Crowd trouble at a match against Burton Wanderers earlier in the year meant that The Manor Ground was closed for five matches. This one was played at Hornsey. It remains the club’s biggest win at Hornsey…
This League Cup Semi Final 2nd leg second is to my mind, one of the last, if not the last, great Highbury cup night. That is not to disparage or discredit that which was to follow, just that this was one I remember being sardined on the North Bank.
How crowded was the terracing that night? We spotted a friend about 20 yards away in the same area of the North Bank before kick-off. It took him until half-time to work his way across toward us.
The match itself was one-sided; following on from Perry Groves goal in the first leg, Everton had to attack but never at the races. Arsenal could even afford the luxury of a missed penalty. That would, however, come back to haunt them at Wembley. Had Hayes scored, he rather than Nigel Winterburn would have stepped up to face Andy Dibble and who knows what then…
The second leg of the Football League Cup semi-final at Old Trafford came a fortnight after a 2-4 home defeat in the first. There was a painful familiarity about losing to United in this season; they would end Arsenal’s FA Cup run in the Semi Final, winning 2-1 at Villa Park.
Patrick Barclay observation about Wright’s late equaliser is absolutely spot on. A friend at the time observed that it felt like winning the game so undeserved was the goal.
(Click to enlarge image)
The end of era had been on the cards for some time. On this day in 1995, it finally came. Looking back, I find the reasons for it so utterly baffling, especially for someone who was so well aware and immersed in the history of the club. I know Graham was merely the one who was caught – more accurately, hung out to dry – and this was (is) the culture of football. We will never know if it was purely avarice that led him down this path and to be honest, it would take breathtaking honesty for Graham to ever fully explain it.
On the pitch, the success of the early years was not as forthcoming as the promise. The cup runs, yes, were there but Arsenal were further from winning the title than at any time in the preceding decade or more. Would he have been able to reinvent the Arsenal squad given time and funds? A great imponderable. This is how the day’s events were covered.
For years there was animosity between Arsenal and Manchester United, fracas seemingly as usual as the yellow cards to either Vieira or Keane. This FA Cup tie from 1988 was the start of it all with tempers simmering and grudges held, following Nigel Winterburn’s choice words into the ears of Brian McClair’s late penalty miss.
A cup replay comfortably negotiated at Highbury with more information forthcoming about the attendance and the gate receipts that we get these days. So much for transparency.
It was not unusual from the dawn of the professional game through to the Second World War to get this sort of information. Indeed for the early part of the twentieth century, newspapers routinely printed the crowd and gate receipts as part of the results section. How times change.
