The 1993 FA Cup Final was contested by

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

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 ...

. The original match, played on 15 May 1993, finished 1–1. Arsenal won the replay on 20 May, 2–1 after extra-time. It was Arsenal's sixth FA Cup Final victory, and their first since the

1979 FA Cup Final The 1979 FA Cup Final was a football match played on 12 May 1979 at Wembley Stadium. The match was contested by Arsenal and Manchester United. It is regarded as one of the greatest-ever finishes in an FA Cup final. For over 85 minutes the gam ...

. They became the first English side to achieve a domestic cup double, having also won the 1993 Football League Cup Final. It was Sheffield Wednesday's first appearance in the FA Cup final since 1966. They also reached the League Cup final that season, also losing 2–1 to Arsenal (though without a replay). This appearance of the same two sides in the final of both of England's domestic knock-out tournaments in the same season had never happened before, and would be the only time until 2022. Sheffield Wednesday have not appeared in a domestic cup final since, reaching two League Cup semi-finals since then. The replay is also notable as the last Arsenal appearance by veteran defender

David O'Leary David Anthony O'Leary (born 2 May 1958) is a football manager and former player. His managerial career began at Leeds United, subsequently managing Aston Villa. He most recently worked as the manager of Al-Ahli Dubai. The majority of his 20-yea ...

, who left shortly afterwards to join

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

, after an 18-year spell with Arsenal which had yielded 722 competitive games and six major trophies.

Match summary

Original match

Arsenal took the lead in the 20th minute, when

Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English television and radio personality and former professional footballer. He works as a pundit for BBC Sport and ITV Sport. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal ...

headed in a cross. Sheffield Wednesday equalised in the 61st minute, when David Hirst turned in a low drive, past the advancing Arsenal goalkeeper,

David Seaman David Andrew Seaman (born 19 September 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In a career lasting from 1981 to 2004, he is best known for his time playing for Arsenal. He won 75 caps for England, and is the country's ...

Replay

The replay on a rainy Thursday night was a much better encounter. The kick-off for the replay was delayed by 30 minutes after an accident on the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

had delayed the arrival of most of Sheffield Wednesday's fans. Once again,

opened the scoring for Arsenal, running onto a through ball to prod the ball past

Chris Woods Christopher Charles Eric Woods (born 14 November 1959) is an English football coach and former professional footballer, who is goalkeeping coach for the Scotland national team. As a player, he was a goalkeeper who played in the Football Leag ...

, into the corner of the net. This was his fourth goal in FA Cup Finals at

, just one behind the record-holder

Ian Rush Ian James Rush (born 20 October 1961) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward. At club level Rush played for Liverpool from 1980–1987 and 1988–1996. He is the club's all-time leading goalscorer, having scored a to ...

. Wednesday attacked Arsenal in the second half, and their persistence paid off when

Chris Waddle Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He currently works as a commentator. Nicknamed "Magic Chris", football journalist Luke Ginnell wrote that Waddle was "widely ackn ...

's shot deflected off Arsenal defender

Lee Dixon Lee Michael Dixon (born 17 March 1964) is an English retired professional footballer and pundit who played as a right-back for Arsenal. Dixon was also capped 22 times for England. A childhood Manchester City fan, Dixon began his footballing ca ...

into the net. The game went into extra time, and just when it seemed that the FA Cup Final would need to be decided on penalties, central defender

Andy Linighan Andrew Linighan (born 18 June 1962) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1980 until 2000, notably in the Premier League for Arsenal and Crystal Palace. He also played in the Football League for Hartlepool ...

rose highest from a

Paul Merson Paul Charles Merson (born 20 March 1968) is an English former professional footballer, manager, commentator and sports television pundit for Sky Sports. Originally a forward, Merson found success as an attacking midfielder and playmaker later ...

corner to head the ball goalwards. Goalkeeper

fumbled and

Graham Hyde Graham Hyde (born 10 November 1970) is an English football manager and former professional player. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1988 to 2008. He spent seven top-flight seasons with Sheffield Wednesday (six in the Premier League) and pl ...

could only help the ball into the top of the net. Linighan had played most of the game with a broken nose after

Mark Bright Mark Abraham Bright (born 6 June 1962) is an English sports correspondent and former footballer. Born to a Gambian father and English mother, he was adopted into a foster family in Stoke-on-Trent at an early age. He played non-league football ...

had struck him in the face with his elbow and fittingly, it was Bright who Linighan outjumped in order to score.

Firsts and lasts

The matches were notable for several reasons; uniquely, the two clubs had already contested the season's League Cup Final, a match which Arsenal had won 2–1. It was also dubbed the 'longest' FA Cup final. It had not only gone to extra-time in the replay – a match which was delayed by thirty minutes – but was just one minute away from the first ever FA Cup final penalty shoot-out. It was also the last FA Cup final to go to a replay; from 1999 onwards, it was decided that all FA Cup finals would be decided on the day. This was the first FA Cup final in which

squad number In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to ...

s had been used, having been trialled in the League Cup final. Players from both clubs retained the same numbers for the three matches. The system was fully adopted by the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for the following season. Steve Morrow became the first player to receive a winner's medal ''before'' a cup final. He had scored the winning goal in the League Cup final, but suffered a broken arm in celebrations afterwards, and missed the subsequent presentation. For Arsenal,

played his last two official matches after joining the club as an apprentice in 1973. His testimonial took place between the final and the replay, on 17 May 1993. During extra-time in the replay Alan Smith received the only yellow card of his professional career. In league matches between the two clubs that season, Arsenal won 2–1 at home on 29 August 1992, while Wednesday won their home fixture 1–0 on 6 May 1993.

Match details

Replay

References

External links

Line-ups
{{DEFAULTSORT:1993 Fa Cup Final FA Cup Finals

FA Cup Final 1993 The 1993 FA Cup Final was contested by Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley. The original match, played on 15 May 1993, finished 1–1. Arsenal won the replay on 20 May, 2–1 after extra-time. It was Arsenal's sixth FA Cup Final victory, ...

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 ...