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

[pirate]

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.

look across town
see any parallels?

 

[Patrick keegan kid]

That was the day the tide turned.
For once Manchester City flooked it.
The first time ever I knew we weren’t going to lose in extra time or penalties because for once luck was on our side.
We walked out of Wembley singing “you can stick the fucking treble up your arse”.
If you were there that day, you’d never leave before the end again.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Felt absolutely exhausted at the end of the game.

Couldnt sleep the night before and the emotion of the day further drained me.

Never been so low and then so high within 5 minutes.

Exactly how I felt last week!!

 

[citydad]

It was the 1st leg of a treble for a mate of ours, the other parts of the treble were Aguero QPR game and Villa Last game 8 days ago. His amazing treble was that he left the games before the end and missed the lot ha ha,

 

[Mariosfireworks]

I was at Wembley that day, was behind the net where the penalties were taken, the emotion that day was surreal, when horlick scored,.my first thought was typical fucking city, when dickov scored it was mental, then came the penalties and when edgehill stepped up I thought wtf, and the rest is history

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

It was the 1st leg of a treble for a mate of ours, the other parts of the treble were Aguero QPR game and Villa Last game 8 days ago. His amazing treble was that he left the games before the end and missed the lot ha ha,

I very nearly left the Gillingham one. Went for a piss around 88 mins, spent the next couple of mins slagging them off in the concourse to anyone who would listen and
was about to leave but heard the First goal and then watched the rest from one of the exits. Went absolutely mental at 2-2, hugging anyone in reach and then went back to where I was sat. My dad wasn’t there (I didn’t travel with him as he was on a special train) and I will never know if he left. He said he didn’t but I think he probably did. He has missed all of this recent success. I so wish he hadn’t. His last game was the Derby 1-0 win under Sven when Johnson scored that cracker. He died 2 months later suddenly at the age of 61. He wouldn’t believe what has happened since then. He introduced me to City live in 1977. I am forever grateful.

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

We went down the night before and stayed over.

We got off at the wrong stop and it was hike to the stadium. It was feckin freezing and I seem to remember it hail stoned at one stage on that Yomp to the stadium.

When Horlock scored we all just thought it was a consolation goal, it seemed injury time was done, we had no idea how long was left.

When Dickov's shot hit the back of the net I can't really remember what happen except an outpouring of joy.

I thought we would have won it in extra time and fortunately they were crap at penalties, although all around us were shitting it when a certain Richard Edgehill went up to take his.

What a day, what a comeback and probably saved the club from going out of business.

The train journey back to Manchester seemed to take an absolute age, not helped that there was an alcohol ban and it was feckin heaving with bodies everywhere. CTID

 

[citydad]

I very nearly left the Gillingham one. Went for a piss around 88 mins, spent the next couple of mins slagging them off in the concourse to anyone who would listen and
was about to leave but heard the First goal and then watched the rest from one of the exits. Went absolutely mental at 2-2, hugging anyone in reach and then went back to where I was sat. My dad wasn’t there (I didn’t travel with him as he was on a special train) and I will never know if he left. He said he didn’t but I think he probably did. He has missed all of this recent success. I so wish he hadn’t. His last game was the Derby 1-0 win under Sven when Johnson scored that cracker. He died 2 months later suddenly at the age of 61. He wouldn’t believe what has happened since then. He introduced me to City live in 1977. I am forever grateful.

Shame that our relatives and friends who have passed away can't share our joy but they brought us up Blue. It was Geovanni who got the winner v u....d.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Shame that our relatives and friends who have passed away can't share our joy but they brought us up Blue. It was Geovanni who got the winner v u....d.

I meant Derby County :-)

 

[Didsbury Dave]

This was the day the magic returned to Manchester City after many many years.