ON THIS DAY

In a Fourth Round FA Cup replay Southern League Hereford United defeated First Division Newcastle United 2-1 on a quagmire of a pitch at Edgar Street. It was the first time in 23 years that a non-lea gue side had defeated a First Division side in the FA Cup. Newcastle took the lead in the 82nd minute, against the run of play, with a goal from Malcolm Macdonald. With only 4 minutes remaining Ronnie Radford equalised with a spectacular 30-yard effort and during extra time Ricky George hit the winner. Amazing. The famous ' Oh, what a goal! Radford the scorer, Ronnie Radford ' quote was said by John Motson in his Match of the Day commentary that evening. The 26-year-old Motty was in his very early days on TV and later credited that match as being his big break-through in TV. He later wrote is his autobiography ' It changed my life because my boss on Match of the Day realised I could be trusted to commentate on a big match. '

A century or so ago massive attendances saw some serious crowd problems. A sell-out crowd at a Manchester City v Sunderland FA Cup tie was abandoned when spectators encroached onto the pitch. Four days later - on February 5th 1913 - the replay was staged at Roker Park and another capacity crowd saw spectators injured, as reported in the national press (below). Sunderland won the League title in 1912/13 but missed out on the double when Aston Villa defeated them in the FA Cup final. The attendance for that final, at the Crystal Palace, was a mahoosive 120,081 with only the 1923 FA Cup final ever having topped that figure for a football match in England.