That’s not a bad jump – 2,000 to 484 million!

It was The Barber’s 33rd FA Cup Final match, including replays, and for him one of the most intriguing. A goal or two would’ve made it a classic. In fact, it was the first of 124 Final Ties without a goal.

My first Final was Arsenal v Liverpool in 1971, at the end of my first season on The FA staff. My favourite Finals have been in 1973 (Sunderland v Leeds), 1979 (Arsenal v Man U), 1981 (Tottenham v Man City) and 1988 (Wimbledon v Liverpool). In ’73 I stood behind the goal at the Sunderland end; in ’79 I was down at the front in the seats, directly in front of Phil Lynott from the "Thin Lizzy" band; in ’88 I was in the posh seats near the Royal Box.

For the 100th Final in 1981 I had a specific role. There was to be a parade of all the previous Cup-winning captains before the kick-off and, in the weeks leading up to the big day, it was my job to find them all! Some, of course, were easier to find than others. But the clubs, and in some cases just members of the public, were tremendously helpful as I went about tracing the old-timers.

A couple of them were a bit too old and frail to take part but in all 30 captains joined in the parade at Wembley – Raich Carter, Don Welsh, Billy Wright, Joe Mercer, Joe Harvey, Nat Lofthouse, Danny Blanchflower, Bobby Moore, Dave Mackay, Frank McLintock, Emlyn Hughes and a few less well known ones.

I had to supervise it all and we also had two special guests in Dick Pym, who had played in goal for Bolton in the "White Horse Final" of 1923, and Jack Swann, an inside-forward for Huddersfield when they lost in the 1920 Final to Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge.

Jack, then 89, was a lively and interesting character with an amazing memory for details of the Final he had played in. I met him at the Old Hendon Ex-Servicemen’s Club in north-west London for a lunchtime drink and, sitting with a glass of beer in one hand and a stick in the other, he told me how his right-footer from the edge of the box had struck a Villa player’s boot and been deflected behind for a corner.

By way of a complete contrast to Saturday’s Final in Cardiff, which was my 200th game of the season and 4,888th all told, my other games last week were all in the London League: Audit Commission v BBH, Abbey v Morley FM (in the "Spring Cup Group A") and Marks & Spencer v Warrington.

In the first of those, Commission’s No.11 scored from inside the centre circle with a fantastic volley that went straight into the net without bouncing. In the last, played in heavy rain at the Rec, I was literally the only person watching.

Marks & Spencer 3 Warrington 6. Attendance 1.

It wasn’t the first time The Barber had made up the whole crowd. And I once went to a game where the crowd was technically "minus one".

Dad and I had planned to see Gosport Borough play Thame United in an FA Women’s Cup tie at Privett Park in the mid-‘90s. We turned up at the main enclosed ground and, noticing a few ponytailed youngsters kicking-in, we thought "this is the place" and paid our 50 pences at the turnstile.

When we got inside, we found they were young boys about to feature for Borough’s Under-18s and that the Ladies’ game was taking place about 200 yards away.

As we left the ground, we were passed by one other chap (just the one) whose preference was the Youth game. So it was two out and one in and an attendance of minus one. Well, wasn’t it?!