Wonder who are interested and even bother watching. Used to be a must see occasion for me but over the last years i cannot be bothered. Same today, but will watch the highlights if watford win.

I'm looking forward to it.

I work Saturdays till 5pm so a 5:30 kick off suits me just fine.

Gunna watch it with the kids and try and get them into it, one of my first footy memories was the FA cup final so i've always enjoyed it, used to watch it with me dad and grandparents at their house so its a decent memory as a kid.

The current Wembley Stadium may be streets ahead of the old Wembley in terms of facilities, but it'll never match it for creating a sense of occasion and spectacle, especially on TV. To me it just looks like any other generic modern stadium, and the empty seats where the corporate crowd should be doesn't help. I hope Watford win, but I'm not that bothered either way.

The cracks were already showing when they abolished replays, changed the times, neutralized the semi finals (just a few examples), but when it started being the Heinz Beanz FA Cup or whatever, it only confirmed the decline in standards. The FA Cup always used to be bigger than any possible sponsor.. It was one of the biggest dates if not the biggest in the year. One of the only events after royal weddings that could empty the streets, and all that BEFORE Sky TV. No one who experienced that, and I admit they're all pretty old now, could be content with what's on offer now.

A big block of red seats near the half way line was half-empty. The true status of the FA Cup is there for all to see when loads of corporate types can't even be bothered to turn up.

As for the game, Man City finished the season 48 points ahead of Watford and it showed. You've got to hope UEFA are able to go through with their transfer embargoes on Man City and Chelsea for overspending - it's only for a season but if Pep's not able to spend another £100+ million on players over the summer it might make a smidgen of difference.

Who won?
Me stand out game of the FA Cup was back in 1984 when Pools beat Derby 2 1.
7400 crowd about 2000 Derby fans. The Vic was rocking.
Is there any of our older posters who were at the man utd game?

I actually enjoyed it.

Perish the thought but I actually like Man City. Partly because they have completely usurped Man United but also they went through many years of Pools like mediocrity. Of course there are plenty of Jonny come lately glory hunters but the core are supporting their home town team unlike London United in Salford.

[quote="Mr Irrelevant"]Perish the thought but I actually like Man City.
think its their owners that a lot of other fans have the problem with and not the club itself. if it had not been them it would have been someone else like Newcastle.

I remember a do of Man City supporters before they were famous and the compère taking the piss out of Man U. He pointed out that Man U had been playing away at Arsenal and said one good thing was the Man U fans would be home within half an hour. They were good at self mockery too, their trophy room had been broken into and they were appealing for the return of the carpet.

I find it hard to dislike Man City also.

My mate has had a season ticket for them since he was a kid, and had endured years of failure until relatively recently. Their proper fans are definitely loyal, they were still getting around 30,000 to see them lose at home to the likes of Wrexham when they dropped into the 3rd tier.

As well as being brilliant to watch, they have retained an air of class about them which other Premiershit teams lost decades ago.

Questions have to be asked about their funding like.

I went to a Manchester Derby a few years ago. It was a prawn sandwich thing and I was taking customers from work.

It was 1-1 with 10 minutes to go when City scores. This was followed by thousand of Man United supporters streaming out.

There then was a chant which spread round the Man City supporters......” f*** off back to London, f*** off back to London, la la la laa, la la la laa.

I even think the questions about funding are a nonsense as well.

The people funding them can afford to do it, financial fair play is utter bollocks especially at Champions League level it’s just to protect the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona. That would be fine if they were both operating on a level playing field but I heard the other day that Real Madrid get £100 million more TV money than Getafe for example, they finished 3rd and 5th in La Liga. It’s simply an attempt to prevent very wealthy people buying clubs and gatecrashing the top table threatening the established giant clubs place in the hierarchy.

Then Pools' fans better stop complaining about the likes of Forest Green Rovers, Salford and Fylde buying success. If it's OK for football teams to be rich men's playthings at the very top level, it's got to be OK down in the depths of the National League too. Too bad if we're stuck in non-league for years waiting for the likes of Billericay Town to go past us.

Not really with all due respect, I’m not sure you could call Manchester City a plastic or manufactured club with no established fan base. PSG maybe!

Even at Pools level I don’t really have a problem with these sort of clubs football isn’t a closed shop, just don’t ask me to have time for or the stomach for anyone jumping on the bandwagon supporting them.

Oh, I think I can - yes, Man City had a great fan base when they were down on their luck - though they were doing a pretty good impression of buying success back in the Malcolm Allison -Tony Book days in the 1970s.

These days they have just as many bandwagon jumpers as PSG or Manure - in fact, I bet there's loads of plastic fans quietly dumping red shirts for pale blue outside Manchester!

Pretty much agree with that PJ.

If Man City can afford to buy x y z and throw billions at it I don’t see the problem

UEFA want to ensure no smaller clubs ever get to the last round. It probably kills them that AC Milan are a bit shit these days.


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That’s just human nature though you will always get glory hunters who’s football supporting existence rarely involves watching a live game of football at the ground. It’s why you have so many people often grown men walking around towns like Hartlepool in Liverpool and Manchester United tops, give it five years and many of them will become Manchester City shirts. Actually my eldest has already owned a Manchester City kit, that was more down to it being on sale and cheapest in the sports shop that day though That doesn’t make them a plastic club though.

My point was more about FFP though which is more to protect the biggest richest clubs than prevent overspending and financial difficultly. They should concentrate more on those getting into clubs who have no money to throw around like the pair or charlatans that nearly destroyed us rather than people who spend fortunes transforming clubs.

When I was a kid my best friend was a manc and he loved city. I often wonder if people these days consider him a glory hunter.

I must be the only one not sharing the love for City. Already sick of them winning everything (except Champions League) and there'll be no end to it as long as Pep is there.

Putting 6 past Watford in the cup final was a bit shit actually, it's not like they needed to improve their goal difference.

The fact the semi finals are still being held at Wembley is one of the biggest cock ups in modern day football. Does any right minded football fan really want to go to Wembley TWICE?!

Its sheer and outright profiteering, there is nothing else for it. When they were at neutral grounds, oh blah blah I'm boring myself, we all know this. I defy anybody at the FA or whoever to come up with a decent reason for Wembley semis.

Didn't the semi-finals at Wembley start when there was an Arsenal v Spurs semi that was looking for a sensible neutral ground and Wembley made sense. I seem to remember the other semi was Sheff Wed v Sheff Utd and they complained that they should also be allowed to play their game at Wembley..... and so a sensible choice for a London derby Semi-Final was seen by the FA as a way of getting money from the white elephant that was the old Wembley stadium.

The justification will be it has biggest capacity in the country so more fans of each club can attend.

The first ones if I remember rightly where the year the semis were Arsenal v Tottenham and Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United in 1993. You can sort of see why those two games were held at Wembley then the FA probably noticed how much more cost effective holding the Semis there were and that was it.

I see next year all of the FA Cup will be free to air on the BBC and ITV. This should be a big opportunity to get the competition back to more like is used to be. Part of that should be a return to more traditional Semi Final venues, I won’t hold my breath though!

Just checked and 1993 was the first two to be at Wembley, then again in 1994 but then they went back to club grounds. So it has only been since the new stadium that it’s been permanent.

The reason they've been at Wembley for the Semis is all about justifying the enormous amount of money that was spent on the new Wembley by making sure there's a certain number of fixtures there....

One of the ironies when they were rebuilding was that England games went all round the country, and suddenly people in the hotbeds of football could actually get there without having to book two days holiday - I went to two of the games at Old Trafford, including the one where Beckham scored the free kick against Greece, it was absolutely electric - no way I would even have considered it if it was at Wembley, and I haven't been to an England game since the friendly against Sweden a couple of months later.

It is now all about money, and it's lost some of the mystique as a result. "We're going to Wember-leee... for a Semi....." Err, maybe not. The FA Cup Final was always the game of games was that it was one of very few games that was actually broadcast live - it had novelty value for that alone. These days, with the right subscriptions you can probably watch 10 matches a week - if not more - it's just not special. Why? Because it gets the clubs more money, that ultimately comes from those who shell out for subscriptions...

there is nothing wrong with wembley apart from where its situated. should have left the old stadium and built a new one more central in the country. would be great to see a newcastle v sunderland semi final especially with rail closures on the same day.

Thing is, they are moving England around the country again. St Marys Southampton has been confirmed for the England v Kosovo game in September (I've already got my ticket being just 50 minutes away ), the first competitive game away from Wembley since 2007 or something, there was two friendlies away from Wembley last year. It's 100% the right thing to do, semis at Wembley is 100% the wrong thing to do. I presume there is a contract in place, but I personally think it's one of the main reasons the FA Cup is losing the publics interest.

So have we forgiven Man City for 1976?
Hello! Was anybody there? Tueart/Potter fiasco, restless natives displaying their might against the millions of Poolies.

Yep - Tueart was a disgrace that day

Yeah the 76 Man City game was a testing day out, not only did they beat us 6-0 they wanted to rub our noses in it. Tueart was particularly up for it that day, as if he had something to prove, how George Potter got sent off that day I'll never know, he basically received a headbutt from Tueart in retaliation to a foul. I've hated City ever since....horrible fans.

Let’s not forget even we had a sugar daddy for a while and I can’t recall any complaints then. It was a nice feeling too, far more agreeable than sitting on the bones of your arse waiting fo4 the next crisis to sail into view.

Fortunately for them they don’t have a taxman in Abu Dhabi like they did in Norway