Middle row (l-r);
Front row (l-r);
By Jim Brown
Looking back from today’s vantage point, season 1988-89 was not so wretched as it seemed at the time. Back then, the FA Cup defeat at Sutton blackened everything, hanging like a pall over the club, and it is arguable in retrospect to claim that the club’s barren era of the early 1990’s was set in train that awful day at Gander Green Lane. The other disappointment at the time was City’s failure to clinch their first ever top four place, though by February that had been well within their gasp. Looking on the bright side, seventh place was a considerable achievement, City’s highest for eleven years. The club was never out of the top eight all season.
The season also had its share of gripping matches and memoraÂble performances – for example, defeating champions Arsenal and ending the Villa bogey after 51 years. City also did the double over title-chasing Norwich and Manchester United. On the other hand, City frustrated their fans by losing at home to two relegated teams – Newcastle and Middlesbrough – and succumbed early in both cup competitions. To sum up 1988-89 in one word – Sutton – is therefore to oversimplify.
The Sky Blues were scheduled to open the season at Tottenham but the fixture had to be postponed on the morning of the match when the local authority failed to grant a safety certificate for the new East Stand. Spurs were subsequently docked two points by the FA, later overturned on appeal. A week later, following Everton’s win at Highfield Road, City, having played one game fewer than everyone else, found themselves in the bottom three. But four successive wins, three of them away from home, soon put a smile on everyÂone’s faces. A key factor in the team’s early season form was the conversion of David Speedie from striker to midfield, behind Regis and Bannister, and the little Scot’s form was rewarded with a recall to the international scene after a two-year break.
A home defeat, albeit in a seven-goal thriller to promoted Middlesbrough with Speedie and Bernie Slaven trading hat-tricks, was a minor blip in City’s ascendancy, as the following week they travelled to Newcastle and thumped the woeful Geordies. City were helped by steering clear of injuries: in fact, Sillett fielded an unchanged side for the first nine games.
The Littlewoods Cup run was terminated at Forest, after City’s first-half enterprise was erased by a second-half charge from Clough’s team, who would go on to lift the trophy. As late summer turned to autumn, City’s form stuttered. Phillips returned for the injured Gynn, and Houchen was recalled in place of the inconsisÂtent Bannister. It was Houchen who scored the vital second goal to end the Villa jinx, to record the first win over the local rivals in 27 attempts since 1937. A dip in form at the end of the year, together with two out-of-character red cards for Peake and Bannister, saw Sillett shuffle the pack for the visit of Sheffield Wednesday. Speedie scored a spectacular headed hat-trick in a 5-0 win, nicely setting up the FA Cup-tie the following Saturday with non-league Sutton United, which looked a formality.
The Vauxhall Conference side pulled off one of the biggest post-war Cup shocks by sending the 1987 winners out. The plucky non-leaguers survived an early bombardment from John Sillett’s boys who despite enjoying the bulk of possession never had a firm grip in midfield and failed to use the flanks. City fans started feeling uneasy when the unmarked Kilcline headed straight at the keeper. Three minutes before the break unease turned to shock when Ogrizovic flailed at a near-post corner, was beaten by the flick on and the unmarked Tony Rains headed the non-leaguers in front.
The optimists among the City fans at half-time thought ‘Sillett will sort them out now,’ and seven minutes into the second half Phillips equalised. This should have been the springboard for City to step up a gear and stamp down on these Conference upstarts. Instead, six minutes later, more dreadful marking on the edge of the box allowed Matthew Hanlon to volley home, with Ogrizovic flapping the air. City piled on the pressure but Sutton refused to buckle and deservedly won 2-1.
The one positive thing to come out of the defeat at Sutton was that it inspired City to take out their frustrations on their league opponents and City picked up a cluster of points in the following weeks. They came from behind to snatch a win at Carrow Road, with Speedie scoring a spectacular late winner and he followed that up with lobbed winner against Wimbledon. The outstanding result, though, came at home to the league leaders Arsenal, who were destined to win the title in extraordinary circumstances at Anfield in May. City’s hero against the Gunners was Brian Kilcline, who recovered from missing an early penalty to step up eight minutes from time to convert a second.
Post-Sutton, City had dragged themselves into being dark horses for the championship, lying third in the table and eleven points off the lead. Four days later Millwall punctured their hopes and a poor run of five games without a win let the bookies breathe more easily.
On the transfer front, Sillett was already thinking long term. Cup final scorers Houchen and Bennett both left in March, the former to Hibernian, the latter to Ron Atkinson’s Sheffield Wednesday.
The season petered out after Liverpool had come to Highfield Road and dished out a lesson in football’s finer points. Although City were defeated in only two of their last nine games, too many were drawn to improve on seventh place. Many City fans made the short trip to Villa Park on the final SaturÂday of the season, hoping that the Sky Blues would send their rivals down, but Villa grabbed the point they needed to survive.
