The interest comes via my wife's family history as her great-great uncle was John McIlwaine who played half-back for Portsmouth in the 1929 final against Bolton Wanderers. The Times said of Portsmouth "they have in the Scotsman, John McIlwaine, a real leader..." and he was singled out several times in the match report including, at the end, "all that remained of interest was one last despairing long shot by McIlwaine that certainly tested Pym's capabilities as a goalkeeper fairly completely...", by which you can probably tell that Portsmouth lost, 2-0 to Bolton, who were, after all, the favourites of the day.
Happily, the 2008 final yielded better results - 1-0 to Portsmouth, though there wasn't much in it really, and Cardiff had equal opportunity to take the game as their own. It was certainly nice to see a final that featured none of the usual big teams, and less of the diving antics and histrionics, I thought.
