The English FA Cup is truly the cup of all cups in football steeped in history and prestige it's the oldest football trophy competition in the world with the first taking place in 1871. Many a club that now exist in the EPL have enjoyed great success in the cup including some major high scoring matches. With the 90's being the period I grew up watching the cup games including Everton at Goodison park and before my interest in the game eventually faded considerably beyond 2010 I thought I would cover 10 of the best high-scoring matches of my golden era of the cup from 1990-2010.
5. Tottenham 3 - Manchester City 4 (2004) (4th Round)
This one is known as one of the greatest comebacks of FA Cup history, if not one of the best in football history altogether. Tottenham were leading at half time 3 goals to nil, though Manchester City FC struggled impressively to claw it back to 3-3, where things looked certain to go to extra time. However, in spite of being a man down, City went on to edge it scoring in the 90th minute, with Macken heading in the winner with just seconds to spare.
4. Southampton 2 - Tottenham 6 (1995) (5th Round Replay)
One of the most memorable FA Cup matches of all time was the result of a previous draw at White Hart Lane. The Saints secured a comfortable 2-0 lead by half time and Spurs fans must have had their heads well and truly in their laps, but nothing could have prepared spectators for the Spurs response. They stormed back to win 6-2, with a supreme finisher in the closing minutes to keep spectators entertained to the very end.
Ronny Rosenthal (Rocket Ronny) was hardly the most clinical of finishers for Tottenham at the time but he came to life in this game scoring an incredible hat-trick and Spurs first three of their comeback, two of which were brilliant strikes from outside the box!
3. Derby 3 - Sheffield Wednesday 3 (1993) (Quarter Final)
The 92-93 FA Cup was full of top-class football, but for Derby to finish 3-3 against Sheffield Wednesday was the upset of upsets for the team. Even though Wednesday went on to make it to the final, Derby's performance as well as their managing to make it to the 6th round was substantially impressive. Six goals and a replay later, Sheffield Wednesday managed to win, but only by 1-0 in the replay.
2. Manchester United 3 - Crystal Palace 3 (1990) (Final)
Perhaps best known for being Ian Wright's comeback match following a broken leg that kept him from playing in the semi-final, this FA Cup final was packed full of premium-quality football. Two goals from Wright and one from O'Reilly for Palace; two from Mark Hughes and one from Robson on the Man United side; the game even went into extra time.
At the time the FA Cup never went to penalties so a replay was in order. United were of course the victors in a replay 1-0, a far cry from the entertainment provided in the first game.
1. Everton 4 - Liverpool 4 (1991) (5th Round)
If the Palace-Liverpool upset of 1990 was the beginning of the end for Kenny Dalglish, then the 4-4 upset against Everton marked the end of the end. The reds and toffees met just a few days earlier and had drawn 0-0 to trigger a replay. It wasn't going to be such an uneventful match this time around, at Goodison Park. Being an Everton fan this is one of my favourite games against Liverpool because unlike most of our matches today against our mersey rivals here we kept coming back at them.
The game's pattern went, Liverpool scored and we came back, again and again and again.
As FA Cup matches go, this match had it all and is known as the best ever Merseyside derby of all time. 8 impressive goals, as well as mistakes from both sides made things extra entertaining, while the extra time brought the action to over 100 minutes long. A cracker of a top-scoring match where as an Everton fan a draw felt like a victory. Afterall this was a Liverpool team that featured the talents of Peter Beardsley, Ian Rush and John Barnes.