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West Ham United must exorcise a 20-year hoodoo if they are to edge past Leeds and secure a place in the FA Cup semi-finals this weekend.
The Hammers have not graced the final four of the world’s oldest and most iconic cup competition since they finished runners-up to Liverpool in 2006.
A lot has changed since then.
What would you sacrifice for FA Cup GLORY?
Surely not your Premier League status…
Wembley semi-finals were unheard of, the Millennium Stadium was the venue for the decider, and Bobby Zamora, Marlon Harewood and Dean Ashton were competing for the chance to lead the line for Alan Pardew’s West Ham United in Cardiff on that fateful May afternoon twenty years ago.
And whomever becomes Nuno Espirito Santo’s quarter-final hero at the London Stadium – provided they do defeat Daniel Farke’s visitors on Sunday at 4.30pm – will become the first Hammer since the aforementioned Ashton two decades prior to score the winning goal in an FA Cup last-eight tie.
A place in West Ham United’s FA Cup history beckons 
Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
A message, then, to Taty Castellanos, Jarrod Bowen, Callum Wilson, or whoever is selected.
You cannot only secure yourself a trip to Wembley, you can also do something no West Ham player has done since Gnarles Barkley was dominating the charts and The Da Vinci Code hit the big screen.
While Leeds may be without top scorer Dominic Calvert-Lewin – Daniel Farke confirmed at his press conference that the big number nine is a doubt – Crysencio Summerville remains touch-and-go for the meeting between his current employers and his old ones.
Adama Traore may start in his absence, though Pablo Felipe played on the left in West Ham’s last outing at Villa Park. Albeit, with pretty poor results.
Comparing the 2006 vintage with the 2026 roster, it’s easy to get all glossy-eyed and nostalgic about the centre-forward options of yesteryear.
Marlon Harewood saw shades of Harry Kane in Dean Ashton
Dean Ashton not only scored both goals in that 2-1 quarter-final victory away to Manchester City, he briefly put the Hammers 2-0 up in the final.
That, unfortunately, was merely the warm-up act before the Steven Gerrard show got underway.
“The team that we had, we did so well. It was unbelievable,” reflects Harewood, part of a four-man strikeforce including a veteran Teddy Sheringham who scored 39 goals in 2005/06 [All Out Football podcast].
“It was me, Bobby [Zamora], Dean Ashton, then we had Matty Etherington, Nigel Reo-Coker, Hayden Mullins, Anton [Ferdinand], ‘Ginge’ [James Collins], [Danny] Gabbidon, Shaka [Hislop], Jimmy Walker, [Paul] Konchesky…
Summerville touch-and-go for the FA Cup quarter-final! 🏆
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“It was good. We had a good team, a good dressing room, and good ages as well. It’s not often you get everyone the same age.
“I felt sorry for Dino because he looked like a [proper] striker. He knew how to finish,” Harewood says of Ashton, who was forced to retire at the age of 26, just three years after putting West Ham in dreamland for a few glorious minutes in the Welsh capital.
“He was a bit like Harry Kane. He can finish. If you put that ball in one-on-one with the keeper, you just know he’s going to score because he will finish. Great touch and could do a bit.
“But yeah, I felt sorry for Dino because he could have gone on to [play for] England and done really well.”
Still, Ashton will always have that FA Cup run to look back on.
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