For March 7th I'm going back 28 years to 1993 and Manchester City's FA Cup Quarter Final against the mighty Spurs.
These days Manchester City games of yore require a little context. City haven't always been backed by an oil rich state kids! In fact Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, more commonly referred to as Sheikh Mansour, only assumed control of City in 2008. Prior to that, City's ownership was much more run-of-the-mill. City had had considerable success in the late 60's but no trophies since their League Cup success in 1976. So an FA Cup Quarter Final (or 6th Round in old money) represented touching distance of a trophy for the first time in a while for City. Spurs had won the FA Cup only 2 years earlier and were getting used to going deep into the competition. This represented a difficult away draw for Spurs however and an attractive game for the BBC to televise. City, under Peter Reid's management were resurgent and City's hopes were high.
Spurs won this game comfortably and impressively. The game will be remembered for Nayim's hattrick, his only one for Spurs . Nayim (whose actual name is Mohamed Ali Amar) left Spurs at the end of the season for Real Zaragoza where his popularity amongst Spurs followers only grew following his audacious 45 yard lob over David Seaman to win the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1995 (altogether now "Nayim From the Halfway Line" to the tune of Village people's "Go West"). The game was also notable for a "wonder goal" by Michael Phelan.
Sadly the game was overshadowed by pitch invasions when it was clear that City weren't going to win. Barry Davies on commentary duty for the BBC was particularly scathing and the behaviour of the City fans was a setback for those that hoped that English football had turned a corner since the nadir of the hooliganism of the mid-1980's. We certainly didn't need such scenes to be played out in living rooms up and down the land.
CRB Match No. 824
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