1980/81: Exeter's FA Cup run

Exeter City take on Nottingham Forest in the final match of the 2025 FA Cup fourth round, hoping to pull off a shock against the Premier League high flyers. With victories over Barnet, Chesterfield and Oxford United, Gary Caldwell's team have exceeded expectations in reaching the fourth round. But the current team has a lot more work to do if they want to match the achievements of the 1980/81 squad.

Promoted to Division Three in the 1976/77 season under Johnny Newman and then Bobby Saxton, Exeter consolidated their position over the next two campaigns. When Saxton made the move to Plymouth during in January 1979, new manager Brian Godfrey arrived with a solid platform to build on.

Golden goals: Steve MacKenzie (1981)

There are moments in sporting history that are often forgotten. For all Kevin Pietersen's heroics, the contribution of Andrew Strauss on the first day of the final Ashes Test in 2005 should not be underestimated. Ian Poulter may have stolen the headlines late on Saturday during the 2012 Ryder Cup, but please remember the role played by Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald in the previous match. And then there is Gordon Smith.

Smith deserves a lot more than being the man remembered for spurning a golden opportunity to win the 1983 FA Cup for Brighton. Scoring a goal in an FA Cup final - the opener at Wembley against Manchester United - should have been the standout moment in Smith's career. Yet subsequent events will always overshadow this.

1980/81: Leeds United v Arsenal

This is an edited version of my original article that appeared in issue 291 of The Gooner.

As election news was dominating the front pages in November 1980 – Reagan defeating Carter in the US, with Foot and Healy battling to become Labour leader – another 'e' word was constantly being referenced in relation to football on the back pages. With attendances dropping, many journalists and pundits were questioning whether the sport was providing the remaining fans with enough entertainment.

Stoke manager Alan Durban certainly made his opinion clear on the matter, after his team attempted unsuccessfully to park the bus in a 2-0 defeat at Highbury in September 1980: "If you want entertainment go and watch a bunch of clowns," Durban retorted. However, Arsenal were not exempt from these critical opinions.

1980: Clive Allen's disallowed goal

There have been a few recent examples in football of poor decisions costing teams dearly. West Ham had every right to feel aggrieved after a late equaliser was chalked off against Chelsea, and although the mayhem at the end of the Juventus-Salernitana game was very entertaining, you can understand why the home team felt they were robbed of a dramatic victory.

These are cases of football officials, despite the video technology at their disposal, getting things so wrong that it makes you wonder if they are in the appropriate profession. But sometimes even the technology can fail, as Huddersfield found to their cost with the recent Hawk-Eye glitch. Maybe we just have to accept that both humans and machines are fallible.

1981 European Cup final: Liverpool v Real Madrid

Sometimes an idea for a future blog just falls on my lap. But with a minute to go at the Bernabeu during the second leg of Real Madrid's semi-final against Manchester City, I have to admit that the prospect of me reminiscing about the 1981 European Cup final seemed distant.

Yet there is something about this Real Madrid team that throws all logic out of the window. Somehow they dragged the match into extra-time before they finished off a shellshocked City. "Improbably, miraculously, beyond their dreams and expectation," as the wonderful Peter Drury declared.

1982 World Cup qualification: Wales

It can almost be viewed as the forgotten campaign, the chapter of heartbreak held between the hands of Joe Jordan and David Phillips. The story of Wales and their attempts to qualify for the 1982 World Cup is not one that is often told when recalling the history of Welsh agony since their only appearance at a finals tournament in 1958.

Maybe it is the 1977 and 1985 agonies that are the real reason for this. Anything compared to those two nights of Scottish-induced suffering will forever live in the shadows. But the 1982 campaign was just as deflating. A qualification programme of two halves that at first brought hope before the reality of despair arrived.

1981 FA Cup Fifth Round: Peterborough v Man City

Despite a revival in the fortunes of the club since the appointment of manager John Bond in October 1980, many Manchester City fans would still have been apprehensive when they were drawn away to fourth division Peterborough United in the 1981 FA Cup fifth round. "There's no way Manchester City can afford to be complacent," Peterborough manager Peter Morris announced. 

City fans would have been nodding wisely at this advice. The previous two seasons had seen the club humilated against lower league opponents in Shrewsbury and Halifax, so there may have been a fair amount of trepidation amongst the 8,000 City supporters making the trip to London Road. The BBC were obviously hoping for a shock; Barry Davies and the Match of the Day cameras would be present.

Golden goals: Tony Morley (1981)

Generally there are always matches that a team will look back on at the end of a title winning season as the moment they knew something special was happening. The belief-affirming victory that convinced players, fans and media alike that this team could last the duration. Think Everton at Anfield in 1984/85; Arsenal at the same ground in 2001/02; Chelsea at Blackburn in 2004/05; Leicester at the Etihad.

In February 1981, Aston Villa travelled to Goodison Park neck and neck in a title race with Bobby Robson's Ipswich Town. A month earlier hopes had been raised in the claret and blue section of the second city that the title could be coming to Villa Park for the first time in 71 years. The 2-0 victory over champions Liverpool was a vital step towards the ultimate goal, and another would come at Everton.

1980/81 League Cup: Watford v Southampton

Watford face Southampton this weekend in the Premier League. The meeting will have to be something special to match the drama of the 1980/81 League Cup second round between the two clubs.

We often hear how a two-goal advantage is a dangerous lead in football. Atalanta and Spartak Moscow may agree with this particular theory, their recent reversals against English opposition in Europe adding credence to this. So what leads are safe?

As an Arsenal fan I have sadly seen that a four-goal lead can be no guarantee of victory. The 4-4 draw against Newcastle in 2011 was an embarrassing episode, something that should be brushed under the carpet, never to be mentioned again. 

Arsenal's capitulation was a remarkable achievement. Admittedly they had been reduced to ten men, yet with 22 minutes remaining, their four-goal lead was still intact. History has shown us that this example is the exception rather than the norm, but in September 1980 there was another club putting their supporters through this painful experience.

League Cup: Liverpool win four in a row

Liverpool and the League Cup had endured a troubled relationship as the 1980/81 competition kicked off. After entering the inaugural staging in 1960/61, the club decided to sit out the next six editions, and despite the growth of the Merseyside giant, success in the League Cup proved difficult to come by.

A controversial defeat against Nottingham Forest in the 1978 final replay was the closest the club had come to winning the competition, with Brian Clough's team once again dashing hopes in the 1979/80 semi-final. But you wait ages for one League Cup to come along....

1981 FA Cup Sixth Round: Everton v Manchester City

Forty years is a long time in sport. It's a long time in life (sadly, I know this for a fact). When Everton take on Manchester City in the FA Cup Sixth round at Goodison Park this weekend, the tie will see two Champions League winning managers lock horns, as their (rotated) multinational squads strive for a place in the last four at Wembley.

The past is indeed a foreign country. When the two teams met at the same stage of the competition in March 1981, the situation was understandably different. Two mid-table teams clashed in high intensity matches at Goodison Park and Maine Road, on far from perfect playing surfaces and in front of packed terraces. The 1981 tussles would be a very domestic affair that were not for the faint-hearted.