Saturday March 14, 1987
FA Cup Quarter Final

Venue: Hillsborough Att: 48,005 Referee: A Gunn (Burgess Hill)

Sheffield Wednesday 1 Gary Megson (66)
Coventry City 3 Cyrille Regis (16), Keith Houchen (78, 83)

This was City's first ever victory in their fifth appearance in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

And it proved a springboard to major success!

Some 15,000 City fans took over the Leppings Lane end of Hillsbrough to see if history could be made.

If the Sky Blues had plenty of hurdles to overcome to reach the final eight of the prestigious competition, in Sheffield Wednesday they had an even bigger one to leap over if they were to beat the Owls on their own turf.

Not only had Coventry never reached the semi-final of the FA Cup before, but Wednesday were bidding to reach their 16th! Added to that the Owls had not been beaten in a home FA Cup tie since 1973 - a run of 23 matches - leaving the Sky Blues with it all to do.

The match started at a scintillating tempo and it was the Sky Blues who drew first blood through Cyrille Regis, who scored a magnificent opener in the 16th minute.

It was all City as Lloyd McGrath nearly latched onto a long though-ball and Keith Houchen headed narrowly wide.

But all their hard work was cancelled out in the 67th minute when Gary Megson scored the equaliser after the Sky Blues defence misjudged a Lee Chapman flick-on.

However, the game swung back in Coventry's favour and the hero was to be the man who had only scored once so far in the competition but would go on to etch his name in the history of the FA Cup.

Keith Houchen - who had scored the only goal of the game in the fourth round against Manchester United - blasted two goals in a five-minute spell to leave Wednesday shell-shocked and the Sky Blues rejoicing.

His first came with just 12 minutes left on the clock when his left-footed shot took a deflection off Mark Smith and flew past a dismayed Martin Hodge in the Owls goal.

And five minutes later, Houchen hit his second to make it 3-1 to the Sky Blues and send the mass travelling contingent in the ground wild.

City skipper Brian Kilcline summed up the mood perfectly: "We defended like demons and attacked like assassins," he said. "And the fans were magnificent. It was a great day."

Manager John Sillett, whose joy at the final whistle was clear to see, was not so relaxed watching from the sidelines.

"For 10 minutes after their equaliser I was worried," he admitted. "Our physiotherapist George Dalton kept glancing across at me. I reckon he thought he might be needed!

"But then we had that bit of luck which does make you think that perhaps our name is on the cup this year."

If people hadn't believed Snoz before when he'd made similar suggestions, few could disagree now that Coventry looked like genuine contenders for the trophy.

Coventry: Ogrizovic, Borrows, Downs, McGrath (Sedgley), Kilcline, Peake, Bennett, Phillips, Regis, Houchen, Pickering.

Sheff Wed: Hodge, Sterland (Morris), Snodin, Smith, Madden, Worthington, Marwood, Megson, Chapman, Bradshaw (Hirst), Shelton.

So City were through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the very first time in their history and would travel to Hillsborough again to take on Leeds United.