Then as now, in most years every quarter final of the FA Cup was televised by someone. Now we are spoiled by live coverage of all four games – but before it was, of course, just the highlights.
The first quarter final to be shown live was on BBC One on Sunday 11 March 1984 – ending in a rather tepid 0-0 draw between Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton.
Not surprisingly that match does not appear to have been put on YouTube so instead here is a sixth round game from our featured year of 1978 when Nottingham Forest, going for a domestic treble, came up against West Bromwich Albion, managed by the young Big Ron.
FA Cup televised games that weekend:
Saturday 11 March 1978 – Match of the Day
West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Nottingham Forest
Millwall 1-6 Ipswich
Sunday 12 March 1978 – The Big Match
Wrexham 2-3 Arsenal
Middlesbrough 0-0 Orient
A great blog, but just a little point, ITV had the Sheffield Wednesday v Southampton game on March 11th 1984, not the BBC. The BBC showed highlights of Birmingham v Watford, Plymouth v Derby County & Notts County v Everton on the Saturday night. The BBC showed live coverage of 2 games in the FA Cup that season before the Final both on Friday nights from the 3rd & 5th rounds, Liverpool v Newcastle & Blackburn v Southampton, whilst ITV had shown the Brighton v Liverpool game from the 4th round & Sheffield Wednesday v Southampton from the 6th round both on Sunday's.
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