The Cup Final of 1986 was the first ever all Merseyside affair.  Ultimately, it was the Reds, Liverpool who prevailed.  Gary Lineker had given Everton the lead just before the half hour mark, and in a largely undistinguished first half they had looked quite in control.

Things seemed to be going Everton's way in the second half too, as tensions came to a head in the Liverpool defence with Bruce Grobbelaar's infamous rant at young Irish full back Jim Beglin.  However, Liverpool had been crowned League Champions only a week earlier, so it was no surprise when Ian Rush equalised just before the hour and then Craig Johnston added a second a few minutes later.  When Rush made it 3-1 with less than 10 minutes to go, Liverpool became only the fifth team to win the Double.

The semi finals had seen Liverpool defeat Southampton at White Hart Lane, whilst Everton had accounted for Sheffield Wednesday at Villa Park.  Brighton and Hove Albion had kept up their recent good run of form in the FA Cup, this time making it through to the sixth round.  Perhaps the biggest shock of the competition had come in the 3rd round when Altrincham had knocked out Birmingham City who were then in Division 1.

Of course, the 1985 final is probably best remembered for the sending off of United's Kevin Moran, the first player ever to be sent off in a Cup Final.  How much was down to referee Peter Willis's desire to get his own name into the record books and any malicious intent on the part of Moran is debatable.  Everton's Peter Reid, the man fouled by Moran certainly didn't feel that it merited a sending off.  Especially, happening as it did with seconds to spare at the end of the 90 with the teams locked at 0-0.

Everton were going all out for the FA Cup to add to the League Championship won days earlier.  Had they managed to win the fabled League and FA Cup double, they would have been only the fourth team to do so, following on from Arsenal, Spurs and of course Preston North End.  However, United's young Northern Irishman, Norman Whiteside spoiled the party for his future employers with a curled winner 10 minutes from the end of extra time.

Millwall were the team of the earlier rounds, knocking out both Chelsea and Leicester City before succumbing to Luton Town in the quarter finals.  The semi finals featured another heavyweight battle as United prevailed over Liverpool in the replay at Maine Road after a 2-2 stalemate at Goodison Park.  Everton saw off Luton's challenge at Villa Park.

What is your memory of the 1984 Cup Final?  Mine is missing the second half because I had to go and do my Saturday afternoon paper round.  Ho ho ho, what bad planning...

Perhaps the most vivid memory of this year's competition was the mass of green that was Villa Park's Holte End, occupied by the Plymouth fans at their semi versus Watford.  You have to remember that this game was played in those halcyon days before the big four exerted their monopoly of the game in England.  (etymological point - can a group of four exercise a monopoly, surely, quadropoly...?)

If I remember correctly Everton's second goal came about from a barge on the Watford 'keeper by Sky TV's football pundit Andy Gray.  Gray's fellow Scot Graeme Sharp had put the Toffees ahead on 38 minutes.  All in all, Everton were able to impose their playing style much better on the game than Watford.

The earlier rounds had seen another defeat of Liverpool by Brighton and Hove Albion and another home win over Ipswich Town for Shrewsbury Town.  However, this season's biggest shock had been the third round victory of Harry Redknapp's Bournemouth over Man Utd.  Thus we saw the beginnings of Redknapp Snr's seemingly effortless ability to put teams out to beat United in the Cup.

Well well well.  What an exciting competition was served up this year.  Oh yes.  The season served us up a proper classic.  With proper giant killing feats.  Giants with a 'G' were slain this year, oh yes sir.  But as is so often the case one of the Giants went on to win the Cup.

The most romantic element of the competition this year was the journey of Brighton & Hove Albion to the final.  Suffering a dismal league season (they were relegated from the 1st Division) in the third round they knocked out Newcastle United.  Despite their being in the 2nd division, they must have fancied their chances against Jimmy Melia's side after a 1-1 draw on the south coast.  However, a single goal was enough for Brighton to progress.

In the 4th round they came up against and thumped Man City at the Goldstone Ground.  In the 5th round, the biggest fish of all, Liverpool... at Anfield.  Brighton pulled of the shock of this, or any other season to run out 2-1 winners against Bob Paisley's men.  This set up a quarter final versus Norwich City in which again a single goal was enough to see Brighton through.

In the semi finals Brighton played Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury and ran out 2-1 winners, whilst Man Utd were puling of a similar feat against Arsenal at Villa Park.  And so it came to pass, that Man Utd were up against Brighton in the 1983 FA Cup Final.

Continuing a recent theme, extra time couldn't separate the two teams, so despite Gordon Smith's best effors ('...and Smith must score...' - he didn't!) we had to settle for another replay.  This time, the season had caught up with Brighton and after Bryan Robson had set them on their way in the 25th minute United ran out comfortable 4-0 winners.

The 101st FA Cup competition didn't end in such dramatic fashion as the 100th.  This one ended in another victory for Spurs, after another replayed final.  After a 1-1 draw in the first game, which went to extra time, a Glenn Hoddle penalty after 6 minutes was enough to defeat QPR.

The semi final line up saw Spurs take on Leicester with Garth Crooks and Ian Wilson seeing off Leicester City at Villa Park. At Highbury in the battle of the TLA's, future Spurs hero Clive Allen's single strike was enough for QPR against WBA.

In the quarter finals Leicester had finally put an end to Shrewsbury Town's dramatic run.  The Shrews had seen off Ipswich Town in the previous round in an act of giant killing.  Previously they had beaten Burnley and Port Vale.  In the second round, non-league Altrincham had beaten Sheffield United who were playing in what was their only ever season in the bottom division in the Football League.

This is of course the year that Villa won the cup in the 100th staging of the competition.  However, you would be excused for thinking that it was Aston Villa.  Oh no, this was Tottenham's Ricky Villa.  We all remember it.  He trudged off, disconsolately, after being subbed in the original final (a 1-1 draw with Man City - more of which later).

He scored Spurs' first goal in the replay, and after Garth Crooks had equalised at 2-2 with 20 mins left, he waltzed through the City defence (heavy pitch, Wembley) before slotting the ball past Big Joe Corrigan for a 3-2 victory for Spurs.

Now, Mr Tommy Hutchinson was the hero and villain of the drawn final.  First he scored the City's goal with an absolute peach of a diving header past Ray Clemence.  Then just as City were beginning to believe that the Cup could be theirs, with 10 minutes left poor Tommy deflected the ball past Big Joe to give Spurs the lifeline that they ultimately used to such advantage.

In the semis, City beat Ipswich 1-0 in I guess what was a run-of-the-mill kind of game.  However, Spurs needed a replay to see off Wolves, beating them 3-0 at Highbury after a 2-2 draw at Hillsborough.

Perhaps the funniest moment in the earlier rounds had been the 4-0 stuffing handed out to Newcastle by Exeter City in their 5th round replay at St James's.  Perhaps the only consoltation being that St James's Park is also the name of Exeter's ground.  And it is an awful long way to the Devon from Tyne and Wear.

Question, Who won the FA Cup in 1980?

Answer, Sir Trevor Brooking, or just Trev as he was known then.  Easy.  Do you remember it?  I do, he stooped to conquer after only a few minutes, on the left hand goal as you watch on telly.  I think though that Arsenal had had just about enough of the FA Cup by this stage.

This was after all, their 3rd consecutive Final, having lost to Ipswich and Roger Osborne in 78, and having memorably defeated Man Utd in 1979 - you must remember Alan Sunderland's winning goal with seconds to spare, only seconds after Utd had pulled it back to 2-2...

And in this season's semi, Arsenal had taken 4 games to defeat Liverpool, finally running out 1-0 winners after the 3rd replay at Highfield Rd.  West Ham had needed just the one replay to see off Everton at Elland Rd.

Just briefly looking at the earlier rounds, we saw an almighty shock in the 3rd round when Leicester City, then of the 1st Division were beaten by Harlow Town.  There was another shock with Wigan beating Chelsea, also in the 3rd round.