It was sad to see the Hammers lose the FA Cup on penalties after helping to provide one of the best cup finals, especially as Liverpool had never been ahead during the entire game. But even being a losing finalist, with a guarantee of European football next season is so much better than everyone’s expectations for us this year, so its not all bad.

It was a brilliant game though, even if towards the end it was like watching a re-enactment of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? with half the players falling prey to cramp. (I just looked that up on imdb for the link and see it was directed by Sydney Pollack. Why did I think it was directed by Peter Bogdanovich?)

Ashton and Etherington showed how much it was worth selecting them even if they were not 100%. Scaloni was outstanding, with a superb run down the right to provide the first goal, Gabbidon was a rock in defence, Reo-Coker led by example, and Benayoun was everywhere and always looking dangerous. As for Konchesky… I don’t care whether he meant it or not, that was a great goal.

If it was not for the sheer brilliance and tenacity of Gerrard I think we would have won easily.

As I expected, the atmosphere was lively and friendly, with two sets of supporters who really appreciate well-played football. In fact the only way I feel cheated is in the way coverage of the game doesn’t start until a couple of hours before the game now.

When I was at school, I’m sure I can remember that FA Cup programming started at about 10am with interviews, predictions, highlights from the earlier round, FA Cup Its A Knockout and everything. I think Ian Wright alluded to that before the game, but even so they managd to squeeze in plenty of archive footage of Trevor Brooking’s diving header and Bobby Moore in his prime.

It was strange seeing Alan Taylor now running a newsagents though. I can’t imagine any top-flight professionals now wanting to, or having to get a real job when they retire from football.

After the game Motty was calling it probably the best cup final for at least 50 years and although I personally prefer the 1980 final for obvious reasons, I would not argue with him.