Alan Wiley is happy to be the forgotten man of the 125th FA Cup Final after refereeing a breathtaking match between Liverpool and West Ham.

The Reds beat the east Londoners on penalties after the two sides played out a 3-3 thriller in what has been described as one of the all-time great FA Cup Finals.

Indeed, it was one of the best games Wiley has ever had the pleasure of officiating, and it will be a day he will never forget.

He said: "As a referee, you only get to do the FA Cup Final once, so to get one that exciting was a dream.

"It must rank alongside the best games that I've been involved with, and hopefully one of the most memorable FA Cup Finals of all time.

"My aim was that people from Saturday evening onwards would talk about the Cup Final I refereed for football reasons.

"Luckily, when people talk about it, they won't mention that I refereed it. I'll take some quiet satisfaction in that."

The question on everybody's lips would be how a referee manages to concentrate on doing his job with so much mesmorising football going on around him?

Wiley admits that he did notice some of the outstanding performances out on the pitch, including man-of-the-match Steven Gerrard, and that such skill still amazes him.

Even he had to watch in awe as Liverpool's captain unleashed one of the greatest strikes in FA Cup history from 30 yards to equalise in the last minute of the regulation 90.

Wiley added: "I don't think you actually admire what's going on, but when Liverpool pulled it back to 2-1 and it was still well into the first-half, I was thinking this had the chance to be a little bit special.

"When you are on the field with the players and you see the speed they are playing at, you really do appreciate the skill levels of these players.

"It wasn't until I saw Steven's goal on TV the following day that I realised how far out he was.

"It was an excellent strike of the ball and I was right behind it and I saw it hit the net. It was definitely a special goal."

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