Former Watford ace John Barnes has spoken about his fond memories of playing for the Hornets in the FA Cup.

This coming weekend should have seen the 2020 final take place at Wembley, but the coronavirus pandemic has since put a halt to all sport in the country.

Last season the Hornets made it to the final for only the second time in their history, only to be beaten by Manchester City.

Speaking to Bonus Code Bets, Barnes said his favourite goal in the competition came while playing for Watford, against would-be colleague Tony Coton, while his favourite memory of the tournament was the semi-final victory over Plymouth.

“My favourite FA Cup goal was against Birmingham in the quarter-finals for Watford," he said.

"We beat Plymouth in the semi-final, Birmingham in the quarter-finals, and that was against one of my best friends, Tony Coton, who later came to Watford. So, that was my favourite and we won 3-1.

“My favourite [FA Cup memory] was the semi-final for Watford against Plymouth, which meant we got to our first FA Cup Final for Watford in 1984, which was unbelievable.

“Where you want to lose the FA Cup is in the final. You don't want to lose in the semi-final. Particularly back then, in the weeks leading up to the FA Cup final, the players were just immersed into the country, the fans, media, so the week of the FA Cup final is special. Yes, you're disappointed that you've lost, but if you lose in the semi-finals – I've lost semi-finals a few times as well – that's not the place to lose.”

Barnes claims that the FA Cup lost its magic somewhat recently, and that over the past few years and that some of the bigger teams in England were disrespectful toward it as a competition.

However, he now believes teams are once again taking it more seriously and are more interested in silverware than they were about a top four finish.

“I think that [the FA Cup losing its magic] was the case possibly about 12 years ago, up until about five years ago, whereby they were playing weakened teams," he said.

"We saw teams do it like Man United and Chelsea, but I don't think they do that anymore because they realised that winning a trophy is important.

“Once upon a time, I would say about 10-12 years ago, everybody wanted to finish fourth rather than get to a cup final because finishing fourth gets you into the Champions League. The big teams were, in my opinion, disrespectful to the cup by playing weakened sides.

“Then when they kept finishing fourth, like Arsene Wenger will testify, to just qualify for the Champions League, the fans were unhappy because all of a sudden, they weren’t winning a trophy. So, they said, ‘we have to win a trophy as well’.”