January 27 – Carra Throws a Wobbly

“THERE were about thirty-eight thousand fans in the crowd that day, but I think only five of them failed to make an insurance claim.”

This was Jamie Carragher’s response in his recent autobiography to the events of today in 2002, when the Liverpool defender threw a pound coin back into the crowd after having it chucked his way.

Liverpool and Arsenal were locking horns in a fiery FA Cup fourth round clash at Highbury, with the Gooners out for revenge following Michael Owen’s late show that saw Liverpool defeat them in the final the season before.

The tone was set after only two minutes, when Steven Gerrard and Patrick Vieira both went in for a 50-50 challenge, leaving each other sprawling on the turf. After 20 minutes Robert Pires limped off following a heavy Sami Hyypia challenge, but Bergkamp made it 1-0 soon after.

The tackles continued to fly in, with Martin Keown being sent off in the second as Liverpool pressed for an equaliser. With 20 minutes remaining Carragher was on the receiving end of a late Bergkamp challenge that saw the non-flying Dutchman also heading for an early bath.

As Carra dusted himself off a pound coin was thrown from the crowd, and the former England international, showing scant regard for any type of regional stereotyping, threw it straight back.

Referee Mike Riley reached for his red card for the third time that afternoon and Arsenal held on to a 1-0 win. Carragher would receive a three-match ban, a formal warning from the police and a £40,000 fine from the club as plenty of Arsenal claimed that they had been the victim of what Carra would later describe as a ‘magic coin’.

We don’t have footage of his coin throwing antics, but instead catch a Carra compilation here and see what else was happening today here.