BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 CITY 4

Nationwide League Division 1

7th May 2000

attendance 29,913

scorers
City Goater(60), Dailly(67 og), Kennedy(75), Dickov(81)
Blackburn Jansen(43)

City Weaver, Edghill, Jobson, Prior, Tiatto, Jeff Whitley, Pollock, Horlock, Kennedy, Goater, R Taylor – subs Dickov(53), Bishop(47), Granville(78), Crooks(unused), Wright(unused)

Blackburn Kelly, Grayson, Dailly, Broomes, Harkness, McAteer, Dunn, Flitcroft, Duff, Jansen, Ward – subs Carsley(unused), Ostenstad(unused), Gillespie(unused), Frandsen(unused), Filan(unused)

…What an incredible day that would turn out to be, in fact surreal would be a better description. Our supporters were everywhere, even on a hill overlooking the stadium, and when we ran out at Ewood Park it felt like a home game. Blackburn manager Graeme Souness had said thet Charlton secured the title at Ewood Park two weeks earlier and he didn’t want to see another team celebrating in his own back yard. Those words must have worked because Blackburn were all over us in trhe first half. They hit the crossbar, they hit Nicky Weaver, one post then the other, everything! And although they did find the net eventually they were only 1-0 up at the break.

The Goat Equalises

… During the interval Joe told us “If you want to lose and throw away all you’ve done over the season, keep playing the way you are because that’s exactly what you’re going to do” Then he added “Get out there and play like you want to win this, like you want promotion, like it means something. You’re waiting on them to do something so you can react, but the good news is, you’re playing shit but you’re only 1-0 down. You’ve got 45 minutes to decide whether you want to be in this division or to play with the big boys. Now go out and show me what you’ve got”.

We sat there and thought about it for a moment, then ran out again for the second half. Dicky and I had not done much so we decided to really get into it and within a few minutes Kevin Horlock put in the perfect cross and I knew it was coming to me. I thought about smashing my foot through it, but knew getting it on target was the most important thing, so I decided to side foot the ball. Fortunately the connection was sweet and it flew into the net.

 I ran off to the Rovers fans with my hand to my ear, I could no longer hear them giving me any stick, I enjoyed that! City fans were jumping up all over the ground, and not long afterwards Christian Dailly headed a log clearance past his own keeper to make it 2-1. Then Kennedy made it three, before Dicky added a fourth. …Two promotions in two seasons, we went back to the dressing room, too exhausted to do anything and certainly with no energy to jump up and down in celebration. In fact a couple of pictures taken at the time show Dicky, Mark Kennedy and me sitting down, happy but completely whacked FROM FEED THE GOAT