V good read this...
The most memorable of Manchester City's eight previous FA Cup finals is probably the 1981 replay, which produced an absorbing game of football that Tottenham eventually won when Ricky Villa dribbled through the entire City defence before tapping the ball over the line. Saturday's match, however, strikes a more distant chord, 25 years more distant.
In 1956 City, then as now, were fourth in the league and faced opponents who were making only their second appearance in a Wembley final. For Stoke City read Birmingham City. Manchester City's sophisticates were expected to win although Brum, like Stoke, had had a good season and proved themselves capable of overcoming almost anybody at home, having beaten Arsenal 4-0, Everton 6-2 and, significantly, their Cup final opponents 4-3.
The result then was not a foregone conclusion. Birmingham, however, were about to become victims of a tactical revolution. For Manchester City had a plan, the Revie Plan, which helped to shape the way football was to be played in the latter half of the 20th century.
Don Revie is best remembered now for his 13 years as manager of Leeds United, whom he transformed from a struggling Second Division side into one of the most successful, and some would say cynical, teams in the country, along with his briefer and less remarkable spell in charge of England. As a player, however, Revie was one of the best creative footballers of the postwar years, possessing skill, vision and a range of passes that put him well ahead of his time. Revie would have played for Leicester City against Wolves in the 1949 Cup final but for a nasal haemorrhage (it could hardly be trivialised as a simple nosebleed) that kept him in hospital and at one point threatened his life. Following a spell at Hull he moved to Maine Road in 1951 and it was after watching Hungary beat England 6-3 at Wembley two years later that the Manchester City manager, Les McDowall, formulated the plan that had Revie at its heart.
This was a time when every player knew his place by numbers. If he wore No9 he was a centre-forward, the centre‑half was always No 5, the full-backs were Nos 2 and 3 ... and so on. McDowall had noted the state of confusion to which England's defence was reduced by Hungary's centre‑forward, Nandor Hidegkuti, retreating behind the rest of the forwards to scheme and score from deep positions. Hidegkuti's hat-trick convinced McDowall that Revie, wearing No9, could operate in the same role for City.
Treading cautiously, McDowall introduced the system into Manchester City's reserve team, who promptly went on a 26-match unbeaten run that lasted to the end of the 1953-54 season. Thus encouraged he had his first team report for the new season a fortnight early so they could thoroughly acquaint themselves with the new tactics. City lost their opening game 5-0 but quickly got the hang of it and reached the 1955 FA Cup final, where they met Newcastle.
Now Wembley would witness the Revie Plan – but no, City lost Jimmy Meadows, their right-back, after 18 minutes with damaged knee ligaments and as 10 men struggled to cover the gaps the strategy was forgotten, Newcastle winning 3-1. And even though McDowall's team were back at Wembley a year later it seemed unlikely that Revie would be taking part.
By then he was no longer a regular choice but on the morning of the final Billy Spurdle was ruled out with an attack of boils. So Revie was recalled and went on to run the match, which this time City won 3-1. Revie's performance was outstanding and helped by the Birmingham manager Arthur Turner's decision to go for all-out attack from the start. As Frank Swift, the former City and England goalkeeper turned reporter, wrote: "The middle of the field was left like a prairie for Don Revie."
Leading centre-forwards have rarely been mere battering rams. In the 50s Nat Lofthouse was able to hold the ball up and link the play as successfully as Alan Shearer and Kevin Davies have done in the modern game. But opposing defences knew where they were coming from and Revie, like Hidegkuti, kept coming from nowhere.
In Saturday's final practically everybody will be coming from midfield, although Stoke City have the means to punish defences in the old-fashioned way at free-kicks and corners, not to mention throw-ins. For Manchester City Carlos Tevez, rather than Don Revie, has been the hidden threat. It is to be hoped that nobody breaks out in boils.
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