Wednesday 13 February 2019

KANU CAN'T, DEIN DID


On this day (a Saturday) in 1999 the FA Cup 5th Round match between Arsenal (the holders) and Sheffield United at Highbury was going along nicely when just before Arsenal's winner Blades goalie Alan Kelly had kicked the ball out of play to allow an injured player treatment. Quick thinking Ray Parlour, took the throw in, the idea that a Sheffield player should get the ball but no,  Kanu got it, who centred the ball for Marc Overmars to score, making it 2-1! No law had been broken but in the manor of "fair play" there had been a "breach"of etiquette, which Kanu was unaware of. As a result Arsenal requested a rematch and quite rightly the Gunners won 2-1!
David Dein and Arsene Wenger behaved as true gentlemen and arranged the "replay" at Highbury attracting over 37,000 spectators.
In the next round Arsenal scraped a 1-0 defeat of Derby and then met Manchester United in the Semi-final, losing on a replay 2-1 after 0-0.
United won the Final beating Newcastle Utd 2-0.

Prior to their 5th Round tie, Arsenal had  Wolves 2-1 away in the 4th Rd and PNE 4-2 also away in the 3rd Rd.

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