Cup Final Amnesia

When I was growing up several eons ago, the FA Cup Final was the jewel in the crown of the football season, the pinnacle. It was always played on the first Saturday in May (3pm), and always, always the last game of the season. And it was one of the very few games you could watch live on the telly, so it was a really big deal.

The consequence of this was that I can still recall all the results, together with the scorers and even picture most of the goals, for every Final from 1964 onwards.....until about 1982. After that, memory just goes vague and hazy (with the obvious exception of 2008). I can recall a few occasions (Gazza's self-inflicted injury in 91, Di Matteo's fastest goal in 2000, Michael Owen scoring at the Millennium Stadium in some year or other), but the teams, the results, the goals - nothing like the clarity of the earlier years. Why should this be?

1. Too much football on telly these days? (except 1982 was well before the Premier League and the rise of Sky).
2. The FA Cup's diminishing importance? (I certainly remember this year's outrageous decision to kick off at 5.15 - I also recall Chelsea beat Liverpool, but I couldn't tell you what the score was or who scored)
3. I've got too old? (is it simply an age thing? Do younger posters (i.e. everyone else) have a similar time-frame for memorising these things?)
4. Do I come here often?

Any diagnoses gratefully received. Actually, probably not.

PS My 50th post My agent will be on the phone to discuss an improved contract.

The Tonker wrote:When I was growing up several eons ago, the FA Cup Final was the jewel in the crown of the football season, the pinnacle. It was always played on the first Saturday in May (3pm), and always, always the last game of the season. And it was one of the very few games you could watch live on the telly, so it was a really big deal.

The consequence of this was that I can still recall all the results, together with the scorers and even picture most of the goals, for every Final from 1964 onwards.....until about 1982. After that, memory just goes vague and hazy (with the obvious exception of 2008). I can recall a few occasions (Gazza's self-inflicted injury in 91, Di Matteo's fastest goal in 2000, Michael Owen scoring at the Millennium Stadium in some year or other), but the teams, the results, the goals - nothing like the clarity of the earlier years. Why should this be?

1. Too much football on telly these days? (except 1982 was well before the Premier League and the rise of Sky).
2. The FA Cup's diminishing importance? (I certainly remember this year's outrageous decision to kick off at 5.15 - I also recall Chelsea beat Liverpool, but I couldn't tell you what the score was or who scored)
3. I've got too old? (is it simply an age thing? Do younger posters (i.e. everyone else) have a similar time-frame for memorising these things?)
4. Do I come here often?

Any diagnoses gratefully received. Actually, probably not.

PS My 50th post My agent will be on the phone to discuss an improved contract.

Wow!That's amazing - what a memory! I struggle remember most goals (apart from important ones - Campbell, Turner, Ledley, Bellamy and that's about it!)

FA Cup has definitely lost some of it's value - too much money in Europe these days for people to care about to much sadly. Most championship teams who are chasing relegation and the prem teams trying to avoid the drop will more often than not be relieved when they disqualified - we all saw what the carling cup run did our team and thank goodness that was sorted out earlier enough for us to try and re-find some form.

If it was down to me, I would tell Malky to forget any cup runs this year - as sad as that is- and focus solely on automatic promotion.

Congratulations on becoming a regular squad player by the way! You've got your whole career ahead of you

I was born in '79 and can barely remember yesterday.

The FA Cup has been ruined by money, the big clubs just aren't interested any more. As for the League Cup, it's become a youth/reserve team competition.

Colonel Cardiffi wrote:I was born in '79 and can barely remember yesterday.

Maybe Thatcher erased everyone's memory banks?

I have a similar situation and my memory goes hazy at about 1989. My theory is that my brain has become so full of useless football facts, song lyrics and fractured memories of nights out that it can no longer retain anymore information.

To use computing/mobile parlance, my internal memory has become full so I need to either start deleting stuff or find the SD Card slot and upgrade it. Ahem.

The Tonker wrote:

Colonel Cardiffi wrote:I was born in '79 and can barely remember yesterday.

Maybe Thatcher erased everyone's memory banks?

POLITICAL THREAD!!!!!

My memory for football matches is pretty poor generally tbh. I'm better at remember away games as they are rarer and not spent in the same place like home games. Home games just seem to blend into one come the end of the season, especially the Saturday games when I've been sat in the same place, by the same people drinking in the same pubs before and after games. Not that I don't enjoy it though, I just simply forget.

I'm very clear on the results up to the mid 80's as well. What on earth happened then? Very mysterious

The importance of the FA Cup has diminished as far as the 'big' teams are concerned, but as you say it was also one of the few games shown on live TV.
I discussed this with someone in work recently and I could remember more or less all of the finals from 1979 until 1994.

In the early days of Sky, I'd watch pretty much any match on TV, now I just can't be arsed.