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The Offside Bar on City Road, Angel |
Up for grabs: a trip back to 1989
Arsenal fans recall last-minute title miracle as bar prepares to hold celebration 20 years on
“A GOOD ball by Dixon, finding Smith, for Thomas, charging through the midfield – Thomas...” If you’re an Arsenal fan, you know the rest.
Every Gunner remembers where they were on May 26, 1989, when Arsenal clinched the title with the last kick, in the last minute, in the last game of the season, at Anfield.
Twenty years to the day, that extraordinary night is being celebrated at a special anniversary event at the Offside Bar in City Road, Angel.
Misty-eyed fans have been talking to the Tribune ahead of the big night of nostalgia.
Observer sports writer Amy Lawrence, who lives in Leigh Road, Highbury, was at the match. She said: “It was an insanely magical moment. It was thrillingly emotional. I remember this big guy next to me – he looked like a nutcase – with tears rolling down his cheeks.
“I wasn’t very focused on the time, I thought there was about 10 minutes left. I was just concentrating on the game, willing us on. I paid £3.50 for my ticket and we went up in a convoy of buses – we were bus number 23. I remember the children in Drayton Park cheering us off as we went. There was a real sense of the community coming together, hoping for a miracle.”
She added: “You have to remember there wouldn’t have been a Micky Thomas moment if it hadn’t been for what happened at Hillsborough. Our tickets said ‘April 24th’ on them – the date the game was supposed to be. For me the experience was inseparable from Hillsborough.”
Back in London, the Friday night clash, screened on ITV at a time when live games were only shown once a week on Saturday afternoons, had brought Islington to a standstill.
But for Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and television presenter Clive Anderson, work commitments came first.
Mr Corbyn said: “Sadly, I was doing my duty listening to the concerns of my constituents on the Durham Road in N7. Islington had shut down, except for those people. I was getting the result relayed to me from someone outside. But then I heard the Andover estate erupt and I knew what had happened. It was mad as I made my way home – everyone was running around.”
Mr Anderson, who lives in Highbury, said: “Unfortunately, I was doing a favour for a friend and I was filming when the match was on. So my main memory is of missing it.
“We ended up working until 1am and on the way home the cabbie was being very good and telling me it was worth watching on video. But as we drove through Islington there were people running around everywhere – there were people naked, dancing in the street. I watched it when I got back. It was a vital goal. When you look at the way the ball fell to Michael Thomas, it kind of bounces into his stride.”
Arsenal and England striker Rachel Yankey said: “I was at primary school at the time and I remember watching it with my older brother.
“The thing I remember most about it was Thomas’s celebration. It was a kind of twisting back-flip thing, right off the ground. I’ve never tried it, it looks really difficult. You could pull a muscle doing that.”
Broadcaster and author Melvyn Bragg said: “I watched it at home with my son and I thought it one of the miracle moments of all sport.”
Season ticket holder Ernest Hecht, 79, who runs the book publishers Souvenir Press, said: “Unfortunately, I didn’t go to Anfield because I had broken my shoulder. So I watched it on TV with a bottle at home, alone, in Notting Hill. I was screaming so loud that I totally lost my voice. The phone never stopped ringing after, but I couldn’t talk to anyone.”
Ben Dimech, a spokesman for supporters group Red Action, said: “I was 11 and I was just about to start secondary school. Most people at my school were Liverpool fans but I was an Arsenal fan because my dad used to sell hot dogs outside the stadium and I grew up round there. I was thinking that the next week was going to be hell in the playground.
“Watching it unfold was magical. It was dream-like. It was surreal. I just remember looking forward to the parade on Sunday.”
Paul Matz, chairman of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association, said: “I was in Brighton at the time and even there there were suddenly lots of people in Arsenal shirts running out in the street. It was euphoric. It will never happen again.”
Councillor Paul Convery said: “I think I was in the Highbury Barn, with a few friends and an old girlfriend. It was in the days when watching footy in the pub was not so common. There wasn’t a big screen, just a couple of TVs. Everyone was starting to look glum and then suddenly wallop! What a goal!”
Author Jason Cowley will be joined by Ms Lawrence at the event on Tuesday, while broadcaster Tom Watt will be sharing his memories while John Williams, author of The Liverpool Way, will be reminding us of the awful shadow Hillsborough cast on the game too. The pub will be showing the youth cup final between Arsenal and Liverpool, being held at Anfield on the same night.
The event has been organised by T-shirt makers philosophyfootball. com. The match will be screened from 8.05pm. For tickets contact 020 8802 3499. |
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