The 1993 FA Cup final was contested by

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

. The original match, played on 15 May 1993, finished 1–1. Arsenal won the replay on 20 May, 2–1 after extra-time. It was Arsenal's sixth FA Cup final victory, and their first since the 1979 FA Cup final. They became the first English side to achieve a domestic cup double, having also won the 1993 Football League Cup final. It was Sheffield Wednesday's first appearance in the FA Cup final since 1966. They also reached the League Cup final that season, also losing 2–1 to Arsenal (though without a replay). This appearance of the same two sides in the final of both of England's domestic knock-out tournaments in the same season had never happened before, and would be the only time until 2022. Sheffield Wednesday have not appeared in a domestic cup final since, reaching two League Cup semi-finals since then. The replay saw the last Arsenal appearance by veteran defender David O'Leary, who left shortly afterwards to join

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

, after an 18-year spell with Arsenal which had yielded 722 competitive games and six major trophies.

Match summary

Original match

Arsenal took the lead in the 20th minute, when Ian Wright headed in a cross. Sheffield Wednesday equalised in the 61st minute, when David Hirst turned in a low drive, past the advancing Arsenal goalkeeper,

David Seaman David Andrew Seaman (born 19 September 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In a career lasting from 1981 to 2004, he is best known for his time playing for Arsenal. He won 75 caps for England, and is the country ...

Replay

The kick-off for the replay was delayed by 30 minutes after an accident on the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

had delayed the arrival of most of Sheffield Wednesday's fans. Once again, Ian Wright opened the scoring for Arsenal, running onto a through ball to prod the ball past

Chris Woods Christopher Charles Eric Woods (born 14 November 1959) is an English football coach and former professional footballer, who is goalkeeping coach for the Scotland national team. As a player, he was a goalkeeper (association football), goalke ...

, into the corner of the net. This was his fourth goal in FA Cup finals at

, just one behind the record-holder

Ian Rush Ian James Rush (born 20 October 1961) is a Welsh former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He is regarded as one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best Welsh playe ...

. Wednesday attacked Arsenal in the second half, and

Chris Waddle Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He had a spell as Burnley manager during the 1997–98 season, but has not returned to coaching since. Largely since retiring he h ...

's shot deflected off Arsenal defender

Lee Dixon Lee Michael Dixon (born 17 March 1964) is an English pundit and retired professional footballer who played as a right-back. Dixon was also capped 22 times for England. His father Roy was a goalkeeper with Manchester City and many of Dixon's f ...

into the net in the 68th minute. The game went into extra time, and with two minutes of the second half remaining, central defender Andy Linighan scored with a header from a Paul Merson corner. Goalkeeper

fumbled and Graham Hyde could only help the ball into the top of the net. Linighan had played most of the game with a broken nose after

Mark Bright Mark Abraham Bright (born 6 June 1962) is an English sports correspondent and former Association football, footballer. Born to a The Gambia, Gambian father and English mother, he was adopted into a foster family in Stoke-on-Trent at an early a ...

had struck him in the face with his elbow.

Firsts and lasts

The two clubs had already contested the season's League Cup final, a match which Arsenal had won 2–1. It was the first time that the same two clubs had reached the final of both domestic club competitions. It was also dubbed the 'longest' FA Cup final. It had gone to extra-time in the replay – a match which was delayed by thirty minutes – and was just one minute away from the first ever FA Cup final penalty shoot-out. It was also the last FA Cup final to go to a replay; from 1999 onwards, it was decided that all FA Cup finals would be decided on the day. This was the first FA Cup final in which

squad number In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to id ...

s had been used, having been trialled in the League Cup final. Players from both clubs retained the same numbers for the three matches. The system was fully adopted by the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for the following season. For Arsenal, David O'Leary played his last two official matches after joining the club as an apprentice in 1973. His testimonial took place between the final and the replay, on 17 May 1993. During extra time in the replay, Alan Smith received the only yellow card of his professional career.

Match details

Replay

References

External links

Line-ups
{{DEFAULTSORT:1993 Fa Cup Final FA Cup finals FA Cup Final 1993 FA Cup Final 1993

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

FA Cup Final 1993 FA Cup Final 1993