May 30 – Late Manchester Fightback (Not United)

EVERYONE remembers Manchester United’s great comeback victory against Bayern Munich in the 1999 European Cup final. It was a great, dramatic win and to do it from being 1-0 down in the last minutes of the game is pretty good, but, United fans, it was not even the best fightback victory of the week.

That honour surely belongs to United’s rivals Manchester City who, today in 1999, just days after That Magical Night in Barcelona (TM Clive Tyldesley), staged their own improbable comeback win against Gillingham in the Division Two play-off final at Wembley.

The match was goalless until the 81st minute when Carl Asaba scored for Gillingham, and then Robert Taylor added another five minutes later.

All of a sudden, City were 2-0 down and surely out. But then, in the 89th minute Kevin Horlock popped up to pull one back, but surely it was too late? Paul Dickov didn’t think so, the diminutive striker scored in the dying seconds of injury time to force the game into extra time.

There were no more dramatic goals and so to penalties. Gillingham missed their first two efforts, while Dickov also failed to hit the target. Nicky Weaver then saved from Paul Smith and Guy Butters to win it for City. Gillingham, having looked a cert at 2-0 up with one minute left, had somehow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Not that City fans cared. As someone once said: “Football, bloody hell!”

City boss Joe Royle said: “We never gave up,” adding, with brilliant understatement: “It looked unlikely.”

This unlikely win also happened on this football day, so check that out, and come back tomorrow for more from the football time machine.