It was FA Cup Semi final weekend last weekend so here is my take on the games; I HATE VAR WITH A PASSION, despise it. The ridiculous decision to include it from the 5th round on, the gulf it creates between competitions and the Premier League vs other leagues, the delays, different interpretations in European competitions and the stupid decisions decided by millimetres, someone’s ear or their left buttock. (I may have imagined that one). I mean look at this nonsense!

And yet.. on April the 13^th 1997 at Old Trafford only I wish it had been in place for one day only, hell, for about 10 seconds only and then whoosh, gone again. Why? BECAUSE DAVID ELLERAY.

This topic came up when talking to Boro fan Daniel Gray, editor of the fine Scottish quarterly Nutmeg (Sorry Dan, I’m NEVER letting it go). Dan was helping me with contacts to celebrate the great Middlesbrough fanzine Fly Me to The Moon becoming the most prolific in print fanzine ever with its 655^th issue so in this case I had put my lifelong pledge NEVER to speak to Boro fans again to one side even though WE WERE ROBBED.

Come on, you must know the story, 3^rd tier (Or Division 2 but actually the 3^rd division because that’s the way it was then) Chesterfield went on an incredible FA Cup run and met Premier League Middlesbrough in the semi with their galaxy of international stars Juninho, Ravanelli, Festa and Craig Hignett. Bit of a spoiler but to this day, no club from the third tier or below has ever reached the FA Cup final but it should have been different. HOW DAVID ELLERAY, HOW?

For a start Chesterfield had to with 6 games to get to the semi final, not like those premier league fancies who only had to win 4. We beat another Premier League club on the way, Nottingham Forest with man mountain Mark Crossley in nets as well. 17 year old Kevin Davies scored a hat trick against the mighty 1^st division (2^nd tier) Bolton. No really, they were good then.

Then there were the sacrifices, I’d driven down from Leeds to Chesterfield to be outside the ground at 5am to secure my place in the queue outside the ticket office to get three tickets, one for a mate from Middlesbrough mine and one for my pregnant wife who might have been persuaded to come along just so we could tell our first born that they had been there in years to come. Physically queuing for tickets in the dark, going to matches pregnant with a fan of the opposition, lovely stuff. What I’m saying we really should have just been handed a place in the final.

The papers said we were cannon fodder, just there to make up the numbers but we had super John Duncan as manager, a man who specialised in more dreadful 0-0 draws than any other manager we have had… I imagine, one day I’ll check the stats, but it felt like that. But we also had Sean Dyche who was terrifying even then and the 17-year-old phenomena that was Kevin Davies.

I won’t bore you with a blow by blow account, the extended highlights of the game are here. I’ve only watched them about 90 times over the years and I implore you to do so at least once, it was a mad, mad MAD game.

Looking around online I found this grainy image of the crucial moment. We were 2-1 up. YES, CHESTERFIELD WERE 2-1 UP IN THE FA CUP SEMI FINAL. Including a Sean Dyce penalty hit with such venom that I swear they had to repair and secure the goal posts after it hit the net. 

Then came the fateful moment, the ball dropped to Jon Howard 10 yards out and he slammed it onto the underside of the bar before it CLEARLY dropped down behind the line. The linesman signalled a goal but the referee on the day, David Elleray, waved away all appeals.

LOOK AT WHERE HE’S BLOODY WELL STANDING! I have never ever met anyone who didn’t see it drop over the line, even his BLOODY ASSISTANT GAVE IT!! 20 years later Kevin Davies confessed to still being angry about the goal.[1]

Middlesbrough equalised not long after before going 3-2 up in extra time. Then with a minute to go Jamie Hewitt popped up at the back post to head home an equaliser in the 119^th minute. Pandemonium ensued as you can imagine and one of my favourite football photos of all time was snapped. What makes this tale even more magical is that Hewitt was the only player from either side on the pitch actually born in either town. 3-3 after extra time, football, bloody football.

We got spanked in the replay of course, at Hillsborough to make it worse.  Though I obviously didn’t want moneybags Chelsea to win the final, I didn’t really want Middlesbrough to either, despite them being the northern team and their fans being absolutely magnanimous in the aftermath of that mad mad series of events. Pathetic on my part really but that’s football fandom.

Jon Howard who scored the goal (it WAS and always will be a goal in my mind) tells this tale “I did see Elleray again a few years later, where I was at an FA Cup semi-final and he was assessing the referees. I went and spoke to him and there was actually a piece in the matchday programme from our 1997 game. I told him I was the player that had hit the shot and he was very apologetic.”

Oh well, that’s all right then. AAAAAAAARRGHHHHHHHH

There is another aspect to this story that I’ll tell in another blog another day, comical fan injuries at football matches. Real pain to go with the metaphorical stuff that has stayed with me for 28 years.

Anyway, yes, VAR does have its time and it’s place, about 10 seconds on the 13^th April 1997 at and only at Old Trafford. I’ll finish this article by demonstrating how upset I was and still am; I have had to resist the strong urge to deliberately and pettily put an extra o into the spelling of Middlesbrough all the way through this article.

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[1]https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/sport/football/spireites-v-boro-20th-anniversary-kevin-davies-still-angry-over-referee-blunder-55124