Match Report :
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Spurs made heavy weather of winning this FA Cup Final, but then that is
the Tottenham way !!
Never ones to take the easy route to
victory, Spurs had teetered on the edge of going out of business during
this Cup run and only the mercurial Paul Gascoigne's brilliance had seen
Spurs through to the final. He had been the inspiration in all
the FA Cup ties and had scored goals along the way that would live in
the memory and the final would also be be remembered for Gazza's
actions. The tide of emotion that the club had swept top the final
on seemed to affect Gascoigne the most and it was he who was so pumped up for
this match that he almost ended his involvement in the first few
minutes.
In winning the ball out on the right touchline, he
followed through with his foot up and caught Garry Parker in the chest.
Referee Milford let him off with a lecture, but it had not sunk in when
he scythed down Gary Charles as the Forest defender ran across the face
of the Spurs penalty area in the 13th minute. He received a yellow card for the
tackle, Forest got a free-kick on the edge of the box and Gascoigne got
a lot of treatment on his knee before standing up to join the defensive
wall. When Nottingham Forest's captain took the dead ball kick,
Glover pulled Gary Mabbutt off the end of the wall and the ball flew
past Thorstvedt to give Forest the lead in the 16th minute.
Gascoigne paid for his rash challenge,
which many Forest fans though deserved a red card, when he had to leave
the field on a stretcher shortly after the match restarted, as he could
not put any weight on his leg, because his ligaments had gone.
Nayim came on to replace him and Spurs set about getting back into the
game.
After 25 minutes Gary Lineker had a goal
chalked off for offside, although he was not and then five minutes
later, he was in on Mark Crossley, when the keeper brought him down in
the box. Penalty, but no red card, despite the goalie being the
last man. Up stepped Lineker and put the ball to the
keeper's left, where he dived and kept the ball out.
Half-time came and went, with Spurs
needing an early goal to get back into the match. It came ten
minutes after the interval, when Paul Allen put Paul Stewart in on the
right hand side of the box and he drilled a low shot across Crossley that hit
the stanchion and put Tottenham on level terms.
With the game becoming very cagey, the
final moved into extra-time. With the game even at the end of 90 minutes,
Brian Clough stood in the tunnel beneath the Royal Box, while Venables
geed up his team. Having never won the FA Cup, the nation were
behind Cloughie's side, but in extra time, there was only ever one team
who were going to win.
Paul Walsh hit a great chip that
drifted over the keeper, but hit the bar and bounced back only for it to
be put behind by Stuart Pearce for a corner. Nayim took it and
Stewart met it at the near post to flick it on. As Gary Mabbutt
ran in at the far post, he was poised to head the ball home, but
defender Des Walker (a former Spurs apprentice) beat him to it and buried the ball past his own
keeper to give Tottenham the lead for the first time in the game.
The remainder of extra time failed to
produce much of note and against the odds, Tottenham Hotspur were to
have their name engraved
on the FA Cup for the eighth time.
Spurs were a viable proposition now and Venables
and Sugar took over the club, but for Paul Gascoigne there were months
of rehabilitation before he got his move to Lazio, although he was never
to regain the talents that he displayed in the cup run in this year.
This was to be his last game for Spurs |
