24th March 1985...blunders by Len Ashurst, Clive Walker and Davie

[My Boy Harry]

Great weekend. Went down with the Sacriston lads, Chips and co. Brilliant craic.

Match yet again disappointing

 

[Wrenthorpe Mackem]

Like one or two others, undoubtedly one of my all-time biggest disappointments following SAFC. It didn't occur to me that we could actually lose in 85 - apart from anything else we'd beaten Norwich 3-1 at their place the previous week.

As for Westy, apparently SAFC had received a bid of £100k+ from Watford and were very keen to do the deal. Not sure of the exact timeline of events but if that was before the final then that may have played a part in the decision to drop him to piss him off enough to encourage him to move...

And yes allegedly Cowie pissed the players off re tickets and bonuses for the final - which sounds about right.

One of the great 'What If' moments in the history of SAFC revolved around that final: If Shaun Elliott hadn't have been booked in the semi at Chelsea he would have played in the final instead of Corner. Even if the players had still frozen at Wembley we might have got away with a draw. The replay would have been at Hillsborough on Wednesday 3rd April 1985 and I reckon we would have blown them away (on and off the pitch).

The feel good factor of winning the cup would have meant we wouldn't have gone down... Ashurst would have stayed (to be fair to him, our league record that season was pretty good before the cup run became the players' primary/only focus after the win at Tottenham)... Mackem Enemy and his crocks wouldn't have arrived etc etc... The entire second half on the 80s might have been completely different if Shaun Elliott hadn't have been booked at Chelsea...

A lot of what ifs and assumptions!!

Don't forget, Norwich won cup and still went down.

 

[PTID]

Didn't Chelsea turn up at the Punch n Judy ?

Lot of trouble that weekend btwn Chelsea and Sunderland , obviously a hangover from Semi Final but also hatred of each other prior to that. Don't know about Punch and Judy but a lot of their lot used to hang out in pub called Shakes opposite Victoria Station, Victoria was were a lot of trouble was that weekend. We used to always go to Victoria when down in London, to this day never knew why, it was a fookin shithole and probably worse now, much better places to hole up than Victoria, though in those days we used to sleep in the back of the van

 

[JTF]

A lot of what ifs and assumptions!!

Don't forget, Norwich won cup and still went down.

Of course - that's the fun of those 'sliding doors' moments - you can build an entire alternative history from those moments and that Elliott booking/Corner moment makes for a great one.

In my alternative timeline the whole mood/atmosphere around the club was completely different after we won the replay at Hillsborough - great night that was! First home game at RP after that was the following Monday against newcastle in front of an ecstatic capacity crowd and the trophy paraded around before a 4-0 win. Great season it was... I'll never forget it... (Oh, hang on ).

And don't get me started on the one where Clough became manager in 1976 after Stokoe left...

 

[Stortford]

Lot of trouble that weekend btwn Chelsea and Sunderland , obviously a hangover from Semi Final but also hatred of each other prior to that. Don't know about Punch and Judy but a lot of their lot used to hang out in pub called Shakes opposite Victoria Station, Victoria was were a lot of trouble was that weekend. We used to always go to Victoria when down in London, to this day never knew why, it was a fookin shithole and probably worse now, much better places to hole up than Victoria, though in those days we used to sleep in the back of the van

Do you mean Shakespeares, think that was the meet up pub for the Headhunters back in the day

 

[Richie K]

I was 15, I can remember being gutted when we seen the team and West wasn't involved. Terrible terrible decision which cost us.

Exactly, sometimes players go on a roll in certain competitions, and clearly West was the main man on the run to Wembley. It would be like dropping John Byrne for the 92 final, and playing David Rush instead.