Old Gunners and Gooners : 2 Unlikely Heroes.

When I wrote in the last Post that Perry Groves had left Arsenal, I forgot to write about one of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen at Highbury.

During a game, Everton I think?, Perry was injured in front of the West Stand, towards the Clock End.
When the St John’s ambulance men reached him, they loaded him onto a stretcher and proceeded to carry him off.

The game then restarted and play was down the North Bank end, the stretcher bearers had reached the corner flag at the Clock End and decided to take a sharp turn,
While doing this manoeuvre, they inadvertently tilted the stretcher and Perry fell off.
Perry jumped up and berated the four hapless ambulance men, whilst the fans that had seen it were in hysterics, me included.

Two Cups are better than one.

Our 2 Scandinavians - John Jensen & Anders Limpar.

Limpar missed both finals due to injury.

Steve Morrow - Unlikely Hero Number 1.

Steve Morrow scored the winner against Sheffield Wednesday in the League (Coca Cola) Cup Final.

Wembley - Here We Come.

4 Wheels.

I’m in - again.

Paul Merson is happy.

Steve Morrow isn’t happy.

Tony Adams dropped him while celebrating.

We’re all happy.

I’m Happy but lagging.

Later in the evening, Putney’s wife came to take him home from JC’s pub.

She took one look at all us drunks and said “if only your wives could see the state of you”

Teddy Taylor replied with the, now, legendary saying,

“You can change your wife, but not your football team “

Spooky and myself were staying the night in one of the spare rooms upstairs.

No problem with that, until we wake up in the early hours needing a piss.

I go to open the door, forgetting that JC’s Rottweiler, Bruno, is patrolling the corridor.

I slam the door shut and after listening to Bruno pounding against the door for a couple of minutes, we decide to piss out of the window.

Andy Linighan - Unlikely Hero Number 2.

Andy Linighan scored the last minute winner in extra time in the FA Cup Final Replay against Sheffield Wednesday.

FA Cup Final 1993.

Crème de la Crème!! JC has got 4 tickets in good seats for the Cup Final.

Problem? He wants Putney, Spooky and myself to have them, even though we’ve all got our season tickets allocation. He convinces us to give ours to some of our mates who haven’t got a ticket as he wants to sit, with sensible blokes!!!

So, on the big day we’re all together marching down Wembley Way until we get to the Stadium, then all the Arsenal Fans go off to the right and all the Wednesday fans go off to the left.

With 4 Red shirts amongst them.

Yep, JC has out performed himself, we’re sitting with Sheffield Wednesday season ticket holders.

The 3 sensible blokes now want to kill him!!

As we’re queuing on the steps to get in, 2 drunken Wednesday fans turn and spot our Arsenal shirts.

One says to Spooky, “they’ll be trouble inside with you lot” Spooky replies “if there’s gonna be any trouble, then we’ll have it here now “. They returned to queuing.

When we get onto the concourse, there’s, obviously, thousands of blokes in Blue and White striped shirts, drinking and singing and staring at the 4 Red shirts.

JC says “fuck this” and zips his jacket up to the collar. Now there’s only 3 Red shirts.

We get so much abuse that a woman comes up to me and says “you lot are very brave”. I replied, “No love, that nutcase got us the tickets” and pointed at JC.

The seats did have a good view, of the Arsenal End.

Somehow, we survived.