1 draws at Hillsborough and Highbury respectively, Leicester’s Filbert Street hosted the next instalments in this long-running saga. Following a 2-2 draw, the third replay ended in a pulsating 3-3 draw as unusually the games were increasing in intensity and drama as the series continued. And so they played a fourth replay, which Arsenal won 2-0. Amazingly, all five games were squeezed into less than three weeks in the days before fixture congestion was an issue.
After playing five times against the same opposition in January, Arsenal faced a handful of teams in the rest of the competition, eventually beating Manchester United 3-2 in the final. With another replay against Southampton in the quarter-final, Arsenal racked up a total of 1 matches – a record for post-war FA Cup winners.
Eventually the FA had had enough of this nonsense. Within a decade the multiple replay was consigned to the dustbin marked “quaint but rather old-fashioned practices” and the penalty shoot-out was introduced. Although they had been used in various competitions both in the UK and internationally for a while, the honour of being the first FA Cup match decided by a penalty shoot-out fell to Rotherham, who overcame Scunthorpe on 29 November 1991 after their first-round replay ended in a 3-3 draw after extra time. Those lucky 4,829 souls present at Millmoor on that Tuesday night then witnessed the historic drama of Rotherham’s 7-6 victory.
It is worth remembering that without replays we would never have had the chance to revel in Ronnie Radford’s muddy moment of glory against Newcastle at Edgar Street in 1972, Ricky Villa’s mesmerising, mazy run that illuminated the 1981 Cup final or the frantic 4-4 draw between Everton and Liverpool that prompted Kenny Dalglish’s departure in 1991. If the chances for similar momentous games being swept away is not bad enough, there were discussions at a recent Uefa managers get-together about the prospect of skipping extra time and moving straight to penalties if games is still undecided after 90 minutes.
There is a danger that with so much emphasis on filleting the fixture list and paring it back to the bare minimum that there will be less room for the extraneous games such as replays – these unusual oddities that have provided us with so much entertainment and have carved out their own niche in our collective memories.
• This article is from the author of The Agony and the Ecstasy
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