The South West will be represented in this year’s FA Cup final after Stoke City’s Cornish winger Matthew Etherington helped the Potters’ defeat Bolton Wanderers to set up a meeting with big-spending Manchester City at Wembley.
Truro-born Etherington opened the scoring for Stoke as they defeated a crushing 5-0 defeat on the Trotters 5-0 in the Semi-Final meeting at Wembley.
After making his debut for Peterborough United in the 1996-97 season as a 15-year old joined Tottenham Hotspur in a joint deal with Simon Davies in 1999 and has also represented England at Youth and Under-21 level.
In 2003, Etherington joined West Ham United and helped the Hammers win promotion back to the top-flight in the 2005-06 season. He featured the West Ham starting XI in their Championship Play-Off final winning side at the Millennium Stadium.
A year later, he was back in Cardiff after the Hammers reached the FA Cup final where they were beaten on penalties by Liverpool after drawing 3-3 after 90 minutes and extra time.
Midway through the 2008-09 season, Etherington moved on to Stoke City and he has helped Tony Pulis’ side to establish themselves in the top-flight and now has a chance of picking up an FA Cup winners’ medal.
Other South West footballers to have appeared in FA Cup finals in recent include Etherington’s fellow Cornishman Nigel Martyn who kept goal for Crystal Palace in the 1990 final and Devonian Dan Gosling who appeared as a substitute for Everton against Chelsea in the 2009 final.