West Ham legend Paul Allen looks back at Willie Young’s cynical FA Cup final foul that changed football 40 years on

IT WAS the foul that changed football.

It wasn’t violent and it didn’t even affect the outcome of the match.

But when West Ham’s 17-year-old midfielder Paul Allen — then the youngest player ever to appear in an FA Cup final at Wembley — was cynically tripped by Arsenal’s Willie Young on the edge of the penalty area, football’s law-makers were jolted into action.

Referee George Courtney could only book Young and award West Ham a free-kick.

Almost two years later, but as a direct result of that high- profile challenge, straight red cards were introduced for such professional fouls.

Exactly 41 years from that day, the Hammers remain the last club from outside the top flight to win the FA Cup — Trevor Brooking’s headed goal in the 13th minute proving the winner.

Young’s foul, three minutes from time, sparked revulsion, especially given the identity of his youthful victim.

But Allen, now working for the PFA players’ union, is adamant it did not wreck his big day.

He told SunSport: “I’ve never felt bitter about it. If Arsenal had come back and equalised and perhaps gone on to win the Cup, I’m sure I’d have felt differently.

“Of course it would have been nice to have scored but I was living out my dream of playing in a Cup Final, the youngest to do so at Wembley, and we won, so there was no reason to feel upset.

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“They always said Willie’s foul played a major part in bringing about the change in the law and that had to be a good thing.

“I’d got myself through on goal but I did still have the great Pat Jennings to beat.

“Willie gave me a pat on the head when we got to our feet but I don’t remember discussing it with him afterwards.”

Young, the big Scottish defender who — like Jennings — had moved from Tottenham to Arsenal, has run a pub and dog kennels in Nottinghamshire since his retirement.

In a 2015 interview with The Scotsman, he recalled: “Paul was going to score so I had to take him down. Afterwards he said ‘Don’t worry, big man, I’d have done the same’.

“But everyone else was appalled. He was only 17 and I’d ruined the fairytale. Big, bad Willie had done it again.”

One of those appalled by the challenge was John Motson in his live commentary for the BBC.

At the time he said: “Allen is through . . . oh what a pity. A cynical foul by Willie Young and fully deserving of the yellow card that it got.

“The 17-year-old might have made a storybook finish there. That was an absolute direct chance of a shot on goal and spoiled by the worst sort of professional foul.”

Arsenal were a very good side — I was marking Liam Brady and what a player he was — but we always felt we could beat them

Paul Allen

From his Hertfordshire home, Motson told me: “That was a key incident in getting the law changed — and, perhaps along with goal-line technology, it was one of those law changes that was certainly successful.

“Before then, defenders had it both ways and in that situation, if they timed it right, they knew they wouldn’t be sent off or concede a penalty, so it made sense to commit the foul.

“After that it perhaps went too far the other way with double jeopardy, where a player could be sent off for a foul inside the box.”

Young embraced Allen at the final whistle and the West Ham kid was in tears after collecting his winner’s medal.

And Allen insisted they were tears of joy rather than self-pity.

He said: “I was obsessed with football and I’d watched the TV build-up on Cup Final day every year since I was six-years-old.

“I remember being in awe when our West Ham youth coach Ronnie Boyce showed us his 1964 Cup winner’s medal.

“I won the FA Youth Cup in 1981 and Ronnie told me ‘You’ve got this the wrong way round, winning the FA Cup one year and the Youth Cup a year later’.”

Allen claims John Lyall’s team always fancied their chances. Allen, who would win the Cup again with Tottenham in 1991, said: “You look at that line-up and it doesn’t look like a Second Division side ­— players like Trevor Brooking, Billy Bonds, Alvin Martin, Alan Devonshire and David Cross.

“We won the Second Division the following season and most of the Cup-winning team helped establish us back in the top flight.

“Arsenal were a very good side — I was marking Liam Brady and what a player he was — but we always felt we could beat them.

“I remember only excitement rather than fear. There were a few nerves on the coach and fans were lining the streets.

“When Trevor scored — and he used great reflexes to score that header — I wondered whether we’d scored too early.

“We deserved the win and the foul didn’t truly matter. They couldn’t take that winner’s medal away from me.”

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