the quarter-final saw wednesday drawn away to coventry city, where a 1-0 victory for wednesday ended any hopes that coventry's new player-manager terry butcher might have had of beginning his managerial career with silverware. their semi-final opponents were drawn against chelsea. the first leg of the semi-final was played at stamford bridge, where goals from peter shirtliff and david hirst gave them a 2–0 win, before nigel pearson, danny wilson and paul williams gave them a 3–1 win in the second leg at hillsborough to put them into the final, 5–1 on aggregate. it was wednesday's first wembley cup final in 25 years.