It was early 1991 and we’d not long since parted company with Manager Howard Kendall; when the long-time, former servant of Everton - both as a Player and Manager - decided to leave us to re-join his favourite club.
At Manchester City, he had built a half-decent, even quite-flippin’-good team and his departure shocked every City fan I knew & met and it left a real sour taste in the mouth of many-a-Blue. In fact, I recall hearing the news when on a camping holiday with a mate in the Lake District and it took half-a-day for the news to be believed / sink in…
So, Peter Reid took over and we were drawn away at Port Vale in the 4th round of the F.A. Cup – it was an away day I’ll always remember and I could have sworn I’d once done a “memories” write-up about it in my Blog years ago…but I just can’t find it in my archives.
Basically…
We got to Burslem Railway Station really early for the 3pm KO to attempt, along
with 30-odd other City fans, to beat any Police cordon so that we could head
off for a few, pre-match beverages. I think it was about 9:30/9:45am we stepped
off the train. Sadly, they were ready & waiting for us and with wry smiles,
welcomed us at the station door before putting us into ‘a pen’-like waiting
area just outside.
They were lovely coppers though and, in
fact, they walked us to the edge of town (I don’t recall it being a long walk)
and began to tell us where we might find something to eat and, crucially,
the pubs that might let us in. Sadly, we were turned away at every suggested
watering hole.
Soon, 30-odd City fans in our “group”
became 20-odd; became 18, fizzled down to a dozen or so, which soon became 8
and, eventually, just the 4 of us; as we trundled, unsuccessfully, around
town, Mary & Joseph-like looking for
room ‘at an Inn’.
As the remaining 4 of us, who clearly
looked like non-locals, shuffled up a street; all of a sudden, we noticed a
couple of lads on one corner. They were soon to be joined by more on other
corners of the various junctions around us; all with their attention focused on
us.
After a short time, one of ‘em approached
and asked, “Are you looking for a pub, lads?”. I recall that we all sort of, softly
murmured, “Yes” and he beckoned over the other 7 or 8 lads. Outnumbered by
3 or 4, we were ushered up some well-dodgy-looking stairs that reminded
me of some council block scene from The Bill.
I honestly
thought we were being led into some sort of ambush and, later, I found out that
I wasn’t alone in thinking that.
As we reached an unexpectedly, nicely-varnished,
wooden door with shiny brass handles & plates; on the other side was a
beautiful sight to behold! It turned out to be a really big, well-maintained
pub with snooker tables down one side and City flags & fans everywhere! It
was run by a City fan who lived in the town (of course) and the
lads that ushered us in were sent out by the owner to ‘mop up’ any Blues they
found wandering around looking for a pint. The lads soon left, in fact, to
gather some more customers and the bar was soon rammed with Blues!
It
was such a welcome relief for more reasons than one…
Once in the ground
I loved the grittiness-feel of Vale Park – back then, it was a real mishmash of
proper-old stands and a strange-looking, sort of half-built new’ish stand
at the far end from where we were stood.
Later research told me that the owners,
at one time many years earlier, had tried to make Vale Park ‘The Wembley of the North”. However, they eventually ran
out of money, by all accounts, and even recent reports about the ground states
that at least one of their stands remains unfinished…29-years later!
The game too – as well as the pitch back
then – had a right, old-fashioned, English cup-tie feel to it.
In proper City-marron away colours, Niall Quinn scored an exquisite, half-volley goal
to take us 0-1 up in the first half but former City Youth player / forward, Darren Beckford – a Manchester lad who, I
believe, now works in the community close to where he was born in Manchester
– of course came back to haunt us; equalising for
the home side not long afterwards.
It was tough going at times after that and
the home side really looked more like scoring. However, we too had our chances and
as time ticked towards ‘the 90’, most of the City fans were screaming for
footballing legend, Clive Allen, to be
brought on. In the 80-something minute, I think it was, the fans got
their wish and with his very first touch from a corner, he headed in the winner!
I recall, as I / we often did, going wild
in the large standing area behind the goal - there were thousands of us!
After the game, they kept us in for a long
time, which was often the case, and as a rather large (both tall and portly)
groundsman walked past in front of us with pitchfork in hand, coat zipped right
up to his chin and with a woolly hat on; Manchester City fans started singing, “Are you Kendall in disguise? Arrrre
you Kendall…”. As soon as the song stopped and with
a brief, comedy pause, I said, “It’s
a ******’ good disguise.”, which resulted in bursts of
laughter within a 10-foot or so radius.
Great day and ‘away-days in general’, back
then, and here’s highlight footage of that very match (Note: Only 2 subs allowed!):
v Port Vale
 |
| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct
from starting line-up in the last game: An appallingly-bad, 5/11! I don’t
think I’ve ever got as many as that wrong before…).
Fluid 4-5-1 / 3-6-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Aguero____________________
_____________________Doyle_____________________
_____________Garcia________Harwood-Bellis_______
_____________________Bravo_____________________
Well, having got the starting line-up spectacularly
wrong in the last game, I’m REALLY gonna stick my neck out with this one! I’m
also throwing out a little ‘cheeky one’ here, in some ways…
Claudio keeps his place in net.
I thought I’d half-heard that Oleksandr was either injured or ill but I
can’t be sure and, so, I’m going for him to start on the left of defence.
Alpha, a young Senegal / Spanish right-wing back who has been on the bench
before, could get a start tomorrow evening on the opposite flank. This is an
ideal game to pair both Eric & Taylor in-between those, which is what I’m going
for our manager to do.
Tommy could get another outing and be the deeper-lying midfielder; Ian,
David, Bernardo & Adrian the more-attacking midfielders / wingers.
Sergio to use this game to continue getting his fitness closer to 100%, following
some time out with injury recently.
Scott the reserve stopper; Angelino, Kyle & Fernandinho provide
defensive replacement options from the side. Phil, Raheem & Gabriel ‘in
there’ in case we need extra creativity / firepower.
Notable
absences:
- Aymeric Laporte – Back training, albeit
light work, with the squad; as he continues his comeback routine following long-term injury.
- Leroy Sane – Continues his fitness
training following long-term injury.
Update (04.01.2020): Apparently, John Stones is not only available but is being lined up to start this evening...
Update (04.01.2020): Apparently, John Stones is not only available but is being lined up to start this evening...
Result?
Our visitors do appear to be a difficult side to get a win against; certainly
at League-2 level. In fact, not only does their last 5 in the league read D D D W D
but out of 25 games played in their division, they’ve only lost 6! Drawing is definitely ‘their speciality’ this
season…
Apparently, their boss likes
to play attractive, attacking football too and although we might not see much
of this formation from The Valiants tomorrow; he often prefers to set up 4-3-3.
Goals don’t appear to come from one, specific
source – they’re pretty spread out amongst the team, which does spell danger in
some ways. However, I would say, without being an expert on them, that 6’
3’’ veteran Tom Pope could cause us a threat, especially
from set pieces.
I know I’ve suggested a very-much-changed
side with a large sprinkling of youth and that’s no disrespect to the oppo
whatsoever (and is, of course,
a guess at what our manager MIGHT pick rather than my own suggestion)
but even if I’m correct; that surely would still be enough to see us progress into
the 4th round.
Of course, we have extra ammo on the bench
too and whether that’s needed or not, I’m going for a home win.
Last season’s,
corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: N/A
Result: N/A
Expected weather conditions during
the game: Once again, just as with the last 2 home fixtures, there’s ‘not much doin’’ really. 7C is the coldest it’s gonna get; very little chance of light drizzle and not much of a breeze.
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