Lucky 13: Will it be Portsmouth or Cardiff who end the Big Four's FA Cup monopoly since 1995?

This seasons FA Cup final will be contested between Portsmouth and Cardiff City at Wembley - bringing an end to the domination of the Big Four. Not since Everton beat Manchester United 1-0 in the 1995 final has the captain of a club other than Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or United lifted the famous old trophy. Indeed, you have to go back even further to 1991, when Spurs took on Nottingham Forest, to find a final without one of those four clubs participating.

So despite the use of squad rotations and supposed bigger priorities of the Big Four, the FA Cup had become as predictable as the Premier League. In recent years it had been claimed the Cup had lost its allure, with some lower-ranked Premier league teams resting players to help protect their league status, reduced attendances due to the increasing cost of tickets and the varying kick-off times dictated by television or in some cases the police.

But the reports of the FA Cup being dead seem to be premature. More than two million people havie attended FA Cup matches this season and the average of just over 31,000 for the fifth round alone was the highest since 1981, so it's clear that Cup fever still grips the nation.

I am sure the money men at the FA and Sky won't be happy with this season’s finalists, dreading reduced viewing figures and sponsorship deals. But who cares about them? Certainly not Pompey or Cardiff fans, the majority of whom wouldn’t even have been born the last time their side won the FA Cup. Portsmouth's previous success was in 1939, when they beat Wolves - and as any trivia buff worth his salt would know, Cardiff's only victory was in 1927, when they beat the mighty Arsenal 1-0 to become the only club to take the FA Cup out of England.