David Mooney is not only a prolific writer and talker on all things Manchester City, but also a purveyor of excellently written, eminently readable tales about this grand old club of ours. He has already been responsible for four books on City and one piece of fiction named Granny Killer, reputedly about Jimmy Frizzell and a misunderstanding over a small tub of creosote.
For those, who have not yet managed to get a copy of his latest work, "Looks Like Scunny Next Season", featuring fascinating interviews with each team member from the history-changing play-off final in 1999 with Gillingham, here's an extract to whet the appetite.
6: Kevin Horlock
“I know this
sounds terrible, but I still didn’t think that was enough. I didn’t envisage
what was going to happen after that. I thought the time was up. On a personal
point – and I know it sounds dreadfully selfish – I thought ‘we’ve had a terrible day, but I’ve scored at
Wembley and I can tell the grandkids that’.”
We were sitting
in a downstairs room of Needham Market FC’s clubhouse and, naturally, there was
only one place where the discussion could start. Just like Kevin Horlock on the
pitch, when his goal at Wembley in 1999 hit the back of the net, there were few
in the stands that celebrated it. With the board for stoppage time being raised
and it pulling the score back to 2-1, thousands of fans thought it was too
little, too late.
“Obviously it’s
an even better story to tell the grandkids, now!” He adds, after a moment’s
pause.
“All I remember
was that, as a player, you really want to try and get back into the match. I
remember trying to cover as much ground as I could. When we were defending, I
tried to get back – because, obviously we couldn’t concede another one.
“Then I just
remember the ball breaking forward and thinking I needed to get to the edge of
the area as quickly as I could. Obviously, I’m not the quickest player in the
world. Luckily enough, maybe being a bit slower helped me run onto the ball,
rather than have to back-peddle for it.
“I remember
arriving and the ball just seemed to come across for me. All I was thinking was
just ‘hit the target – head down, get a
good connection and hit the target’.
“It was a good
strike. You can look at it as quite a good goal, I suppose, because I stayed
quite composed – but maybe that was due to the fact I thought the game was over
anyway! Maybe if it was to equalise like Dicky’s was, I’d have probably skied
it!”
Even through
chatting to him for a brief few moments, I can tell that Horlock is the joker
in the pack. There’s a cheeky charm about the way he talks and he’s very humble
about his own contributions to the City team that won promotion in 1999. When
we first met – in the bar area of Needham Market’s clubhouse – he was clearly
well liked by the staff and players that were there. As he walked in, three
players, who’d been on the pool table, immediately started a game of ‘one-upmanship’
with him, ribbing him about his pool-playing ability. And Horlock gave as good
as he got, too.
He’s capable of
serious, too, though. After talking about his goal, we started talking about
the bigger picture with regards to that match.
“We realised
what a big game it was,” he says. “Not only in that season but in the history
of the club. If we’d have languished in that division for much longer, then who
knows what would have happened? We knew we had to get out at all costs – and it
did go down to the last game.
“I sensed there
was a little bit of tension, knowing that we were massive favourites. We had
everything to lose and nothing to win, really. I sensed that amongst the lads
and certainly felt that way myself.
“We tried to
keep preparations as low key as possible,” he says. “Joe [Royle] was good at
that. He kept the pressure off the boys and maybe that’s where I came into his
plans a little bit.
“Joe didn’t sign
me at Ipswich just because of the player I was,” he explains. “I think he saw
me as a person who could take the pressure off. I used to have a laugh in the
dressing room; I used to have a bit of fun. And speaking to people in Ipswich
now, he actually signed me for that reason. Not just my footballing ability.
“So, Joe kept it
low-key and I tried to keep it that way, too. It was a game we had to win and
that adds pressure in itself, without having to deal with the opposition and
Gillingham were a big, strong team.”
What Horlock
doesn’t realise at this point is that I had already spoken to Joe Royle. I have
to ask him about an incident that I’d been told about by the then City manager.
“We’d been out
for a walk,” the former midfielder says. “We’d got down to the hotel and we’d
all gone out for a walk and a cup of coffee down the road. On the way back,
there was a monsoon. It was torrential rain. A few of the boys rushed in, but –
and this will sound pretty immature now! – me and Jeff [Whitley] were stood
there.
“There were a
few tourists taking pictures of the rain. Then eventually they were taking
pictures of me and Jeff because we looked bloody idiots, to be fair!
“I just said to
Jeff, ‘I’m not going in, I’m going to
stay out here for a long as possible.’ And Jeff being Jeff said he was
staying out as well and it turned into a bit of a stand-off of who was going to
stay in the rain the longest. And when I say rain, it was unbelievable. It was
torrential.
“We were stood
there getting drenched and I looked over Jeff’s shoulder and the manager was
the other side of the glass window of the hotel saying, ‘get yourself in here now!’. So then it became survival of the
bravest.”
A wry smile
appears on his face as he adds: “Jeff went in first.
“It was funny,”
he continues. “I think Joe probably laughs about it now, but he wasn’t best pleased
at the time because we had a big game the next day. But they were the sort of
things that took the tension off the boys, they found it quite funny. Joe
pretended he was angry, but I’m sure he was laughing inside.”
In the February
of that season, City travelled to Dean Court to face Bournemouth. In the end,
the Blues would draw 0-0, but it would turn out to be a very welcome point
after a truly bizarre refereeing decision – one Horlock would never forget.
When I ask about
it, he laughs. “Where do I start?” he says.
“It was a big
crowd and the majority were City fans,” he explains. “I don’t know whether it
got to the ref. Jamie Pollock had just been sent off and there’d been a few
dodgy tackles flying around – like I said, we were big fish in a small pond and
everyone wanted to kick us and beat us.
“There was a
break-up in play,” he continues. “I don’t know what had happened, I think
someone had gone down injured. But there’d been a tackle about a minute before
on the halfway line and I was just walking towards the ref to question it. I
didn’t even speak and that’s the craziest thing. In his report, it said I
didn’t say anything to him.
“I was walking
towards him and he just flashed the [red] card at me.”
He says he
didn’t think the card was for him at first: “I’ve not seen footage of it since,
but I’ve looked over my shoulder thinking he’s thrown it at someone who’s
behind me. And he said, ‘no, you, off you
go!’
“And I said, ‘what for?’ and he replied, ‘off you go’.
“So I’ve
wondered what was going on. I’ve walked off into the dressing room and Jamie
Pollock was getting out of the shower having been sent off previously and he
said to me, ‘what’ve you been sent off
for?’ and my answer was ‘I actually
don’t know.’
“Joe [Royle] has
come in after the game and said to me ‘what
did you say?’ and I said to him, ‘I
didn’t actually say anything!’ He said, ‘you must have sworn at him,’ and I replied, ‘I didn’t say anything to him.’
“Then the
referee’s report came through and his words were that he’d sent me off for
walking towards him in an aggressive manner. Which is bizarre, isn’t it? I
walked fairly quickly towards him, maybe. I’ve got one leg shorter than the
other, so maybe it looked like I was being a little bit aggressive.
“But I was just
going to ask him about a foul previously. It’s something that everyone
remembers and it’s funny now. But it wasn’t at the time when I ended up missing
a few games because of it.”
* For details on how to get a copy of this or any other of David's works, click here
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