FA Cup Legend Tim Buzaglo Brands Historic Hat-Trick 'The Worst Thing I Ever Did'
It has been more than thirty-five years since Tim Buzaglo etched his name into FA Cup folklore with a stunning hat-trick for non-League side Woking, which famously knocked out West Bromwich Albion in the third round. Today, the modest 64-year-old describes his heroics at The Hawthorns, which remains one of the competition's greatest-ever shocks, as the "worst thing I ever did." This is not due to any regret about the achievement itself, but rather the relentless attention and pestering that has followed him ever since, including, he notes with a smile, from journalists.
Olivia Buzaglo's Pride in Her Famous Surname
In contrast, his daughter Olivia, 31, who has risen through the ranks as a sports presenter in recent years and now works on FA Cup coverage for TNT Sports, wears the Buzaglo name like a badge of honour. "I don't ever want to change my surname," she enthuses in a conversation with Daily Mail Sport ahead of this weekend's fifth-round fixtures. "I want to keep Buzaglo forever, because I love its links to football and the FA Cup. When you hear the name, everyone thinks of my dad—and I think he will always be the most famous Buzaglo. But I love the surname; it's always been special."
Olivia Buzaglo emphasizes that she never wants to change her famous surname, a legacy tied to her father Tim Buzaglo, who scored a hat-trick as non-League Woking beat West Brom in the FA Cup in 1991. The significance of that January day in 1991, when the minnows from Surrey claimed the scalp of a team from the old Second Division, has only grown clearer with time. A recent study shared by the FA calculated the probability of Woking's 4-2 victory at an astonishing one in sixteen million.
Tim Buzaglo's Reflections on the Unlikely Victory
"For me, we had no chance of winning that game, absolutely no chance," Tim recalls. "But Geoff (Chapple) and Fred (Callaghan) had them watched five times, and they were convinced we would beat them. And we deserved it as well. It wasn't a fluke." The result transformed Tim's life overnight, making him an unlikely hero of the cup. Suddenly, there were cameras in his face, requests for interviews, and a phone that rang incessantly. He admits it was "scary," which might explain why he never told Olivia about it.
"I don't tell anybody what I do," Tim explains. "I find it all embarrassing really, so the last person I wanted to tell was Olivia." In fact, it was Olivia's mother who explained her father's achievements, and at around age fifteen, Olivia realized its full significance. "I just remember loving it," Olivia recalls. "If anyone ever asked me about it, I thought it was so cool."
Olivia's Journey in Football and Broadcasting
At that time, Tim, who also played for Gibraltar's cricket team, would take Olivia to her own football matches as she dreamed of emulating her dad on the pitch. After playing for sides such as Maidenhead, QPR, and Watford, Olivia pursued a career in sports journalism and has now become one of British broadcasting's most recognizable faces. Whether her surname was on the back of a shirt or on a media pass, people were bound to recognize it.
Olivia loves her dad's story, but he was too shy to tell her about it when she was growing up. "I can't remember ever going into a press room where there's not someone that either asks me if I'm related to Dad or asks how he is," Olivia says. "I work on a lot of the same games as Martin Tyler, and obviously he's a Woking fan, but every single time he asks about Dad."
She adds, "I always think it's hilarious that people think he's the reason that I've got my job. People always say, 'The daughter of an FA Cup legend—shock—that's how she got into the industry.' But it couldn't be any further from anything like that." In reality, Olivia began her career at Premier League Productions after an interviewee for her university dissertation tipped her off about a role as a digital logger, manually inputting information for live top-flight matches. She still works there today as a presenter and reporter, alongside her duties with TNT Sports, talkSPORT, and Baller League.
Memorable Moments and Family Ties to Chelsea
Despite her career taking her to all corners of the globe, one of her greatest professional moments came at Moss Rose, when she was pitch-side for Macclesfield's shock FA Cup win over Crystal Palace in this season's third round—a giant-killing that perhaps even eclipsed her father's famous day in 1991. "This season's been extra special," Olivia says. "Being at Macclesfield for that game—I couldn't have written any better. Someone actually messaged me to say, 'The daughter of an FA Cup giantkiller, at one of the biggest giantkillings of all time.' So that was really special."
Tim and Olivia's love of Chelsea is also centred around the FA Cup, as fate would have it. As a youngster, Tim attended the famous 1967 FA Cup final between Tottenham and the Blues and decided, in somewhat masochistic fashion, that he would go on to support the losing team on the day. With Spurs running out 2-1 winners, the rest, as they say, is history.
"My love for football, and my love for Chelsea started with Dad," Olivia says. "Because I would go to his friend's houses to watch football or they'd come to our house. And I'd just go along and sit there and watch. I'd be the only kid, or the only girl, definitely." She adds, "If I didn't have that love for Chelsea growing up, I probably wouldn't be in this job right now. I wouldn't have the love for football that I do. So, on my days off, I will always make sure I can try and go to games. If I can go away, great. If I can't, fine. But I'll always try to go to Stamford Bridge, and I'll always try and keep the fan side of me there, because I love it. It's so different to watching a game when I'm working. I can just go with my friends that I've been all around Europe with, and have a nice time. So no matter if big companies tell me that I can't be too Chelsea, I'm just like, 'Well, maybe I'm just not the person for you then.'"
Looking Ahead to the FA Cup Fixtures
Ahead of this weekend's fixtures, Tim—who jokingly laments that Olivia has only seen the good side of Chelsea in the post-Roman Abramovich era—is optimistic that Liam Rosenior's Blues will get past Wrexham on Saturday. "I'll say 3-1 to Chelsea," says Tim. "If we ever play a team, and it's anybody, a team in a lower division, I expect to win. A higher division, I expect to lose. So I expect Chelsea to go and beat Wrexham." By his own logic, upsets should never happen, which makes what he did at The Hawthorns all those years ago even more remarkable. That, in itself, is surely the enduring beauty of the FA Cup.
