Ceefax and Essandoh: The Magic of the cup from a Belfast-born Journeyman

“Roy, no offence, but who are you?” These were the words used by a match reporter after interviewing a Belfast-born journeyman striker, who was the centre of attention in one of the greatest FA Cup upsets in the history of football. 

“The Magic of the Cup”  is a famous quote thrown around loosely across the football landscape throughout the years. The oldest association football competition in the world, The FA Cup, has a knack for producing David vs Goliath upsets. In fact, just this season, one of the most shocking giant killers occurred when 6th division semi-pro side, Macclesfield Town, knocked out last year’s FA Cup champions, Crystal Palace. 

It was the first time an FA Cup holder has been knocked out by a non-league side since the 1908/09 season, coincidentally also involving Crystal Palace. This shocking upset has now been rumoured to have been picked up by a high-profile Hollywood director, according to multiple English news outlets. The film would no doubt delve deep into the demise of Macclesfield Football Club, which was liquidated in 2020 and picked back up, starting from scratch, by Rob Smethurst, who reportedly bought the club “after a four-day bender”. The club is now managed by Wayne Rooney’s brother, John Rooney, who made his older brother proud, with Wayne working as a pundit on that special day in Macclesfield’s history.    

The story of Wycombe Wanderers and Roy Essandoh, however, is simply something out of a movie script and is not well known outside the English football media. 

On 10th March 2001, Wycombe Wanderers, a division two side at the time (equivalent to modern-day League One – 3rd Division), found themselves in an FA Cup quarter-final tie against Premier League side, Leicester City. Previously, Wycombe had only gone as far as the third round, making it a tremendous occasion for the fanbase. Winning this booked them a semi-final trip to Villa Park, where they would take on the mighty Liverpool. The minnows had little chance, with 54 places separating them in the English football pyramid. To add to this, the club was hit with a severe injury crisis in the striker department. A news headline in the week leading up to the game perfectly described the situation. “Wycombe strikers are going like Cup tickets.” With seven forwards absent, desperation was revealed when the club released an advert on their website, calling for any striker who is fit and not cup-tied to get in contact. This eleventh-hour advert was also found on the BBC’s television text service, called Ceefax. 

Ceefax was the world’s first teletext information service, introduced by the BBC in 1974. Its initial aim was to provide closed captioning on television to people who were deaf. It was also a useful source at the time for advertising or answering queries to the masses who used the service. A journalist spotted the club’s advertisement on their website and thus published it on the teletext service.

There was one application that arose from the Ceefax. That was Roy Essandoh’s agent. The 25-year-old began his footballing career in Scotland when he left Northern Ireland to join Motherwell Football Club at just 18 years old. After little success over four years, Roy set his sights on Finland, where he spent two years playing regular football, scoring on 12 occasions for clubs JJK Jyväskylä and Vaasan Palloseura. Roy returned to the United Kingdom, playing a handful of games for non-league Rushden and Diamonds before turning up for a reserve game the week before Wycombe’s biggest match in decades. 

Wycombe’s opponents, Leicester, were managed by Peter Taylor and had players such as Welsh international Robbie Savage on their side, sitting comfortably in the top half of the Premier League. The Ceefax striker on his two-week contract started the afternoon on the bench, dreaming of a potential glimmer of opportunity to make FA Cup folklore. With a cagey opening half, Wycombe’s dream of becoming FA Cup semi-finalists kicked into gear when they took the lead, five minutes into the second half, with a header from defender Paul McCarthy. It was an inevitable equaliser from the home side, twenty-three minutes from the end, which set the scene for a bizarre series of drama towards the end of the game. The introduction of Essandoh was followed by his manager, Lawrie Sanchez, getting sent off minutes later. The underdogs were not awarded a stonewall penalty after the ball clearly struck the hand of a Leicester defender inside their box. It is safe to say Sanchez did not take the decision well, going berserk at the officials in the pouring rain, resulting in his marching orders.

The drama didn’t end. With additional time now set, it looked ever more likely for a replay between the two clubs back to Adam’s Park (Wycombe’s home stadium). However, up stepped the Ceefax striker who leapt like a salmon to score his first goal in English football and send Wycombe Wanderers into the FA Cup semi-final.        

Arguably, the most poetic detail in this whirlwind of a story is the video of Wycombe boss, Sanchez, capturing him seeing his striker score the last-minute winner on a television in the away dressing room. It was a television that gave him the opportunity to sign a striker amidst an injury crisis, and it was a television that showed him his success in doing so.

There is no doubt that this was the peak of Roy Essandoh’s career, with it being his only goal for the club, as he was released at the end of the season. He went on to score goals for a number of non-league clubs; however, it is 10th March 2001, that will forever have him in British football folklore, popping up in the odd trivia quiz. 

For Leicester, it was a dark day in the club’s history. The result affected them psychologically for the remainder of the season, winning only one of their last ten Premier League fixtures. Their successful first half of the campaign, sitting neatly in the top half, as well as an easy quarter-final FA Cup tie ahead, was shattered as they finished in a measly 13th place.

“And the wonder story of the FA Cup continues!”

“This is a player who answered an appeal on the Wycombe website for players”