Worst FA Cup memories...

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,768]

Following the binners historically embarrassing defeat yesterday, which are our worst /painful memories?.....theres nothong obviously quite a bad as what they acheived yesterday, trumping our defeat to the then non league Luton..

My first season 80/81...so my memories are only from then onwards

1) Sunderland FA Cup semi final. Only during Englands defeat to Iceland in the Euros have I seen s whole team mechanically and systematically freeze on the day as bad as this

No part of me in the build up even contemplated the thought of defeat to a side in a league below. This day still haunts me and I genuinely think we would have had a chance against a mediocre Liverpool side in the final

2) Brighton quarter finals 1983 , a semi final vs Sheff Weds was on the cards but another no show on the day. I held a long time resentment over Jimmy Case's goal for about 35 yrs convinced it was a foul  , however I saw the game again on 'The Big Match revisited' a few years ago and and it didnt appear as bad as I'd imagined all of those years?

3) Nottm Forest , quarter final '91. This one properly pi£sed me off. Back when we took for granted that we would get to quarter finals/semi finals of one cup competition or another every sesson.A tight game of few chances, they won 1-0 -Roy Keane

4) Derby County (a) '84 . A 2-1 defeat away at a second division team in thd 5th round .I remember my father being particularly annoyed by this one as we watched 'the big match' highlights the following day

5) FA Cup Semi vs Everton. The writing was on the wall for this one when it was revealed that Robert Fleck had pulled out due to the death of his father the night before.

We wouldnt have scored if we were still playing now. This would have been higher up the list were it not for events elsewhere on the day. I also question quite what kind of final it would have been vs Liverpool had we have got through.

6) Everton again '95 ..a 0-5 defeat at Goodison park and a Simon Tracey catastrophe. In the all time worst 10 displays in my time.

Honourable mentions to the aforementioned defeat to non league Luton, under Hughton and also to 3rd Division Wigan in '87, but these were still early enough in the competition for the FA Cup to have got anyones hopes up in those seasons

Edited January 28 by GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary

[cambridgeshire canary 6,735]

Surprised you forgot this recent one. Not quite as awful as losing to a sixth divison side but still.. Also made worse in hindsight as their manager at the time John Yems would of course get banned for three years for being a racist scumbag

 

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,768]

2 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Surprised you forgot this recent one. Not quite as awful as losing to a sixth divison side but still.. Also made worse in hindsight as their manager at the time John Yems would of course get banned for three years for being a racist scumbag

 

This was the league cup....I can 'almost' excuse anything thats happrned in that competition in the last 25 years because of what it has become.

Although our defeat to Barnet in '97 ? was particularly bad, moreso as it was over 2 legs

[yellow 63 23]

Bradford City 1976 wasn't a good night.

[Well b back 3,215]

Hillsborough against Sunderland and Villa Park against Everton, at our peak so both years I was convinced we were going to win the cup.

[dylanisabaddog 4,931]

1 minute ago, yellow 63 said:

Bradford City 1976 wasn't a good night.

The way the draw had fallen was so kind that year. I was convinced we were going to win it going into that game 

[Channon’s Windmill 327]

Definitely the Sunderland semi-final, for 90 minutes I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing, as the OP said, as a team we just froze on the big day.

[norfolkngood 1,087]

Ask me later today ! 

[Wings of a Sparrow 1,418]

Notable ones for me.

Everton and Sunderland semi finals, failed to turn up both times.

Man City away, getting tonked by 6.

And West Ham away where it was quite frightening on the terraces.

[Mr Angry 1,563]

2 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

This was the league cup....I can 'almost' excuse anything thats happrned in that competition in the last 25 years because of what it has become.

Although our defeat to Barnet in '97 ? was particularly bad, moreso as it was over 2 legs

More League Cup woes than FA Cup for me, seen us lose against Barnet, Brentford and Northampton, all in pretty embarrassing performances.

[hogesar 9,676]

1 hour ago, norfolkngood said:

Ask me later today ! 

We could lose double digits and it wouldn't be as bad as some we've had!

[Branston Pickle 3,661]

20 minutes ago, Wings of a Sparrow said:

And West Ham away where it was quite frightening on the terraces.

Was that the 0-0?  I was a student in London area and had to go in the home fans for that one. Ropey game, Linighan came closest to scoring, from a corner.

[Pyro Pete 1,897]

We went to the Everton 5-0 defeat at Goodison Park in 1995.

All the City fans were chanting:

"It's Tracey's fault. He's sh*t!"

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 1,189]

other than the ones mentioned up to the early 90´s, I´ll go for Orient in 78

[K Lo 224]

3 hours ago, Well b back said:

Hillsborough against Sunderland and Villa Park against Everton, at our peak so both years I was convinced we were going to win the cup.

I was at that Villa Park game Vs Everton.
Obviously, the attention of many was diverted away from the pitch in front of us at the time.

[......and Smith must score. 1,345]

3 hours ago, yellow 63 said:

Bradford City 1976 wasn't a good night.

Undisputed No.1 for me

[Segura 84]

Sunderland in 1992, the only time I've ever cried over a game of association football

[city4eva 213]

9 hours ago, yellow 63 said:

Bradford City 1976 wasn't a good night.

It was Bad !!!

[C.I.D 302]

11 hours ago, yellow 63 said:

Bradford City 1976 wasn't a good night.

Wasn't this the match that :

a) got re-arranged a couple of times because Bradford had so many players sick and the FA allowed them to postpone until they had a reasonably fit first XI

b) John Bond moaned like hell that they should be kicked out of the Cup for not being able to fulfill the tie on time

If it was that match then ............it was bloody Karma for Bradford 😒

 

[king canary 7,609]

A few random ones...

- Can't remember who Vs but a game where the floodlights failed and it got called off about 15 minutes before kick off.

- The season we got relegated under Roeder we played Charlton, drew and then had to have a replay. Charlton were as bad as us at this point so the games were dreadful and we lost the replay. I attended both games.

- Losing to Luton when they were non league.

[Barbe bleu 827]

2008 v Bury.  Went with  Bury fan that became a BBC pundit who brought a drum with him. At one point I swear the only sound that could be heard was him banging that bloody drum. Had to then share a the journey home with him and that drum. Lost the replay as I recall 

 

Edited January 28 by Barbe bleu

[C.I.D 302]

1 hour ago, king canary said:

A few random ones...

- Can't remember who Vs but a game where the floodlights failed and it got called off about 15 minutes before kick off.

- The season we got relegated under Roeder we played Charlton, drew and then had to have a replay. Charlton were as bad as us at this point so the games were dreadful and we lost the replay. I attended both games.

- Losing to Luton when they were non league.

Brighton ............can't remember which year though ..............prob sometime in the mid-late 00s 

[SwindonCanary 455]

The one where we lost to Chelsea and they took over the Barkley 

[Herman 9,779]

Between 1971 and 2024. Your choice.😉

[Corbs1 89]

Bradford 76. Orient 78 away wasn’t great, my brother was arrested, and I got a kick or 2 from the West Ham who infiltrated the away stand. A friendly copper did warn us in pub before,  that the Iron we’re looking to avenge some trouble with us at Carra. Unfortunately we were rather drunk. 
Ironically Os are my local club now. One positive from that game, I saw the talented Laurie Cunningham. 

[TheRock 171]

Losing to Man Utd in 2020 was pretty awful, Maguire scored in the last minute of AET and they won. If it had gone to penalties i'm adamant that we would have won as we had Krul in goal who had a blinder, also he already dragged us through at Spurs by winning the penalty shootout over there.

Moreso if the Man Utd match hadn't been delayed due to coronavirus and was played on the original date at Carrow Road with a full house, that was our chance, Ole was already on thin ice by that point and his team was weak.

 

2011/12 an honourable mention, losing to a bang average championship Leicester in the 5th round at home was embarrasing. We were 8th in the PL and relatively safe at that point, really could have given the cup a good go.

 

But by far losing to 5th tier Luton whilst we were mid table in the PL was pretty horific, awful 4-5-1 Hughton set-up at home. Mind, nothing went for us that day, I'm pretty sure Leon Barnett actually had the ball in the goal at one point but it wasn't awarded, I think that was just before goal-line tech was introduced.

[shefcanary 2,410]

2 minutes ago, Corbs1 said:

Bradford 76. Orient 78 away wasn’t great, my brother was arrested, and I got a kick or 2 from the West Ham who infiltrated the away stand. A friendly copper did warn us in pub before,  that the Iron we’re looking to avenge some trouble with us at Carra. Unfortunately we were rather drunk. 
Ironically Os are my local club now. One positive from that game, I saw the talented Laurie Cunningham. 

Bradford 76 was embarrassing. 

I was at Brisbane Rd for Orient 78, I can't remember any trouble and wasn't drunk, but agree it was a poor performance where we only just scraped a draw with the last kick of the game. Got what we deserved in the replay for that alone. 

[Google Bot 3,278]

Everton semi in '89 was the worst for me, just everything about that day was crap.   I don't think there could ever be such a worst day in the FA cup than that, in fact.

[Matt Juler 152]

14 hours ago, C.I.D said:

Brighton ............can't remember which year though ..............prob sometime in the mid-late 00s 

I think we were due to play them in the league a few days later too.

[kdncfc 27]

Derby in 1984 was the worst one for me, convinced we'd win the cup after beating Spurs and Villa in previous rounds. We were absolute gash and Derby were all over us, Haylock gave away a stupid penalty and then somehow managed to slice a clearance straight to Bobby Davison who made it 2-0.

Brighton in 1983 wasn't great, pretty sure it was Haylock again who was out muscled by Case for their winner.

To make matters worse we ended up getting pelted with stones at Hove station after the game.