“We're 3-0 down and a man down. Where's the nearest job centre?” So asked Kevin Keegan, Manchester City’s manager, of his assistant Derek Fazackerley. They were walking back out of the White Hart Lane tunnel for the second half of their FA Cup fourth-round replay with Tottenham Hotspur on Feb 4, 2004. Things looked grim.
In the tunnel on the way in for half-time, City lost Joey Barton to a second yellow, for dissent, compounding his earlier foul on Michael Brown. It was a nightmare of a night. Keegan’s side had won only once in their previous 18 games. He told the 10 players heading back out they needed “a miracle” to turn the tie around. Keegan, typically, added they were “playing for pride”. And they showed more than pride; they showed guts and an eye for goal, winning 4-3.
Unpredictability is one of the cornerstone attractions of following a team. You just never know. Keegan didn’t need a trip to the job centre at 640 High Road, a short stroll from Spurs’ home at No 782. There’s always a chance, however bleak the circumstances when trailing and depleted in numbers.
In 2006, Chelsea had Maniche sent off for a nasty challenge on West Ham United’s Lionel Scaloni at Stamford Bridge. Jose Mourinho’s side then fell a goal behind but responded with great determination - and four goals – and went on to win the title. Anything’s possible. Look at the subsequent paths of the two of the dramatis personae. Scaloni eventually went on to guide Argentina to the World Cup. Maniche went on to run a successful vineyard on the banks of the Douro called “Dezoito”. Eighteen was Maniche shirt number at Porto and with Portugal).
Which brings us in a rather unpredictable way to the vexing case of Blackburn Rovers 1, 10-man Ipswich Town 0 (game abandoned 80 min). The referee, Stephen Martin, had no choice but to stop the game after a downpour touching biblical proportions made the Ewood Park surface unplayable.