Notts County v Manchester City FA Cup 5th Round 1990/91

notts county FA CUP 1990 to 91 prog

NOTTS COUNTY 1 CITY 0

FA Cup 5th round

16th February 1991

Attendance 18,979

Scorer Lund(89)

Ref Phil Don

City Coton, I Brightwell, Pointon, Harper, Hendry, Redmond, White, Allen, Quinn, Megson, Ward – used sub Heath – subs Reid(unused), Brennan(unused)

County Cherry, Palmer, Harding, Craig Short, Yates, O’Riordan, Paris, Turner, Bartlett, Lund, Draper – subs Short(85), Johnson(unused)

FROM TONY COTON, THERE TO BE SHOT AT
… I Knocked a Notts County Fan out cold after Neil Warnock’s side had just put us out of the FA Cup.
Thousands of City fans travelled to Meadow Lane for the fifth round tie and the players responded to their terrific support by producing a performance that Would, on most days, have realised half a dozen goals. We hit the woodwork more times than I can remember and, when we did find the target, my opposite number Steve Cherry was in inspired form. Even when Gary Lund scored what was to prove to be a last minute winner, we hit the woodwork one last time through Niall Quinn.
The jubilant home fans poured onto the pitch at the final whistle, but not all of them were to celebrate. As I trudged towards the tunnel, I noticed one bloke swing a punch at Adrian Heath before grabbing Mark Ward around the neck. And I was next on his hi-list. When he came walking to me with a look of menace in his eyes, I was taking no chances. I got my retaliation in first with a punch, that put him straight on his back and, before he could recover his senses, I was off into the sanctuary of the dressing room. Bad news travels fast and it’s fair to say that Peter Reid, who wasn’t in the best of moods having just lost to a team from the division below, had me in his sights before I could even sit down. “What the fuck’s going on?” He demanded to know.
But before I could plead my case, we were informed by the club secretary Bernard Halford that the match-day. Police Commander was outside the dressing room requesting the presence of Manchester City’s manager and his goalkeeper. I walked into the corridor fearing the worst. But before I could get a word in, the police inspector said, “I’m here to ask if you want to press charges, Mr Coton?” It was a question that I can honestly say I’ve never been asked before, or since. I looked at my manager and when he shrugged his shoulders, the policeman put an end to our confusion by explaining that one of his officers had seen the County fan approaching me in aggressive manner and that I was obviously fearing so much for my own personal safety that I had struck out. He was offering me an escape route, and I took it. I rejected the opportunity to take the matter further, believing that I had meted out the kind of rough Justice that the pitch Invader wouldn’t forget in a hurry. So the Police Commander left with a smug smile on his face and I was able to tell my manager in a holier-than-thou voice that I was now going to jump in the bath.
Of course, there was a reason for the copper’s reluctance to lay a charge on me. Bernard Halford explained on the miserable Journey back to Manchester that the lack of effective crowd control would have been subject to an investigation and the match-day commander and the men under his charge would have come under serious scrutiny. A few days later, my two Blue mates told me that I had been the talk of the travelling fans. The City supporters had been as miserable as sin on their journey home, but seeing their keeper give a Nott’s County Hooligan a taste of his own medicine had given them something to smile about. And it was also the antidote to their intransigence to me. Apparently, the conclusion on their coach journey home had been “TC is one of us.”

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