Greatest City experience of my life, even surpassing the 5-1. Was living in London at the time and couldn't get tickets for the City end. So I drove down to Gillingham's ground the week before the game and got 4 seats for their end (from memory, I think I had to join some Gillingham supporters club to get them). Me and 3 mates (none of them City fans, and one a Gill!) had a few pints in London before heading to Wembley - there were blues everywhere (as there had been the night before in the west end, where I ended up with loads of other blues on one of the lions in Trafalgar Square singing "Bluemoon" as a few perplexed coppers looked on). Atmosphere leading up to the game was fantastic, but I'd quietened down once I got to my seat. From what I remember we didn't have much to shout about as we were absolutely p1ss-poor that day. All I remember from the first half was our lads being unable to stay on their feet and slipping on their arses every few minutes. Gills fans around me were getting more confident as the game went on and it seemed inevitable when they went one up. And at 2-0 (how bad was Tony Vaughen to have made fat Bob Taylor look so good?) I was at in the middle of celebrating Gills fans convinced that we as a club were completely fecked. But it was my first visit to Wembley with City so I was staying until the death. My mate sat next to me (the other two were a few rows away) decided he'd had enough and I sat there alone with my head in my hands as I'd done so many times before when City had let me down. When Kev got what I assumed was the consolation, it was the first time I realised that there were quite a few other blues in there too. And when Dickov scored those of us in there went ballistic, clambouring over the devastated Gills fans to get to each other and celebrate together. Saw my mate (who'd left at 2-0) near the exit and headed straight for him, climbing over about five rows of Gills fans to get there. How we didn't get our heads kicked in I'll never understand, but to be fair to the Gills fans they took it as well as could be expected (and better than I ever could if it had been the other way round). When we won the penalty shoot-out, Gills fans deserted en masse, leaving a special band of blues to celebrate together. The players had naturally gathered in front of the City end, but they eventually came over to acknowledge us (I'm sure there must be some footage of that, but I've never seen it). I'd never, nor have I since, felt so proud to be blue.
The night was quality too. Loads of beers with hundreds of blues around Wembley, then back into the west end that we'd taken over as well. Bumped into Micheal Brown in a Chinese but was too drunk to say anything sensible to him (I think I just said that I loved him), although I do remember that he couldn't get a table and got shown the door. What a way for one of our heroes to be treated!
What a day and, whatever the future holds, I doubt I'll ever experience one like that again. I got a flashback last week away at Blackburn though, so who knows?
Sorry to ramble on - just wanted to re-live it.
