Sun 29th February to Wednesday
4th March
There had been a lot of back-to-back cup
games on the telly-box in the run-up to this match.
On Saturday 29th February,
the first domestic silverware (I don’t count the Charity/Community shield or whatever
it is now called) was up for grabs in the
women’s game, as Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 in their league cup final – this game
was live on BT Sports and was played at Notts County’s ground in front of a record
crowd, for a league cup final, of 6,743 fans – things are moving in the right direction for the women’s game, but this crowd pales into insignificance when compared to
the men’s final on the following day – 82,149 fans turned up at Wembley to see
Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2-1, and lift the League Cup for the third year
in a row.
FA Cup action started the following
night as Arsenal beat Portsmouth 2-0 (BT Sports) and the BBC joined the party to
broadcast Chelsea 2 – 0 Liverpool on Tuesday night, and Manchester City 1 -0
Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday night. This was followed by a live broadcast of the
Quarter Final Draw (see further down blog).
Thursday 5th March
The FA Cup was all-over the place
(almost as if people cared about it), and Thursday’s final match of Derby
County V Manchester United was back on BT Sport.
As part of the GKAs promotion for
this Pulitzer Prize Winning showcase of a blog, I always contact the featured
teams to see if they will promote this journey to their fans. Most teams ignore me, and the women appeared more
engaged in the earlier rounds. However, I’ve
not had a response since Brighouse Town V Barnsley in the women’s 3rd
Round proper – in which both teams replied. For the men, the last team to
respond was Ebbsfleet United, back in the 1st Round Proper – until now
as Ellie, from Manchester United, sent me an email to say that they would pass
my blog information over to their social media team. Nothing came of it, but at least it was a
response – thank you Ellie of Manchester United.
Back to the actual game…
The trip to Derby was meant to take
2hrs 8mins.
With a 19.45 kick, I set off at 16.30
with the idea of a chilled drive and a service station stop off for 30mins for
a coffee. However, like most trips down
the M6, the journey took much longer, due to slow moving traffic. At one point
I passed a bus, pulled over on the hard shoulder, with around 20 fans urinating
into a bush by the side of the road. I
only arrived at Pride Park at 19:00 (without a coffee stop off).
Then came the fun of driving around
in circles for 10 minutes, trying to find a parking space – I decided to pay
£7.70 to stop in a car park directly opposite the ground – there where fans everywhere
and two guys ran into this car park for more bush urination. It appears that:
SUM=Football + alcohol = caught short!
I’d arrived...
And I was impressed by the magnificence
of Pride Park.
This was the famous statue of Brian
Clough and Peter Taylor as mentioned in the GKA’s previous report.
Right next to this statue was a
burger stall and I bought an ‘average tasting’ double cheeseburger for £5. A single cheeseburger was only £3.50, which is
a good price, considering that it cost £6 for a single cheeseburger at a recent
Everton Women’s home game I’d attended – I always thought that things were
meant to be cheaper t’up North!
Whilst eating my burger, a crowd of
noisy Manchester United fans, walked past, loudly asking the question ‘Why don’t
City Fuck off home?’ They appeared intimidating
and a Derby Fan next to me mumbled, ‘Why don’t you lot fuck off home?’
I took a little tour of the Stadium.
And noticed this Ram Est.1884 logo.
All sides of the ground looked
impressive.
The GKA has seen many dogs in stadiums,
but this is the first time that it’s come across a horse outside a stadium.
By the time I’d found my turnstile,
it was rammed – lots of fans were saying, ‘Why is it so busy, we’ve been sold
out before?’
It was slow moving and 10 queues seemed
to be filtering into 5 possible turnstiles.
This was the home-end and there were
a couple of guys in the queue wearing Manchester United scarfs and hats. This was greeted by passive aggressive grumbles
of disapproval by the Derby fans. It was difficult for me, as a lifelong-Manchester
United Fan, as I was staying neutral for the purpose of the blog. Even I was
thinking it was a bit disrespectful to blatantly show off your support when you
are ‘in the wrong end.’
The queue took 15 minutes, followed
by lots of stairs, and then even more stairs.
By the time I’d got to my seat; I’d already missed the first 6 minutes
of the game.
However, I couldn’t get to my seat as
it was too busy, so I sat in the first spare seat I could find on my row.
Inevitably, after a further 5 minutes,
I was moved along and was forced to find my real seat.
Another cracking half-way line view.
Less than a third of the Stadium were
United fans, but they were noisy – very noisy.
It was a tremendous amount of away support and for the first half, they
out-sang and out-chanted the Derby Fans. I am always fascinated by the tribal nature of
human beings and as a United fan I felt detached from them – almost ‘as if’
they were the enemy, but at the same time, I was one of them, hiding amongst
the Derby fans, undercover, the enemy within.
The Derby fans where I was sat,
watched the game in virtual silence, only making the add noise of ‘ooooh’ or an
occasional applause.
Briefly, after the United fans chanted ‘You’re only hear
to see United,’ there was a loud Derby response of ‘You’re only hear to see Wayne
Rooney.’ This made me smile…
The game itself was over after United’s
first goal went in, and the United fans spent most of the second half singing
Wayne Rooney’s name.
When it went to 0-3 with 20 minutes
to ago, the Derby fan next to me got up and left, ‘Where not coming back from
this.’
I left on 85 minutes to try and beat
the traffic, but when I got outside, it appears that I wasn’t the only one, as
there were people and cars everywhere – 31,379 fans attended, but it seemed a
lot more than this.
Attendances – Men V Women
Highest Number of Fans
Derby County FC
|
31, 379 (5th Round Proper)
|
Burnley FC
|
8071 (4th Round Proper)
|
PNE
|
7616 (3rd Round Proper)
|
Notts County
|
5,729 (4th Qualifying Round)
|
Blackpool FC
|
5,371 (1st Round Proper)
|
Oldham Athletic FC
|
2,858 (2nd Round Proper)
|
Manchester City Women FC
|
2,000 (5th Round Proper)
|
Belper Town FC
|
528 (3rd Qualifying Round)
|
Brighouse Town Women
|
321 (3rd Round Proper)
|
Rushall Olympic
|
259 (1st Qualifying Round)
|
Rushall Olympic
|
249 (2nd Qualifying Round)
|
Sheffield FC
|
184 (Preliminary Round)
|
Burnley FC Women
|
170 (4th Round Proper)
|
Avro FC
|
150 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
|
Liverpool Feds LFC
|
109 (1st Round Proper)
|
Stockport County Women
|
75 (3rd Qualifying Round)
|
Chorley FC Women
|
61 (2nd Round Proper)
|
Sunderland West End Ladies
|
54 (1st Qualifying Round)
|
Curzon Ashton Ladies
|
44 (Preliminary Round)
|
Mossley Hill Ladies
|
24 (2nd Qualifying Round)
|
There were 5 bookings during the game.
Penalties and Cards
– Men v Women
Penalties - Men 2
|
3 Women
|
Yellow Cards – Men 35
|
5 Women
|
Red Cards – 1
|
0 Women
|
Manchester United won £360,000 in prize
money.
Prize Money – Men V
Women
Men £811,390
|
Women £16,085
|
Prize Money Leaders
Manchester United FC
|
£360,000 (5th Round Proper)
|
Norwich City
|
£315,000 £180,000 (4th Round Proper) +
£135,000 (3rd Round Proper)
|
Burton Albion FC
|
£54,000 (2nd Round Proper)
|
Blackpool FC
|
£36,000 (1st Round Proper)
|
Notts County FC
|
£18,750 (4th Qualifying Round)
|
Belper Town FC
|
£11,250 (3rd Qualifying Round)
|
Rushall Olympic
|
£11,250 (1st & 2nd
Qualifying Rounds)
|
Manchester City Women FC
|
£3000 (5th Round Proper)
|
Sheffield FC
|
£2890 (Preliminary Round)
|
Brighouse Town Women
|
£2350 (2nd Round Proper +1st
Round Proper +3rd Qualifying Round)
|
Litherland Remyca
|
£2250 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
|
Leicester City Women
|
£2000 (4th Round Proper)
|
Barnsley Women
|
£1250 (3rd Round Proper)
|
Mossley Hill Ladies
|
£1,035 (1st Qualifying Round+
Preliminary Round + Extra Preliminary Round)
|
Stockport County Ladies
|
£450 (2nd Qualifying Round)
|
Route Men’s
Avro Fc 3
|
4 Litherland
Remyca
|
Sheffield FC 2
|
1 Litherland Remyca
|
Rushall Olympic 3
|
1 Sheffield FC
|
Rushall Olympic 2
|
0 Gainsborough Trinity
|
Belper Town FC 2
|
0 Rushall Olympic
|
Notts County 2
|
1 Belper Town
|
Blackpool FC 4
|
0 Morecombe FC
|
Oldham Athletic 0
|
1 Burton Albion FC
|
PNE 2
|
4 Norwich City
|
Burnley FC 1
|
2 Norwich City
|
Derby County FC 0
|
3 Manchester
United FC
|
54.55% home win ratio.
Eventually I did get out, and I was home
by 23:25. Another great adventure….
RIP Team and Stadium
Avro FC
|
Vestacare Stadium
|
Burnley Belvedere Ladies
|
Belvedere & Calder Vale Sports Club
|
Litherland Remyca
|
Litherland Sports Park
|
Curzon Ashton Ladies
|
Failsworth Sports Campus
|
Sheffield FC
|
Home of Football Stadium
|
Gainsborough Trinity FC
|
The Northolme
|
Sunderland West End Ladies
|
Herrington Recreational Park
|
Rushall Olympic
|
Dales Lane
|
Mossley Hill Ladies
|
Field of Hope Stadium
|
Belper Town
|
Christchurch Meadows
|
Stockport County LFC
|
Stockport Sports Village
|
Liverpool Feds LFC
|
Jericho Lane Sports Hub
|
Oldham Athletic FC
|
Boundary Park
|
Chorley FC Women
|
Victory Park
|
PNE
|
Deepdale
|
Brighouse Town Women
|
The Yorkshire Payments Stadium
|
Burnley FC
|
Turf Moor
|
Burnley Women FC
|
The Ruby Civil Arena
|
Derby County FC
|
Pride Park
|
26th February 1977 FC Cup 5th
Round Liverpool FC V Oldham Athletic
In 1977 Liverpool FC were hot – reds hot! From 1964 onwards they had won 4 league
titles, and the EUFA Cup twice (equivalent of the Europa League). They’d also
lifted the FA Cup twice in that period as winning becomes a habit.
Things were different back in those days –
there wasn’t as much money in football and Brain James (author of Journey to
Wembley) tells a story about how Liverpool Club Captain Emlyn Hughes had to
visit the club doctor on his way to training – the club doctor was simply a
local GP, and team members had to go visit him at a local surgery along with
all the other locals in the area.
Diet wasn’t seen as important either –
Liverpool did have a great training ground and state-of-the art gym facility,
however after training they were often served Steak with mountains of Veg,
followed by steamed pudding and custard. Not forgetting the copies amounts of
alcohol consumed, during a 2-night celebration of their 4 th Round FC Cup victory
against Carlisle.
Despite their poor diets, they trained hard and
in late February 1977 Liverpool FC were on course for an unprecedented treble –
League, European Cup and FC Cup. They were the team to beat and many
players argued that they were difficult to beat, simply because they hated
losing – at anything – ‘This is Anfield’.
In 1977, the city that was depressed by high
unemployment, urban decay, wasteland and knocked down slum areas – many had
moved to the Wirral or surrounding new towns.
None of this affected the massive support of the football club and
Liverpool home games often attracted crowds of up to 50,000. Both Liverpool and Everton were 2 massively
rich (for the time) football clubs in an area surrounded by poverty.
Liverpool won this game 3-1, without playing particularity
well, and Oldham were happy to get their share of the gate receipts, £13,500
(£84,430 in modern money, not much for playing a top Premiership side, but far
more than the women are getting at this level in 2020).
Liverpool then had to shift their focus onto their
next European Cup tie against St Etienne.
In the next round of the FA Cup they drew Middlesbrough
at Anfield.
Route 1977
Hinckley Athletic 0
|
1 Tividale
|
Oldbury United 0
|
4 Tividale
|
Tividale 0
|
3 Telford United
|
Hednesford Town 0
|
0 Telford United
|
Telford United 3
|
0 Hednesford Town
|
Telford United 2
|
5 Matlock Town
|
Matlock Town 2
|
0 Wigan Athletic
|
Mansfield Town 2
|
5 Matlock Town
|
Carlisle United
5
|
1 Matlock Town
|
Liverpool 3
|
0 Carlisle United
|
Liverpool 3
|
1 Oldham Athletic
|
A 45.45% home field win ratio.
Next in 2020
Women’s QF Draw
1 Arsenal V Tottenham
2 Leicester
City V Manchester City
3 Everton V
Chelsea
4 Brighton
& Hove Albion V Birmingham City
The GKA already has tickets for Everton v Chelsea.
Men’s QF Draw
1 Sheffield United v Arsenal
2 Newcastle United v Manchester City
3 Norwich City v Manchester United
4 Leicester City v Chelsea
Some interesting matchups above and the GKA will attend whatever game
they can get tickets for (provided that the Corona virus doesn’t shut down the whole
country).
