The Wenger Press Conference
Vieira v Batty - The Stats
The Dalglish Press Conference
Lee v Petit - The Stats
Macdonald: My Wembley Nightmares
Arsenal's 1971 Double Winners
Moncur warns Lee
Simpson Can Watch Repeat
The Road To Wembley
Arsenal and Newcastle's Previous Wembley Finals
FA Cup
Player
Profiles
Danny Kelly's Preview
Smith To Finish On A High
Scottish Cup Final Preview
Rangers
Squad
Hearts Squad
Laudrup
To Leave
In Style
Hearts Keeper Trying To Forget Gaffe
Every Division: News Round-Up
World Cup
Countdown
Serie A
Preview
TV And
Radio
The Knowledge
Bollocks!
Today's Trivia
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Saturday 16 May 1998
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 News 10 
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THE KNOWLEDGE
FA CUP FINAL SPECIAL
The Column That Sheds A Tear For
Tom O'Connor Presents… And Those Pre-Final
Celebrity Matches With Jimmy Tarbuck
20 FA CUP FINAL FACTS TO BORE YOUR MATES WITH IN THE PUB THIS AFTERNOON…
1) Today's the 117th FA Cup Final. Manchester United have won the Cup the most times - nine - followed by Spurs with eight wins and Aston Villa with seven. Arsenal and Newcastle both have six wins.
2) Arsenal are chasing their second FA Cup and League Double following their 1971 achievement. Five other clubs have won The Double - Preston (1889), Aston Villa (1897), Tottenham (1961), Liverpool (1986) and Manchester United (1994 and 1996).
3) Newcastle are one of only two clubs this century who have won the Cup in successive seasons, in 1951 - against Blackpool - and 1952, a 1-0 defeat of Arsenal. Tottenham are the other club, having achieved the feat twice - in 1961 and 1962, and 1981 and 1982.
4) The FA Cup Final is the oldest football competition in the world. It started in 1871 with 15 clubs paying an entrance fee of five shillings (25p) to compete. Hundreds of clubs now take part, with five qualifying rounds before the first round proper.
5) The first final was won by Wanderers against Royal Engineers in front of 2000 spectators at the Kennington Oval in south London. The pitch had no centre circle, no penalty area and the posts had tape stretched between them for a crossbar.
6) Cardiff's victory in 1927, when they beat Arsenal 1-0, was the first - and only - time the Cup has left England. Scottish amateur side Queen's Park reached the final in 1884 and 1885 but lost on both occasions.
7) No Wembley final has ever finished goalless. The largest margin of victory in any final was Bury's 6-0 win over Derby in 1903.
8) Television cameras were first used at the 1937 final, with a TV viewing audience of 50,000. The worldwide TV audience for this year's match will be several hundred million.
9) There has not been an FA Cup Final replay for the past four seasons, the most recent being in 1993, when Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 after drawing 1-1 on the Saturday.
10) That was Arsenal's last appearance in the final. Newcastle have not taken part in a Cup final since 1974, when they lost 3-0 to Liverpool. Their last Cup success was in 1955, when they beat Manchester City 3-1.
11) A host of overseas players will be appearing in today's final. Yet even in 1986 there was not a single Englishman in Liverpool's successful side, although West Ham won the Cup in 1964 with 11 Englishmen.
12) The oldest player to appear in a Cup final was Newcastle's Billy Hampson - at 41 years and 257 days - against Aston Villa in 1924. The youngest was Paul Allen for West Ham against Arsenal in 1980, aged 17 years and 256 days.
13) Penalty kicks were introduced in 1894. Newcastle's Albert Shepherd scored the first Cup final spot-kick in 1910, Wimbledon's Dave Beasant was the first goalkeeper to save a Wembley Cup final penalty when he denied Liverpool's John Aldridge in 1988.
14) Famous footballers who never played in an FA Cup Final include George Best, John Charles, Johnny Haynes, Nobby Stiles, George Cohen and Martin Peters.
15) Newcastle boss Kenny Dalglish is one of four men to have played for and managed an FA Cup Final team. Newcastle's Stan Seymour was the first, followed by Dalglish (Liverpool), Terry Venables (Spurs) and George Graham (Arsenal).
16) Arsenal coach Pat Rice is the only player to have played in five Cup finals for the same team.
17) Scorers of Wembley Cup final own goals include Bert Turner (Charlton v Derby, 1946), Mick McGrath (Blackburn v Wolves, 1961), Tommy Hutchison (Manchester City v Spurs, 1981), Gary Mabbutt (Spurs v Coventry, 1987) and Des Walker (Nottingham Forest v Spurs, 1991).
18) England cricket legend Denis Compton, who died last year, was Arsenal's left-winger in their 1950 win over Liverpool. His brother Leslie played in the same team, at centre half.
19) Kevin Moran, of Manchester United, became the first player to be sent off in a Cup final in 1985. United still won the game, beating Everton 1-0.
20) Stan Mortensen scored the first Wembley Cup final hat-trick in Blackpool's 4-3 win over Bolton, the Coronation year match known as the Matthews Final, when Sir Stanley Matthews won his only Cup-winner's medal.
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TODAY'S TV AND RADIO
PICK OF THE DAY
SKY SPORTS 2 AND ITV (3pm kick-off) After much deliberation, we've plumped for the FA Cup Final. And not only that, but you've got a choice of channels to watch it on. Sky Sports 2's match coverage begins at 1pm, although there are hours of hype and hoopla prior to that, while ITV roar into life at noon.
BBC1
10.50pm, Match of the Day Poor old Des Lynam won't know what to do with himself today with no live coverage on the Beeb. Instead, the housewives' choice will have to wait until an hour or so before midnight to host this highlight show, when most of us will be in the pub or in a lager induced coma.
12.10am, OnSide Another chance to see John Inverdale quiz Glenn Hoddle, Jurgen Klinsmann and Jack Charlton. And Martin Keown.
ITV
12noon, The FA Cup Final (all regions except Scotland) Doesn't really need much introduction, does it? But now they've got the rights to screen the game on terrestrial telly, the big question is can Bob Wilson and Co do it better than the BBC? We've got our doubts.
2am, FA Cup Final Replayed Another chance to enjoy it, provided you live in the Anglia, HTV Wales or Meridian regions.
4.05am, World Football (WestCountry only) Some spicy foreign nibbles to excite the palette after the afternoon's traditional pie and peas.
SKY SPORTS 1
6am, Sky Sports Centre - FA Cup Final Special For those who can't wait until 8am on Sky Sports 2, the countdown to the big match gets underway.
2pm (repeated at 6pm on SS1 and at 10pm on SS3), Tennents Scottish Cup Final Live coverage of Hearts v Rangers from Celtic Park. Something for exiled Scots and anyone who wants both Arsenal and Newcastle to lose at Wembley.
7.30pm (repeated at 11.30pm) Spanish Football Live Still haven't overdosed on footie today? Right, cop for some Primera Liga action then.
SKY SPORTS 2
6am (repeated at 9pm), Hold the Back Page - FA Cup Special The men in the media have their say on the events in the Arsenal and Newcastle camps.
7am (repeated at noon and 4am Sunday), Wembley Winners: Where Are They Now? Your chance to check out Cup Final heroes who are now pulling pints or delivering pintas.
8am, Good Morning from Wembley A 15-minute show which, presumably, will contain something other than just someone saying ‘Good Morning from Wembley'. But not much.
8.15am, Soccer AM - FA Cup Final Special The build-up continues with Helen, Tim and guests. What special features will we get? In the shower with Shearer! Weetabix with Wenger! Probably not, surely all the players will still be tucked up in bed!
1pm, The FA Cup Final Don't panic, there are still another two hours of build-up to plough through before kick-off… plenty of time to get to the off licence and order the pizzas.
7.30pm (repeated at 2.30am), The Final Verdict Expert analysis on the afternoon's key moments.
EUROSPORT
7.30pm, Football Your guess is as good as ours!
RADIO 5
1pm, Sport on Five Live Commentary from Wembley and Celtic Park.
6.06pm, Six-O-Six Straight-laced soccer chat on the original football phone-in. Will Fulham fan David Mellor have the brass neck to try and swing the conversation away from Wembley to the Cup Winners' Cup Final?
TALK RADIO
5.30pm, Baker and Kelly ‘So ‘ow comes, then?..', ‘Any More Pie?' ‘John Hartson wants us dead' and so forth...
TRIVIA TIME
IAN WRIGHT could start this afternoon's Cup Final on the bench, just as he did for Crystal Palace eight years ago. He famously came on to score twice as the Eagles came within seven minutes of glory. Who netted the equaliser that earned Manchester United a replay they would win 1-0?
Yesterday, we asked you who scored Leeds' winner in the famously rearranged European Cup tie against Stuttgart in 1992. It was CARL SHUTT.
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BOLLOCKS!
No Sun, No Fun, No Sense
NO-ONE loves The Sun more than Football365, but sometimes they are just plain wrong. Like yesterday, for instance.
They accompanied their snaps of an admittedly slaughtered Paul Gascoigne being poured out of a London bar with a series of hysterical squeals including: Drunken disgrace before World Cup and Gazza's bender is certain to lead to calls to have him banned from England's squad.
Apparently, and despite the evidence presented by many of journalism's finest down the years, it is beyond the ability of a man of 30 summers to recover from a night on the ale in a mere THIRTY days. England don't play Saudi Arabia, in a meaningless warm-up game, for a week and don't start their World Cup campaign until June 15th.
Super, soaraway bollocks.
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