Wimbledon's shock

The setting

This was the 107th FA Cup Final, and almost nobody gave Wimbledon a chance. Liverpool had just won the league again. They were the dominant English club side of the decade, and Kenny Dalglish's team was full of internationals. Wimbledon had only been in the Football League for 11 years and had just finished their second season in the top flight. In January, before the third round, the bookmakers had them at 33–1 to win the Cup.

Liverpool were going for the Double, and nobody had ever done it twice. That sunny afternoon at Wembley, nearly 98,203 people packed the ground, around 250 million watched worldwide on TV, and Bobby Gould's Crazy Gang tore the script up.

The road to Wembley

Wimbledon had earned their place the hard way. They beat West Brom 4–1 at Plough Lane, won 2–1 at Mansfield, then won 3–1 at Newcastle. They knocked out Watford 2–1 in the quarter-final and Luton 2–1 in the semi.

Liverpool's run looked more like a procession. After needing a replay against Stoke, they won 2–0 at Aston Villa, 1–0 at Everton, 4–0 at Manchester City, and beat Nottingham Forest 2–1 in the semi-final.

Mind games in the tunnel

Wimbledon's preparation was pure Crazy Gang. Assistant manager Don Howe set the dressing-room clock back so the players would be late out and leave Liverpool standing in the tunnel. Vinnie Jones later recalled officials shouting at them to come out and the Wimbledon players telling them to let Liverpool wait. They came out like wild animals, and the tone was set.

First half: drama in a few minutes

Liverpool started well, passing it neatly and calmly. Peter Beardsley kept drifting to the right and causing young left-back Terry Phelan problems.

Beasant was busy early. In one frantic scramble, he was flat on his back on the line and the ball looped up for John Barnes, who looked certain to score. Somehow Beasant reached up and palmed it sideways, and Vinnie Jones hacked it away for a corner. He also made a superb one-handed save at point-blank range from John Aldridge.

Then came the big flashpoint in the 35th minute. Beardsley broke away from an illegal challenge by Andy Thorn on the edge of the box and calmly chipped the ball over Beasant's dive into the net. But referee Brian Hill had already blown for the foul, so Liverpool got a free kick instead of the goal. Liverpool were furious.

Two minutes later, Wimbledon scored at the other end. Steve Nicol barged into Terry Phelan near the left corner flag, giving Wimbledon a free kick. Dennis Wise curled it in towards the near post, and Lawrie Sanchez glanced a header across Bruce Grobbelaar into the far corner. It was his first FA Cup goal and only his fifth of the season.

Wimbledon nearly got a second before half-time. Grobbelaar came flying out and let the ball drop behind him, but Terry Gibson's left-footed shot from a tight angle went over the bar.

61 minutes: Beasant makes history

Liverpool came out for the second half on the front foot, and on the hour it looked like Wimbledon's luck had run out. Clive Goodyear slid in on Aldridge, Aldridge went down, and Hill pointed to the spot. Beasant and his defenders insisted Goodyear had won the ball.

It didn't matter. Aldridge stepped up, and Beasant dived to his left and turned the kick round the post. It was the first penalty save in a Wembley FA Cup final, and it was Aldridge's first miss in 12 penalties. Dalglish took him off almost straight away, with Craig Johnston coming on. Sanchez later said that was the moment he knew the Cup was theirs.

Holding on

Liverpool pushed hard for the rest of the game. Jan Molby came on for Nigel Spackman, but only occasionally did Beardsley and Barnes look like breaking through. Wimbledon defended magnificently. Gould made two changes of his own: John Scales replaced Gibson, and Laurie Cunningham came on for Alan Cork. It turned out to be Cunningham's last match in England before his death in Spain the following year.

There was one lovely false alarm near the end. A whistle went, and Gould and Howe leapt off the bench and hugged each other, only to realise Hill had actually blown for offside against John Fashanu. When the real final whistle went, Motson summed it up perfectly on the BBC: “The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club.”

The trophy and the legacy

Beasant went up the Wembley steps as captain to collect the Cup from Princess Diana. He has since recalled hearing Dennis Wise right behind him, swearing with joy, and worrying about the language in front of royalty. He was named Man of the Match. He's often called the first goalkeeper to captain an FA Cup-winning side, though that honour actually belongs to Major William Merriman of the Royal Engineers back in 1875.

It remains Wimbledon's only FA Cup triumph. There was one sour note: the ban on English clubs after Heysel meant they couldn't play in the Cup Winners' Cup. It was also the last final shown live on both BBC and ITV until 2022.

Wimbledon: Beasant (capt), Goodyear, Phelan, Jones, Young, Thorn, Gibson (Scales), Cork (Cunningham), Fashanu, Sanchez, Wise. Goal: Sanchez 37. Liverpool: Grobbelaar, Gillespie, Ablett, Nicol, Spackman (Molby), Hansen, Beardsley, Aldridge (Johnston), Houghton, Barnes, McMahon. Referee: Brian Hill (Northamptonshire).