For FA Cup, really remember the highs and lows of the 87-88 season. It was the year we beat Huddersfield 10-1 in the league then got drawn against them in the third round. Everyone thought we'd be through easily but we scraped through the first game 2-2 after John Gidman equalised at the old London Rd (?) ground with a daisycutter in injury time, I think after a free kick. The replay at Maine Road was 120 minutes of boredom but we did them 3-0 at theirs in the second replay - remember them?
Next round was Blackpool away and we were in the only part of the open end at Bloomfield Road that hadn't been condemned. Again, we needed a last-minute equaliser to force a replay. Think it was Paul Lake or Paul Stewart but even now I can remember the ball pinging around the box for about 15 seconds before we scored. We won 2-1 in the replay, I think with Stewart scoring against his former club.
Fifth round was Plymouth at home. We'd hammered them 6-2 in the Simod Cup that season - three days after the Huddesfield demolition in the league and it was a 3-1 routine win. Can remember the length-of-the-field breakaway third finished off, I think, by Paul Moulden.
Then the dippers in the QF at Maine Road in the only televised game. Packed Kippax. Seem to remember it being a bit tense. Think David White had a half-chance in the first half but in truth we were well beaten. Think Craig Johnson had a blinder.
Talking of second replays, think it was the season after when we got Millwall in the third or fourth round. Ended up in second replay at old Den on a nasty, dark, winter night. Paul Lake scored a screamer to make it 1-1, I think, in front of us, but it was a horrible place and we lost 3-1. Even then we were kept in for ages. I remember a small part of me thinking it was a good job we lost.
As others have said, Notts County away was horrid. Really enjoyed the away game at Burnley when Niall Quinn scored and we won 1-0.
They're all games I was at before moving to the other side of the world.
Again as others have said, West Ham at home in the quarter-final was a horrible TV experience - just as beating the vermin in the semi was brilliant. Came back for both finals - not having been at either league win, the Stoke game was one of my top four live experiences (Bradford away for promotion, 5-1, Gillingham being the others) and therefore the best in the FA Cup. The Wigan final was a nightmare and, like others have said, some (most?) of our players that day sullied their reputations.
Fantastic run down of the cup run in my first season of watching City home and away.
i absolutely loved that period.Huddersfield played at Leeds rd, not London and it was Hendry who scored the winner at Burnley not Quinn.
The Huddersfield 2-2 was just incredible, 3pm sat kick off and a cracking atmosphere on the terrace behind the goal at kick off- i,d never experienced anything like it,def felt the magic of the cup and the udders meat pies were def a level up on Maine road stodge.Drunk on cheap cider and singing my head off and listening to the almost tribal rivalry of west yorks v lancs as kick off time approached is something i,ll never ever forget.The match itself was pretty ordinary until that last crazy ten mins when so much happened i felt despondency and elation in quick sucession as an almost comedy club series of events saw us snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat....the yorkshire cider would have left a nasty taste in my mouth if we,d lost that bloody game.
Missed the 0-0 draw in the replay at Maine rd,but was back there in the pouring rain for the second replay, again on a packed terrace behind the goal,singing my head off and this time City eased thru with a confident performance which begged the question did the team feel m ore at home in a torrential downpour, and actually, could it rain like that at every away game please.
i was soaking wet the whole evening after being picked up late pm at junction 26 of the M1 by the leicester and rugby coach, and being dropped off just after midnight and trying to jog the four miles home,once again drunk on cheap yorks. cider.
The blackpool away tie in the next leg was incredible.
all in yates beforehand.city fans made off with the til from behind the bar. all hell broke loose.came outside at half two and the sea air hit me.immediately drunk and unsteady on my feet..which helped when we arrived at bloomfield, on the away coach car park was a pitched battle in full swing, it was bedlam.sat 3pm kick off indeed, very much so....
safely inside the away end, packed in like sardines on the side,it was mayhem..had just enough time to take a look around the decaying old "stadium" and noticed the two,gigantic terraces behind each goal..wow...a reminder of the days when Blackpool were clearly one of the biggest teams in the country.Much of the terrace was now deemed unsafe and City fans were in the only safe section at the front, to my right.My visual tour of the ground ( i,d only seen the place before on the tv when Micky Walsh scored his brilliant goal of the season that everyone remembers a few years before) came to an sudden end when the first major sway of the side terrace occured( clearly those that had been scrapping had chosen to enter the ground,) it was 3pm and the real action was about to begin....Not a vinatge City performance by any means, although i do remember Lake executing a brilliant slide tackle to stop a lightning quick counter attack by home teams left winger who was taken by surprise when Lake made up 20 yards on him and swept the ball from under his feet and out of play in a manner Bobby Moore would have been proud of...probably.
The last two mins of the game were incredible..i had spent the entire match trying to stand up as the crowd ebbed and flowed one way then the other, then completely gave up when the last min goal was nudged in by lake, altho i didn,t know the scorer ( no one did) until sunday luchtime at the earliest)..the celebrations on the side terrace were mental,absolute bedlam.
The magic of the FA Cup.
