Top XI: FA Cup Final Goals (Videos)

By Chris Wright

Well By Jove and lawks-a-mussy, it’s the FA Cup Final tomorrow! Where the bally hell did that creep up from? To help pique your interest in the crackings-off at Wembley tomorrow afternoon, we’ve assembled a run-down of our ten favourite FA Cup Final goals…

11. Norman Whiteside, MAN UTD vs Everton, 1985

Whiteside sticks away the only goal of the game with a plum curler into the far bottom corner…

10. Ray Parlour, Chelsea vs ARSENAL, 2002

Don’t worry, it’s only Ray Parlour…PARLAAAH! (skip to 1:05)…

9. Bobby Stokes, Man Utd vs SOUTHAMPTON, 1976

Bobby Stokes, and the heroic 83rd-minute goal that won Second Division Southampton the FA Cup – their first, and so far last, major trophy…

8. Steve MacKenzie, Tottenham vs MAN CITY, 1981

Spurs won 3-2 in a replayed final which is now largely remembered for Ricky Villa’s slalom ‘Wembley Goal of the Century’ winner. Shame, really, that MacKenzie’s stonking consolation volley is oft overlooked…

7. Eric Cantona, MAN UTD vs Liverpool, 1996

A shoddy old game, with the only highlights being Liverpool’s audaciously ugly pre-game suits and the double-winning goal that broke a thousand Scouse hearts…

6. Ricky Villa, TOTTENHAM vs Man City, 1981

Remember that slalom goal we were wittering on about a moment or two ago? Here ’tis…

5. Roberto di Matteo, CHELSEA vs Middlesbrough, 1997

It always looks better when it goes in off the bar! The goal that made Stewart Downing cry, though he was only 12-years old at the time: Di Matteo’s 30-yard blunderbust after just 42 seconds was the fastest FA Cup Final goal of all time until Louis Saha showed and almost halved the record, scoring after just 24 seconds in 2009…

4. Charlie George, Liverpool vs ARSENAL, 1971

Well and truly knackered after the game went to extra-time, George was running on fumes by the time he stuck his 111th-minute winner past Ray Clemence – as becomes duly apparent when he attempts to celebrate it…

3. Ray Wilkins, Brighton vs MAN UTD, 1983

Recently-relegated Brighton staged a Herculean display to hold United to a 2-2 draw in the first stab at the ’83 final (United won the replay 4-0), but Butch’s superbly guided curler was comfortably the goal of the game. Just love the action on this shot (skip to 14:27)…

2. Steven Gerrard, LIVERPOOL vs West Ham, 2006

Riddled with cramp and almost out on his feet, Gerrard put every last fibre into thumping a pearler home from 35 yards in the 90th minute – equalising, taking the game into extra-time and sending John Motson into ecstatic apoplexy…

1. Stuart Pearce, NOTT’M FOREST vs Tottenham, 1991

Having already studded Gary Parker in the clavicle earlier in the game, Paul Gascoigne then infamously cleaved Gary Charles in twain with a horrific tackle (destroying his own knee in the process) on the edge of the Spurs box.

After the mist cleared, Psycho stuck the resulting free-kick in with a fierce rasper with a little help from Lee Glover, who pulled Garry Mabbutt out of the wall (skip to 6:20 for the foul, 7:22 for the goal), though I don’t really recall much of what what happened after that…

That’s right, sadly we couldn’t find room for Drogba’s little dink against Manchester United in 2006, etc, etc.

Any nominations Pies fans?