Wembley 1999

[feewaybill]

Funny isn't it. I am the opposite of Steve, regarding this as the greatest game of football I have ever been to and enjoy reliving the memories.

Having watched us continually struggle for many years and almost go out of the league (The word Halifax still makes my knees tremble), I had ridiculous dreams of seeing us play at Wembley one day. It was just incredible to realise that by playing a team of City's standing, in a packed stadium, and producing a quality performance. The way it finished was brutal, but... it is still my greatest memory of supporting GFC.

Asaba and Taylor upfront - what a pairing. Will they ever be bettered?

 

[shotshy]

I was chatting with a City fan on my last cruise. He was there and had nothing but good things to say about the Gills. He said how we reacted with dignity. I said that we were all in total shock. Really nice guy though and stood me a pint while chatting.

 

[norwichgill]

The acid test for any City fan is to mention Gillingham. The real supporters will smile, shake your hand and react with real class.

Agree with that totally. Our head office is in Manchester and the MD is a long-term City fan, so Wembley 1999 is frequently brought up but I only get comments about how we should have won and how the team is doing now, etc. Funnily enough, I was up in Manchester the following year on the afternoon City got promoted to the Premier League, which I'm guessing must have been a week or two before we played Wigan in the playoff final. I was staying just off Deansgate right in the centre and as I arrived I literally had to swerve round drunken Mancs celebrating in the street, then later when I went out, loads of people I passed stopped to shake my hand as if I was a City fan!

 

[HastGill]

This was back in the days of teletext, remember going on to the ‘local’ sports page and it saying all 40,000 tickets had been sold (can’t remember how quickly they went but soon after they were released)..I was gutted and got my dad to send a fax to Scally’s office saying how supporters who were based further away couldn’t be expected to queue at the ground on weekdays etc, etc. To my surprise they had actually held back tickets for supporters in our position and we were able to get them sent in the post!

Remember walking to a tube station to get to Wembley and it being shut, didn’t know my way around London very well then so was trying to work out the nearest station when a couple of City fans pulled up and offered me and my dad a lift to the nearest station which we accepted. On the tube we were surrounded by City fans but they were all very friendly..certainly better than some behavior I saw from Gills fans after the Shrewsbury final years later.

 

[PhilK66]

But Wembley 2000 was the greatest! An incredible match and Thomson a legend

 

[Archiepoptart]

But Wembley 2000 was the greatest! An incredible match and Thomson a legend

I deliberately arranged a holiday overseas for playoff weekend 2000. I couldnt face going through that heartbreak again.
Freeway summed it up for me in a post above. Play off final 1999 was the greatest Gills match I've ever been to, to end in heartbreak was sort of fitting.

 

[Straightbat]

Every thriller has a scene just before the end when the hero is down and out after a roller coaster fight to the death (usually hanging off the edge of the top of a high rise block, a mountain ledge or a plane's cargo bay while in flight with the door blown open) before some amazing turn of events (like the would-be assassin being shot from behind by the hero's colleague who has arrived unnoticed just in the nick of time).

Andy Thomson was the hero's support and the heart stopping suspense filled climax lasted a year.

 

[EagerExile]

That Man City game traumatised me for months. I'd wake up in the night thinking about it! My Dad was a STH but somehow missed out on Wembley tickets, so I had to come down from the Midlands to buy a couple off a guy in a Covent Garden bar! Driving to London on the day of the game, I stopped at Toddington Services. Mine was the only Gills shirt in a sea of sky blue! Needless to say, I didn't stop on the way home.

 

[Bert]

So city offered Halsey a bribe that if they were losing he was to add on an extra minute possibly two than you’d expect - City would then simply score a couple of goals in this time.

What a cunning plan.

OK Nibbles, This has all been discussed many times before and unless someone gives a death-bed confession I doubt if we will ever know the truth. It is however worth listing all of the arguments just one more time: -
1. Halsey stated that the length of the Gillingham celebrations were a major contributing factor to the extra time. In fact the celebrations were not that long, Sky even missed the restart because they were re-showing the goals.
2. Although there was a handball incident earlier in the game which could (and probably should) have seen a penalty awarded to City it was not easy to see as the slide by a City player right in front of Halsey which took the ball out of play for a Gills corner with the ball actually being held under his arm by that player. (Think it was actually during the extra time period but not sure).
3. Sky always used to show the "stats" including the amount of time the ball was actually in play at the end of each half. The stats were not shown at the end of the second half. I wonder why?
4. Very shortly after the match Sky were reported as taking up 10% of City's shares.
5. Mark Halsey was reportedly seen after the game celebrating the result with a load of City Fans.
6. The match was reportedly shown on screen to a group of referees at a referees training session and they were asked to state how much injury time they would each allow. Not one trainee would have added the amount of time Mark Halsey saw fit to add.
7. I thought that we enjoyed the rub of the green as far as the refereeing of the Wigan game was concerned. As ridiculous as it seems I wonder if the referee was under instruction to correct an injustice if possible.
Do I think that Mark Halsey took a financial bribe to see City home, no I don't, but there are enough unanswered questions to leave a nasty taste in the mouth. Personally I will never believe that we were fairly treated and will always wonder what would have happened if we had been promoted then. For example would Tony Pullis have stayed if we had gone up? Probably not but who knows. Alternatively we might have come straight back down again and missed out on the best five years out of supporting the Gills.

 

[markinkent]

Freeway summed it up for me in a post above. Play off final 1999 was the greatest Gills match I've ever been to, to end in heartbreak was sort of fitting.

I agree with that.

Got to see my team at Wembley for the first time. It was a full house and the atmosphere was electric.

We lost but on reflection we played our part in an amazing game and we had a great day with the City fans in the pubs BEFORE the game.

As for the extra time all I remember is going bonkers celebrating, falling over and by the time we got up and sorted ourselves out we still hadn't kicked off - twice ! The celebrations themselves were incredible but took some time

On the way home to Kent we were chatting to a group of Germans and I was struggling to explain that a game in the third division has 80,000+ in attendance. My mate just looked at me shocked that I spoke fairly fluent German. We had just been through every emotion going through the day but his shock was I could speak another language.

I missed the Wigan game as stupidly booked a trip overseas for that weekend (had to sort out some legal stuff for my upcoming Wedding). Fantastic that Thomson laid the ghosts to rest but for me Man City remains a very special day in my 35 years a Gills fan.

 

[DurhamGills]

Man City was our finest and our darkest day.

Our clubs finest day at Wembley and a fantastic experiance even with the result - so many Gills fans over the years dreamed of that day and those lucky enough to go were living the dream for all the past supporters

Our darkest day for what Pulis tried to do to the club, totally abused every supporters trust by trying to take advantage for his own personal gain and tarnishing forever the clubs finest day.

 

[Lark]

Pulis and Scally were not speaking to each other by the time of the Wembley final. Pulis had already agreed to become Bristol City's manager, so would not have stayed even if we had won.

At the time 5 minutes injury time was rare - now it is quite a common amount given. I think about 3 minutes would have been right for that match with the subs and goal celebrations, and no long injury delays.

I was gutted we lost, but the fact we went one better the following season did help heal the wounds, and I remember the disbelief at the final whistle that we had finally reached the 2nd tier for the first time in the club's history. Coming from behind when it looked like we would lose made it feel even sweeter.

 

[NathanH_GFC]

1999-2000, with the FA Cup QF in there as well, was the most brilliant of seasons for the club. I was as gutted as anybody after the City game. Couldn’t watch or play football for weeks after that. Waking up with a broken heart ever day, and sometimes through the night. It was horrific. But these things happen for a reason, and if we’d have held on, there’d have been no Thommo memories and no QF at Chelsea. So in hindsight, it was for the best.

I used to live near the Swallow Hotel, Bexleyheath, where away teams usually stayed when playing at Charlton. In late 1999, whilst walking past, my brother and I saw that City were there and the coach was just being loaded up, so we went to see who we could see. Two memorable chats spring to mind:-

1. Richard Edghill and Kevin Horlock - we were chatting to them, Edghill seemed to have no idea who Gillingham were; despite him scoring in the shootout. He may have been on a wind-up but if he was, even Horlock was fooled. He claimed to remember the game but didn’t know who it was against!

2. Joe Royle accepted a Mars from my brother in exchange for a promise to not sign SBT. He signed a week or two later. Again though, these things happen for a reason - if we kept SBT, we’d have won the league by March, so never would have had that Wembley trip.

And in response to who asked if Asaba and SBT will ever be beaten as a pairing - 20 years later and still no-one has got close, I’d love it to happen, but just can’t see it.