Managers upset about playing one replay should remember that Arsenal faced Sheffield Wednesday five times in 1979
By Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports Blog
Top-flight teams can now win the FA Cup by playing 540 minutes of football. In January 1979, it took Arsenal that long to make it through the third round. Their victory against Manchester United in the final has gone down in FA Cup folklore because of five dramatic minutes at the end of the match – when Arsenal threatened to pull defeat from the jaws of a comfortable victory – but the start of their cup run was just as agonising for players and fans. Their third-round tie with Sheffield Wednesday was an FA Cup marathon that just kept on giving.
The late 1970s were not an easy time for Wednesday. They were languishing in the old Third Division and had looked in danger of falling into the fourth tier before Jack Charlton took over as their manager in October 1978. By the time they faced Arsenal in January, Wednesday were firmly entrenched in mid-table and ready to test Terry Neill’s side.
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