Manchester City v Gillingham 2nd Division Play Off Final 1999 23 Years Today.

  • Thread starter Thread starter ElleBla
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It was some journey to end up there from where we were as a club in the late 70s n’all.

We’d finished 2nd in the league in 1977, averaging over 40,000 gates (third only to United and Liverpool in that era), and we’d won 6 trophies in a decade and should have gone on to win the UEFA Cup in ’79. We were one of the top handful of clubs in the country.

Then came Swales and decades of poor leadership and mismanagement, and we ended up there in the third tier of English football.
 
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Blimey 23 years ago!! So at this time I would be heading down the M6 no doubt thinking I bet we mess this one up.
What a journey.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
It was some journey to end up there from where we were as a club in the late 70s n’all.

We’d finished 2nd in the league in 1977, averaging over 40,000 gates (third only to United and Liverpool in that era), and we’d won 6 trophies in a decade. We were one of the top handful of clubs in the country.

Then came Swales and decades of poor leadership and mismanagement, and we ended up there in the third tier of English football.
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Things could of worked out so differently & Not only do we have one of the most loyal & passionate mainly local fan bases Our fans remember only to well supporting the club through the darker eras & Is why the majority of our fan base remain humble & grounded never take anything for granted & truly appreciate cherish & saviour any success we share in
 
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Seems like yesterday. Travelled down in my older brothers car with his son & our Dad. The quality of the football was awful. The guy sat next to us left at around 85 minutes with the words "Well there's no way 2 Manchester clubs are going to score twice in the last few minutes in the same week!." (Remember the swamp dwellers had won the chumps league the previous week).
Anyway he got back to his seat in time for extra time. Great day out and result in the end. Thank God for Joe Royle, Terry Cook, Paul Dickov, Nicky Weaver, Kevin Horlock and the rest of the team. Was sat behind the goal about 3/4 up. Great finish by Dickov. Funnily enough once we stopped passing sideways and attacked we looked like we would get something from the game. There were rumours of us going out of business if we had of lost. Now the worlds richest club and worth around 4-5 billion pounds. Not a bad turnaround. Well done City.
 
WetLeg said:
Things could of worked out so differently & Not only do we have one of the most loyal & passionate mainly local fan bases Our fans remember only to well supporting the club through the darker eras & Is why the majority of our fan base remain humble & grounded never take anything for granted & truly appreciate cherish & saviour any success we share in
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And it's a doddle when adversity comes along and tries to bite yer arse - we can cope. I think Kipling wrote his 'IF' with us in mind. We can handle 'those two impostors' like no other club!
 
RiversideBlue said:
One favourite memory of the day was singing "you can stick your fucking treble up your arse....sideways" after we'd won. The rags had won the European Cup a few days earlier.
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Remember that being sung outside Wembley rail station after the match. It had poured down earlier, got soaked. Left at 0-2 down and learned not to do that again.
 
Watched it in a pub in Inverness, with a friend who was a Gills fan. Stormed out of pub at 2-0, came back in in time to see Dickovs goal. The rest of night is a blur.
 
AliBobbyJ said:

Remember that being sung outside Wembley rail station after the match. It had poured down earlier, got soaked. Left at 0-2 down and learned not to do that again.
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I left at 2 nil down as well but managed to get back in for extra time and pens. Taught me not to leave early, without that I don't think I'd have seen the Aguerooooooo moment
 
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