Who's sorry now? Seven losing semi-finalists recall their day of despair Interviews by Norman Fox and Owen Slot

Gordon Taylor

1975 Birmingham 0 Fulham 1

Aged 31, was in a losing semi-final team for the third time. Now chief executive of the PFA.

At that age, it was going to be my last chance of playing at Wembley. We'd drawn 1-1 at Hillsborough, but for the Maine Road replay, we were sure we could put it right with a side including Howard Kendall, Kenny Burns and Trevor Francis. However, they had Peter Mellor in goal, a six- foot Adonis-type who had an absolute blinder. Seconds before the 90 minutes were up, a ball was knocked in and headed by John Mitchell, Fulham's scorer in the first game. The ball ricocheted off our keeper, hit Mitchell, rebounded, and in a moment that seemed frozen in time, just did enough to get over the line, I don't think it even hit the net. An hour later I went outside and the Fulham coach was lit up with celebration. My Dad, who had followed me everywhere, was waiting. "Never mind," he said. "I've enjoyed watching your career and that's been more important than any semi-final." But I'd never felt so bad. Mellor later joined me on the PFA and he wore his Cup final medal round his neck every meeting he came to.

Glenn Roeder

1978 Arsenal 3 Orient 0

Played for Orient in their only semi-final appearance. Now manager of Watford.

We were a Second Division club fighting relegation but we had great Cup victories over Norwich, Chelsea and Middlesbrough. It was fairy-tale stuff but our performance against Arsenal was our poorest. I don't know whether it was nerves. We were a very young team. I was only about 20. There were five or six of us who had come out of the youth side. Malcolm Macdonald claimed two goals for Arsenal but they were own goals in our book. One hit me on the leg and the other hit Bill Roffey. I was playing just in front of the defence. I enjoyed that. I never liked moving the ball into row Z. After the game we went out, disappointed but feeling that from where we were in the table that was our Cup final. We didn't expect to be at Wembley but we hadn't played as well as we could. We came out of the run with credit and it helped some of us move on. There was a presentation after the match; the club gave us a commemorative tile, like something in the bathroom - I've still got it in a box somewhere.

Gary Plumley

1987 Tottenham 4 Watford 1

Was a wine-bar owner playing non-League football in Wales when he got the call-up. Now an estate agent in Chepstow.

The week before the semi-final, my dad, who was the Watford chief executive, rang me saying Tony Coton, the goalkeeper, had broken his finger and Graham Taylor, the manager, wanted me to sign as cover for Steve Sherwood. Because of the transfer deadline, they couldn't sign a pro; Taylor had already asked Pat Jennings who had said no. The next Monday, Sherwood dislocated a finger and I was in. But it was a Roy of the Rovers story that didn't continue. I'd had a couple of games for Newport, but wasn't match-fit, and let in four. The first was a shot, I dived but it swerved, bounced off my stomach and Steve Hodge tapped in. I thought: "Christ, if only I'd caught it ..." My head didn't go down, but then there was an own-goal that I had no chance at. The third, Paul Allen rifled it, again I thought that I could have got it, and the fourth I can't even remember. It was doom and gloom after that, but I had enjoyed it. It was my last professional game and a hell of a one to go out on.

Sidney Storey

1955 Newcastle United 4 York City 0

Our best chance to beat Newcastle was in the first game, which I didn't play in because I had a back injury - we had our chances but didn't take them. Newcastle had lots of good players - Jackie Milburn, Jimmy Scoular and other internationals. I thought we played quite well in the replay at Roker because Alan Stewart got injured and there were no substitutes, so he had to go from centre-half up to centre-forward and hobble around. They scored in the first two or three minutes; it seemed that before we got on the field they had scored. A few minutes from the end we were still losing 1-0 so we had to go up and attack. They got a breakaway and scored a second. We were disappointed, but I will say this, none of us really realised we'd got to the semi-finals. We just kept winning and we didn't think about it. When we got into the dressing room after we'd lost, we thought how near we were to Wembley. We weren't that down, we'd done well and were quite happy. We didn't get much out of it though. The papers were on strike and only Arthur Bottom was interviewed. He got about £50.

Our toughest Cup games were against Scarborough and Notts County, more so than when we beat Tottenham in the fifth round (Arthur Rowe resigned as their manager soon afterwards) and Blackpool in the third round. They had won the Cup in Matthews year, 1953, and that was more or less the team we played. I was real chuffed to play against him because he was my favourite. They used to say "how do you stop Matthews?". Well, once he got the ball you couldn't stop him. The idea was to stop him getting the ball. He didn't cause us a lot of trouble and I scored an early goal. I think the reason we didn't win the championship that season was because we didn't have floodlights so we were playing afternoon matches which was difficult because we were part-time. I was working in the mines. Afterwards I worked as a sausage salesman but I didn't take to that. I ended up on the buses as a driver for 20 years.

Lee Chapman

1989 Liverpool 3 Nottm Forest 1

Ninety-six people had died in the Hillsborough disaster. The match was replayed at Old Trafford 22 days later.

I actually thought the competition should have been stopped after that game out of respect for the victims, but when it came to it, we were in a no-win situation. Liverpool were very much playing for the victims of Hillsborough, a fact which many of their players stated before the game. At Nottingham Forest, we obviously wanted to win the semi-final, but in a way it seemed only right that they should and then win the Cup at Wembley for all those families. We were also naturally very affected by what had happened at Hillsborough; so much was happening at the time that the game was of secondary importance and the build-up was very quiet; there was no hype or excitement about the match. We were subdued before the game and subdued after it even though we thought the result was the best thing that could have happened. We didn't play welI, but I can't really remember the match; I can't even remember the scorers. Football was a long way down in our priorities.

Alan Knight

1992 Liverpool 0 Portsmouth 0 (Liverpool won 3-1 on penalties)

A one-club goalkeeper, now in his 17th season at Fratton Park. Portsmouth were the victims of one of the FA Cup's earliest penalty shoot- outs.

I knew it was probably my one and only chance of getting to an FA Cup final. After the penalties it was a strange feeling. I'd felt aware of what the outcome might be when we missed the first few penalties. We were going to struggle unless I saved them. With penalties you can say everything is down to you, but on the other hand you can be the hero. If you lose it's not just rough on the keeper, but the whole team and fans. There were tears in the dressing room. I went to all the young lads like Darren Anderton, who was crying, and said: "You'll play in finals at Wembley." Possibly it did him and the others a bit of good. To think that in the first game we were four minutes from getting there. Jim Smith still thinks I should have saved that free-kick. I got a touch on to the post and it bounced back and they scored. I still have nightmares about it. But sometimes it comes back off the post and rolls along the line to me.

Joe Royle

1994 Oldham 1 Man Utd 4

In the Wembley semi-final, Oldham went ahead in extra time and Mark Hughes equalised in the last minute. United won the replay at Maine Road.

We were looking comfortable, we had seen off everything they were doing. Our game plan had worked to a tee; Neil Pointon had got the goal, we were cruising and it was a matter of playing out time. Then young Craig Fleming, who had played Mark Hughes exceptionally well all day, just lost him for one second and that was it - a draw and a replay. Some of the players died that day, physically and mentally. They knew that we were seconds away from the Cup final and possibly a place in Europe. One or two were very tired, we didn't have the size of squad to make changes, and for the replay, they brought fresh legs in - Kanchelskis and Robson - and we didn't have the bodies to counter it. That goal by Mark Hughes finished Oldham's season. I don't think we ever recovered. Relegation followed - some of the players were so psychologically smitten by the semi-final that we never won another game in the league.