Gooners’ last Cup win, 2005
Cup Final day and I’m relaxing by the balmy waters of the North Sea in beautiful, tropical Filey. Home cares and family worries are far away. The fridge is stocked with the chilled best of grain and grape and every other comfort and convenience (ensuite) is close by. Life is good.
So it should be too. The latest Leeds United season from hell is thankfully behind us and, internal strife notwithstanding, we can relax in the knowledge that our heroes’ turgid and tedious brand of football is in mothballs for a few weeks. Meanwhile we have the World Cup to look forward to, with the cream of English talent – as well as Wayne Rooney – poncing about ineffectually in Brazil and hoping to make it as far as another penalty shoot-out defeat to bleedin’ Germany.
But today is Cup Final day, and the eyes of the civilised world – and Humberside – are on Wembley, to see whether the Arse can beat Dull City and end their epoch-long trophy drought. I find myself not a neutral, for several reasons. Firstly, I’ve never been all that keen on Hull. They’re an upstart club with one of those horrible new breed of owners in Assem Allam – a man who wants to rebrand City as the Tigers. It’s a silly idea, the fans are against it – and yet Allam remains stubbornly convinced he knows best – like Vincent Tan at Cardiff, who suffered relegation for his presumption. The least I wish Hull is a Cup Final defeat – there’d be the bonus of the look on Steve Bruce’s face, too. Don’t get me started on him.
There are more positive, less vindictive reasons. I like Arsenal. They exude class as a club, from top to bottom. They play beautiful football, and they help me dislike Spurs. Manager Arsène Wenger is a class act too – the game would be the poorer for his loss, much as it is the richer for the passing of Alex “Taggart”Ferguson. It would be good to see the Gooners on the trophy trail again. My late father in law supported them, as does my daughter’s Significant Other.
Last but not least – I have a tenner riding on the outcome. I’m not a betting man, but when the semi finals came down to Arsenal and three nothing clubs, I thought even I couldn’t jinx them. I so nearly caught a cold against Wigan – so surely the Arse will now see me home happy and ten quid richer??
Come on you Gooners. Do it for yourselves and for lovers of the beautiful game. But most of all – with some brass at stake – do it for this admiring Leeds fan.
Life, Leeds United, the Universe & Everything 
Hear Hear……The Gooners are a class act all the way through. Wenger deserves another trophy after a long wait.
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Great article.
You’re on your own with the Tottenham hatred though. I remember Spurs playing good football, when it wasn’t even fashionable.
Come on Arsenal.
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I have massive family connections with the Cod Heads, Gran, Mother, numerous Aunt’s, Uncles and Cousins are all Cods. And as much as I love them all for the sake of family ribaldry I hope they get a right good filleting. Tight lines Arsenal.
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I have my own reason for wanting arsenal to win rob but it has nothing to do with my likes or dislikes of any other team , its simply because i have a treble on Arsenal , Cambridge and Rotherham…
come on arsenal
and cambridge
and rotherham
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I don’t care who wins but I need Sagna, Ramsey and Wilkshire to have bad games as I stand to make £120 in our Fantasy Football League. On the plus side I get £80 no matter what!
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I don’t care what happens, once we’re out of the Cup I’m neutral. Unless Scum, or Citeh, or Chelsea, or those birds you stick down mines or any of Christopher Robin’s toys are in the final. I hope Arsenal set a record score and that Bruce Junior (useless twat) gets turned inside out all afternoon.
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Rob, Rob, Rob – go back to the red wine. You on ‘ollidaze……….
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With a tenner at stake?? What kind of a Yorkshireman do you think I am? Two spawny goals further away from collecting already….
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Are you mad? Want Hull to win, representing Yorkshire and the North vs London and the South!
It’s just a bit depressing to see more former Leeds players going onto much bigger things (Bruce, Livermore) since they left us.
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Are you mad? If it was Leeds playing Arsenal, do you think fans of ANY other Yorkshire club would be cheering us on??
Not a cat in hell’s chance.
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Is it me or is McCormack starting to piss and moan a lot…….a new snipe everyday. You would think the guy is trying to engineer a move away from Leeds and if that’s the case we should get rid asap
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I would start to worry about where the genuine quality would be coming from. And I’d worry that the answer to that would be: nowhere.
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Arsenal play the right way, but have you heard the new Hull fans on all forms of media, even bull shit Bill (Warnock) is supporting the pussy’s, Hull is in Humberside folks, NOT Yorkshire! Thank you Arsenal for 72, that’s why I want them, and not the fat Controller’s team.
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Perfecto.
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Tigers tigers roar roar roar .:'( 😥 😥 nice one arsenal. Unlucky Humbersides finest. 🙂
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2-0 up and f*cked it up :-)))
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Hull are the east riding of Yorkshire but I hope they loose. I worked with a lot of hull supporters and the hate for leeds United is unprecedented. They lost 2 3 , I thought the ref. Was from hull 3 penalties that arsenal should have had,the was not interested. Even with the ref, they still couldn’t win. Also arsenal do play good football. MOT
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PS hope you are having a good holiday you,’ve got the weather for it
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Cheers, it’s bloody lovely 🙂
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No probs with the arse I was on a stag do (soon to be son in law) and watching it in the Hour glass in Leeds. The filthy looks I got when cheering an Arsenal goal, do these people actually think there’s mileage wanting a fairly local team to win ? all these pretend clubs, be it Yorkshire or Humberside hate Leeds with a passion and for me they can keep it coming .
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Dead right.
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I wanted Hull to win yesterday. I have a nickname for the Hull manager, Bruce the Bizarre. I managed to get to see him make his “premiership’ debut and this will always be rooted in my memory. The joy, the confusion, right down to the ridiclous is ingrained in to my memory.
It was the first game of the season and Bruce had just arrived from Gillingham. I was told by my Canary friend, this man is the one to watch. It was my first match at Carrow Road. Being used to the atmosphere at Elland Road I was wondering what kind of ambience these Mustard supporters could create. I was immeadiately thrown in to the twilight zone.
Liverpool, the team of the time had arrived with there vociferous away support. The match kicked off with the Liverpool fans in full song. The mustard fans were standing there a little too quiet and polite. I couldn’t help it, I had to show them that they needed to support their team. In full voice, all alone, I had to shout something to get the rest of them going. It included references to the players posteriors. Thirty seconds later a fan two abrest to me piped up ‘Come on you Canaries’ in what I considered a rather posh accent. I was stunned. From that moment I knew what kind of fan base and support Norwich had. (ps They have improved since)
A few minutes in to the game Molby swung in a peach off a cross to the edge of the box where Bruce got in a firm header with such perfection it flew right in to the top corner of his own net. Bergkamp would have been proud of it. My friends face was a picture. Dalglish then woved some magic and curled the 2nd goal in to the top corner. Bruce was all over. Norwich pushed and eventually got their reward with a goal. Bruce ran up to join the celebrations and just as he arrived he slipped and headbutted the goalscorer, full on the nose. I don’t think Birchin was happy. The match was crazy and Bruce was the instigator. Full of missed penalties and ones scored, this match is one of my classics. It ended 3-3 but Bruce took me in to the twilight zone. It”s strange that even though he ended up at Man Utd, I still have a soft spot for him. The reason? I knew he’d never play for England.
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I like the cut of your jib. Ever fancy writing a guest blog?
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Feel sorry for wor Steeevvee and the boy Alex. NOT!!!
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Wanted the arsenal to win for one reason . Which was the last Yorkshire team to win the F A Cup ?
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Yes, there is that. Although Dull are not, strictly speaking, Yorkshire.
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Hull city lol your sh it and u np you r, small town club from a drug fuelled sh it hole never been wot that sh it they have been removed from Yorkshire for ever, WE R.LEEDS WE R LEEDS WE LEEDS, FECKING HULL
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