Police Horses, Dogs and a Pitch Invasion – Man City vs Spurs 1993 Explained

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[00:00:00]Oh, this is absolutely ridiculous.

[00:00:03]They're coming now from all corners of the ground.

[00:00:09]What do they think they're doing?

[00:00:11]And now, of course, there are a few fights coming into it.

[00:00:14]We've got just too many idiots on the pitch and the more their more sensible brethren look upon them with disdain.

[00:00:22]Well, I suppose the next thing will be an announcement from the referee.

[00:00:27]This is all tedious in the extreme and does nothing either for the game of football or indeed the attitude of English people. Now, we've got the police on horseback.

[00:00:43]Goodness me, when will we learn?

[00:00:45]March 1993, Maine Road. This one was an absolute cracker. Manchester City against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup quarter-final, a place at Wembley on the line, and the grand opening of City's brand new Umbro stand at the Platt Lane end. Despite this, anger at City chairman Peter Swales had been building for a while. Frustration around the club was boiling over, and this would become the day when the fans began to revolt.

[00:01:10]Swales had failed miserably with his pledge to make them the biggest club in Manchester after ousting the popular long-time chairman Albert Alexander 20 years earlier. But this wasn't a drab nil-nil that sent people over the edge through boredom. This was chaos.

[00:01:27]Feenan might make that.

[00:01:29]He does.

[00:01:31]And Sheringham scores.

[00:01:38]>> [cheering] >> Terry Venables was seeing the need to come down to the tunnel.

[00:01:44]I don't think I'd even have that because of the hairstyle.

[00:01:47]NAISMITH, A CHANCE TO SCORE.

[00:01:55]EDINBURGH THAT'S GOOD POSITIONING BY SEDGLEY, who scores.

[00:02:03]But he hadn't anyone to three to pull the ball back to.

[00:02:06]Didn't bother about that, and Tottenham have the lead on the stroke of half-time.

[00:02:11]So, it was Allen.

[00:02:14]And he's got HIM BEHIND SHERINGHAM.

[00:02:16]OH, HE HIT THE POST. NAISMITH SCORES HIS SECOND.

[00:02:20]TOTTENHAM'S THIRD.

[00:02:24]3 MINUTES INTO THE SECOND HALF.

[00:02:27]Question of who he picks out.

[00:02:30]Comes down to Naismith.

[00:02:32]Patrick class goal.

[00:02:39]Some little surprise that uh Peter Reid hasn't tried to change the formation.

[00:02:45]>> [cheering] >> Well, I think he could have been caught between the two stools. A real problem when you're the player-manager.

[00:02:59]What a RUN HERE BY FEENAN. BRILLIANT.

[00:03:01]BRILLIANT.

[00:03:08]OH, GOODNESS ME.

[00:03:12]City took the lead early through Mike Sheringham, which for a few minutes made everyone inside Maine Road think this might finally be their day. Then Spurs woke up. Naismith equalized. Steve Sedgley put Tottenham ahead before half-time. Naismith struck again after the break, and by the time he completed his hat-trick later on, Spurs were in complete control. The football was good, the away end was bouncing, and City were unraveling. By the time Terry Feenan went on that mad run and scored to make it 4-2, the City support had had enough.

[00:03:41]Some of them were already looking for a way to stop the whole thing, or at least register their fury. And what followed was the sort of stupidity that instantly changes the mood of a ground. Around 200 City fans came over the barriers and onto the pitch, and suddenly a brilliant cup tie became a crowd control problem.

[00:04:00]Just went right through.

[00:04:04]And now we've got lots of people on the pitch, and this is all rather silly.

[00:04:10]Referee will have only 2 minutes on his watch, plus a little bit of stoppage time.

[00:04:17]Well, on the day, I mean, Terry Feenan, great goal there, but Spurs thoroughly deserved to to win. They played superbly. Counter-attacked well, and I think Manchester City must respect that.

[00:04:28]And supporters have got to be able to learn to live with success as well as failure.

[00:04:36]We thought these days had passed. Just calm it down.

[00:04:43]It's the uh attitude of the senior police constable who was, I think, somewhat let down by one of his colleagues who came in with a rugby tackle from behind, which was quite unnecessary. I mean, clearly people have got to be taken off the pitch, but there are ways of doing it.

[00:05:01]Semmens finds it all very amusing, but I confess I don't find it amusing at all.

[00:05:05]I'm sure he's not laughing at this particular situation. The arrival of the horses seems to have done the trick.

[00:05:13]And that's saying something, doesn't it, when animals can conduct themselves better much better than humans.

[00:05:25]Referee Ray Lewis took the players off, mounted police and dogs came on, and the game was suspended while they tried to clear the pitch. And the mad thing is, there was still more to come, because once the players reappeared and the match restarted, Spurs got a penalty.

[00:05:38]And even now, plenty of people who were there swear Teddy Sheringham had the good sense to miss it on purpose, rather than risk another invasion. The teams patiently waited in the tunnel while the problem was quickly and efficiently dealt with.

[00:05:52]Play resumed after a 12-minute delay.

[00:05:55]>> [cheering] >> Very unsettling, really, for all the players. City 4-2 down, remember, and with just a few minutes remaining in the match, they really need something extraordinary to stay in this year's FA Cup.

[00:06:09]And here's Turner.

[00:06:11]And still, penalty.

[00:06:14]Foul by Curle on Turner.

[00:06:21]>> [cheering] >> But but he doesn't take it.

[00:06:26]Well, I suppose if you're going to miss a penalty, an afternoon when your side is 4-2 is as good a time as any. But he missed it comprehensively.

[00:06:35]City keeper Tony Coton remembered this game in his autobiography. When chants about Peter Swales began ringing around Maine Road, you could tell that our supporters were looking for an excuse to escalate their growing dissension, and they got it 2 minutes from the end when Terry Feenan scored the kind of goal that, in any other circumstances, would have been classed as sensational.

[00:06:55]There'd already been a couple of incursions onto the pitch by solitary fans, but it now became a trickle and then a flood as City's more militant followers began a blue revolution. To add to the chairman's squirming embarrassment, the pitch-invading fans all came from the brand spanking new £6 million stand from which he had taken so much pride. Spurs fan Mark Davies told us, "It was a mad day. It had a sinister feeling from the start. We were kept in so long at the end and could hear rocks hitting the roof at the away end. My yellow car with a Spurs shirt in the window was the only car left in the car park, and by some miracle, it was untouched. It was like Del Boy's three-wheeler in the Peckham riots.

[00:07:33]Sheringham was definitely under police instruction to miss that penalty. If that went in, all hell would have broke loose." Kevin, another Spurs fan, added, "There was a fair bit of trouble after the game. They were trying to get on our coaches that were lined up outside, but after a few scuffles, we managed to get away. I know some Spurs lads weren't so lucky, though. Walking back to Piccadilly Station via Moss Side and Hulme, a couple of our lads took a beating. I remember they had a rogues' gallery of faces who invaded the pitch in the Manchester Evening News the next day, and a phone number to ring to grass them up. My work pal was one of the faces, and his sister rang up and grassed him in, pissed. If you were there that day, tell us your story in the comments. And if you enjoyed this video, please remember to give it a like and subscribe if you're new. You know it makes sense. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time."