As Coventry City target FA Cup glory against Manchester United in semi-final - Keith Houchen remembers his incredible diving header for Sky Blues in 1987 triumph over Tottenham in final

Keith Houchen can still remember the scene as though it were yesterday.

It was 5.30am on May 16, 1987. The mist was rising from the River Thames as Houchen jogged around the grounds of the Compleat Angler Hotel near Marlow, alone with his thoughts.

A matter of hours later, he would achieve FA Cup immortality on the grandest stage of all.

No rundown of the Cup’s greatest moments is complete without Houchen’s goal in Coventry’s 3-2 win over Tottenham in one of Wembley’s most memorable finals. Flinging himself full length towards Dave Bennett’s cross, Houchen executed a perfect diving header to ensure the game would go to extra time.

An own goal from Gary Mabbutt wrote Coventry’s name on the trophy for the first — and only — time in their history.

Now, 37 years later, the Sky Blues are back at Wembley in the FA Cup for the first time since that indelible event in their history, and Houchen will be cheering them on from his home in North Yorkshire.

He fancies them to beat Manchester United on Sunday and guarantee another Wembley trip next month, though he concedes overcoming Manchester City in a possible final may prove a step too far.

As he greets Mail Sport outside his home, Houchen is accompanied by his boisterous sheepdog. He still looks trim enough at 63 to do another 120 minutes.

He coaches football twice a week in local primary schools and is a full-time grandfather to his five grandchildren, aged between five and 16. When required, he wakes at 6am to do the school run and has food on the table when the five return home.

Having represented seven clubs across an 18-year career, Houchen no longer follows the game’s every move but his mind is never far from the day that changed his life — and Coventry’s Cup run has brought it into sharper focus.

‘I’ve seen the goal a lot in the last couple of weeks,’ he smiles. ‘I think I was fated to score that day. I was awake at 5am on the morning of the game and I hated hotel rooms so I had to get out.

‘I had some training kit, so I put it on and went for a jog down by the river. Just half an hour, an hour — steady. There were lovely gardens at the hotel and you could see across to a church on the other side, where there was a wedding that day. It was the only little bit of time I had to myself.

‘I remember trying to visualise what the day would be like. There was a mist on the Thames and I thought, “I’m going to score today”. I wondered what sort of goal it would be. It was great it ended up being a diving header!

‘I’d been to Wembley when I was a young pro at Hartlepool, to watch the 1978 final between Ipswich and Arsenal. We slept in a Ford Escort at South Mimms Service Station. I remember thinking, “If it’s the only thing I do, I’ve got to play in a Cup final.” It took me long enough!

‘I never saw the goal for years but it was pretty good, if I say so myself. I scored similar goals when I was at Leyton Orient and Hartlepool but the timing was perfect. If you look at me really closely I’m smiling as I head it. As soon as I headed it I knew it was in. I’ve got a picture taken from another angle, in black and white. I’m diving and heading it and you have dozens of photographers clicking away behind the goal.

‘We used to call it the “POMO” — position of maximum opportunity. If I was at the near post I had to spin and run to the back post, in an arc, not a straight line. It drives me mad when I see modern players run in straight lines.

‘But it still has to be perfect, like a dance move that comes together. If Dave Bennett’s cross had been a tiny bit further in front of me, maybe I wouldn’t have reached it. Maybe it would have hit the post or gone wide. I scored five in the Cup that year and before every round, I’d get the feeling I’d score. It was the same at Wembley.’ 

At Mail Sport’s request, Houchen has dug out some of his Cup final mementoes. There is the blue-and-white striped shirt, with No 10 on the back and the logo of a bingo company on the front. There is his winner’s medal, in its dark blue case. Then the Sky Blues scarf that was placed around his neck as he climbed the steps to the Royal Box, and the tracksuit top Houchen wore before the match.

The retro appeal of the latter item has caught the eye of his two teenage granddaughters. ‘They’ll try a lot of that stuff on — they’ve got their eye on it,’ he smiles.

Although there is a tinge of regret for Houchen that he will not be in the stands, the rebuilt Wembley does not hold the same magic. He was invited when it was reopened in 2007 and while he was impressed, he felt the soul of the old place had gone.

Coventry are eighth in the Championship and few expect them to overcome United, though Houchen is optimistic.

‘I watched them play Wolves in the quarter-final with my grandson and we were jumping all over the house when Coventry won,’ he recalls. ‘They are an excellent team and if they play anything like they did against Wolves, they have a heck of a chance.

‘From what I know about Manchester United, it’s like they don’t turn up at times. I’ve never been that impressed. They’re a group of individuals but not a team.

‘We were a proper team. We’d all learned our trade through the lower leagues, everyone knew their roles. I remember standing next to Ossie Ardiles in the tunnel and he was shy, almost like he was reluctant to shake hands. When I approached he was all beams and smiles, though.

‘Perhaps they were a bit wary of us because nobody knew us really. We’d rampaged our way through the competition playing some fantastic football along the way.

‘The old Wembley was such an amazing venue. You could smell all the history and it was like you could see the ghosts walking through the corridors. The new Wembley will make its own history of course but when I went there, it was like someone had sucked all the history out and built this big thing in its place.

‘I’d been ill the week before the final and hadn’t trained on the pitch the night before the game so this was the first time I’d seen the inside of it. Up Wembley Way with all the crowds, through those big gates and on towards the dressing rooms.

‘The dressing rooms on either side of the tunnel and then that walk up the slope towards the pitch. All you could see was a square of light then as you get closer you hear the noise and see the colour. Once you walk out it hits you — boom! I can still hear that sound today. Fantastic.

‘It was the biggest thing that was ever going to happen in our sporting lives. We used to say, “We might never do this again”.

‘It was like a boxing match: they’d attack, we’d attack. When it was over I remember looking up at the blue sky and thinking, “Wow, I just won the FA Cup.”’

Houchen is still in contact with his fellow Cup winners and when they meet, ‘it is like travelling back in time’. When they return to Coventry they are still recognised around the city and thanked for what they accomplished.

Houchen and his colleagues were at the centre of the football universe for a while after the final but he has never been comfortable with that level of attention, even rejecting the chance to meet the Prime Minister because he had arranged to go water skiing.

‘I was invited to tea with Mrs Thatcher in the garden at 10, Downing Street — but I’d already agreed to meet my mates from Middlesbrough,’ he smiles.

‘We’d bought a boat and we were due to go to Lake Windermere for a bit of water skiing, so that was that. I’d put in a Q and A in Shoot magazine that Mrs Thatcher was my favourite person outside football. I’ve got the invitation but I wouldn’t be able to find it now.

‘I was also invited to meet Richard Branson. There was loads of stuff. But I’ve never been too bothered by all that. In the last few weeks I’ve had to get out of “grandad mode” and back into being an ex-footballer!’

During the first Covid lockdown, the final was replayed in full and Houchen and his old team-mates settled down to relive it. ‘It was the first time I’d seen it all the way through,’ he says. ‘I started getting messages from the lads — “You’re playing well, Houchen!” I’d forgotten how many great saves Steve Ogrizovic made.’

This Sunday, in happier times, Houchen will switch on again to see Coventry in a major FA Cup tie at Wembley, hoping fervently for the same outcome.