By LFC Vancouver member Keith L Perkins, 08 May 06.

This is it then. The big one. The oldest and most famous of all cup competitions. Nothing compares to the magic of the FA Cup; it’s the biggest day in English sport with millions of people watching at home, and many millions more watching around the world. It’s time to get into the proper mood and get ready for victory, so here’s a few comments, jokes and quotes to start off with:

Liverpool have a long list of celebrity supporters, from the early days of the Mersey beat to more modern day supporters like Ian McCullough (Echo and the Bunnymen) and Elvis Costello. West Ham’s most famous supporter is Alf Garnett.

At the time that Geri “ginger spice” Halliwell went solo, the rest of the Spice Girls considered auditioning for a replacement. The best they could find was a young girl who just happened to be a West Ham supporter. Sporty spice, a true red-blooded Liverpool lass, was not impressed and suggested the only way that she would be allowed to join the group would be as “Waste of Spice.”

During the Second World War, a platoon of soldiers were arriving at the front and were being inspected by the commanding officer and a visiting General. One of the privates in the front row, a young cockney lad and a West Ham supporter, is facing forward as the General addresses him: “Did you come here to die?” to which he replies “No sah! I got here late lahst night wiv the rest uv ’em.”

Immediately after the final on Saturday the players, management and staff of West Ham United Football Club will be travelling to Blackpool for a few days. It’s the only way they’ll know what it’s like to ride on an open-topped bus.

During the 1960’s, West Ham were able to boast three members of England’s World Cup winning team of 1966. With Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, and Martin Peters, the average finish in the League was 17th. That just shows how crap the rest of the team were.

Did you know that an anagram of “Teddy Sheringham” is “He’d shag dirty men?”

Current West Ham manager Alan Pardew played for Crystal Palace in the late 80’s early 90’s. He is most famous to us as the player who scored the winning goal for Crystal Palace in our 4-3 semi final loss in 1990. But in spite of that, he was not exactly loved by the Palace supporters. One web site entry describes his career at Selhurst Park as “Pardew only ever did two good things for Palace – one was the goal against Liverpool in the cup semi-final, the other was when he left.”

Finally, I have to let Rafa have a word or two. He doesn’t say much but sometimes when he opens his mouth, we should all listen; especially the journalists who ask the questions.

Journalist: Are you wearing your lucky jacket?
Rafa: No it’s normal. I have confidence in my team, not my jacket!

Rafa at a press conference last summer: When people talk to me about Gerrard and say he wants to win trophies, I say “me too.” I want to win trophies, I am not here to learn English, I am here for winning trophies.

Rafa at another press conference last summer: We are preparing a special weightlifting plan for Gerrard’s shoulders because we want him to lift a lot of trophies for Liverpool in the next few years.

Rafa at a press conference before a home match last season: This is Anfield, they say “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” It’s true!

Cheers everyone, see you all on Saturday for what should be a good one.

Drop us a line and let Keith know what you think of this article

By LFC Vancouver member Keith L Perkins, 09 May 06.

The last game of the season has come and gone, with really no reason to be overly happy or sad. There’s always a certain feeling of sadness as the season wraps up on the last day. This is it for most clubs, especially as the relegation battles had already been played out a week ago, the champions had already been crowned, and only fourth place with the Champions League spot was left up in the air (between Arse-nil and Tottenham). There’s nothing really for the rest to play for at that stage, and absolutely nothing more now until training camp and pre-season a couple of months away.

The match started off fairly slowly with no sign of urgency from either side. Dudek was given the start and barely had anything to do for the first half. The only concern came up when Xabi Alonso took an awkward step as he landed after a jump and seemed to twist his ankle. Fortunately it looks like a relatively minor injury and he could well be available for the Cup Final. At the interval, Man Ure were already 3-0 up and so it would have been no surprise to see a slow match collapse into complete inactivity. But, the players realised that there were decisions to be made as to who would be named in the squad for the Cup Final and so there was a definite incentive to show something to the boss.

One player who has no concern there is Robbie Fowler, who is cup tied but celebrated his one year contract extension by scoring the first goal. Morientes took the ball on the edge of the area and passed it perfectly to Robbie, who first-timed it with his left foot, making it five goals in his last six games. What a way to show that Rafa made the right decision in giving him that new contract. At this point it’s common for the winning supporters to start singing that old favourite “here we go, here we go, here we go” but instead it was the Pompey crowd singing “we don’t care, we don’t care, we don’t care.” Why should they care if they are going to lose? They were too busy adoring Harry Redknapp for keeping them in the Premiership.

That goal looked to be about it for the afternoon’s action until Robbie was taken off giving Cisse a chance to come on for the last seven or so minutes. It didn’t take him long to make an impact with a run down the right and a cross-cum-shot on target which was parried by the ‘keeper right in front of Crouch. An easy side footed tap in and it’s 2-0. Crouch had come on for Morientes after 67 minutes and the former Pompey and Southampton player was soundly booed every time he touched the ball. Less than twenty minutes later they had all gone quiet. Surely that’s it, but no. One or two more twists in the tale were to come. The first one came only a minute later, when Pompey pulled one back. It was a poor defensive move to let Koroman run in unopposed at the far post to knock in a crossed ball. But, perhaps we can allow for the odd defensive lapse late in a meaningless match, especially when the thoughts are on next weekend. The second twist came shortly after that. The commentators had only just finished saying that this would provide for an exciting final few minutes when Cisse broke through a poorly played Pompey offside trap and had a clear run-in on goal. With lots of time to line up a shot, he coolly powered it low across the goal and underneath the ‘keeper to make it 3-1 with a minute left. That really was it, and the final whistle for the match also signalled the end of the season.

We could be sad that we didn’t make it to second place, ahead of Man Ure, but they were just too good on the day against a below-par Charlton, who had the distraction of playing for Alan Curbishley for the last time. With that situation, we couldn’t really do any more than hope that they would somehow falter while we went on to an easy win. As far as the neutrals are concerned, it probably would have been better if it had come down to a win for us giving us second place for sure, with Pompey needing to win to avoid relegation. Now that would have been a match worth watching. But, in terms of the “big picture” it should be a relief that we had a relatively easy match to play before next week’s cup final. Of course we should be happy (or in fact delighted) that we had already finished third, two places higher than last season with three games remaining. On top of that, we were very close to grabbing second place and in the end we only fell short by one point. Compare that to last season where we were three points away from fourth place and struggled to maintain a gap above sixth place, which came down to goal difference (+11 for us versus +5 for Bolton). The greatest success though, has to be the improvement in our consistency.

We had an amazing improvement in our defensive performance with only 25 goals conceded (41 last season) but still scoring 57 goals for (52 last season). Anfield became a fortress once again with 15 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss, 32 goals scored and only 8 goals conceded (with half of those in the 4-1 loss to Chel$ki in October). Our away form was almost as impressive with 10 wins, but with 4 draws and 5 losses. Even so, we still managed a respectable 25 goals for, while conceding 17. Perhaps the clearest sign of our improvement for this season over last is seen in the points gap behind the leaders. Last year we finished 37 points behind Chel$ki in first place, 25 points behind Arse-nil in second place, and 19 points behind Man Ure in third place. This year it’s only 1 point behind second place and 9 points behind the champions. That’s a stunning improvement in just one year, especially when we consider that we only brought in a few new players last summer, none of whom were anywhere close to being “big” names with record transfer fees. Rafa certainly knows what he’s doing and has already said that he knows where the team needs improvements, and will make that his priority over this summer. With that in mind, I’m not really looking forward to the World Cup as much as I’m looking forward to the start of next season.

That’s it for this year then, except that we still have that one big game to come on Saturday. I’m looking forward to that with just barely contained enthusiasm and confidence. It should be a good one, with a great celebration to follow. The season may be over, but the party is yet to begin.

Drop us a line and let Keith know what you think of this article

By LFC Vancouver member Keith L Perkins, 08 May 06.

Liverpool’s “modern era” began with the arrival of Bill Shankly in 1959. Prior to this, Liverpool were a struggling Second Division side, having never won a major trophy outside of the five League Championships, which they had won most recently in 1947. Shankly took control of the club and soon took that Second Division side to the top of the First Division in 1964, and then to the FA Cup final in 1965. We’d been there twice before, with losses of 1-0 to Burnley in 1914 and 2-0 to Arsenal in 1950. All of that was ancient history to a side that now believed that they were unbeatable in any competition. This was the opportunity to show the world that we were not just a one or two season wonder but a team on the verge of becoming the most successful English club of all time. Would this be third time lucky?

That 1965 final was my first ever exposure to Liverpool FC. In those days, the FA Cup final was the only English game allowed to be broadcast live. The festivities started early in the day with the morning sports broadcast showing the players eating breakfast at their hotel, then getting on the bus to Wembley, and finally arriving at the famous stadium early in the afternoon. Constant images of the crowds streaming in toward the twin towers were interspersed with commentators’ analysis and predictions; and then interrupted with images of the players of each side taking it in turns to come out onto the pitch for a first look. They were not so easy to recognise at this point as they were all dressed identically from head to toe in suits, with club ties and matching pocket handkerchiefs, and fancy boutonnieres adorning their lapels. Then we were shown the highlights of the earlier rounds, summarising how each team had arrived at the final and that was then followed by profiles of each club.

Tradition then had it that a player from each squad would provide the commentary, describing each player as images of great goals or crunching tackles from the respective player filled the screen. Then, finally, the cameras went live inside the massive stadium to show the colourful displays of the supporters at each end, the Royal Marines Band marching up and down the pitch, and of course the guy up on the rostrum leading the crowd in community singing. By this time we just wanted to get on with it, and as the sing-along wraps up and as the Marines march off the field, we get our first look at the two teams inside the tunnel as they get ready to come out. The cameras usually get close-ups of the brave but anxious expressions on the players’ faces as the managers lead them out to the deafening roar of the crowd. What a day, what an atmosphere. There’s just nothing to compare with it anywhere in the world.

As if that’s not enough waiting, the two teams then have to line up in front of the Royal Box to be officially presented one by one by each team captain to Her Majesty (or some member of the Royal Family). We’ve now been watching for several hours, and we haven’t even kicked off yet. I’ve always wondered exactly what was said between the players and the queen. Legend has it that in 1966 with Everton facing Sheffield Wednesday, Brian Labone was introducing the players when Princess Margaret asked “Where is Everton?” to which he replied “It’s in Liverpool Ma’am.” She then looked at him a little thoughtfully and said “Of course, we had your first team here last year.”

Since that first one (for me) there have been many more. Liverpool have been there twelve times in total, winning six and losing six. The first win in 1965 will always hold a special place in our hearts. It was described by Shankly himself as “The greatest day for Liverpool, in the history of time!” Since then, the finals have been mixed to say the least. The 1974 final victory over Newcastle was the most one-sided I’ve ever seen. At least it went some way toward making up for the disappointment of losing to Arse-nil in 1971. We should have won that one after going ahead early in extra time. But this was Shankly’s second great team, and they were quite young and inexperienced in the big matches. That was soon to change!

Shankly won two FA Cups, but in spite of all of the League and European success during the Paisley years, we didn’t win again until 1986 under Kenny Dalglish. That was the first of two memorable finals against Everton with the second one being the highly emotional 1989 final which was dedicated to those we lost at Hillsborough a few weeks earlier. The year before that, in 1988, we had the disastrous loss to Wimbledon. That was perhaps our greatest ever humiliation on a world stage.

Graeme Souness took over the remainder of Dalglish’s squad in 1991, and won the cup for the fifth time in 1992 against Sunderland. The next appearance was under Roy Evans in 1996. That one will live on in our memories as the most boring final ever seen. Losing is bad enough, but to do so at the end of such an awful, dreadful, uninspired performance was just too much to bear.

Then came 2001; with Gerard Houllier and the year of “The Treble”. Arse-nil were the opponents again, but this time we prevailed 2-1 in a match that they should have won. This time I was almost kept from watching it as I was living in Northern BC where there was absolutely no place within hundreds of miles showing the match, which was only available as a pay-per-view via satellite broadcast. Fortunately, I was in Port Moody for a few days and managed to catch the final at the old Barnet Motor Inn. When Owen scored that second one, I really thought that the roof was going to lift from the place. That was the best atmosphere for a televised match that I had ever experienced; that is, until last May. The closest to that was a few weeks ago for the semi-final win over Chel$ki.

So now we come to this year’s final, which is our chance to pick up our lucky number seven. That would put us tied with Aston Villa in fourth place for number of FA Cups (still well behind the 11 for Man Ure, 10 for Arse-nil, and 8 for Spurs; but ahead of the 5 for Everton, and 3 for Chel$ki). How will we make out this time around? After beating Man Ure and Chel$ki, It should be straightforward against West Ham. They’ve had a great first season back in the Premier League and didn’t just survive their first year but impressed a lot of the doubters. No team should ever be underestimated or taken lightly; just think back to 1988 against Wimbledon for an example of how things can go wrong if the right attitude is missing for even a few hours. We have to go out there on Saturday and play as if this is our toughest and most important match of the season. Nothing matters after this one; the season is over and most of the players are going to have a chance for a nice long break. A few are going to the World Cup of course, but even that is weeks away.

We’ve had a good season in terms of the improvement in the League over last year. But Liverpool FC is all about winning trophies, and we want this one as badly as we want any other. Will this FA Cup Final be lucky number thirteen? I believe it will be, and I’m looking forward to seeing a good turnout at LSPH this Saturday to celebrate lucky number seven.

Drop us a line and let Keith know what you think of this article

As most of you might have found out via email last week, author Paul Tomkins has offered LFC Vancouver members a discounted rate on his new book Red Revival. Paul wrote last year's "Golden Past, Red Future" which was an excellent read, and his articles appear on the official site on a weekly basis as well as other sites such as RAWK.

If you're interested in buying it let us know and we'll do a bulk order. We'll save money on shipping from the UK this way, and all together it should come to $25 CDN which is reasonable, hopefully even less (it's hard to say without knowing how many books will be ordered). If we get 10 people interested we'll go through with the order, and we'd like to thank Paul Tomkins for the offer.

Also, let us know if you're interested in tickets to the inaugural game of the Whitecaps tournament that goes on sale soon, featuring Cardiff as well as the Indian national team and China's U20 team. We could get a deal on those as well. And let us know how you'd feel about discounted Whitecaps tickets for LFC Vancouver members.

If anyone has anything else to say (buy/sell, jokes, rants, raves, whatever) drop us a line.

P Gill

send us an email if you have anything to announce, sell, or would just like a rant/rave.