I don’t make a habit of watching the final of the FA Cup, the second-biggest domestic prize in English soccer. Most of my life I just wasn’t interested enough, and I probably could not have seen it, anyway.

Tonight I watched one for the second time in my life, and the first time since 1991. Just the other day, that is.

It’s not hard to grasp how I might have seen it this year. I live in a country that is far more interested in English soccer than it is in UAE soccer. I work for a sports section, at The National in Abu Dhabi, that covers the Premier League extensively.

But what was I doing watching this thing back in 1991?

Odd, the things you remember. Why would this have stuck in my mind?

I was in England at the time. There’s that. But I had been in England three other times the previous decade. So it wasn’t like it was some shockingly fresh concept.

But I remembered being in a hotel room somewhere, and watching a major soccer final. Right there in England.

I had two other clues to help me along in figuring out which FA Cup final I had seen. (And to make sure it hadn’t been some league cup):

1. I was almost sure Paul Gascoigne played in it, and …

2. The British papers had been writing about the fear of hooliganism at the match.

So, I traced the clubs Gazza played for, matched them up to the FA Cup finalists, and bang, there it is:

The 1991 FA Cup final: Tottenham 2, Nottingham Forest 1. Gazza having played for Tottenham that day. Forest having provided the rep for thuggish fans.

I have a vague recollection of sitting in a room about the size of a motel room, perhaps sitting on the end of a bed, and watching this thing. Gascoigne must have been the rage, because I remembered him … but I didn’t remember that the match was decided on an own goal. I would imagine Des Walker hasn’t live that down yet, even as good a player as he was.

Curious thing about that own goal: I was just looking at his wiki page, and the man scored one goal for his own side in the eight years he was with Nottingham Forest. Yet there’s the own goal in the FA Cup final. Interestingly, the own goal doesn’t seem to be mentioned in his wiki page. A fairly significant omission.

Also, I knew at least one of the teams was known for hooliganism, and Forest handled that both then — and now.

Just in the past decade, incidents have been reported involving Nottingham Forest fans, and in 2005 a book on bad actors at Forest was published, entitled Inside the Forest Executive Crew, the grandiloquent name the thugs gave to their little band of merry men.

Two other hooliganism-related notes …

1. It was during that visit to England, as I recall, that I became aware of a guy who had tattooed his team’s name on the inside of his lower lip, and was always happy to roll it over for inspection. Pretty sure it was a guy with a “FOREST” tat. Ugh.

2. The early 1990s were still in the heyday of the hooligan era, in England. I remember how England had been placed on the island of Sardinia for the group stage of the 1990 World Cup, to try to make it hard for the goons to see England play … and I also remember how very pleased Alan Rothenberg — the president of the US Soccer Federation — was when England failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.  They weren’t worth the trouble, basically.

(They famously rioted after their first game in France, at the 1998 World Cup.)

So, the FA Cup final I saw last night … Chelsea won 2-1 over Liverpool. No stabbings or beatings, that I’ve heard tell.

And at this pace, I’m next due to tune in for the Cup final along about 2032. Sure.