Charlton Athletic Beamback in the Great Hall on Feb 19th 05.
It was my pleasure to be at the Walkers Stadium, Leicester on Saturday February 19th2005 to watch the beam back of the F.A. Cup 5th round match against Charlton Athletic at The Valley. I went to watch it hoping that we might get a draw and get them back to Leicester for a replay. As the game progressed. we seemed to be first in most tackles, picking up all the loose balls and appeared to be very competitive. This was looking good, almost too good to be true. I said to Lorraine quietly “ we can win this “ . As the game went on, we got nearer and nearer to scoring, De Vries looked a handful as we stayed on top. The thought entered my mind that the Premiership team would step up a gear and we would be punished for not pressing home our dominance.
Then, mid way through the half, the room exploded as Nikos Dabizas headed in a far post header. 1-0 to the City, we were in dreamland. I say to Lorraine jokingly, “What are you getting excited about, its only a game ! “, she replies, “ You stand on that stage and try and tell all this lot that its just a game “ . The half continued and things looked good, Ian Walker only having to make one good save when he tipped a shot over the bar. Time now to get to half time with the lead, regroup and then go again. But we were not to be that lucky as Charlton equalised with a nicely taken near post flick which gave Ian Walker no chance. The atmosphere in the great hall dropped like a brick, I found myself with my head in my hands as the ball hit the net. The half time whistle goes, and I think its going to be a long second half if we are going to get a reply.
The second half starts well and we are again playing well. Some chances go very near for us and it looks as if we are the more likely to score. The game enters its last few minutes and I am mentally planning if I can get to a mid week reply from York in a weeks time. I think to myself that another goal would certainly simplify my travel arrangements.
One final push , we are not hanging on here, we are going for the win. A flick from Dion Dublin is heading slowly for the top corner before the keeper carefully pushed the ball over the bar , corner city . The ball is played over, Dion meets it at the near post and its in ! . The place goes absolutely crazy, I feel like I am about to cry, this is totally insane, its Reading revisited as we go 2-1 up in the last minute in front of the travelling city fans. He runs to the crowd like a 17 year old who has just scored his first goal. He is now one of us, he has scored a critical winning goal. Maybe not a Claridge play off winner, or a league cup winning goal, but a goal that will win a cup tie , on a premiership ground and one which I will never forget it. This is the same Dion who made such a total mess of the ball in defence against Blackpool in January., that put us behind with about 15 minutes to go, and facing 3rd round home humiliation against lower league opposition. The best bit is that Dion is Leicester born and bred, even if it did take him a while to get to us. In the previous week, there were strong rumours that he was wanted by Coventry City, thank goodness he stayed.
This team that Craig Levein is building is starting to show the fight that we all want. I for one don’t mind losing if we fight our best, but to lose meekly is no good to me. We are also playing nice passing football now. I think Craig Levein is a winner and a strong leader, and after a high like we had on this day, it makes me hope and dream where he can take us in the coming years. I read that his teams had a habit in Scotland of scoring late goals, and he appears to be carrying that on in England. I remember somebody said once of Manchester United that it wasn’t luck that they scored so many late goals, it was that the good sides go to the very end. For the record, I like late goals for us , it’s a very nice habit to have.
As we walked past the club shop, you could hear “ I know you wont believe us, we’re going to win the cup “ . Well I know in reality we can’t win the cup, can we ? My final memory of the day will be my 9 year old daughter holding her Scottish blue and white flag of St Andrew as she did cartwheels at the final whistle in the Great Hall.
I hope the draw is kind for us and gives us the vital home draw in the quarter final. Anything we do now is a bonus, but its great fun while it lasts ! Thank you Craig Levein and the boys for giving me such a great afternoon.