Wembley Stadium.
The White Horse, Stanley Matthews,
Wimbledon, Pearce’s redemption, Live Aid, Broken goalposts, Gazza’s knee,
Coventry, Gazza’s flick over the Scots, Ricky Villa, Queen, Liverpool’s white
suits, Di Matteo, Gazza’s screamer, 4-1 v Holland, Moran’s red card and, of
course, some people who were on the pitch.
If anyone tries to tell you Wembley has
lost some of its old magic, that the multitude of club level games now played there means the mystique has somewhat disappeared, then try telling that
to the 40,000 Bristolians who will be on the march up the M4 this weekend to
watch our fifth appearance at the stadium. Let alone the nearly 30,000 Walsall
fans who are delighted and overwhelmed to be making their Wembley bow.
And yes, it’s ‘only’ the JPT, isn’t it?
Well maybe, but to become the first team to win this competition three times
would be a great achievement, albeit one soured by the evidence it offers that
we have spent far too many recent seasons playing in the bottom half of English
football’s professional structure.
Yes, the twin towers may have gone and
a Hot Dog now costs £8.50. And true, in 1986, when we first got there, it was
far more of a rare event. There were no play-offs, Villa Park and Old Trafford amongst
others regularly played host to FA Cup semi-finals and the lower leagues cup
competition had only just commenced. But
the magical bounce in every City fans’ step since that first leg of the area final
when Matt Smith almost single-handedly got us booking up the coaches and
trains, proves that Wembley – and indeed the JPT – still has a huge amount to
offer.
Our debut in 1986 was a special day,
made even more remarkable by a slightly surprisingly comfortable 3-0 Freight
Rover Trophy win against Phil Neal’s Bolton Wanderers. Then, remarkably, we
made a reappearance a year later. That old London buses saying springs to mind!
This time, however, we lost out to Mansfield Town as the first instance of our
penalty shoot-out phobia hit hard.
Since then of course we’ve lost to
Stoke City in the final of the Auto Windscreens (as it was then) and suffered
that heartbreak at the foot of Dean Windass.
So does it still matter? Those who
earlier in the season were advocating a lack of interest in the tournament and
almost hoping we’d get knocked out so we could concentrate on promotion are all
going to Wembley, I bet? My view on this – and other cup competitions – is that
it can never be a bad thing to keep winning. Cup games create excitement,
interest and memories like no individual league game can, especially for
youngsters who get wrapped up in the big occasion.
Think back to our one truly great team
in living memory. There’s a long history of teams having cup success just prior
to achieving top flight status, and our run came just a couple of years earlier
when the bulk of the side who went on to get us promoted, defeated star-studded Leeds United at Elland Road, before running the great Liverpool team close in the
quarter-finals. Ask any 6-12 year old who was at Elland Road whether they remember that match
more or an important league game from that season and I’m pretty certain what
their response would be.
Think of Hereford and Bolton in '86, of Robbie
Turner beating Chelsea, of Jacki’s starring role on Match of the Day and, of
course, of Anfield in ’94.
These are the games, the occasions,
that bring on a generation of new fans. These are the games that might just
persuade a few dozen kids to support their local side rather than go off and
buy a Chelsea shirt. The club have
cottoned onto that superbly following a successful season with the billboard
adverts for season-tickets currently showing around town, and as far afield as
Newport. Launching them this week was perfect timing; grab everyone now whilst
they’re caught up in the excitement of a Wembley trip. That’s future thinking. That’s smart as they
know full well that sort of investment for life is invaluable to the club,
worth tens of thousands of pounds per child.
There is no doubt in my mind that part
of my devotion to City over the years has come about from that Wembley
appearance in 1986. I’d been going to games, on and off, for a couple of years
prior, and much of my family were big City fans, but they were the first
moments I remember vividly.
The coach journey up. The sea of red
and white. Flags, scarves and those silly 80’s bobble hats everywhere, even on
a sunny day in May. Being lost in the vast concourses at Wembley, a stadium of
the like I’d never seen before, seeing Glyn Riley pull his hamstring in
celebrating the third, wonderful goal and the pictures afterwards of 12 men sat
celebrating in a tiny bath together, as the way those days!
With one win in four appearances to
date (and none in the last three) one might be forgiven a bit of dread heading
into this weekend’s match-up, but that underlying sentiment would be to belie
the form and sheer belief this remarkable team seems to have in abundance.
There was never any doubt Cotterill
wouldn’t take this competition seriously, and the teams he’s selected
throughout have proven that he just loves to win games of football, whatever
competition they’re a part of. In a week where tiredness has been blamed in
some quarters for our ailing, star-studded top flight clubs’ exit from European
competition and the dreaded winter break has again reared its ugly head, it’s
worth noting that many of City’s players have already played well in excess of
40 games this season. It’ll be nearly 60 by the time May comes around.
And with Cotterill’s mantra to keep the
pressure on throughout each game, very few have been substituted for any length
of time or allowed to ease off. Despite all this, I haven’t seen many signs of
tiredness, indeed, almost the opposite. On Tuesday night against Crewe, the
oldest member of our team, Aaron Wilbraham, was piling pressure on one
fullback, and moments later running their opposite full back into touch on the
other side of the pitch. This was in the last ten minutes.
With the undoubted stamina comes some
genuine class. The end of season review will outline what’s made for such a
productive season in more detail, but solid and virtually ever-present
defending, flanked by two jet-quick wing backs and protected by the awesome
Korey Smith have allowed Luke Freeman to become the league’s most creative
player in terms of assists, whilst all four main strikers have contributed a
number of goals, whichever partnership is preferred or available.
The
danger with being so successful is that the hawks start circling, and we can
but hope that this Wembley appearance, and the much hoped-for subsequent
promotion, isn’t the crowning glory of this team before its diamonds are
snatched away.
It
would be dangerous to overlook Cotterill’s admirers, too. Only a couple of
years ago he was seen as top Championship material. No manager at any level
gets to have the sort of success he has had, especially in such a short time,
without attracting some covetous glances. The fact he’s English should keep him
off most Premier League clubs’ radars given the tendency to appoint unheard of foreign
coaches, but a trophy win on Sunday would add significant shine to a cv which
would already state the building of the Burnley team that got to the promised
land.
These
concerns are for another day, however. For now we’ve got the red and white (and
purple and lime) convoy up the M4 to enjoy, the walk up Wembley way and the
sight of 40,000 fans cheering the team on. It may only be the JPT, and Wembley
may have lost a tiny bit of its aura for some, but Sunday is a day to look
forward to and enjoy to its maximum.
A
win – and a trophy to take home – would make it all the sweeter.
COYR!
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