[46] Bould went on to displace Caesar in the starting eleven, whose career stalled after the 1988 final. Caesar found his playing time limited in subsequent seasons, as the manager brought in Steve Bould. They were drawn against Doncaster Rovers; the first leg was staged at Belle Vue on 23 September 1987. Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the 1988 final in one of the FA Cup's great upsets. It was full of Wimbledon fans. [34] Another Luton free kick, this time in the 13th minute, led to the opening goal. Then it was back to the hotel. The 1988 final regarded as one of the best in the competition's history and most exciting at Wembley, and has been likened to the "five-minute" FA Cup Final of 1979. [48] David Evans, the Luton chairman was against his club participating in European football, though he never publicised his reasoning. The 1988 Football League Cup Final was an association football match between Luton Town and Arsenal on 24 April 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London. Sport, Football, 1988 FA Cup Final, Wembley, 14th May Wimbledon 1 v Liverpool 0, Wimbledon's Dennis Wise on the ball as Liverpool's Steve McMahon challenges, Erstklassige Nachrichtenbilder in hoher Auflösung bei Getty Images Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. "[27], Like Harford, Graham had issues selecting his side, going as far to say "it's the hardest line-up I have had to choose. Joe T: Watching old footage from the 1988 FA Cup final. Triumph im FA-Cup geführt. We were always quite vocal in trying to get ourselves pumped up for games. "[42] Luton held a civic ceremony two days after the final, where the trophy was presented in front of the club's supporters. [17] A shot from Danny Wilson in the 65th minute resulted in Luton's second goal; though his effort was saved by Tomlinson, the goalkeeper could not fend off the advancing Harford's header. [50][51] In 2015, Luton's victory was ranked 12th in a list of the "50 greatest things from the past three decades", by readers of the Luton on Sunday.[52]. Brian Stein gave Luton the breakthrough in the tie, but Oxford equalised from the penalty spot. [16] Luton hosted Bradford City in the fifth round of the competition on 19 January 1988. ban on English teams from playing in European club competitions, "Arsenal's League Cup Finals – A history", "Caught in Time: Luton Town win the League Cup, 1988", "Arsenal's head-to-head comparison with Luton Town", "Chelsea vs Tottenham: The 10 best ever League Cup finals", "Luton Town's cup win over Arsenal in 1988 picked by locals as great thing from last 30 years", "The Joy of Six: League Cup final memories", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1988_Football_League_Cup_Final&oldid=985378813, April 1988 sports events in the United Kingdom, Pages using football kit with incorrect pattern parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 October 2020, at 16:42. [32] Mal Donaghy passed a fitness test and partnered Steve Foster in defence, while Rob Johnson was preferred as left back to Ashley Grimes. [13] In the return leg, Mick Harford scored a hat-trick to give Luton a comfortable 4–2 victory (5–2 on aggregate). [19], Arsenal, the match favourites and holders of the Football League Cup,[20] were making their fourth final appearance in the competition. [21] They had won the League Cup once before, in 1987, and lost two consecutive finals in 1968 and 1969. "[28] Already without O'Leary, Graham was waiting for Paul Davis to pass a fitness test before finalising his first eleven; the England international had caught a virus a week before the final and subsequently missed training. Up front, Smith was positioned alongside Groves. The first leg was at Oxford's home ground Manor Ground, where Luton had beaten their opponents 5–2 earlier in the league season. It was the final match of the 1987–88 staging of the Football League Cup. He believed O'Leary absence through injury was a big loss for Arsenal, and implied that Williams was needed in midfield: "Without him they don't have a leader. I remember standing on the goalline before the penalty, panting. [35] Arsenal continued to pile on pressure, and took the lead three minutes later, when Smith received a pass from Thomas to score. People say we won it in the tunnel, but I don't think it was like that at all. That was the moment when I thought, they're not going to score today. Joe Cole insisted he has nothing to prove as he looked to use the FA Cup final to cement his place in the England squad, David Lacey: Portsmouth can thwart Chelsea's Double ambitions with the biggest FA Cup final shock for more than 20 years, Available for everyone, funded by readers, Chelsea are hopeful of luring Fernando Torres from Liverpool after making discreet inquiries, according to reports, The FA Cup final is the next step in the goalkeeper's quest to forget the past and look to the future, he tells Barney Ronay. We went to a place called the Fox & Grapes on Wimbledon Common. Event occurs around the 11th-minute mark; live coverage between 14:40pm and 14:42pm. We collected the trophy, ran around the pitch, all the stuff we'd seen everyone else do on TV in previous years. The 1988 final was Luton's first major cup victory; their manager Ray Harford later described it as the greatest win in his time at the club. Moore, Pleat (1988). Luton were making their first League Cup Final appearance, while the competition holders Arsenal were appearing in their fourth final. I think Alan Cork spoke to Bobby Gould to ask if we could go to the pub for a change of scenery, and probably for the first time in his life Bobby dug in his pockets and gave us some money. Luton's disciplined approach, coupled with a strong performance by Dibble, contained Arsenal to few chances throughout the game. Football Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. [30][31] The winners stood to receive £75,000 in prize money, while the losing finalists earnt £25,000. "[26] He admitted Luton's poor run of form since losing the Full Members Cup was a reason why he would make changes for the Wembley final, and noted his side's difficulty on grass away from home. [23], Luton manager Ray Harford had doubts over his team selection for the final. [39], Luton came close to scoring their second goal of the match when Harford got away from Caesar and ran towards the left byline. Luton were making their first League Cup Final appearance, while the competition holders Arsenal were appearing in their fourth final. Arsenal manager George Graham in the meantime strengthened his squad as a result of his team's poor defensive display. The tie was played at Filbert Street – a neutral venue – given Luton had banned away supporters from its home, Kenilworth Road as a consequence of the rioting which marred English football in 1985. It wasn't so easy for a goalkeeper to do his homework on the opposition's penalty-taker back then, but Liverpool were on TV more often than anybody else. Each club needed to get past five rounds to reach the showpiece event at Wembley. The 1988 FA Cup Final took place on 14 May 1988 at Wembley Stadium.It was contested between Wimbledon, unfashionable and unfancied, and Liverpool, the dominant English club side of the 1980s and newly crowned league champions.. Having received consent from the police to stage the second leg at Kenilworth Road, a near-capacity crowd saw Luton win 2–0. Arsenal, the defending champions, entered the match as favourites, but went behind early when Brian Stein scored. Goalkeeper Les Sealey was not fit in time to play, so Andy Dibble deputised in goal for only his sixth appearance of the season. [35] Davis' free kick delivered in was only half cleared by Foster and amongst the scramble, Hayes drove the ball in the net. [8], In the fourth round Arsenal faced Stoke City of the Second Division at home. Further goals from Harford saw them progress into the next round. [41] He commended his goalkeeper, saying: "Considering all the circumstances, I think Dibble had to be the man of the match, and as for the young boy, [Kingsley] Black was sensational. Fan's letter said it was 'impossible to breathe' during Liverpool game at Hillsborough the previous year... but concern fell on deaf ears [17], Luton faced Oxford United in the semi-final which was played over two-legs. Andy Thorn used to stand behind the penalty-taker saying "miss, miss, miss". [10] The first leg was staged at Goodison Park and saw the Arsenal players, rejuvenated by a five-day break in Marbella, come away with a 1–0 win. [4], Arsenal entered the competition in the second round, as one of the 22 teams from the Football League First Division. The first, staged at Wigan's Springfield Park ended as a 1–0 win for the visitors, courtesy of Mickey Weir's goal. A lot has been made of the noise we made in the tunnel before kick-off. I'd probably seen four or five of John Aldridge's penalties that season. We came out and Liverpool were just standing about, waiting – they'd been there many times and were perhaps a bit more relaxed. May 26, 2019 - Explore Neil Hughes's board "FA Cup Final 1988", followed by 370 people on Pinterest. Fri 14 May 2010 19.38 EDT Luton for the final were without Darron McDonough who injured himself in training, but David Preece and Ricky Hill both returned to the side after lengthy periods of treatment. Aldridge did exactly as I'd expected, I flung myself to my left and pushed the ball away. I think by midnight most of us were back at the hotel, ready to get some sleep. See more ideas about Fa cup final, Fa cup, Cup final. Gus Caesar replaced David O'Leary in Arsenal's starting eleven, as the Irishman was ruled out for the final having damaged his achilles weeks prior. A revitalised Luton staged a late comeback; Caesar's failed clearance led to Danny Wilson equalising, and in the 90th minute, Brian Stein scored the winner after poor defending from Arsenal. [29] Arsenal defender Gus Caesar, who deputised for O'Leary, relished the challenge of being up against Harford: "[He] is aggressive, but I'm not worried.