The only final named after a player (rather than a white horse) celebrated the autumn of the great Stanley Matthews' career, although he was so pleased with the reviews of his match-winning exploits at the age of 38 in the 1953 Final that he played professionally for another twelve years, and still thought he retired too early.

The zenith of Norman Whiteside's Manchester United career probably came at 19, in the 1985 FA Cup Final, when he scored the winner against Everton in extra-time to pick up a second FA Cup medal. He had already become the youngest Cup Final scorer two years earlier, with a goal in the 4-0 replay victory over Brighton. Cup finals (and World Cups) punctuated a ten-year career that ended at 26, and Whiteside now makes a living as a podiatrist.

Contesting the spotlight in the 1980 Cup final were a veteran and a youngster. Thirty-one year old Trevor Brooking scored the only goal of the game for West Ham against Arsenal, but the most memorable incident of the game witnessed Paul Allen, at 17 years and 256 days the youngest player to win the FA Cup, approaching a one on one with the venerable Pat Jennings before being scythed down by Willie Young, still one of the most crudely ruthless fouls ever seen at Wembley. It turned out to be a metaphor for Allen's career, often on the verge of personal glory, too often muscled out of the way by cruder players.

Allen's record could be broken this afternoon, by Cardiff City's prodigious 17-year-old midfielder Aaron Ramsey (shall we open a sweepstake on how long it will be before John Motson can resist chuntering on about "a certain other A Ramsey who found glory at Wembley forty-two years ago"?).

The Cardiff manager Dave Jones has yet to decide whether Ramsey's adventurous spirit and versatility will suit his tactics for the big game, but the sense is that if Cardiff are to spring a surprise they might need to take exactly that kind of risk. Given the modern climate of football, and youngsters' present lack of any respect for traditions, bah, humph, splutter, perhaps Ramsey is more concerned with the real possibility of a £5 million transfer to Manchester United than Wembley glory. That might be a mistake.

At the other end of the career arc, Cardiff's other potential secret weapon, Robbie Fowler, might yet be allowed to make a cameo appearance in a third Cup Final. If the 1996 final was the last big gig for the Spice Boys and ended in a tame defeat, the 2001 final in Cardiff was a happier affair, with Fowler coming off the bench with 12 minutes remaining, in time to witness Michael Owen's two late goals that defeated Arsenal 2-1.

The sheer unlikeliness of Fowler featuring this afternoon makes it a potentially perfect FA Cup story. Out for five months with a hip injury, he has trained assiduously to be in contention for Jones' squad. The manager has to weigh the player's rustiness against his experience, and a finishing instinct that eclipses anybody else's in the Cardiff squad.

A more plausible exponent of elderly heroics will line up in the opposition ranks. Sol Campbell's illustrious career, at club and international level, was clouded by the manner of his departure from Arsenal, and specifically the incident in February 2006, when he left Highbury at half-time, after being hounded by an uncharacteristically lively West Ham forward line.

An underrated element of Harry Redknapp's managerial armoury is a basic ability to cheer players up. Campbell is a happy bunny going into a last Wembley fling, at the end of a season in which his class and resilience have made a considerable contribution to Portsmouth's Cup run, especially in the quarter-final against Manchester United at Old Trafford. His self-description, as a "proper footballer who respects the game", marks him out as something of a rarity in a world of money-grabbing egotists, temperamental thespians and hard-nosed cynics, but it is appropriately unspectacular.

If Campbell's defensive assurance seemed to fragment at Arsenal, it has been bolstered at Fratton Park, aided by a complementary partnership with Sylvain Distin. If Wembley is traditionally a pitch that can expose sluggish or elderly legs, Campbell's reading of the game and positional intelligence usually make amends for his decreased mobility. He has shaken off a hamstring strain to make the final, and realises it is probably his last chance of another medal.

In 1998, but for a flailing Alan Shearer elbow that the referee spotted, Campbell would have scored the winner in a World Cup head-to-head with Argentina. Ten years later he is back in the limelight. It would probably be the kiss of death to suggest that today's may become the "Campbell Final", but not many outside of Cardiff would begrudge him a last afternoon in the spotlight.