Payback for Mike Read in 1997. What goes around comes around. wp ref.
What was this?
5. Chelsea 1-0 Leicester (FA Cup fifth round, 1997)
It was a bit unfair that, by the time Chelsea played their fifth-round FA Cup replay against Leicester, they were hot favourites for the tournament and therefore cast in the role of the big bad bullies. They hadn't, after all, won a trophy in 27 years. Still, with Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle and Aston Villa having all been knocked out early on, that's the way it just had to be for Ruud Gullit's side. So when a Homeric two-game tussle with Leicester - which was about to head for penalties, the least Martin O'Neill's side deserved - was jarringly ended when referee Mike Reed awarded Chelsea a penalty after Erland Johnsen went down under a non-existent challenge, the entire country (Chelsea fans apart, naturally) felt a searing sense of injustice.
That night, BBC Radio Five Live's Danny Baker spoke for the nation when he opined: "It was scandalous, an absolute scandal … football has a maggot at its golden core, and that maggot is referees … we've been at that game for two hours and the referee was bad all the way through it … what is the point of people running themselves to a standstill, what is the point supporters investing time money and emotion, what is the point in anyone investing millions in football when the whole thing rests on some erstwhile van driver from Folkestone who's probably had a row with his wife? If this was a boxing match and the referee turned round and gave the fight to the bloke who was knocked out on the floor we would say you can't do that … most of them need a good slap round the face … hacks should doorstep this man like he's a member of Oasis … that worm should be on the phone now, Radio Five should be knocking down that ref's dressing room and asking do you know on behalf of all referees how bad you are?"
Reed wouldn't be the only maggot chomping his way through Baker's delicious metaphor in that season's FA Cup, of course. In the semi-final, Jonathan Howard hammered a shot off the underside of the crossbar and behind the goal-line; it should have given Chesterfield an unassailable 3-1 lead against Middlesbrough, but somehow wasn't good enough for David Elleray. Chesterfield were thus denied becoming the first-ever third-tier team to feature in the final, a disgraceful decision indeed, though Howard loses Outrage Points for failing to send the net billowing and making it perfectly obvious even to an eejit like Elleray. Three yards out, Howard was, and he hit the bar.
Sandy
Author