The 1981 FA Cup Final was the 100th final of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

, and was contested by

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and

Manchester City 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 Salford to the west. The t ...

. The original match took place on Saturday 9 May 1981 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, and finished 1–1 after extra-time.

Tommy Hutchison Thomas Hutchison (born 22 September 1947) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a midfielder. He made over 1,100 appearances, including 314 in the Football League alone for Coventry City, and more than 160 apiece in the competition fo ...

opened the scoring for City in the 30th minute, but scored an own-goal in the 79th minute to bring Spurs level. The replay took place five days later on Thursday 14 May 1981, and was the first replay since

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

and the first to be staged at Wembley.

Ricky Villa Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky (Brno-Country District), a village and municipality in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a village in the north of the Czech Republic *Rickmansworth, a town in England sometimes called "Ricky" ...

opened the scoring for Spurs in the eighth minute, before Steve MacKenzie equalised for City three minutes later. A

Kevin Reeves Kevin Philip Reeves (born 20 October 1957) is the Chief Scout at Everton football club. He is an English retired football forward, born in Burley, Hampshire, who scored 103 goals from 333 appearances in the Football League playing for AFC Bour ...

penalty five minutes into the second half put the Manchester side ahead, before

Garth Crooks Garth Anthony Crooks, (born 10 March 1958) is an English football pundit and former professional player. He played from 1976 to 1990, for Stoke City, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion and Charlton Athletic. Throughout h ...

brought Spurs level again in the 70th minute. Then, in the 76th minute, Tony Galvin passed to Villa 30 yards from City's goal, and the Argentinian proceeded to skip past four defenders before slotting the ball past City goalkeeper

Joe Corrigan Joseph Thomas Corrigan (born 18 November 1948) is an English former professional association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper in the Football League for Manchester City F.C., Manchester City, Br ...

. This goal was voted Wembley Goal of the Century in 2001, and it won Tottenham the match, 3–2, and the FA Cup for the sixth time. The five goals in the replay made it the highest scoring FA Cup Final replay.

Match details

Replay

Cup final song

Tottenham's cup final song was "Ossie's dream", recorded by the musical duo

Chas and Dave Chas & Dave (often billed as Chas 'n' Dave) were a British pop rock duo, formed in London by Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock. Hodges died in 2018. They were most notable as creators and performers of a musical style labelled ''rockney'' (a port ...

with the Tottenham squad.

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

player

Ossie Ardiles Osvaldo César Ardiles (born 3 August 1952), often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is an Argentine football manager, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as part of the Argentina national team. He now runs his ...

famously sang the line "In the cup for Tottingham"

References

External links

Report on the Final and Final Replay
{{DEFAULTSORT:1981 Fa Cup Final FA Cup Finals

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 con ...

FA Cup Final 1981 FA Cup Final 1981

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...