The day I went crazy in the Midlands
"QUITE A GOOD GAME REALLY"
Let's re-live some lovely moments
No.6 Gareth Davies looks back fondly on Birmingham City v Wrexham, 15th February 1997, FA Cup 5th Round
Being exiled at
the time in Mid-Wales, and having no mode of transport, meant that my Robins-watching had
been kept down to a minimum; indeed, I had only been able to go to the home West Ham game
in the Cup, and had to console myself with listening to Radio Wales for the West Ham
replay and Peterborough games. It did lead though to the noticeable incident of pulling a
stereo of the wall in the excitement of Rooster's winner at Upton Park due to being forced
to listen to it with headphones on!
The Birmingham
game soon arrived, and wearing my lucky white shirt – we didn't lose when I wore it
that particular season - I managed to hitch a lift to Shrewsbury where I met up with the
rest of our usual travelling contingent for that season, Mark and Michael Barnes, Cookie
(who for some
Birmingham was
a mass sprawl of run-down industrial units and even more run-down council houses and
flats. The mood of optimism was now changing more to a mood of trepidation as to what our
hosts might do when we won. We arrived at St Andrews about 45 minutes before kick off, and
went to find our seats, which were in the upper tier and just to the right of the goal.
St Andrews was
a weird sort of a ground, two lovely new stands, an average main stand, and the old
Railway stand, which was given to us, a nice view though.
The Wrexham end
soon filled up, and gave the Wrexham team a huge welcome, with the away end being a sea of
red and white balloons and torn- up newspaper. It was Wrexham who made the better start;
Connolly putting a header just wide in the opening minutes. Most of the play in the first
half was in and around the Brummies' penalty area, though we didn't have too many chances.
Birmingham too had some chances, most notably Legg's disallowed goal, which looked very
dubious, and Bruce's header from a corner, which produced a brilliant save from Andy
Marriott.
As usual with
Wrexham all the pressure came to nothing and Birmingham sneaked a goal five minutes before
half-time. A corner was missed by Carey, and Bruce was on hand to volley home. In fact
they nearly scored again as Devlin cut in from the right, and beat a couple of men, only
for Carey to block his shot.
Thankfully
half-time soon arrived, and still the general feeling around us was we could win. I though
wasn't so sure, though Tish informed me that an early goal for us would turn the game
around...
The players
came out for the second half, and carried on in a similar vein. Five minutes into the half
and Ward knocked the ball back to Humes, who knocked it first time to Chalk out wide.
Chalk held the ball until McGregor made a run to the side of the penalty area where Chalk
played the ball to him. Horne challenged Macca from behind, and the ref gave a free kick.
A little scuffle ensued with Bryan Hughes managing to get himself booked along with Legg.
Ward took the free-kick, and it found an unmarked Hughes at the back post who headed in
the equaliser. We all went crazy, but Brum nearly scored straight after, with Furlong
heading over a free-kick.
I was feeling
more confident now, and five minutes later Devlin was sent off for a foul on Chalk; from
our vantage point, the decision seemed very harsh, but seeing it later on MOTD, the
referee was totally justified. There was a mixed reaction in our end, some thought we
would win, while there were those of us that remembered Wrexham's inability to play
against 10 men.
Hughes made
another of his surging runs deep into Brum territory, before being crudely fouled by
Ablett. The resulting free-kick was cleared for a corner, and from the corner Humes headed
us into an unbelievable 2-1 lead. The whole place went nuts; though from the Birmingham
fans some of the hostile nature that I was expecting was now beginning to surface.
For the next 25
minutes it was end- to-end stuff, with Bowen missing a sitter for Brum, while Watkin took
the ball away from Russell when he was destined to score. The tension in the Wrexham end
was unbearable. It was a case of boot it anywhere, and Connolly winning as many corners as
he could by kicking the ball against people before the ref got annoyed and awarded a
goal-kick for as blatant a corner as you'll see.
Two minutes
were left and Carey cleared the ball long, and Connolly beat Johnson to the ball, and
knocked it past the keeper, the ball rolled for what seemed like ever, and the tension
wasn't helped by a load of people standing on the fence, so I couldn't see where it had
gone. We had to rely on the outstretched arms of Watkin and the sight of Connolly running
off towards us, to signal the start of the party which lasted until about 15 minutes after
kick-off.
We then left
the ground, and to say the least the natives were restless. I was pushed and spat at on
the way back to the car, and have never been so relieved to see a copper as I was when one
appeared on the mother of all horses!!!! We had to wait in the car park for the 32, yes 32
Wrexham coaches to be let out before we left and didn't stop until Wolverhampton where the
bloke in a garage was more than pleased to congratulate us on our win!!!
From there it
was back to Wrexham to celebrate, and watch it all again on