The 1980 FA Cup Final was contested by

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

and

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 ...

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 ...

. West Ham won by a single goal, scored by

Trevor Brooking Sir Trevor David Brooking, (born 2 October 1948) is a former England international footballer, manager, pundit and football administrator; he now works as director of football development in England. He spent almost his entire career at West Ha ...

. To date, it is the last time a team from outside the top flight has won the FA Cup. It was West Ham's third FA Cup triumph and the last time that they have won a major trophy.

Match details

The 1980 Cup Final was the 99th final to be played since 1872, and the 52nd to be played at Wembley since 1923. The tie involved Arsenal, who had played in the previous two FA Cup Finals and were a strong First Division side, and two time F.A. Cup winners West Ham United, a

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

side that had only ever played at Wembley five times before and were huge underdogs on the day. Present as the royal guests were the

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

and

Duchess of Kent Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom ...

. The Duke was introduced to the teams directly after the national anthem and just prior to kick off. West Ham won the coin toss and captain

Billy Bonds William Arthur Bonds (born 17 September 1946) is a former professional footballer and manager, who is most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager. He played 799 first-team games for West Ham in a ...

chose to stay at the end his team was already at. The game started slowly with Arsenal playing their traditional defensive keep ball style of football. West Ham gained possession after Arsenal gave away a free kick due to

Liam Brady William Brady (born 13 February 1956) is an Irish former footballer. He found success both in England with Arsenal, where he won an FA Cup in 1979, and in Italy with Juventus, winning two Serie A titles. Brady was capped 72 times for the Irelan ...

being caught offside. After this West Ham maintained possession, frustrating Arsenal before

Alan Devonshire Alan Ernest Devonshire (born 13 April 1956) is an English former professional footballer who is the current manager of Maidenhead United. He was a wide midfielder who played for West Ham United, with whom he won the FA Cup in 1980, and Watford, ...

broke down the left wing in the 12th minute, hitting a cross into the Arsenal box which fell to

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series ''Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix sitcom ...

, whose shot was blocked by Arsenal's Willie Young. Stuart Pearson then shot at the Arsenal goal but his shot went across the goalmouth, where England international

was the fastest player to react; with the Arsenal defence stranded he flicked a header past Jennings for the only goal of the game after 13 minutes. Arsenal and West Ham both had attacks during the rest of the first half, Arsenal having more of the game as had been anticipated, but Phil Parkes and the West Ham defence held firm and they were unable to unlock the West Ham defence. The second half was again mainly Arsenal in possession, but the underdogs held out and almost made it two with minutes remaining.

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which h ...

was through on goal with only Pat Jennings to beat, Young tackled the 17-year-old, taking him down just outside the penalty box. It was a challenge from behind on the then youngest player to play in an FA Cup Final at Wembley, however Young only earned himself a yellow card (the

professional foul In various sports, a professional foul is a deliberate act of foul play intended to bring about an advantage for the perpetrator's team. Professional fouls are usually committed to prevent an opponent from scoring. Various sports contain provisi ...

rule had not yet been instituted). Despite their possession, Arsenal failed to break West Ham down in the second half, and West Ham ran out 1–0 winners. Bonds collected the trophy from the Duchess of Kent, and raised it above his head toward the jubilant West Ham fans to a chorus of cheers and "

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" is a popular American song written in 1918, released in late 1919, becoming a number one hit for Ben Selvin's Novelty Orchestra. It has been revived and adapted over the years, serving as the anthem of Premier Leag ...

", the East End team's adopted anthem.

Match line-ups

References

External links

Detailed look back
from

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:1980 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 cont ...

FA Cup Final 1980 The 1980 FA Cup Final was contested by West Ham United and Arsenal at Wembley. West Ham won by a single goal, scored by Trevor Brooking. To date, it is the last time a team from outside the top flight has won the FA Cup. It was West Ham's third ...

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 ...