The 1985 Football League Cup Final was won by Norwich City. The Canaries defeated Sunderland 1–0 at Wembley Stadium on 24 March 1985 with an own goal scored by Gordon Chisholm, who deflected Asa Hartford's shot past goalkeeper Chris Turner. Later in the second half, Clive Walker missed a penalty awarded for a handball by Norwich defender Dennis van Wijk.
Looking back on the final, Norwich striker Mick Channon described the final as a "lovely day", and praised his teammates skill saying "we had some tremendous players like Steve Bruce and Dave Watson in the middle of the defence, Asa Hartford in midfield and John Deehan up front with me." In the lead-up to Norwich's goal Sunderland defender David Corner was attempting to usher the ball out of play for a Sunderland goal kick. However Norwich kept the ball in play and promptly scored. In November 2011 Corner looked back on the incident stating "I should have kicked the ball out" and that he doesn't "think there's a day goes by where that game isn't mentioned". He then went on to say "It was a great honour for me to be playing for my hometown club in a national final, but I have to hold my hands up and say the goal was my fault." Norwich's victory was celebrated with an open-top bus parade.
Despite Norwich and Sunderland appearing in the final, they were both relegated to the Second Division at the end of the 1984–85 season. Normally the winners of the League Cup would qualify to play in the UEFA Cup, but on 31 May 1985 all English clubs were banned from European competitions on an indefinite basis as a result of the Heysel Stadium disaster two days earlier. This meant that Norwich City were unable to compete in the 1985–86 UEFA Cup.
As a result of the good faith shared between Norwich and Sunderland supporters during the final, the Friendship Trophy is contested every time the two clubs meet.
Read more about 1985 Football League Cup Final: Match Details, Route To The Final
Famous quotes containing the words football, league, cup and/or final:
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)
“We’re the victims of a disease called social prejudice, my child. These dear ladies of the law and order league are scouring out the dregs of the town. C’mon be a glorified wreck like me.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“Sisters define their rivalry in terms of competition for the gold cup of parental love. It is never perceived as a cup which runneth over, rather a finite vessel from which the more one sister drinks, the less is left for the others.”
—Elizabeth Fishel (20th century)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)