The 1983 FA Cup Final was contested by

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. Manchester United were the favourites, as Brighton had been relegated from the First Division that season, and had never reached a cup final before. United had finished third in the league that season and already had four FA Cup victories to their name. The final ended in a 2–2 draw, forcing a replay at Wembley five days later, which Manchester United won 4–0. It was the third successive year that the FA Cup Final required a replay.

The first match

The first match finished 2–2 after extra time.

Gordon Smith Gordon Smith may refer to: In politics *Gordon H. Smith (born 1952), former U.S. Senator from Oregon, and current Area Authority for the LDS Church * Gordon Elsworth Smith (1918–2005), Canadian politician * Gordon Smith (academic) (1927–2009), ...

and Gary Stevens scored for Brighton;

Frank Stapleton Francis Anthony Stapleton (born 10 July 1956) is an Irish former professional football player and manager. He is best remembered for his time at Arsenal, Manchester United and as a pivotal player for the Republic of Ireland national team. H ...

and

Ray Wilkins Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

for United. The first game is famous for the radio commentary by Peter Jones "...and Smith must score" talking about a shot by Gordon Smith, which was then saved by the Manchester United goalkeeper

Gary Bailey Gary Richard Bailey (born 9 August 1958) is a former footballer who made nearly 300 appearances in the Football League playing as a goalkeeper for Manchester United. Born in Ipswich, Suffolk, he grew up in South Africa, but went on to be cappe ...

; the quote was subsequently used as a title for a Brighton fanzine. Bailey's save forced a replay and prevented Brighton from winning the first major trophy in their history.

The replay

The second game, on a Thursday night, started the same way as the first game had, with Brighton taking the game to Manchester United. Although their chances were limited to long-range drives from

Jimmy Case James Robert Case (born 18 May 1954) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He gained national prominence with Liverpool in the 1970s and early 1980s. Early life Case was brought up in Allerton and was a dis ...

, United goalkeeper

had a couple of important saves to make. This all changed on 25 minutes, with United's first real attack.

Alan Davies Alan Roger Davies (; born 6 March 1966) is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor and TV presenter. He is best known for his portrayal of the title role in the BBC mystery drama series ''Jonathan Creek'' (1997–2016) and as the only perm ...

, who had made his FA Cup debut in the first game, set up captain

Bryan Robson Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...

for a left-footed drive past Moseley into the corner of the net. Suddenly the atmosphere changed and it was the Manchester United fans who were singing loudest. This was compounded in the 30th minute, when United went 2–0 up, giving the team a two-goal cushion for the first time over the two matches. Brighton failed to clear a corner, and Davies crossed for

Norman Whiteside Norman Whiteside (born 7 May 1965) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and striker. Whiteside began his career at Manchester United, signing professional forms in 1982 at the age of 17 and quickly be ...

to score with a header, making the 18 year old the youngest player to ever score in an FA Cup final as per 2019. This capped an incredible 12 months for the teenager, who had played in the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, and scored in the League Cup final defeat to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

earlier that year. Brighton were rocked but continued to press, yet went further behind just before half time.

Gordon McQueen Gordon McQueen (born 26 June 1952) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back for St Mirren, Leeds United and Manchester United. McQueen also represented Scotland. Playing career Club McQueen was a goalkeeper as a ...

headed on a free-kick and the ball fell to Robson to tap in at the far post, for his second goal of the game. The scoring was completed in the second half when the Dutch midfielder

Arnold Mühren Arnold Johannes Hyacinthus Mühren (born 2 June 1951) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. His older brother Gerrie, also a midfield player, won three European Cup titles with Ajax in the early 1970s. Mühren is among the few play ...

scored a penalty after Robson had been brought down by Stevens in the penalty area. It was the third consecutive year that a penalty had been awarded (and scored) in the Cup Final replay. This was the first of three times that Bryan Robson captained Manchester United to FA Cup glory; he also achieved the feat in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Match details

Replay match details

References

External links

Line-ups
{{DEFAULTSORT:1983 Fa Cup Final

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Fa Cup Final 1983 Fa Cup Final 1983 FA Cup Final

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...