MOVING the FA Cup final to Wales was nobody’s idea of an ideal solution to a problem that has lasted rather longer than it was meant to. But with the shift west in 2001 came a decline in standards. From Arsenal playing for penalties last season to Southampton and Millwall seemingly just pleased to be there, beneficiaries of the bigger clubs’ lack of interest, the FA Cup final has been a desultory affair.

Perhaps the Millennium stadium, with its migraine-inducing loud sound system, its vertigo-inducing stands and its suspicion-inducing Welshness, was not the correct venue for the final of what the FA bellowed as the “world’s greatest club tournament”.

Most importantly, the Millennium stadium simply wasn’t Wembley. It had no ghosts of Bobby Stokes, of Mike Trebilcock, of Stanley Matthews hijacking Stan Mortensen’s hat-trick, or even of Charlie George, the maverick’s maverick, prostrate on the turf, knowing full well his life would get no better than the moment he smashed Arsenal’s winner past Ray Clemence in 1971.

This was an old-fashioned FA Cup final harkening back to and evoking the trophy’s finest traditions. Yes, in the cold light of day the venerable old pot doesn’t matter as much as it once did, but amid the thunderous noise, the hammer-and-tongs duelling, the dreadful defending and the end-to-end raiding, it felt like the FA Cup mattered again yesterday. When, in the future, people speak in hushed tones of great cup finals, they will speak of this one as surely as previous generations acclaim Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers in 1953.

This one had a hero in the shape of the admirable Steven Gerrard, just as cup finals have always needed heroes, from Ricardo Villa dancing through the Manchester City defence in 1981 to Keith Houchen launching the diving header of his career past a bewildered Tottenham defence — and Clemence again — in 1987.

It had an unlikely saviour in the shape of Jose Reina, a cup final goalkeeper whose day included two horrific errors and ended with three penalty saves, maintaining the tradition of Bert Trautmann defying the Birmingham City hordes in 1956 with a broken neck and Jim Montgomery etching himself into Wearside history with a bravura performance in 1973.

It thrilled from the start when Paul Konchesky introduced himself to Steven Gerrard with a flying (and, lest we forget, illegal) tackle as if to say, “you’re in for an afternoon you’ll not forget in a hurry”. If so, Konchesky was right and at the end of 90 pulsating minutes, Gerrard’s second howitzer confirmed a boy’s own player had engineered himself a boy’s own afternoon.

Boy’s own was very much the order of the day, as it has been in every cup final comic strip since Roy Race was an apprentice. And, as with all the best mysteries — for who would take the cup was always a mystery — there was a final twist with Gerrard’s second goal and, for West Ham, the unkindest cut of penalties.

The penalties may be a relatively new notion, but this was a cup final that belonged to the old school.

Explore Football

• Premier League

• Football League

• Scotland

• European Football

• International Football

• TheGame

• Live Match Tracker

• The Fink Tank

• Fantasy Football