Norman Whiteside and Gary Howlett joined Dave McIntyre on Off the Ball for a special FA Cup nostalgia chat ahead of the showpiece clash between Manchester United and Chelsea later today.

Just over 99,000 people crammed into Wembley in 1983 to watch Manchester United and Brighton play out a 2-2 draw.

There were 8 players from Ireland involved on the day: Kevin Moran, Frank Stapleton, Norman Whiteside and Ashley Grimes were in the Red Devils' squad while Gary Howlett, Tony Grealish, Michael Robinson and Gerry Ryan lined-up for The Seagulls. 

United were overwhelming favourites going into the match only for Brighton to take the tie to a reply.

Whiteside still holds the record as the youngest ever scored in the FA Cup final and believes it came down to a bit of luck when he got into the team first. 

"I was very lucky actually in my first season. Big Ron was one of those managers who didn't really change his team around that much. 

"I got into the team at 16/17 and had played 50 odd games in my first season and, like you said, managed to get to two finals. 

"So, by the end of it, I was a seasoned pro by the third season because I'd played so many games."

Asked if they took Brighton for granted going into the first game, he replied: "I don't so - I don't think we did actually. I just think it was a poor performance and that can happen. 

"We had looked over so many FA Cup final games and every year it's not the best game of football because sometimes they become an anti-climax and I've heard that commentated many times but we just went into it hopeful we were going to play well but it never turned out that way and Brighton gave us a really good run for our money," he added.