Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur contested the final. Coventry were in the final for the first time, whereas Tottenham had won all seven of their previous appearances and were looking to set a new record of eight FA Cup victories, having equalled Aston Villa's record of seven FA Cup victories in 1982. But a 3–2 win after extra time gave Coventry the first major trophy in their history. Spurs had opened the scoring through Gary Mabbutt, who later scored an own goal, and their other goal came from top scorer Clive Allen, who found the net 49 times all competitions during a season where Spurs challenged to win all three domestic trophies but in the end failed to win any of them.