History: 1980 was the year Terry Neill led Arsenal to be narrowly defeated in TWO Cup Finals

Double trouble: How Terry Neill’s Arsenal siezed up in the European Cup Winners Cup and FA Cup in 1980

During the 1979/80 season The Gunners had silverware robbed from them in both the FA Cup and Cup Winners Cup finals.

In January FA Cup holders Arsenal were disillusioned thinking they could breeze past Second Division Cardiff City at Ninian Park in the third round. The Bluebirds fought hard for a 0-0 stalemate in Wales, but things wouldn’t quite go their way in the replay at Highbury. Alan Sunderland would go at it on his own in crumbling the City’s defence picking up two strikes, with the Gunners just about edging out Cardiff 2-1 after 90 minutes of fun and games.

Terry Neill’s side welcomed Brighton and Hove Albion in the fourth round in North London who had only just been promoted to the First Division after earning promotion from the 1978/79 Second Division after finishing second. The Seagulls posed little threat if any during the encounter which witnessed Sammy Nelson and Brian Talbot chip in with the goods for a 2-0 walk in the park.

The fifth round of the Cup proved as tricky for the Gunners as the third.  Bolton Wanderers who had already paused Arsenal in their tracks earlier on in their First Division campaign in a 0-0 draw eagerly awaited them in the fifth round at Burnden Park (their old ground). After a scrappy affair with Wanderer’s which saw Frank Stapleton slot in Arsenals only goal in a frustrating 1-1 draw, it was replay time all over again. Three days later in N19 Neill’s army stormed down Bolton 3-0 witnessing Stapleton score again and watching a happy go lucky Sunderland net twice.

Neill’s men made the most of a tough test in the quarterfinals versus Watford who would later struggle and finish 18^th in the Second Division that year. At Vicarage Road Stapleton emphatically slammed in two finishes to rescue Arsenal to a 2-1 victory with less than 30,000 fans watching in a high-end quality game of football!

Liverpool who at that point had only lifted the FA Cup twice in 1965 and 1974 before going onto win it a further six times in their history taking them up to eight to present day, stared Arsenal out in the semis. Up at Hillsborough Liverpool shrugged off The Gunners in a bitter 0-0 draw. Within four days a replay emerged at neutral venue Villa Park where after 120 minutes of playing nothing broke the two side’s resilience after Sunderland and David Fairclough of Liverpool ensured a 1-1 draw was achieved.

Both sides returned to Hillsborough 12 days later where again after extra-time Arsenal and Liverpool just couldn’t be divided with strikes from both teams from Sunderland and one of Anfield’s greatest heroes Kenny Dalglish saw another 1-1 draw witnessed.  In the fourth strenuous replay Liverpool’s resistance was finally cracked on May Day (1^st May), after nearly a month of battling Brian Talbot sealed the 1-0 deal to put Arsenal in their third FA Cup final in three years as the holders. The previous year The Gunners slid aside Manchester United 3-2 in the dying minutes of the final.

Within two weeks Neill’s army stood shoulder to shoulder with West Ham for the 1980 FA Cup final at Wembley where 100,000 men and woman glared down at what would witness to be one of Arsenals greatest upsets of all time. After only 13 minutes Sir Trevor David Brooking slapped Neil’s men in the face from close range however it would prove to be enough to see The Hammers marginally take the cup off of Arsenal and run it down to East London. The Gunners had been beaten fair and square 1-0 with their only hope of silverware being the Cup Winners Cup in only four days time!!!

Nearly eight months beforehand in September the Gunners started off their European voyage in the first round against Turkish giants Fenerbahçe. Neill’s side set up shop in the first leg at home cruising to a 2-0 win after Willie Young and Sunderland scooped in a goal each. Over 3,000 kilometres away in Turkey FB dragged The Gunners to a 0-0 draw although Arsenal still gained momentum.

In the second round Arsenal came up against East German team FC Magdeburg who turned out to be a tough cookie to break down. For the second successive first-leg Young and Sunderland popped up firing in a narrow 2-1 win over Der Club (one of their nicknames). Over in East Germany with tensions rattling high between East and West in the Cold War, in a very heated affair Magdeburg got in the way of Arsenals firing line stopping them to a 2-2 draw. Despite this they still advanced 4-3 on aggregate with different scorers for a change Liam Brady and David Price pushing The Gunners through.

It was now the quarterfinals, Swedish side IFK Goteborg would turn out to be little of a fuss for Arsenal. The Gunners rolled in the goals at Highbury with Sunderland claiming two and Brady, Young and Price just one each in a 5-1 romping. The visitors would hold their pride in Sweden where they restrained Arsenals firearms completely to earn a 0-0 deadlock.

Arsenal took on future two times Champions League heroes Juventus in the semis. The Italians would put up a tough display in North London where an own goal would ensure The Gunners drew 1-1 with Juventus. At Stadio Delle Alpi (the old Juventus stadium) Arsenal ran out proudly 1-0 victors following a mighty effort from Paul Vaessen. The side who had just reached their first European final since beating RSC Anderlecht in the 1970 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup had just knocked out Juve 2-1 overall.

Neill and his fellow Gunners would be denied their last chance of achieving silverware in the final versus Valencia. After a tough 120 minutes with neither side being able to put one past each other the game went to penalties after a 0-0 draw, where Los Ches broke Arsenal morale in the penalty shootout which they lost 5-4 after Graham Rix missed.

So, there it was – Arsenal left themselves the 1979/80 season devastatingly short of any major honours!