The importance of Wembley 1999

[BringBackSwales]

Took the Mrs that day. She could never understand why I went to watch City every week home and away, and in particular exactly WHY football was so important to so many people. She understood from that day

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Regardless of whether we would have eventually recovered as a club, and it's impossible to say one way or the other, it was the psychology of the win amongst us long-term fans which seemed the most significant thing on that day. United had just won a treble and we were at our lowest ebb. Hope had been reborn over the spring for the first time in many many years. For many of us, and I had been watching City for 23 years already at that point, all we had ever done was blow it on the big occasion. The League Cup Semi 1981. The FA Cup Final 1981. Luton 1983. Pretty much every derby game. Liverpool 1996. Stoke 1998. It' had become part of the club's DNA to "bottle it".

And on 89 minutes, after such hope and excitement, we had bottled it again. I have never felt so low at a football match, and have never since. But then, out of nowhere, when all hope was gone...there was magic in the air. City had surpassed themselves and come back from the dead. Hope was reborn in the most dramatic and exciting way. Maybe it's because I was younger, but it took me nearly a week to come down from the high. I couldn't stop thinking about it and watching it.

There was something special about it which transcended a third division playoff final, but you had to have been immersed in the club's downward spiral to really appreciate it.

 

[HelloCity]

The deepest foundations of today's Manchester City are built on that game and that goal.

Joe Royle used to say 'that wasn't a game, it was an event'.

If we hadn't gone up after that final then the City of Manchester Stadium wouldn't have been built and a temporary athletics stadium would have been built for the Commonwealth Games instead. Our involvement in the stadium project was dependent on promotion that season.

One of the reasons Sheikh Mansour was attracted to City was because of the land and potential for development around our stadium at the time - the City of Manchester Stadium.

The victory over Gillingham also created a huge feel good factor which led to a spring board effect and promotion again the following season. If we had just gone up automatically then it's entirely possible we would have just become like Leeds or Sheffield Wednesday are now.

 

[meeesh]

Regardless of whether we would have eventually recovered as a club, and it's impossible to say one way or the other, it was the psychology of the win amongst us long-term fans which seemed the most significant thing on that day. United had just won a treble and we were at our lowest ebb. Hope had been reborn over the spring for the first time in many many years. For many of us, and I had been watching City for 23 years already at that point, all we had ever done was blow it on the big occasion. The League Cup Semi 1981. The FA Cup Final 1981. Luton 1983. Pretty much every derby game. Liverpool 1996. Stoke 1998. It' had become part of the club's DNA to "bottle it".

And on 89 minutes, after such hope and excitement, we had bottled it again. I have never felt so low at a football match, and have never since. But then, out of nowhere, when all hope was gone...there was magic in the air. City had surpassed themselves and come back from the dead. Hope was reborn in the most dramatic and exciting way. Maybe it's because I was younger, but it took me nearly a week to come down from the high. I couldn't stop thinking about it and watching it.

There was something special about it which transcended a third division playoff final, but you had to have been immersed in the club's downward spiral to really appreciate it.

Bloody right there,I've nodded at every sentence I read then,and sometimes when I reminisce on youtube,at the end of one of the videos,a guy in his late 40's says the phoenix is rising from the flames,boy how he was right.

I wanted to leave at 0-2 but my mates wouldn't let me,and I was so grateful for that

 

[HelloCity]

Bloody right there,I've nodded at every sentence I read then,and sometimes when I reminisce on youtube,at the end of one of the videos,a guy in his late 40's says the phoenix is rising from the flames,boy how he was right.

I wanted to leave at 0-2 but my mates wouldn't let me,and I was so grateful for that

Watch this one

 

[foggy1974]

we'll never know, as we won :-)

teams like burnley, stoke, brighton show that it is possible to come back from the brink.
Took them years but thankfully we will never know what would have happened had we lost.

It's importance though is plain to see, without that win we probably would be nowhere near where we are now

I do agree but also the planets wouldn't of aligned for the take over of Sheik Mansour. What would of happened to the Commenwealth stadium (Etihad). Would it have been bull dozed and would Shinawatra have got involved.

 

[scousemanc]

Only city fans know what real emotions in football mean no other fans can understand what we went through that day, the journey home was very strange a feeling of complete numbness.
Would I swap it would I fuck it's what makes us city fans and I am proud of it in a sick way.

Nailed! Numb is exactly the way I felt going home that day. You could hardly take in what had happened. Also by coming back from 2-0 down so late in the match it overshadowed that other comeback from 1-0 down which occurred earlier in the week. So much so, that no one remembers that now.

 

[meeesh]

Watch this one

That was fantastic,it amazes me how many chances we did have to score in the 90,the Goat hitting the post,plus other chances,goosebumps on my arms again now,cheers for that link

 

[DiscoSteve]

Having been an ardent match attending City fan in the 70's I drifted away from actively supporting City in the 80's and 90's as life intervened but it was this game that reignited my interest - even though (as I've mentioned before) I watched the penalty shoot out on CEEFAX half way through a big gardening job I was working on.

I went to a Supporters Club meeting a few years ago where Dennis Tueart was speaking and he could not have been more clear about how close the club were to plunging into the abyss in 1999 if hadn't of got out of the third tier at the first attempt

 

[urban genie]

I do agree but also the planets wouldn't of aligned for the take over of Sheik Mansour. What would of happened to the Commenwealth stadium (Etihad). Would it have been bull dozed and would Shinawatra have got involved.

Yeah but we could be at maine road playing fleetwood with billy kee our top scorer and uwe as our manager, this site would have 300 members and wouldn't have atmospheres shit, empty seats and I cannot get a ticket on my loyalty points threads then.
Also all the 4025 left going after 30yrs in 3rd division would still be the best fans in the world.
;-)

Thinking about it thank fuck we won.
arrived on the saturday and left on the monday, one of the best weekends in my lifetime, stayed to the end with my brother while some mates left to go at 0-2 and they were halfway down the concourse when we scored the first and came back.