You may not have spotted it with other matters dominating the media, but today is the 32nd anniversary of Town’s 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Arsenal. To celebrate that great day, we thought we’d rerun the Paul Mariner interview from issue 92 of TWTD in which the Blues’ number nine remembered the cup run and that afternoon at Wembley.
Despite the cup run, 1977/78 was a difficult season, wasn’t it?
Yes, we were struggling down the bottom of the table. I don’t really know why, but it was probably because we didn’t really have a deep squad and I suppose injuries must have had their effect.
But when it came to the cup we were on fire. When you think about the team we had, it was a good side if you had the 11 out there. We worked hard for each other and when we had that team out we were fine.
It all started off with the trip to Cardiff City.
It was a bit ramshackle in those days. We got a nice victory down there, I scored twice, then we beat Hartlepool 4-1 at home, which was an easy enough game.
The Bristol Rovers game was the tricky one. It was snowing and there’s no chance that they would play that game now. In the old days they used to try and get the better teams on any surface that they could, ice, mud, you name it.
That ended 2-2 and we scored late on, Robin Turner scored twice. That was a bit of a squeaker but we got them back to our place and we beat them comfortably.
On paper, we’d had decent draws, we couldn’t really complain about the teams which we’d been drawn against as we’d been favourites to beat them.
And then it was Millwall. I remember that game really well. It was a daunting place to go to with very partisan supporters. By this stage we were in the quarter-finals of the cup and you start thinking at that back of your mind that maybe we’ve got a chance of getting there.
My old mate Johnny Wark was very nervous that day, I think he went to the bathroom many, many times!
Was it the football or the crowd he was worried about?
It was the football. He was only a young kid back then, remember. George Burley scored an absolute screamer to get us going, which settled us down. To win 6-1 was really remarkable, particularly with the break in between.