West Ham's 2006 FA Cup run: 'No one fancied us to stay up, let alone reach the Cup final'

London — When the Football Association’s third-round draw paired West Ham United with Championship Norwich City on 4 December 2005, Alan Pardew’s side had lost four of their previous five Premier League fixtures and sat perilously close to the relegation zone. Few inside or outside the club predicted a prolonged cup surge. Yet by 13 May 2006, the Hammers were walking out at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to contest a final that is still described by opponents and neutrals alike as one of the greatest in modern FA Cup history.

“We were tipped to go down,” recalls Teddy Sheringham, who scored 30 goals in 87 appearances for West Ham between 2004 and 2007. “Staying up was the priority, but once the cup run gathered momentum you could feel something special building.”

The run began with a workmanlike 2-1 win at Carrow Road. Hayden Mullins, not known for spectacular strikes, arrowed a curling effort into the top corner to set the tone. “The boys started laughing because I hardly ever scored,” Mullins says, “but it was a banger.” Pardew resisted rotation, fielding full-strength sides anchored by captain Nigel Reo-Coker, goalkeeper Shaka Hislop and leading scorer Marlon Harewood.

A clinical 4-2 dismissal of Blackburn Rovers in the fourth round followed, with Sheringham, Matt Etherington, Bobby Zamora and an own goal by Zurab Khizanishvili propelling West Ham into the last 16. The victory coincided with a league resurgence; by the time Bolton Wanderers visited the Reebok Stadium for the fifth round, the Hammers had won five straight league matches and were flirting with the European places.

Bolton, managed by Sam Allardyce and fresh from eliminating holders Arsenal, were expected to end the fairytale. A tense 0-0 forced a Upton Park replay that tipped into extra-time before Harewood pounced in the 96th minute. Allardyce later rued a missed offside call, but for Mullins the result was transformative: “Beating that Bolton side—Gary Speed, Kevin Nolan, Kevin Davies—made us believe we could beat anyone.”

Anyone, it turned out, included Manchester City in the quarter-finals. Dean Ashton, a £7.25 million January signing from Norwich, announced himself with both goals in a 2-1 win. “That was my ‘I have arrived’ moment,” Ashton says. “The belief inside the dressing room was sky-high.”

A Dubai break, promised if the squad hit a points target before Christmas, served as both reward and potential distraction. The players trained once in five days, returned on a Saturday and were routed 4-1 by Chelsea less than 24 hours later. Normal service was quickly restored with a 1-0 league defeat of Manchester City, yet a subsequent loss to Middlesbrough previewed the semi-final assignment: Steve McClaren’s Teessiders, themselves chasing a European berth.

At Villa Park on 23 April, Harewood’s left-footed strike—”probably the only one of his career,” McClaren jokes—separated the sides and booked West Ham a first FA Cup semi-final triumph since 1991. “We used the defeat in our team talk for the UEFA Cup,” McClaren remembers. “We didn’t want that feeling again.”

The final obstacle before the showpiece was a dress rehearsal against Liverpool on 26 April. The match carried costly ramifications: Mullins and Luis García were sent off for an 82nd-minute altercation, triggering three-match bans that ruled the West Ham midfielder out of the final. “García and a Liverpool official asked the referee to rescind the cards,” Mullins says, “but the report had already gone in. I missed the biggest day of my career.”

That day, 13 May 2006, arrived beneath the closed roof of the Millennium Stadium. Two former Hammers managers, Ron Greenwood and John Lyall, had died during the run-up; Pardew spoke of winning the trophy in their honour. Etherington, who had feared ligament damage only weeks earlier after a tackle from team-mate Christian Dailly, started on the left. Ashton, hamstring strain overcome, edged out Bobby Zamora after Pardew took the rare step of delaying his team announcement until match morning.

West Ham stunned Liverpool by racing 2-0 ahead inside 20 minutes, Carragher slicing into his own net before Ashton tapped in. Liverpool levelled through Djibril Cissé and a Steven Gerrard drive, but Konchesky’s looping cross restored the lead with four minutes remaining. Then, in stoppage-time, Gerrard produced a 35-yard thunderbolt to force extra-time. “All hell broke loose,” Carragher recalls. “Rafa stuck me up front; Scaloni’s clearance fell to Stevie and the rest is history.”

Exhausted, West Ham succumbed 3-1 on penalties after Zamora, Konchesky and Anton Ferdinand saw spot-kicks saved by Pepe Reina. Sheringham converted, but the trophy slipped away.

Back at the London Stadium this weekend, Nuno Espírito Santo’s side host Leeds United in the quarter-finals, hoping to revive the spirit of 2006. West Ham again languish in the drop zone, yet Sheringham sees parallels: “No one fancied us to stay up, let alone reach the final. This squad has the same opportunity—this could be their year.”

The echoes are unmistakable: a relegation scrap, a cup run, and the conviction that, on any given May afternoon, underdogs can author indelible chapters in FA Cup folklore.