It's Old Trafford for the semi

Last updated : 13 March 2002 By Reggie Holdsworth
Boro will have to wait until Arsenal and Newcastle replay their quarter-final on Saturday 23rd March before they know who they will be playing. For those who want to know our opponents this game is being shown live on Sky with a 12noon kick-off.

The semi-final will be played on Sunday 14th April, with a 4pm kick-off, and will also be shown live on Sky.

It was thought that the FA were considering the Stadium of Shite, if there was a Boro-Newcastle semi, but they have now decided that Old Trafford will stage the tie before knowing the outcome of the replay.

Boro will be returning to the scene of one of the greatest FA Cup semi-finals in history, when they played 2nd Division Chesterfield back in 1997, and battled to earn a 3-3 draw.

Boro were 2-0 down early in the second half and were reduced to ten men, but fought back to take the game into extra-time. A Gianluca Festa goal looked to have won the game for Boro only for Chesterfield to equalise in the dying seconds.

The game will also be remembered for the goal that never was, with Boro trailing 2-1 Chesterfield had a goal ruled out by a linesman who said the ball had not crossed the line. TV replays proved afterwards that the ball had in fact crossed the line, but that is now history.

Boro won the replay at Hillsborough 3-0 tens days later.

The other semi-final between Fulham and Chelsea will be played at Villa Park on the same day, with a 7pm kick-off. The game will be shown live on BBC.