Orient’s comeback FA Cup victory over Chelsea in 1972:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRDH0qV5Jf4]
It’s that strange football-only phenomenon of a terrible, terrible game that isn’t terrible at all. Some of the Orient players featured in Brian Clough’s analysis (see part one of my Clough series for that) including Peter Allen.
I doubt that the original broadcast was in black and white – Match of the Day went colour three years earlier. Perhaps this was taped from a monochrome television.
The commentary is excellent, atmospheric. It’s grasping at straws, footballing-achievement-wise, but British commentators have been very, very good, a lot of the time, haven’t they?
The FA Cup has lost something since 1972, not least because of the constant slurry of nostalgia the BBC have poured over it in recent years, making it look less like a relevant tournament than a quaint survivor, the sporting equivalent of the Youngs Brewery Shire horses. Suffice to say that the fourth Champions League place ought to go to the Cup winners.