There was a time, not so long ago, when the FA Cup really
mattered.
When fans would go to extraordinary lengths to get tickets for Wembley and when the biggest teams of the day...
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Who is...
Matthew Eastley?
Matthew Eastley was born in 1966, the greatest year of the 20th century for all fans of English football. His boyhood footballing memories, though, centre around the FA Cup Final and he grew up during the 1970s, a fabulous decade for this world-famous competition. Fascinated with football from an early age he immersed himself in a world of FKS football stickers, Subbuteo, The Big Match and Match of the Day. But everything paled into insignificance when FA Cup Final day came around.
During the 1970s, like millions of other football fanatics, he would rise early and settle in front of the television to watch almost seven hours of FA Cup build up and action. It was always his dream to go to an FA Cup Final. Sadly, this has never happened and does not look likely to. So, by way of some kind of compensation, he set out to trace those fans who were fortunate enough...
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Welcome
A mate and I were discussing football and he started telling me how he'd been lucky enough to get a ticket for the epic 1970 FA Cup between Chelsea and Leeds, even though he supported neither team. He told me how brilliant the experience was because, in those days, the FA Cup Final was the one match that any self-respecting football fan would give anything to attend. A few days later, a different pub, a different pint and a different mate found ourselves talking football again (I do occasionally talk about other things, honest!). He then started telling me how he was at the 1972 FA Cup Final. Again, the experience had stayed with him for almost 40 years. I knew in my heart of hearts that the FA Cup Final was no longer what it was but I wanted to hear it not from pundits, players or media-types but from those people to whom I am myself most closely associated - the fans.
I grew up always wanting to go to an FA Cup Final. It never happened. The next best thing was to get the memories of those that have That night I sat at my computer and began a quest - to find as many people as I could around the world who had attended FA Cup Finals. I wanted to know who they were, where they came from and what their own individual story was. One year later, I had traced almost 400 people scattered all over the globe. "From Bovril to Champagne - when the FA Cup really mattered" is the result.
Get your copy today!
The book is available at major online retailers including www.authorhouse.co.uk and www.amazon.co.uk and in a limited number of bookshops including the world-renowned Back Page in Newcastle.
