1) The Night is Darkest before the Dawn …………. City 2 – Gillingham 2 1999
The paradox of this game is that it also contains a moment that will probably be number one in a forthcoming blog about the best ten moments in City’s recent history. But the night is truly darkest before the dawn and the moment Robert Taylor put Gillingham 2-0 remains the only moment in my life where I questioned my profound love for Manchester City. I had been by their side as they plunged through the divisions, I had prayed for recovery, but my love had never wavered. This was the moment I abandoned all hope. I remember vividly thinking “I can’t put myself through this any more”. Luckily, I didn’t have to. It never, ever got as bad as that moment when the roar from the other end of Wembley ripped out my heart.
So there you have it, a dark journey into the recesses of City’s recent past. As I compiled it, I felt a little of what an alcoholic must feel when made to publicly relive their lowest points in an AA meeting. But, like the reformed alcoholic, it felt curiously cathartic, even uplifting, because when the Premier League Trophy is finally lifted before my eyes, these are the memories which will flash through my mind, like a dying soldier’s life. As Silva lays waste to all enemies and City march onwards, no prisoners taken, it is important to remember that it is the bitterness of defeat that makes victory taste sweet. And I believe no club’s supporters can savour and appreciate that taste like City’s. So bring on Man United in a Do or Die title decider in April next year, because the new City doesn’t die heroically under a hail of bullets, or fall over a trip wire, like the old one did. Those days are resigned to the past.
