Wembley FA Cup Final 2024, it’s the people that make the day
Win, lose or draw a day out at Wembley is almost always a decent thing to do. Getting to a cup final is almost certainly an event that most football fans would love to see their team involved in.
Realistically for most football fans that just isn’t going to happen and the closest they will get to a Wembley cup final is via a TV screen.
Until fairly recent times my Wembley experience was pretty much down to seeing Manchester City play out a draw with Tottenham Hotspur in 1981 and win the Second Division play-off final in 1999 against Gillingham.
Back in 1981 an FA Cup Final could end up drawn with replays taking place a few days later – although I was at the first game I wasn’t able to get to London for the midweek replay. For the 1999 Play Off final, I was with my wife, children, brother and nephew.
Fast forward a few years and …
Fast forward a few years and the books show that between 2011 and 2024 City have been at Wembley 26 times* in semi finals, finals and charity shield games (note one of those was played at Villa Park).
As City have become the dominant force in English football I’ve gone from having watched football at Wembley just twice in my lifetime (up until 1999) and having accepted I was destined never to see ‘my’ team win anything I have now made the trip to Wembley more than 20 times since 2011. The most recent before this game being the semi final against Chelsea in April.
Meaningless?
It would have been more but three were missed due to Covid restrictions (one of those being played behind empty doors the other with reduced attendance and we didn’t feel too comfortable with going).
The annual Charity Shield game no longer feels like it’s worth the effort as football continues to eat itself with it’s almost non-stop calendar and fixture list we haven’t bothered with the last two against Liverpool and Arsenal respectively.
Obviously it’s always been a ‘friendly’ fixture but seems to me to have become increasingly meaningless given the summer schedule that the top clubs have.
Sometimes you just have to take it on the chin
I’ve seen City play United four times at Wembley – a semi final and charity shield in 2011, a final in 2023 and this most recent final (2024).
Of those games my favourite was the 2011 semi final as that was when the tables started to turn and City’s rise to football dominance really started.
Although this year’s game lacked the edge of the games in 2011 game and 2023 – there was no question about who the deserved winners on the day were – it wasn’t City’s day and the Cup deservedly was won by United.
It’s as much about the people as the game
A trip to a football game at Wembley is as much about the people as the actual game and it always throws up opportunities for pictures. Previous trips to Wembley have offered up some interesting pictures and you can find plenty of photo galleries from some previous trips at the following links:
Picture gallery
Pictures from the 2024 final are in this picture gallery. Clicking on any of the images will open a gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through.
