Topic: Lost Cup Finals (which one hurt you most?)

[Petadroli]

Milan in 07 and Chelsea 2012 hurt me a lot. We were better in Athens and I guess it's karma that they won in the end. The FA Cup final hurt because we just didn't finish our chances. Especially THAT save by Cech on Carroll. Now it's 10 years since we last won the FA Cup. Would have been a brilliant season if King Kenny won us two cups.

[Severely]

People say that 2007 hurts less because of Istanbul but I think it hurt more. We had the chance to cement ourselves as a modern European superpower and it slipped. No one could ever talk about history again had we won that.

[TheFlyingScouseman]

05 League cup final was a painful one, first one I remember losing, although I didn't understand the situation as much as in the 07 final, that second Inzaghi goal celebration still gives me nightmares.

[JJ Red]

Definately 07 in Athens. Thing is we were the better team and they were a superpower in decline. It was there to win and we just couldn't. Plus Kaka with that ridiculous fucking t-shirt.

[darcy171]

Definately 07 in Athens. Thing is we were the better team and they were a superpower in decline. It was there to win and we just couldn't. Plus Kaka with that ridiculous fucking t-shirt.

Going to sound strange, as I was only 6 years old. But one of my first football memories was seeing Cantona strike that ball and the feeling was sickening.
2007 wasn't as bad. I think I told myself I was very lucky to witness Liverpool winning it in 2005 after being 3 goals down and this is just what you have to go through as a football fan.

The 2005 League Cup final stung. Holding on for all that time then to see Gerrard put it into our own net against those plastic t**ts was a lot to take!

[Jookie]

Wimbledon 1988 & Man Utd 1996. Both horrible finals.

2007 hurt, but not as much for me as some on here. I think it's because we kind of robbed them 2 years earlier. Plus, Milan fans are sound.

The 2005 League Cup final and the 2012 FA Cup final defeats against Chelsea were far worse for me then 2007. For obvious reasons.

I'd agree with this. Though 2007 hurt and looking back feels like a massive missed opportunity, at the time I don't think it hurt me as much as it potentially should.

The 2005 League Cup Final was brutal though United 1996 was by far the worst. Everything about it was sh*t. I still find it hard to forgive any of our players or the manager from that day (Ian Rush and John Barnes apart). It was heartbreaking to lose. But worse was the fact our players didn't turn up. The white suits alone didn't matter but it was symptomatic of how a lot of those players were -  thought they were Billy Big Balls because they played for Liverpool. The biggest mistake was by Roy Evans though. Bringing back that fraud Jamie Redknapp a few weeks before the final. We'd been on a boss run for months with Thomas and Barnes playing centre mid. That fucking fanny Redknapp got brought back and it culminated in the most lifeless display I can remember by a Liverpool team in a Cup Final.

Just to illustrate the fact, Michael Thomas got brought in to the team for the United home league game on 17th December 1995. The next 17 league games we won 12 and drew 5 (lost 0). We lost to Notts Forest on 23rd March 1996. Thomas only started 2 games in the games from that point onwards (won 1, drew 1). Redknapp mainly played instead - we won 4, drew 3 lost 2. If you take out the games Thomas didn't start we won 3, drew 2 lost 2. How the fuck Roy Evans didn't pick Thomas ahead of Redknapp in that final I'll never know. Personally I would have considered sacking Evans after the 1996 Cup Final. The performance and the significant role he played in it, warranted it's consideration. Id' have definitely have pulled the trigger the following season after the 3-0 capitulation against PSG in the Cup Winners Cup semi-final. That was another lifeless and disgraceful display by a Roy Evans team in a big game.

[paulrazor]

1996

especially to that shower in a shite match

2007 was rough

2005 to the Chelsea aswell, leading the match for ages, plus if we held on i was going to win 240 quid.

[paulrazor]

wow you make some great points there

great shout on michael thomas too

[MichaelA]

Athens, for all sorts of reasons not wholly connected to the result. I fell out of love with football at that match. 1985, ditto. Heartbroken for my team, my city, the game.

[Jookie]

1996

especially to that shower in a shite match

Plus it pissed down all day and you where watching your back all the time you were in London. It wasn't even a laugh before the game. Completely outnumbered by their lot and loads of kick offs everywhere away from the ground. It just wasn't a great atmosphere to enjoy a Cup Final on any level. Getting beat and the team not even turning up compounded it further.

[Jookie]

wow you make some great points there

great shout on michael thomas too

As you can probably tell, nearly 20 years on the decision to drop Thomas still rankles with me!

For me there are 2 matches in recent history were I feel like a win could have changed the course of our club's history. This Cup Final in 1996 is one. The FA Cup semi final in 1990 versus Palace is the other.

As irrational as it sounds, I blame Roy Evans/ Jamie Redknapp for 1996 and Steve Staunton for Palace 1990 (who the f**k tries to chest the ball down on the goal line in the 89th minute).

[KERRYKOP]

The first cut is the deepest so it has to be 1996 FA Cup Final.

I had only been to Anfield for the the first time two months earlier so it was all my 11 year old mind could think about since the Villa semi-final. In my bedroom, vacant wall space was a premium and Fowler was most definitely God.

I was crushed after the defeat, what made it worse as well was the quality of the game, one of life's great anti climaxes teeing up a few more painful days to follow.   

[Alan_X]

I made peace with 2007 pretty early on. Us and Milan will always be linked with Istanbul where their fans must be wondering how on earth they lost. In 2007 there was no gulf in class and we were the better team but as we know, that doesn't guarantee success. At the time it felt there would be more finals to come, maybe even a trilogy completing final with Milan, winner takes all. Sadly that was to be as good as it got for both of us.

The 96 Cup Final really hurt. After all the hype the game was dire, and United were as poor as us but most people forget that now, it's the result that's all important.

Wimbledon in 88 is another obvious one. We could and should have won the Double three years in a row from 88-90.

That's pretty much how I feel - 2007 was disappointing but it was still our second European Cup final in three years under Rafa. I had a great time in Athens after with some Milan fans and like you I thought we'd be there again (and we almost were a couple of times).

Wimbledon was a awful - we should have won the double and '96 was just dreadful in so many ways. It was one of the moments when I realised we were falling away from our dominance and United were on the up.

[paulrazor]

As you can probably tell, nearly 20 years on the decision to drop Thomas still rankles with me!

For me there are 2 matches in recent history were I feel like a win could have changed the course of our club's history. This Cup Final in 1996 is one. The FA Cup semi final in 1990 versus Palace is the other.

As irrational as it sounds, I blame Roy Evans/ Jamie Redknapp for 1996 and Steve Staunton for Palace 1990 (who the f**k tries to chest the ball down on the goal line in the 89th minute).

1990 is literally weeks before my time. but ive seen it a good bit

1996 hurt like a bitch, especially in a school full of united dickheads.

2007 was the culmination of a long exhausting year. and not in a good way

id say if we got past palace we wouldnt have just beaten united, we would have humiliated them

taggart wouldnt have lasted the summer

[Red_Mist]

Another shout for 1987 v Arsenal.  Just that whole thing about Rushie scoring. The confidence it brought was unshakeable. Rushie's scored, so we WILL win the match. It was like a scientific law...that suddenly got disproved. A harsh lesson.

A year later vs Wimbledon was also quite painful. "we're forever blowing doubles". We ended up quite near the tiny pocket of Dons supporters and the pain was eased a little bit by the pride I felt seeing our fans applauding them and even reaching over to shake their hands as we walked out of the stadium. A stadium that was maybe 85% Red. Then back at the coaches and across one of the back windows was a bed sheet (good old bed sheets) with the words "The Charity Shield is the BIG ONE" daubed on it. I started to feel better after that.

Since then, we've won the vast majority of finals I've been to, so those two stick in the mind.

[Red Viper]

96 against the Mancs. I was 9 years old and cried my eyes out for hours after that game.

07 was also tough to take. Remember going out afterwards and my uni mates all cheered me up and got me smashed.

[Wingman]

Wimbledon in 88 is another obvious one. We could and should have won the Double three years in a row from 88-90.

That's mine. 14 years old and a ticket for Wembley to watch one the finest Liverpool sides ever smash Wimbledon and win the double. Too easy.

[Buck Pete]

The worst one for me was one we didn't lose, but lost the replay if that is allowed ?
In 1978 as an 11 year old we went as a family to that London to see the very mighty reds take on the force that was Nottingham Forest in the League Cup final. None . Of that Coca-Cola, carling, capital one, rumbelows, milk or  other bullshit subtitle in those days.  I can't remember the game at all , having seen countless cup finals over the years being of the right age and bred as red not blue. Needless to say it was a nil nil draw and after a night at the holiday inn Swiss cottage we came home.
So far so what?
We got home to find the front door ajar and the house was wrecked, all our belongings smashed to pieces, turds on the dining room floor, piss up all the walls, spew across the kitchen. My record player in bits at the bottom of the stairs, my sister's Girls World head (remember them?)abused on the floor and all our beds shat on and shredded. It took my mum two years to get over the sights and devastation we witnessed, us kids didn't even see the worst of it, we got shipped off to nans for the week.
The cops told us we had been spotted leaving by some youths at the bus stop over the road who had come back in the dark ,robbed our valuables and turned the place upside down.  Dirty bastards I still think about the state of our home and the shit game we watched while they fucked our house up.
The replay was no salvation either, although we never went to that .

Jesus mate, that's one of the worst stories I've ever read on RAWK.

The scumbags who did that would be in their 50's now. Something NOT to tell their grand kids about their misspent youth.

1977 for me. First final I remember us losing and as a 7 year old it was my first taste of bitter disappointment.  If we lose a final now I can drown myself in ale, laugh and reminisce about Istanbul, Gerrard in 06 and countless other joyous LFC occasions I had the privilege of watching.

In 77 it was my first taste of defeat in a big game and as KerryKop said earlier in the thread. The first cut is the deepest.

[Jookie]

id say if we got past palace we wouldnt have just beaten united, we would have humiliated them

taggart wouldnt have lasted the summer

That's why the Palace defeat has so much importance to me. Beat Palace and we would have had a good chance of inflicting a defeat on United that could have seen the back of Ferguson.

Given we'd just won the league and finished 31 points ahead of United, I think it's fair to assume that we would have been overwhelming favourites. We'd played them in March that season at OT and won 2-1. It was the most one sided 2-1 battering you'd ever seen. Barnes got 2 before Ronnie Whelan scored a ridiculous own goal.

Who knows what would have happened if we played them in the final. My guess, based on the evidence of that season, is that we would have swatted them aside with ease.

[paulrazor]

Jesus mate, that's one of the worst stories I've ever read on RAWK.

yep, i dont even know this guy personally but it makes me annoyed. somehow it would have been better if they robbed a few things but the rest of it is just awful.

id love to hear people like that get caught, and not just caught but have the absolute snot beat out of them.

[paulrazor]

That's why the Palace defeat has so much importance to me. Beat Palace and we would have had a good chance of inflicting a defeat on United that could have seen the back of Ferguson.

Given we'd just won the league and finished 31 points ahead of United, I think it's fair to assume that we would have been overwhelming favourites. We'd played them in March that season at OT and won 2-1. It was the most one sided 2-1 battering you'd ever seen. Barnes got 2 before Ronnie Whelan scored a ridiculous own goal.

Who knows what would have happened if we played them in the final. My guess, based on the evidence of that season, is that we would have swatted them aside with ease.

the biggest evidence of that for me was early into the following season we thumped them 4-0

they actually werent a million miles off relegation that season plus the end of that season no one could touch us. couple of teams the end of the season threatened then we just hit the turbo boost and swatted them.

barnes, rush, rosenthal etc would have humilated them

[Crosby Nick]

Going back to the 96 Final, I made the awful decision to watch it with three school mates, two were big United fans and one a very part time Leeds fan who was on my side. With it being such a bad game there wasn't too much chat or puss taking only for United to score and the two of them to go absolutely mental all around me. Just wanted the ground to swallow it up. That night we had another mate's 18th...in Manchester. Just got even more pissed than my 17 year old lightweight self would have done anyway but that was a miserable old day!

[Funky_Gibbons]

Going back to the 96 Final, I made the awful decision to watch it with three school mates, two were big United fans and one a very part time Leeds fan who was on my side. With it being such a bad game there wasn't too much chat or puss taking only for United to score and the two of them to go absolutely mental all around me. Just wanted the ground to swallow it up. That night we had another mate's 18th...in Manchester. Just got even more pissed than my 17 year old lightweight self would have done anyway but that was a miserable old day!

You had acne as a kid too?

[surfer. Fuck you generator.]

07. ... 

Still get flashbacks of Gerrard making less than proper contact with his two (?) decent chances, resulting in easy saves. I guarantee if that was a regular league game he takes just that half second to compose himself, calmly makes sweet contact, the ball's in the net, the entire dynamic of the game changes.

[Vinay]

No doubt the 1985 final after that dodgy penalty for a foul that happened outside the box. And the multitude of fouls on Rush that went unpunished. Fuck Platini.

[johnny74]

Always Wimbledon. And not least because of Vinnie Jones and Dennis Wise.

[sattapaartridge]

This goal killed me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvEHz96zrnM

I guess, for loads of internet people these days, some were just 1 or 2 years old, and when Athens came along, it hurt them more, despite winning it 2 years earlier. Losing the league to Man City also hurt me more than anything. It's always been the league that I've wanted to win. 2005 was a beautiful surprise, and we all know it.

[feynman]

Milan 2007. I think if Crouch played, the cup was won.

[kennedy81]

'88 FA cup was utterly sickening at the time, but at least we were so far ahead of everyone else then that you could console yourself with that. Really should have picked up another double there though and it still grates with me.

'85 European Cup was the first final I ever saw Liverpool lose. But it's still impossible for me to separate that game from what happened off the pitch. My worst memories of that game are still the scenes of carnage in the stands rather than the dodgy pen we lost to.

'07 Champions League simply felt like we were re-paying the karma for '05, and that's a lot of karma. Only losing to Milan in another CL final was ever gonna pay that back. If you told me in '04 that we'd win the CL in '05 but have to endure losing a final in '07, I'd have bitten your arm off. Two CLs in 3 years would have been extraordinary, but the insane memories of '05 will always out outshine any bad memories of '07.

So I suppose the '96 FA cup loss is the one that still hurts the most now. An absolutely awful game and an awful result. It really felt like we needed to win that game if we were to halt Utd's continuing rise to dominance over us. I think had we won it, we would have won the league the following year. We still should have, but that side lacked the mental toughness that Utd had then, particularly in Keane, who just wasn't having anything but a Utd win that day.
I think it's maybe the most significant loss in terms of the bigger picture and the paths both clubs took from that point on. It seemed to symbolise the fact that our glory days really were over and Utd were going to be top dogs for the foreseeable future, which was a very hard pill to swallow.

[paulrazor]

Milan 2007. I think if Crouch played, the cup was won.

or bellamy

i remember it well. even united fans in work wanted us to win it for me. i mentioned earlier it was a rough year, one of my friends was killed in a freak accident the start of the season, i was flat out in work for months and months to the point where one day i actually considered killing myself

i hadnt had a day off in months, barely time in work to eat a lunch, never got a minute and every time you were supposed to have a break something cropped up and people in work piling work on you relentlessly and taking the piss out of you

this was supposed to make up for it. im quite superstitious, i walked the same way home off the bus going home as i did in 2005, i listened the same music but i had a horrible feeling, it had been a shit year and this was just going to make it worse. superstition? well the previous year we were playing benfica and i bumped into a friend on the way down to the pub that night, i bumped into him again, the same spot too. I was meeting him for a pint anyway but i had a horrible feeling when i saw him. he was all excited and threw his arms around me and hugged me but i knew something felt bad

when the match started i was on edge, one fella who was drinking with us wasnt very well liked, one of them guys you are forced to put up with, he strolled into the pub half an hour into the game crying whinging and abusing us for not keeping him a seat (cos it was everyone elses fault he was late of course), the absolute cheek of him.

another lad who was in the pub who only speaks to you when he wants to slag you off. half time he was outside giving it loads, i told one lad
"if we lose and he comes over here straight after i am going to hit him, and i dont care if im barred"

2005 we got a huge slice of fortune, no question, we were an average team but somehow beat a very very good team to win the european cup, 2 years on we had a much stronger team, and Milan werent as strong but despite dominating the first half they had a half time lead.

One lad beside me was defiant when the free kick was given
"no sweat this going nowhere"
"oh shut up will you, its going in now you said that"
"this is going nowhere, not a chance"
"SHUT UP"

sure enough it deflects in, to this day i still blame the guy sat next to me

second half seemed to flash by, ive never seen a second half go so quick, before we knew it we were into the last 20 and 10, and sure enough there was Inzaghi through, the game was up, he walked around Reina,the ball made its way into the net, i watched it in slow motion and the game was up.

Dirk Kuyt scored late on, i ran around screaming as if i could influence something, around me in 2005 everyone was up giving it socks, this time it was like looking around a funeral home, defeated reds knew the game was up anyway, most sat stone faced and emotionless. there was still a very short time to salvage it but i knew in my heart of hearts it was over, the shouts were bravado really.

there was to be 3 minutes added on and with Peter Crouch on as a sub Milan were shitting it, i remember distinctly Milan actually brought a sub on in injury time but even though only about 2 and a half minutes were played and we were about to launch it towards Crouch the ref blew up anyway.

the end of the night was messy drunk, i fell over in the jacks, i fell on the way home, i was convinced i was kinda happy drunk, i knew Liverpool had given everything and nothing more could have been asked that night, the next day i learned i was in a chippy crying my eyes out on the way home, i have no recollection of it

next day i lay in bed thinking it was around 11, maybe 12, i was in work at 530. Dad next of all burst in
"GET UP"
"its my day off, im not in til 530pm"
"ITS NEARLY 4"

yes it was a hangover, but also my first day off in months, it was exhaustion and the end of a long hard season

i wasnt sorry to see the back of it but it should have had a happier ending

[cissesbeard]

88 and 96 for me.

88 we were probably the best team in europe and I just couldn't believe we didn't win (was only 8 at the time) also if we'd won we would've been saved from years of vinnie jones, fash and sanchez going on about how they spooked the team in the tunnel and all the other shite they spout. beardsleys disallowed goal, aldos missed pen! still gutted.

96 - losing to utd is always horrible and in that decade when they were going from strength to strength it was so hard to take.

[paulrazor]

88 and 96 for me.

88 we were probably the best team in europe and I just couldn't believe we didn't win (was only 8 at the time) also if we'd won we would've been saved from years of vinnie jones, fash and sanchez going on about how they spooked the team in the tunnel and all the other shite they spout. beardsleys disallowed goal, aldos missed pen! still gutted.

96 - losing to utd is always horrible and in that decade when they were going from strength to strength it was so hard to take.

if you watch the crazy gang documentary they still feel the need in their 50s to act the tough guy

96 win and you take the wind out of their sails, they would have lost 2 finals in a row and would have had serious doubts about themselves.

[cissesbeard]

if you watch the crazy gang documentary they still feel the need in their 50s to act the tough guy

96 win and you take the wind out of their sails, they would have lost 2 finals in a row and would have had serious doubts about themselves.

i have seen that crazy gang doc, its bollocks. digger said we just had an off day - thats good enough for me. although wimbledon had no history they were mid table club at the time. less of a shock than city losing to wigan etc

[mikeb58]

No doubt the 1985 final after that dodgy penalty for a foul that happened outside the box. And the multitude of fouls on Rush that went unpunished. Fuck Platini.

Well, to be honest didn't think that game would get a mention.I feel to this day that was a Final that was almost out of our hands to win.

It's a game I just wish never happened.

[lordcisse]

Fa cup 1996, my first game away from anfield. I was 11 and absolutely gutted. But I think that day, before and after the match has a lot to do with why I've been going to the match ever since. It was boss before and even tho I was gutted after we all lost together.
On the way out we were in traffic behind a Liverpool coach and some kid was standing on a little wall with his arms up in a cantona mask, then the sun roof opened and something flew out n knocked him off his wall, cheered me right up. I think it was a can.

[paulrazor]

i have seen that crazy gang doc, its bollocks. digger said we just had an off day - thats good enough for me. although wimbledon had no history they were mid table club at the time. less of a shock than city losing to wigan etc

the only thing a bunch of average footballers ever did in their lives, and they will go on and on about it forever. Fashanu seems a right prick

it was pretty much an off day.

the wigan win was a bigger shock ,wimbledon didnt and werent near relegation unlike wigan

[Zeppelin]

I'd have to say the '77 FA Cup Final v The Mancs was the worst - the chance of the Treble gone against that shower and the jammy goal that won it still rankles nearly 40 years later!

[Alf Garnett!]

Not a final but the worst by a long way was the defeat to Inter in '65.

[LincsRedbob]

Wimbledon 88 I still can't watch the winning goal and the missed pen. Sure Beardsley scored but it was pulled back for a free kick to us when the ref should have played on. Might not be correct but seem to remember it.

And 96 v Mancs as if we had won the "Spice Boys" & White suit stuff would not have been an issue. And also that day I put a window through in the pub instantly regretted it.

That's the only negative thought for today anyway........

[mikeb58]

Not a final but the worst by a long way was the defeat to Inter in '65.

A very dodgy defeat at that!