1979 FA Cup: Arsenal/Sheffield Wednesday marathon

This article originally appeared in issue 275 of The Gooner.

If a top flight team has everything their own way, then it is possible to win the FA Cup in roughly 540 minutes of football. But Arsenal Football Club have rarely done things the easy way throughout our wonderful history. The start and end of the 1979 FA Cup triumph is a prime example of this.

The final has gone down in FA Cup folklore, solely due to the dramatic five minutes at the end of the match, as Arsenal threatened to pull defeat from the jaws of a comfortable victory, before somehow getting off the floor to deliver the delicious knockout blow via Alan Sunderland’s rightfoot.

The start of the run was just as agonising for players, supporters and club officials. Remember that 540 minutes figure I mentioned at the top of this piece? Well, that is how long it took for Arsenal to take their place in the FA Cup fourth round alone. The Sheffield Wednesday FA Cup marathon was the tie that just kept on giving.

Wednesday were hardly immersed in a memorable chapter of their history. Languishing in Division Three, 1966 World Cup winner Jack Charlton had been in charge since October 1978, leading the club away from the threat of relegation to the bottom tier. Wednesday may have been firmly entrenched in mid-table by the time of the FA Cup draw, but a trip to Hillsborough would not be easy for Terry Neill’s side.

If the FA Cup used to be a great leveller, then some of the playing surfaces back in the distant past were certainly a factor behind many a shock in the competition. With Britain experiencing a cold snap during January 1979, only four matches were played on FA Cup third round weekend. The pitch at Hillsborough did pass an inspection, although Neill was far from happy at this decision.

Looking back at the match highlights on YouTube, it is clear to see why Neill was less than enthralled at the prospect. Cleared of snow by 100 volunteers – each receiving a free ticket to the match – the pitch was inevitably rock solid, with Arsenal taking 70 pairs of boots to the game to cover all eventualities.

Naturally, Liam Brady still managed to look elegant, but it was a lottery for most, as Neill complained afterwards. Indeed, James Mossop writing in the Sunday Express described Willie Young “like a giraffe on a frozen pond,” and for Pat Jennings the afternoon was far from pleasant.

Arsenal went into the break ahead, after a Sunderland header, but the second half was delayed when Jennings was subjected to a bombardment of snowballs from The Kop. An announcement was made on the PA system appealing for the fans to stop, and Charlton and referee Tony Read tried unsuccessfully to calm the storm.

Whether the barrage had an impact on Jennings or not is debatable, but he uncharacteristically charged from his line expecting a shot from Dennis Leman, only for the Wednesday player to dink in a cross, allowing Jeff Johnson to head into an unguarded net.

Wednesday keeper Chris Turner kept his side in it, but in truth Arsenal would have been happy to get out of Sheffield in one piece. “If Arsenal win the cup they will surely regard this match as the foundation stone,” Mossop wrote. Just three days later, that foundation stone appeared to be crumbling.

A 45th minute strike from Roger Wylde, and more heroics from Turner, looked like sending Arsenal out at Highbury, until Brady popped up with an equaliser with just four minutes remaining. “I was stood looking at the big clock and thought we were through,” Charlton admitted. Extra-time saw David Price hit the post, but still the teams could not be separated.

Charlton, confident that his team could eliminate Arsenal, declined a coin toss for the venue of the second replay. “I want a neutral ground and I believe, as our lads most certainly do, that we can now take Arsenal and maybe go a very long way in the competition.” Six days later, all involved would meet again at Leicester’s Filbert Street.

Between the second and third matches, Arsenal added to their squad with club record signing Brian Talbot coming in for £450,000. Fortunately the midfielder was not cup-tied, but he was ineligible for the third round; he would have a long wait to see if Arsenal could make it through to the fourth round to meet Notts County.

The saga just kept rolling on and on. Monday January 15: the teams shared four goals, Arsenal twice taking the lead through Brady and Sunderland, only for former Arsenal player Brian Hornsby to equalise on both occasions.

“Arsenal had the class at times, but were hard pushed to match Wednesday’s bravery and effort,” John Davies stated in the Express, and in the end Arsenal were thankful of a fine save from Jennings that prevented Dave Rushbury scoring the winner.

The third game had been a thriller, yet it had nothing on the next meeting two days later at the same ground. Rushbury nudged Wednesday in front after 54 minutes, and Arsenal fans would have been fearing the worst when Turner saved a Brady penalty. But just a minute later, Frank Stapleton levelled matters, and Young headed Arsenal in front with a quarter of an hour remaining.

The tie was developing the durability of a cockroach, though. A John Lowey goal with just four minutes left pushed the game to another half an hour, and although Stapleton scored once more, a Hornsby penalty ensured that another date at Filbert Street was needed in five days time.

Neill had wanted to play the next instalment at Coventry, but Charlton was happy that Leicester had been chosen. “We've had two tremendous games here. I can't see any reason to change. This ground guarantees the match going on again.” He was also happy for another reason; without a contract, Charlton was reported to be earning £400 a match at Wednesday. The FA Cup marathon was making him rich.

The tie was grabbing the attention of the media, with Neill describing it as “a serial more entertaining than Coronation Street,” with others comparing it to a Test match. Just five days before the scheduled start of the fourth round, would there finally be a winner in round five?

Steve Gatting, a player under threat since the signing of Talbot, gave Arsenal the lead, but Lowey would hit the bar, and Jennings would be forced into a good save from Gordon Owen, before the knockout blow would be delivered.

When Stapleton doubled Arsenal’s lead, it was the first time in the soap opera that either team had been more than one goal in front. Although Wylde grazed the post, and Jennings once again kept out Owen and Wylde, finally Arsenal had got “past a barrier of human endeavour named Sheffield Wednesday,” to borrow David Miller’s description in the Mirror.

A relieved Neill was extremely complimentary about the vanquished. “Sheffield Wednesday showed their spirit and attitude to the game. They did the city of Sheffield, and their manager Jack Charlton, proud.”

Charlton was impressed at his team’s efforts. “We know that in four and a half of the five matches we were every bit as good as one of the best teams in England.” Miller was spot-on when he highlighted the respect and admiration shown by Arsenal towards their opponents, as well as the satisfaction and relief they felt at finally getting the job done.

The statistics of the five matches are staggering: nine hours of football; 16 goals with 10 different scorers; 143,916 spectators at three venues; five matches in 16 days; and assuming that you lived in London at the time, there would have been over 900 miles of travelling to make it to every Sheffield Wednesday tie.

Anyone who attended all five matches – I recently discovered that Steve Ashford, aka The Highbury Spy, achieved this feat of endurance – I doff my cap to you. You really do follow The Arsenal, over land and sea, and Leicester!