irish players in FA Cup Final

[Royal rover]

gents looking at the potential stoke team for the FA cup Final - there's potentially 4 irish internationals either past or present in the starting line up delap , whealan, walters, wilson - going back can anyone remember if we have ever had more than this - united 85 - moran , McGrath, Frank S, the liverpool side of 89 would of contained possibly aldridge, houghton , whealan, and maybe Staunton, any thoughts, the villa team that won the 1993 league cup would of had townsend , houghton, mcgrath, and Stan, any thoughts

[DannyInvincible]

Not to forget Jermaine, of course. :p

Given will be on the bench for City, so I suppose there's always the potential he'd feature were something to happen with Hart.

The '88 final between Wimbledon and Liverpool featured Terry Phelan with Aldridge and Houghton on the other side. In '86 we had Lawrenson, Beglin and Whelan with Liverpool and Sheedy playing for Everton. Sheedy also played in the '85 final. In the '83 final between Brighton and Hove Albion and Manchester United which went to a replay, seven Irishmen featured; Tony Grealish, Gary Howlett, Michael Robinson and Gerry Ryan (unused substitute in both games) for Albion with Moran, Stapleton and Ashley Grimes (unused substitute in both games) for United. Actually, I've decided to compile a full list of Irish-born or Irish-capped participating players since 1980 (not all were necessarily capped by Ireland at full or any international level either before or after the final specified):

1980: John Devine, David O'Leary, Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton for Arsenal; none for West Ham.
1981: Chris Hughton and Tony Galvin for Spurs in both final and replay; none for Manchester City.
1982: Chris Hughton and Tony Galvin for Spurs in both final and replay; Gary Waddock for QPR in both final and replay.
1983: Tony Grealish, Gary Howlett, Michael Robinson and Gerry Ryan (unused substitute in both final and replay) for Brighton and Hove Albion in both final and replay; Kevin Moran, Frank Stapleton (scored in final) and Ashley Grimes (unused substitute in both final and replay) for Manchester United in both final and replay.
1984: None for either Everton or Watford.
1985: Paul McGrath, Kevin Moran (sent off) and Frank Stapleton for Manchester United; Kevin Sheedy for Everton.
1986: Mark Lawrenson, Jim Beglin and Ronnie Whelan for Liverpool; Kevin Sheedy for Everton.
1987: Chris Hughton for Spurs; none for Coventry.
1988: John Aldridge and Ray Houghton for Liverpool; Terry Phelan for Wimbledon
1989: Steve Staunton, Ronnie Whelan (captain), Ray Houghton and John Aldridge (scored) for Liverpool; Kevin Sheedy for Everton.
1990: None for either Crystal Palace or Manchester United in either final or replay.
1991: Roy Keane for Nottingham Forest; none for Spurs.
1992: Ray Houghton for Liverpool; John Byrne for Sunderland.
1993: David O'Leary (used substitute in both final and replay) for Arsenal; John Sheridan for Sheffield Wednesday in both final and replay.
1994: Roy Keane and Denis Irwin for Manchester United; Tony Cascarino (used substitute) for Chelsea.
1995: Roy Keane and Denis Irwin for Manchester United; none for Everton.
1996: Roy Keane and Denis Irwin for Manchester United; Phil Babb and Jason McAteer for Liverpool.
1997: Curtis Fleming for Middlesbrough; none for Chelsea.
1998: Shay Given for Newcastle; none for Arsenal.
1999: Roy Keane (captain, injured in 9th minute and substituted) for Manchester United; Shay Given (unused substitute) for Newcastle.
2000: None for either Chelsea or Aston Villa.
2001: None for either Arsenal or Liverpool.
2002: None for either Arsenal or Chelsea.
2003: None for either Arsenal or Southampton.
2004: Roy Keane (captain) and John O'Shea for Manchester United; Robbie Ryan, Barry Cogan (used substitute) and Alan Dunne (unused substitute) for Milwall.
2005: Roy Keane (captain) and John O'Shea for Manchester United; none for Arsenal.
2006: Steve Finnan for Liverpool; none for West Ham.
2007: John O'Shea (unused substitute) for Manchester United; none for Chelsea.
2008: Stephen McPhail (captain) for Cardiff; none for Portsmouth.
2009: None for either Chelsea or Everton.
2010: Steve Finnan for Portsmouth; none for Chelsea.

It appears we've been reasonably well represented in contemporary FA Cup finals with a bit of a barren spell in the early 2000s.

[Royal rover]

that's great stuff there danny cheers - did whelan not lift the trophy in 1992 from what i remember

[DannyInvincible]

Whelan didn't feature, to the best of my knowledge. Mark Wright was Liverpool's captain that day.

[DannyInvincible]

Actually, just taking a look further back through the records, we had at least one representative playing in every final of the 1970s.

1970: Johnny Giles for Leeds United; John Dempsey for Chelsea.
1971: Steve Heighway for Liverpool; none for Arsenal.
1972: Johnny Giles for Leeds United; none for Arsenal.
1973: Johnny Giles for Leeds United; none for Sunderland.
1974: Steve Heighway for Liverpool; none for Newcastle.
1975: Jim Conway for Fulham; none for West Ham.
1976: Gerry Daly for Manchester United; none for Southampton.
1977: Steve Heighway for Liverpool; none for Manchester United.
1978: David O'Leary, Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton for Arsenal; none for Ipswich Town.
1979: David O'Leary, Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton for Arsenal; none for Manchester United.

A bit further back, we had Frank O'Farrell managing Leicester City against Manchester City in 1969 and Joe Kinnear lining out for Spurs against Chelsea in 1967. Giles played for Leeds against Liverpool in the 1965 final while Alan Kelly Sr. played in goals for Preston North End the year before against West Ham. He conceded three and lost 3-2, however. In 1963, we had Johnny Giles, Tony Dunny and Noel Cantwall (captain) playing for Manchester United against Leicester City. Mick McGrath was in the Blackburn Rovers line-up when they played Wolves in the 1960 final and 1959 saw Brendan McNally and George Cummins play for Luton Town against Nottingham Forest. That's as far back as I'll go for now. :p

I haven't counted how many times each of the Irish players I've mentioned have participated in a final, but it would seem from a quick run through the names that the likes of Frank Stapleton, Roy Keane, David O'Leary and Johnny Giles were some of our most frequent participants. And not to forget commiserations for Kevin Sheedy who, in spite of playing in three finals, was on the losing side on each occasion.

[DannyInvincible]

Wilson, Whelan, Delap and Walters all start for Stoke. Given on the bench for Manchester City, as expected.

[DannyInvincible]

Mostly Manchester City in the early stages although Whelan has made a good tackle and, erm, Delap has made two good throws.

[tricky_colour]

Well I put £2 on the more Irish Stoke side, looking like my money is lost atm.
However Stoke have picked up a little, still have more to do.

[tricky_colour]

Well my money looks dead at the moment, it's all Man City.
Needs to be a different second half.
Gonna be a bad betting week if JEDWARD don't win either :excruciating:

No changes for second half.
But they have to step thing up a lot.

[tricky_colour]

Much better from Stoke second half but the game has gone crazy Stoke nearly caught out on the break.

[MeathDrog]

I hate Jim Beglin...

[tricky_colour]

Stokes ability to keep the ball is dreadful at times, so wonder they are no quick at getting back - plenty of practise no doubt.

[tricky_colour]

Looks like game over for Stoke.

Jedward will save the day!!

[Stuttgart88]

Game nearly over.

Wilson doing well at left back (wey hey), Walters putting in an honest shift, Whelan was up against better players and Delap out of his depth. I'm surprised at how poor Kenwynne Jones has been, I thought he was better than that. Walters has more of a footballing brain.

I enjoyed the game. First time in a while the Cup Final has actually felt like the Cup final.

[tricky_colour]

Fair play to Man City, best team on the day but they still had to resort to pushing Pennant over whenever he got the ball.
Disappointing day for Stoke, they never really got going.

[DannyInvincible]

Came across a piece from the Irish Independent on Saturday with a bit more info on Irish participants in FA Cup finals down through the years: http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/the-irish-names-written-in-fa-cup-history-2647007.html