April 18 – Joy then Sorrow for Morrow

GRIDIRON legend Joe Namath once said: “When you win, nothing hurts.” We reckon that today’s protagonist would beg to differ.

Today in 1993 Steve Morrow should have been celebrating the pinnacle of his career after scoring the winning goal in a Wembley cup final, but instead found himself on his way to hospital as his team-mates hoisted the League Cup.

Morrow’s Arsenal side were taking on Sheffield Wednesday in the Coca Cup Final, which would be the first of a Wembley trilogy between the two sides as they would also contest a replayed FA Cup Final.

Wednesday, managed by Trevor Francis, took an early lead thanks to American John Harkes, but Paul Merson, playing like a man possessed (or at least one who had just lost his first goalscorer bet) equalised in the 20th minute.

With 20 minutes remaining Merse turned provider as Arsenal broke the deadlock through the unlikely source of Northern Irish defender Steve Morrow.

This would prove to be the winning goal and no one was more delighted than Gooner skipper Tony Adams who ran over to the match-winning to hoist him on his shoulders and give it the big one.

We don’t know about you, dear reader, but the thought of an early-90s Tony Adams lifting us up fills us with trepidation. We’re not saying he was definitely schloshed, but we weren’t fooled when he lost his footing and sent poor old Morrow flying.

Morrow his the ground awkwardly, breaking his arm, and had to be rushed to hospital, meaning he would miss his trip up Wembley’s 39 steps to pick up his winner’s medal. Not so smart now Joe Namath, hey?

The break was serious enough for Morrow to miss the rest of the season, including the FA Cup Final and replay against Wednesday as Arsenal went on to complete the cup double.

The FA for once showed a rare sense of decency and common sense however, when they let Morrow pick up his League Cup medal a before the FA Cup Final, meaning, securing him his place in trivia lexicon as the only player to have picked up a medal before a Cup final.

Morrow would never have such an eventful day in an Arsenal shirt and left the club for QPR in 1997 when he deemed surplus to requirements by new boss Arsene Wenger.

His next move saw him go trans-Atlantic as he joined up with Dallas Burn, first as a player, then as manager, until he was fired in May 2008.

See Morrow getting the Baddiel and Skinner treatment below and check out what other tomfoolery was occurring today by clicking yourself silly here. We’ll be back with more tomorrow, but if you can’t wait until then follow us on Twitter here.