Football Daily - Remember When… We Actually Won Something

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

Remember When is a show that brings together football fans from across the UK to talk about the seismic moments that shaped their club’s history - and had a massive impact on their own lives too. Rather than being about tribal division or comparing between the haves versus the have-nots, it’s about the stories, the memories and the moments that unite us as football fans - whoever we support. This time, Remember When looks back at two of the most memorable FA Cup triumphs in English football history. Wimbledon and Portsmouth have suffered more than their fair share of hardship over the years, with trophy cabinets smaller than plenty of their Football League counterparts. But both clubs and their fans share an increasingly rare privilege: they won the FA Cup against the odds. Broadcaster Rick Edwards is joined by two guests who were right at the heart of the action. Marc Jones fell in love with Wimbledon after an inadvertent trip to Plough Lane in the 1980s and followed their ragtag bunch of cult heroes to the 1988 FA Cup final, where the Crazy Gang ended the day on that hallowed top Wembley step after beating a brilliant Liverpool team. Jeff Harris made a similar pilgrimage twenty years later, when his beloved Portsmouth scratched and clawed their way to the final of the 2008 FA Cup. He’d recently returned from working overseas for the British Army and watched Kanu and company complete their own journey to greatness at the new Wembley. Marc and Jeff share their hilarious and often heartfelt memories of seeing their local clubs reach footballing immortality. From that snowballing belief as their clubs marched through the rounds at the expense of numerous top-flight counterparts, to organising double-decker buses and flights back from military bases to make sure they joined friends and family at Wembley. They also remember the aftermath, as Jeff bolted back down to Portsmouth and joined in celebrations across the city while Marc caught sight of Wimbledon manager Bobby Gould bringing the trophy back to Plough Lane at the front of the team coach. They also touch on how these victories marked important moments in their own young lives, with football acting as the catalyst for moments of joy, melancholy and belonging. Remember When is a celebration of what football’s all about: moments etched into history for the fans and players of two clubs who might never experience it again. This is Remember When… We Actually Won Something.

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts Hello and welcome to Remember When, the show that brings together football fans to talk about the seismic moments that shaped their club's history and had a massive impact on their own lives as well. We're here to talk about the stories, the memories, the moments that unite us as football fans, whoever we support. I'm Rick Edwards and today we're focusing on two clubs that lifted a trophy when no one expected it, because this week we're asking, remember when we actually won something? We were told it was going to be a battle for the midfield, it surely was, but there was

another nine players out there. Back in May 1988, Wimbledon beat Liverpool 1-0 in the FA Cup final. Wimbledon had only been in the first division for two seasons, had only been in the Football League for 11 years. Meanwhile Liverpool were the dominant force in English football. It was celebrated as one of the greatest upsets in FA Cup history. You've got one of two scars up here. Yeah, you should see the avipoids. You should see the poids in the red. Fast forward to 2008. Portsmouth hadn't lifted the FA Cup since 1939, but that year they

made it all the way to Wembley and conceded just one solitary goal. They beat Cardiff City 1-0 and Pompey's motley crew of cult heroes and journeymen became history makers. Amazing scenes as the team comes onto South Sea Common, it's a truly extraordinary sight. The sea of blue and white, a gathering of human joy that Portsmouth hasn't seen on this scale for many, many, many a long year. Right time to introduce the die-hard supporters with me today.

I'm joined by AFC Wimbledon fan Mark. How are you Mark? I'm good thank you mate. And Portsmouth fan Geoff. Are you alright Geoff? I'm good thanks. So you are here because you saw your clubs win something against the odds but before we get to that I want to get a sense of where the club was

at at that time, sort of how you felt about your team. So when did you start supporting Thompie? When was your first game? Can you remember? 1982. It was the old second division total kind of game against Oxford. Alan Byley scored two cracking goals in injury time, saw us over the line and really it was pretty nice for Oxford to go up that season. And as a nine year old kid, that was my first taste of Flatton Park. And before that, dare I say it would come on to a minute, I kind of had a feeling towards Liverpool, being a Pompey boy and after that I was like, no, it's Pompey for me, Fratton Park. Fratton Park is that hook and tear, that's it, it stays with you.

What's your first memory of Fratton Park as a nine year old? I was just like, wow. I think everyone has that reaction to Fratton Park actually, you must have been to Fratton Park. Yeah, it's a lovely place. It's so welcoming. I can't actually, funny enough, the year before we, you know, that you talk about our season, it's very similar. We had a season in the, in the first division then. And the year before,

it was John Fashniewski's debut at Paul Smith away. And we'd played Mulewall previously and he'd clotheslined, I think it was Glyn Hodges or Wally Downs. You know, he'd ironed one of our players out and we were like, who wants to sign? You know, he's an animal. Wake up in the morning, women had signed John Faschnu 125 grand. He's our animal. Brilliant. And he made his debut, he came on a sub away at Fratton Park.

So you know, been there, been there lots of times since and we were chatting with each other earlier on about how kind of going from that top tier football, second division, we, you know, we went up together and we was working out again. I looked this morning, cause you tend to not look at what other teams do when you're doing well. Pompey had gone, gone down that, that season from the first division when we won the FA cup. So we've had that kind of intertwined history.

And then of course both clubs, you know, on their knees, ours for different reasons, but we've played each other since in sort of, you know, league two and stuff like that. So been there a few times. Yeah. And we don't really do very well down there. We struggled down there most of the time. When did you first go to Wimbledon? So my first game was in 1979. It was a year we got relegated. I went there as a kid, got taken there. I'd been to Millwall, Fulham and Chelsea and kind of was good. It felt like a big proper football that I'd seen on the big match and stuff like

that. But I didn't feel like it was, I belonged to it. And in a weird way, I didn't, I didn't feel like I belonged. How old were you? So I was 12 when I went for our first game. And when I went to Wimbledon, I didn't, it was my local team, but funny enough, I used to go to the Speedway track next door with my dad, which is now where Plough Lane is, this version of Plough Lane. And I used to go past and kind of go, is that a football club? And my dad used to go, yes, they're Wimbledon, they're not all that.

And I was like, all right, okay, fine. So same sort of thing. But when I went there, it was kind of like, I think it's the same thing. I'd been to other grounds and I kind of went there and just went, no, this is a bit of me this. And the weird thing is... It's really interesting that idea of the hooks getting into you. Yeah, and by the way, I see that now. So now we're back in our version of Plough Lane that the fans paid for and constructed. I really get to see people come for their first game and just kind of that jaw-dropping moment. But the weird one was we won two and everyone I thought were

brilliant. I kind of stopped looking at it, I got relegated, I didn't realise. And I didn't really go back in anger till sort of 83-4, which was when we were vying with Pompey Oxford. Some people might argue Pompey are a lot bigger in terms of fan base wise. But there were a lot of clubs of that sort of size. So, you know, it's interesting when we talk about the cup. A Pompey, I'll get a read on that. Is Pompeo a bigger club than Wimbledon? If you look at the history and you look at what Portsmouth have achieved in the past, they're the most successful team on the South Coast. I think in terms of passion,

I like to mention that. That was only a moment in time. I'm not talking about a particular club. Pompeo have more trophies combined with the other three teams on the South Coast. But I think if you look in terms of passion... You're not talking about Shankling Town there either. Passionate fans and kind of the fan base itself. I think Wimbledon and Pompey are very similar. Wimbledon's on the outskirts of London, Pompey's on the outskirts of...

The country. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The only island city in the whole of the UK. Wimbledon's on the outskirts of London, Pompey's on the outskirts of major... The country. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The only island city in the whole of the UK. And we have that kind of siege mentality. So I think both sets of fans are very similar. Back in that era, Wimbledon were known as the kind of the boisterous fan group. We've grown to every ground that. And then when Pompey got to the Premier League, teams were saying how great the Pompey fans were, they were always backing their team and we were like a modern day Wimbledon fan group going to Premier League grounds if that makes sense.

So I think obviously, I think it's probably a bit of authenticity, right? And we're clubs that are used to not winning all the time and we still turn out and we still go and obviously in different sort of size numbers but like now where we are now, you know, we go places and take 1000, 1500, 2000 and you know, the manager kind of, sometimes it feels like they're just saying it, what a great turnout and then you actually look at it and think, well, we've just played somebody who brought 60 fans and yet when we go to where they play, we'll take 1500 or 800 or whatever it might be. So looking at the years of your cup runs then, at what point in that cup run did you both think, we might do it this year?

Well, we'd had quarterfinals the year before. So we went in the first division, the top division. So we'd had that season before and we had a decent cup run and we got knocked out by Spurs, two nil at Plough Lane, hodl model goals. But I think we were good enough to get further in it that year, just came up against the wrong team at the wrong time. So even though to the rest of the footballing world, it was a massive underdog story, we

were under the radar, we knocked Newcastle out in that run, who was second favourite, Gazza playing for them as well in their backyard. So we were better side than people thought. So it wasn't quite that kind of fairy tale. But the year before had given us a kind of little kind of teaser, if you will, the year before we sort of thought what if. But I don't know that we went into that run, believe in it, first game, even with that, you know, preseason, you know, the season before they'd given us that little what, what if, uh, certainly when we were, you know, way at places like Mansfield,

it didn't feel like we were going to be struggling. That was very lively. And then in 2008, the draw just kind of, it just opened up nicely for Pompey, didn't it? And a lot of teams, especially our neighbours in Hampshire, say we bought the Cup that year but you can only play the teams that you're drawn against and we were getting scrappy one-neils all the way through. But the moment I knew we could win it and go on was Old Trafford away. That was just, we should have got battered.

Man United should have been three, four, neil up at half time. That's some lucky draw that, isn't it? I remember we had Ipswich in the first round, they had a player sent off after about 5-6 minutes, something like that. David Nugent came on, scored a scrappy winner. We had a really good defence and goalkeeper, we had David James' goal, Glenn Johnson right back, Sol Campbell, Sylvester Anderstan, Herman Rydson. They were an absolute brick wall. They played for us as well. And then in January, Harry signed the sign of Diarra. And you'd never think the sign

of Diarra. Yeah. It's one of the great January signings, I think. It's really interesting where I've said, we're really similar to Pompey. We feel like Pompey. And then you're sitting reeling all that off. And I'm like, nah, we're not really are we? Real Madrid. He didn't go to Real Madrid from Wimbledon. He went to Saturday United. And Terry Gibson came from Man United to us. So yeah, we haven't got that. But you definitely top us there.

You know, that team, like I said, they weren't really prolific, but it just... We're just solid. Yeah. Yeah. We weren't scoring many, we weren't conceding many. For the whole of the cup run, we conceded one and that was a nasty deflection against Plymouth and then they ended up scoring from it. But apart from that game where we scored two goals, every other game was one nil. You know, sheer delirium at Old Trafford and you're staying behind 45 minutes after the game is finished, you're like, we can go all the way. We can, we can absolutely run witness witness couple of season.

You know, the beauty of listening to that back, right. That's the essence of Cup football because there is no point in even if you win a league and even if you get promoted, you don't string together six games in a row and go, we were terrible and we scraped it. Then we went there. We only won one, Neil. Then we cleared it off the line. You don't recall games like that, but in a cup final, and especially when you win it, I guess, having not lost the final.

I really like the fact we've won the FA, our version of it, we've won the FA Cup in the Combined Counties League, which is teams like Toot in Beck, and they've even got like, they've got a tube station after them, but not a train station. But there is that kind of that reverence for it feeling like each thing you do matters. So I suppose playoffs are close in the last four or five games of a season but rarely in a league campaign do you get that kind of reverence and that narrative that runs through it. As a kid you don't go in the park and play the player final do you? You go in the park and play the FA Cup final or the World Cup final. I remember, especially in that Cup one, I actually nearly died.

I nearly died in the Plymouth game. I was in the army, I was out in the rack at the time and I was watching the first one. Oh wow, sorry, I thought you were speaking metaphorically. I actually died. I actually died. So we were all crammed around and they put the games on British Sports Force's television and we were just watching it in the cookhouse and the mortar alarm goes off. So you have to hit the floor and you're taking cover and the mortar rounds start coming in.

Trying to watch the football there. It pretty much was. No respect. I told you the FA Cup doesn't mean as much as it used to. So there's about five of us crawling towards the TV because we want to see the game. We didn't realise we were all Pompey fans. So it's one all and all of a sudden we've gone two one up. Without even hesitation all five of us jump up.

I didn't know you was Pompey. We're jumping around. More arounds are landing around us. The windows are coming in. Turns out Rio Ferdinand Nugol wasn't the high point of the script that we needed to talk about. This grumpy Saint Major's screaming at us to get on the floor and I'm like, great I nearly died because Pompous scored a win over against Plymouth.

What a way to go though. Yeah, yeah. And why did he stand up? Well funny for you. Why have I got five lads in the middle of the day? Got a story about your dad. Don't get his medal. No not that one. The Cup final one. The important one. What do you remember of the morning of the final then? This is a good one. Right. So that was back when I was with drink.

Right. And I was very good with drink. And I was 21. Too good? Yeah. Very good. Premier League quality. I was 21 and I was like, right, do I, 20. Yeah, very good. Premier League quality. I was 21 and I was like, right, do I get blind drunk or do I watch it and remember

it? Right. And so instead I elected to video record ITV and BBC from nine in the morning all the way through to the end of the night. And just go and drink. So we went to a pub at a pint of vodka and orange and we'd hired a double decker bus to take us to Wembley. So that's how long ago it was. It was easy to get a bus to Wembley rather than get a

tube or a train, right? And I mean, I completely lost my mind. I made homemade Superdons rosette about two foot wide, right? This is the week before, right? You tell us this was the eighties. Yeah. My missus worked with kids and there was this scrap scheme where you used to be able to like donate paper and stuff. And I was like, see anything yellow and blue in the next couple of weeks, stick it in a bin bag and bring it home. So she's given me this big bin bag full of yellow and blue ribbon.

I'm like, we're going to get down there, do that bus up. So we get down, I'm on a ladder, right? Pass up the bag of ribbon. We're going to put it all around the bus. It's off cuts. They're about two inches long. So I'm sellotape handfuls of ribbons on, and then we strap the rose out on the front of the bus. So we've done his Hollywood movie, you're getting carried on Wimbledon FA Cup final now, right? So it's all strapped on. The best bit of the story is it lasted about 20 foot and the bus just run it over and it looked out the back

of the bus and it was flat on the floor. That's my rosette. Yeah. The other one that was really good is a mate that took me to Wimbledon in the second division who got me kind of really hooked. I drifted a little bit. Really weird, he had this early sense of football's not what it used to be in like 1988. That is early. I mean I don't mind it in the Premier League era but like that I don't know what it was and I'm actually thinking out loud I think it was probably because Bassett went and his heart broke and he couldn't fix it. Right. So I was like, Ian, I've got you a ticket for the final.

Um, he's all, I don't know if I want to go. I was like, don't be silly. I've got you to get a final. Dad's going to come and pick you up. Right. And take us to the pub to get the bus. So we pull up, be a bit front. His door opens and this is a guy who's like, I don't know if I want to go.

He comes walking out. He's got yellow and blue tights on over his jeans. Right. He had a foam hat on that was like about two foot wide, like some novelty hat he'd got from somewhere and he'd written on it. And I still never really understood this one. Harry the nosh on the front of the hat. And then he had a homemade rosette on with Vinnie Jones posing in his FA

cup final suit, you know, top man suit, and he'd written next to it, round it, Vincent Peter Jones. I was like, this was not a normal day at football, right? So yeah, that's what we did. I picked Ian up. I'm starting to get an idea of what Ian meant by football used to be. The best bit when I look back on it, right, unfortunately, my dad and Ian are both no longer with us, right, but my dad never blinks, just went, right Ian, and he just got in the car. It was normal.

Yeah, not like that. In the tights again Ian. Yeah, it's like, it's cup football, right? You're supposed to lose your mind and get giddy, right? Fully, you know, no light kind of will pop up, we get there at half two, you know, we got there real early, we got there real early, you know, parked the bus up and kicked a plastic football round in the car park at Wembley and stuff like that. So that was the day. Yeah. Well, I'm going to assume that Jeff, you were in Afghanistan or something.

I was actually back for this one. So yeah, I was based in Germany at the time. So bizarrely, when you phoned up for tickets for Ticketmaster, because you were phoning from Germany, you got to the front of the queue straight away. So all my mates back home, back here, were phoning me going, mate, can you get me a ticket? And I was literally on Ticketmaster, speed dial all the time. So I'd flown back and I'd gone home and I thought I'm going to make the real day of it. I booked a room in Woolwich Barracks in East London. So I thought, I'm going to leave Woolwich Barracks and get down to Pompey and I'm going to travel up with all the Pompey fans. All I could do is come straight across the sea. And what a day. We

get to the pub at Wembley at 10 o'clock. And I remember the coaches were coming in and for some reason the Cardiff team bus came past the pub and it stalled and you've never seen so much beer, pint glasses thrown at the coach as possibly you could and it was just such a great day, great atmosphere, it was just building and building and building and building and then we had the ingenious idea of, let's go put some bets on. And this is when you used to go, it'll be one-nil, it'll be this gold score, it'll be in this timeframe.

And I don't know what it was, maybe I took a bang to the head, but I put Canu one-nil between 35 and 40 minutes at something ridiculous like 20 to one. No one asked him. How much did you put on? 50 quid. What a touch.

What a touch. And I was just like. Well he's had the bust all round. Yeah. How many metaphors do you need before you walk into the cookies? So I was just like, I was more in shock, not that we scored that. Now I'm like, you know... Quizz in, yeah. Quizz in. The bit you say as well is you've got all those moments you've seen before and now it's

your turn and now you're there. And, you know, are we ever going to win the FA Cup again? Well, of course we're not, you know, if you're being a realist, but we've won it and it's always part of it. And it's interesting that we're really probably only now coming to terms, we've been able to give it the big one about that without it demeaning what we're doing at the moment. It's kind of probably, maybe it's far enough in the distance, but we celebrate, we've got like a replica in our reception when you walk in a stadium and we should do that because it is special.

But you'd think that they would, they would generational moments, 1988, 2008 generational moment. I know Pompey got there two years later, but, but never in my years of growing up did I feel I see Pompey in a cup final. Never. Yeah. If you, if you, if you just stopped like the big Liverpool man United ones and gone, and like again we're talking about the kinship of our kind of support history and our lives with these clubs that we both you know dearly love, you never ever thought that that would be you. But back then

if you went to Wembley you went there for the cup final. It meant one thing. Wembley was the cup final. England played there and the cup final was there. And so just by walking down, and this is the other point as well, my one was the old Wembley. It was the last all standing final, the last one on both sides of TV. So it was huge. And we were there, we were there on merit. Even though the media were kind of like, thanks for making up my numbers guys, lambs to the slaughter I didn't care about that I was like I'm walking down Wembley Way with

Ian in his tights and his big foam hat we're here we're Wimbledon and we're gonna give you a game today. Sanchez was in there and that's a goal for Wimbledon. Lloy Sanchez. Well, what a typical Wimbledon goal. I always remember that bit of commentary because even at the time I think my dad said to me that's a bit unfair to say what a typical Wimbledon goal where basically it's just a nice header. It's a nice free kick and a nice header. Harry Kane scores that. We're waxing the record about it for weeks. Oh, it's deft. It's beautiful. But that's because that, and again, that's a kind of media thing and that's not to be

chip on the shoulder. No one likes us. They don't. They didn't. But they built this up as, that would have been Liverpool double-double winners back to back. Literally that week was the greatest side of Europe has ever seen. I mean, they've had better teams either side of that game. They were a great side. The centre backs weren't all that. You know, like, we give them a game, we knew what we were doing. There's a sense of irony about it because we know the beauty of the FA Cup. That's what sells the FA Cup around the world for people to watch.

And it's like anything can happen. And then when it happens in the final, you're like, Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, that shouldn't happen. And I think there's a switch that flips in everyone's brain at some point in football. When you're a kid, you want to see the big teams do well and the big teams dominate. And then when you become more grown up and mature and everything else, you go, I want the little team to go beat Liverpool. I want the little team to go beat Man City. And there's that switch. And I think me looking back at that time, I was kind of like, you know, I was probably 12 or 13 during that final. You'd go out and play the FA Cup final in the park

straight after. You want to be the goal scorer. and everyone's going, oh, Dalglish rush, you know that. And all of a sudden kids in the park were going, Sanchez! And it was just a kind of changing moment. You said about your final wasn't great, it is if you win it right. That one was, if you actually look at that final, there's a penalty save, first time in FA Cup history, first captain to be a goalkeeper in a cup final. I didn't, I didn't study this before coming right there. I've had this rallying around to you. You went on to play for Pompey.

Right. Um, you get a disallowed goal. Peter Beardsley. Yeah. Right. Yes. So it's got loads of bits in there where now everyone would go, this is crazy. You know, like they'd stop, think about it now with VAR, the goal probably,

does the goal get given? Besant kind of goes, I've heard the whistle, I'm not going to bother saving it, right? Maybe he tries to save it. It's never a penalty. And again, to go back to Don Ayo, I mean, he was legendary on this one. So one of my most cherished things is on a really scrappy bit of paper is I've got an autograph from Don Ayo and it says on it, it was never a pen mark. Don Ayo. Because after the final, it was never a pen mark, Don Ayer. Because after the final, he stands there and goes, you know what, to the cameras, you know, I don't think it was a pen either. But there's one little kind of like sermon that he gives.

Yes, the narrative was we wasn't supposed to win. We took that on as well. So Bobby Gould was kind of like to the fellas back at home who said we couldn't do it, up yours type thing. But Don Ayer says a really, really lovely piece in it where he says, if you listen to some people, all they want to see out here at Wembley and the Man Utd is in the arsenals, and it shouldn't be that way, because this proves that anybody could win the FA Cup.

This game is for everybody. And it's kind of one of those like hairs on the back of your neck moments. Whether you was involved or not of like, that's Donnhouse going, respect this competition because it's really important, because look what he's done for this sort of football club. Yeah, that's exactly what you were saying, Geoff, but just more eloquently. Yeah. Well he's Don L, right? Yeah, he's Don L. The Premier League Review on the Football Daily. I'm Darren Fletcher and don't miss the Premier League Review on the Football Daily every Sunday.

As we look back at all the action from the weekend. There's quite a few questions. Defensively I don't still feel that they're strong good enough, what I've said all season. When they started to get going they missed a lot of chances. He's been outstanding, he leads the line ever so well. Yeah, I think he's a good striker, got great movement, can hold the ball up. The Premier League Review only on the Football Daily. Listen on BBC Sounds. The Football Daily podcast on BBC Sounds.

Oh, and it's... Oh, Kanu's there! But no. Is it given? It was given, and it's not a beautiful goal. No. We both got the mottied up here, didn't we? Oh, well, looks like they... Typical.

Oh, well. The ball came in, I remember Enkerman just spilling it, and Kanu just stuck out one of his six-foot-long, crazy- leg cranes legs and just tapped it in. I don't even think he realised because these goals celebration, I know he played it off as though he was just doing mucking around, but I don't think he realised how to celebrate because he wasn't expecting that to go in. And we were, yeah, I mean, there was guys around me, they went like five, six rows down the seats in the top tier of Wembley. I was feeling for their life that they're going over the scoreboard and everything,

but it was just sheer delirium. Absolutely sheer delirium. The bit I was going to ask you there is, do you think you enjoyed it more being scrappy? What made it so sweet of being a Pompey fan then? Because not only did the rest of the Premier League didn't want us to win because the way we were in the league and the fan base and everything else, but the rest of the EFL League didn't want us to win. So it was like us against all the other clubs.

And normally when, you know, you say, Oh, I wouldn't mind Man City winning it this season because the season they've had. Yeah, if they win it, that's great for them. But that season, it was us against the whole of the Premier League for knocking out Man U and then against all the Championship League, One League, two teams, and everyone else in the world who seemed to want Cardiff to win that game. And like I said, it wasn't a great footballing spectacle by any stretch of the imagination but that roar, that just made the hairs on the back of my neck just stand up again. Even I loved your version.

But the singing and celebrating afterwards, it's like we've done this. And as a token of winning my wins I spoke about, I actually went to the off-licence and bought a £300 bottle of Bollinger afterwards as far. I'm not going to open this until we win it again. And then in 2010, I was like, I'm opening it and we missed a penalty and then, and then Chelsea go and score on the way. Yeah, I'm never opening this bottle again. I'm going to be buried without a bottle of Bollinger. So, kind of forget about how scrappy the game was, you forget about those really moments when we were up against it at times in 2008. I mean Cardiff put the ball in the back of the net and we got away with it.

On the whistle had gone, hadn't it? Yeah, he'd handballed it and it was only the referee that spotted it because he actually had his back to the Pompey fans. We never saw that handball. Well that's the other bit when we talk about old Wembley, new Wembley, reverence for the FA Cup, we won't dwell on it but you've also got the spectre of Va now right? So we've had those moments where this is our goal, is it a pen or not, pure kind of moments where it's just theatre. It's like anything

happens here now, it's up to him. Your final was in the old Wembley, our final was in the new Wembley. Back in the new Wembley. Back in the new Wembley. So they're the only two that count, right? Yeah, that's it. The ones in between the nonsense, the leave aside of it, who cares. Null and void.

Yeah, bookended, nicely. I'm going to get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up again actually Jeff. That's a great moment. Yeah that's the trophy lift. Yeah. Can you remember how you were feeling? Oh, it was just, again, it was delivering when we scored, delivering at full time, then lifting the trophy. It was, it was at this world. I mean, the roof was off on Wembley. You get that pause as well, right? You get the 38 steps. 38, right?

It's not 39, 38, whatever it is, which I presume they put back in. But you get that bit where you go, as we said earlier on about watching it and remembering it, you know what comes next. So that the lap of honor Vinnie Jones is getting stick off all the Liverpool fans. The five hills up at the opposite end. He's pretending, he's pretending to throw it. Actually, funny enough, they most of them did hang around, right? That was again, back to that reverence of like, well done lads. But then you get that bit, then you get that like double drop of like, hang on a minute, we're going to go and lift the cup up in a

minute. And it's like, get the loser out of the way, they can go home, right? And then we're going to have our party sort of thing. So it was just that kind of like, again, oh my God. And then we get that brilliant bit where Diana hands it over and Dennis Wise swears. And it's what you want from Dennis Wise. Yeah, I mean, Dennis Wise is going to Dennis Wise only, right? I mean, both fan bases would be going through the same emotions, but then all of a sudden we're like, we're in Europe. First time Pompey's playing, who are we getting in Europe? And obviously the

following season, that AC Milan game at Fan Park, that's one of the best games ever. Karno scored. Yeah. Good old Karno. Again, not to label it, but that kinship bit of like, even I'm excited for you on that, I'm like, I can't even get my head around what that would feel like and that is again a byproduct of that coupling, you know, so it's like, it just, it's endless and you know, I mean to tell you that 88 was a long time ago, but I can put myself back there in a second. I feel like I'm still there. You know, he lasts forever.

Yeah. Bit like your bottle of champagne. I'll tell you that that's going to be a family. That's going to be an anti-crime show. What was your, what were your journeys home like? Quite, quite entertaining for me. Cause I was guarding my bottle of Bollinger on the train. I was going back to Woolwich now. I wasn't going to go back to Pompey. I was going back to Woolwich and on my train journey back I bumped into a load of Millwall fans.

And I'm like, I've got a Pompey shirt on. I thought I'd wear a Pompey shirt. And they're like, you had a good day, how's that? Yeah. You opened in that? I was like, I'm going to pop the cork into someone's face in a minute as a distraction to get off the train. And they're like, where are you going? I went Woolwich. I'm like, actually Woolwich Barracks. Oh, you're in the army? He's like, yeah, yeah. Oh, you're all right with us. You crack on. And it was like, you've been armed to kill a man with a beer tea. And they were like, you crack on. I was like, I've got a way with that one

there. What was worse, the mortar attack or that? Probably that, probably that. I would say 12 would have probably been up for it. So yeah, but the journey back, and then I remember getting back to Woolwich and I was like, what am I doing here? The city's going to be absolutely rocking tonight. And I was like, right, I'm getting on the train, packing my kit up, getting on the train, when we got the train back to Pompidou, we got back late, even later, and it was was like, right, I'm getting on the trip, pack the kit up, get on the train, when I got the train back to the pub, got back late, even later. And it was just like, dump the bags off of my mum's house, bring my mates,

like, where are you? Where are you at? You know, I'll be there in a minute. And I think I had a three day bender and a hangover to last me. It was the law back then, wasn't it? Yeah. What about Wembley's? Well, our one was interesting. So when we came, we went back to the pub on the bus, the best bit, it's almost a 70 story. I've got Mike Bassett scenes going in my head now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still 80s, right? So we get back on, this is how long ago it was, we get back on the drive. We had some beers on the, on the, uh, on the bus for the way back. I don't doubt it. Right? Some of them had gone missing and we think it was the driver. So the drive back was kind of like very interesting.

The best bit was when we went straight over and when he ran about, we were like, yeah, it was definitely the driver. Definitely Mike Bassett. By then we're like, well, what way you go? We was on the bus on the way back, you're sitting up there with the pearly gates. Well, and to you, mate, I got mortar shells.

I stood up in a mortar attack. What about you? Well, we had this, mate, I got mortar shell. I stood up in a mortar attack. What about you? Well, we had this bus driver, right? I remember my mate playing loads of 70s glam rock. He's just this thing. In my head, it's themed like a 70s thing on the buses with glam rock playing on the way back. And we go back to the pub and some people are like, what do we do now? And a bit like you, it was like, we knew that the whole of Wimbledon didn't support Wimbledon and the whole of Wimbledon probably didn't go to the final. Although we'd like to have thought the whole of Wimbledon wanted us to win, but there are

pockets of it that, you know, they even built up to the cup final, right? They showed you the hotel and then someone going past riding a horse and they stop a woman with a dog and going, who do you want to win the cup final today? Sorry. Who would you like to win the cup final? I don't know what you're talking about. Wimbledon are in a cup final. Who are Wimbledon?

You know, it's like they played into that, like nobody around here gets it. And I said to a mate, come, let's go back into Wimbledon. Um, and let's go via the club. He was like, what are you doing that for? I was like, I dunno. It's just kind of like pilgrimage, I suppose. So we walked to the, to the, to the ground and there's like 50 people hanging around outside, a couple

of little fences. Unbeknownst to us, the players were coming back because they had a marquee on the pitch to have a party. We didn't know that. And my mate's like, come on, let's go, let's go up to the pub. And I was like, five more minutes. So we wait these five minutes and he goes, right, now we're going. And then as he says it, the team bus turns the corner into Plough Lane. Bobby Gould

is sitting in the little passenger seat at the front next to the driver. Bobby Gould is sitting there. Like a tour guide. Yep. With the FA Cup on his lap, with the ribbons on it. And it's like, that sounds like I made it up. But it was just like, I was just like, oh my God. We couldn't see them when they got off because they scuttled into the ground. I was like, right, now let's go back to Wimbledon. Went back to Wimbledon, stayed there. It was mental in Wimbledon town centre. A bus went past,

a double deck of London bus went past with a geezer on the roof. And what he'd done is opened the escape and got out the back. I don't actually remember where he went that night. There's someone on the roof. There was a guy, there was like a, you know, it's like a falls and oarsie scene. A guy, like a yuppie guy pulls up in his open top car. Some just pours a pint of beer on his head while he's at the traffic lights. It was like, it was mad. But then we went to the train station and I bought all of the Sunday papers before I went home and sat outside Wimbledon library, funnily enough, reading the papers.

And even the papers were a little bit kind of like, you know, pictures of, yeah, Marty front and center, typical Wimbledon sort of thing. And then I've got this kind of one, you know, as I said, you know, my dad had taken me in the morning and I get home and it must have been about two in the morning. I walked home. I don't think it was night buses back then. Walked a couple of miles, lived just a little bit outside Wimbledon and got in and I was doing that kind of like slowly opening the door with a key. Don't make any of the family up. So I go in, put the papers down and I'm like, wow, what a day.

And then just out of nowhere, and I'm going to try not to get too upset about this or too sentimental, out of nowhere, my dad just walks out in a dressing gown in the dark and goes, I knew you'd win. And I was like, yeah, it's good, wasn't it? And he went, yeah, good night. And he just walked upstairs. And it's kind of like, you know, if I kind of do that, write a story about you and your dad and tell all the story, you know, the bits that matter the most, there's that moment. The only other time

we were really ever alone like that was when he, unfortunately, was ill and died in hospital. We had a similar sort of moment. So I've got those kind of two little elements of like my relationship with him. He never took me to football. He wasn't really into football. He ran my brother's little brother's football team, but he never made me a Wimbledon fan. And I did take him a few times to watch Wimbledon. But he knew what it meant to you. Yeah. I mean, the minute we got, this is the other bit we haven't spoken about. When you win the semi-final, you've got a long time to get hyped for the final, right? So we are

going to Wembley, right? And you know you're going to Wembley. Every morning you wake up, you go into work and go, I'm going to need to book a week off. My boss was a palace fan. He was like, what are you having a week off for? In case you lose? And I was like, no, because I'm not going to be fit for work if we win. And I wasn't, of course. But my dad stuck a flag out the front of the house and used to have these two little kids. He used to tell me when he used to get in, those two kids went past again today. One of them used to wear two little brothers. One had a Wimbledon shirt, one had a Liverpool shirt. So again, it sounds made up.

And the little Wimbledon kid was like, way, when he walked past the flag and the other one was like, boo, you're going to lose that flag stayed up for a real long time, I think that was probably up six months that flag. There's a great stat I remember about the parade for Pompey, which is that 200,000 people turned out and the population of Portsmouth is 180,000. That tells you everything you need to know. So we had that.

I think we had 20,000 outside the town hall. The best bit is the town hall had put, congratulations on reaching the final. Because they're like, let's not waste the print. No one's going to be here. We just feel like, well done. You well done you got there and we're like no we've got it with us right. So you know there was that I think it's when it gets to a certain number of people stop counting don't they. There's a lovely bit of, here we go I'll just play it to you. Roger what's the atmosphere been like along the route? Amazing scenes as the team comes onto South Sea common, it's a truly extraordinary sight. The sea of blue and white, a gathering of human joy that Portford hasn't seen on this

scale for many many many a long year. Yeah poor old Roger there. Roger's on the other end of his bottle of champagne. I'll be a while. I'm going to assume you were there. Yeah definitely, definitely was. It was a great day, absolutely great. South Sea Common was just absolute carnage. It was an amazing day.

The Guildhall Square was absolutely buzzing. You couldn't drive anywhere. People were abandoning their cars six miles away and walking the full length of Pompey to get to South Sea Common to watch that team on South Sea Common that day. Everyone was just again hugging each other, you know, random strangers. And it was such a good vibe. Such a good vibe. Just finally, before I let you go, do you think in your lifetime, you'll ever see your club win something again? Jeff? Well, I have a checker trade trophy, if that counts.

You could have opened the champagne after that one. Good on. The checker trade champagne. it counts. You could have opened the champagne after that one. If we do it will be maybe the play-offs, championship play-offs. I can't see us going to Wembley for the FA Cup. League Cup? Fancy the League Cup or not? I think that's probably at least a good seven or eight years away. Whereas the playoffs may be a little bit closer than that. But yeah, if anything, it's going to be the playoffs. Mark? No, I don't think I will. And I'm not sure even if my kids will, I don't think we're going to, I can't see us ending up

at the sort of club, but I, you know, the cup can still hand you those big moments, those big games. Chelsea, we nearly knocked Chelsea out. We went one up at Chelsea. That was a buzz. I'm being Abigail, my son. Don't worry, I've won here before. They're not all that. So I think the Cup can still give us those moments, but they're not going to give us the moment. We're not going to lift the FA Cup in my lifetime, definitely. But the Cup is still there. That kind of almost... You've still got Vinny's little medal. lifetime definitely, but the cup is still there. That kind of almost... You've still got Vinny's little medal. Right, definitely. That's staying where it is. His son doesn't want it. We're keeping

it. But you've got that point where I think when you look at the league, you have to be a realist and kind of go, we might have a little flirtation and we might do all right, but you're going to need a lot more around you. But the real beauty of the cup is that you can just get on a little roller coaster and go, things are happening here. And as you've proven, you know, you haven't got to go out and score 15 goals every week, right? You just need to know what you're up to. And that's the bit about when we won it. There's one bit that I lost in that cup run, right? And I'm really gutted about it. So we came back from

Newcastle, Newcastle where they were second favourites, Gazza was playing, we beat them 3-1. And when I looked it up earlier on, it said Newcastle were bullied out of the game, right? And not because we kicked them, we just went there and just went, nah, you ain't going through this fixture, this is for us. And I remember coming home and kind of going, I really love this club, it'll be in my heart forever, but I just wished it was more of us there because it feels like a little bit like the team deserve more. And I wrote to Bobby Gould, like pen and paper, right? This is how old I am. So I wrote to Bobby Gould and said, Bobby, like, I went to Newcastle. We were unbelievable that day. And I think we can win the FA Cup. I'm sorry there weren't more of us around, but I really believe in

the team. And I got a letter back, headed note paper signed by Bobby Gould saying dear Mark thanks for your letter maybe you're right maybe we can win the FA Cup and I bloody lost it before we won the Cup because can you imagine that framed me that framed the ticket and Don Ailes it was never a pet story. I used to carry it around in my car and it fell out the side of the door because I used to shout to everybody and go look at this letter from Bobby Gould. Yeah, I didn't want to end it like that. I'm sorry, they almost full-stop that brilliantly didn't they? And I could have just gone, and I've got it here today. But unfortunately, no. I was expecting you to put it out your back pocket.

But at least he answered, right? At least he answered. And I think that's the difference, right? Maybe these days they wouldn't even bother, right? But yeah, I think you might be right Mark. But yeah, there you go. That's how much I love the FA Cup. Mark, Geoff, thanks so much for joining me today. It's been an absolute pleasure. Cheers. Thanks for having me on.

And thank you for listening to this episode of the Football Daily. If listening to Mark and Geoff today has inspired you to share some of your own memories and stories we'd love to hear them. Get in touch with us on our socials at 5LivesSport. Bye for now. The new series of Match of the Day Top 10 is out now, only available on BBC South. Join myself, Garell Enneke, Alan Shearer, Micah Richards and my dog as we dig into the top 10 of the Champions League. We go through our favourite goalscorers, best moment and even our all-time 11s. Now that, gentlemen, is a list.

Oh well, he didn't get on the list. LAUGHTER He didn't get on the reserve list. You can listen right now on BBC Sounds.