It really makes you think, the Legendary Andy Morrison speaks to the MEN on the last time we met.
Blackpool v City special: Saviour from the dark days
Down and out in Blackpool. The last time Manchester City headed for the Golden Mile, the club was enveloped in darkness.
They had edged warily into the last year of the last millennium in terrible shape, bereft of money, mid-table in the third tier of English football, and fighting for their very existence.
Their hosts were, if anything, in worse shape. The proud old club of Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Alan Ball and Jimmy Armfield was playing out the seasons in a dilapidated old stadium, waiting for a messy end, or for an unlikely saviour.
Little wonder that the game, on a bleak, cold January day in 1999, ended in a desolate goalless draw.
For City, it was a point to cling to. They had suffered a run of three draws and a defeat in December, meaning that the Blues had plummeted to 12th, the lowest point in their history.
By the time they went to Bloomfield Road, things had started to pick up with post-Christmas wins over Wrexham and Stoke, and the hard-fought point at the seaside was part of a 12-match unbeaten run which helped to boost the Blues into the memorable events of the 1999 play-off final.
Legends were created in those dark days, none more so than the unlikely figure of Andy Morrison, whose beefy shape made him look more like a nightclub bouncer turning out for his local Sunday League team.
Morrison passion
That belied a lion heart, a passion born out of realisation that he was a part of history in the making, and a good deal more ability than he was ever credited with.
Morrison cannot remember the game at all, even though it was against a former club.
But now, having just turned 40 and assistant manager at Evostik League premier division side Northwich Victoria, he remembers those dark days with great affection.
And he is rightly proud of the part that team played in hauling City back from the brink of oblivion, and beginning a chain of events which have led to the Blues now standing on the brink of a golden future.
That was less than 12 years ago, and now the same fixture will be played out as a Premier League game, with City aiming for three points to stay tucked in behind leaders Chelsea.
“A lot of people forget just how bad the situation was,” Morrison told M.E.N. Sport.
“There was no Plan B. If we hadn’t got out of that division that year, Lord knows what would have become of City.
“The City fans don’t forget it, because that season there was a coming together of everyone at the club. The camaraderie we found in that adversity was amazing – but we all knew how bad things were.
“The City fans were brilliant. They knew the score, and got right behind us, which is exactly what we needed.
“There were no superstars and the fans knew it – but they also began to believe that we had a team that could start to get them back to where we belonged.”
It is testament to that team that even now, when global icons like Robinho, Carlos Tevez and David Silva flit in and out of the club, honest journeymen like Morrison, Paul Dickov and Shaun Goater are held in similar esteem.
It’s something else which maintains a strong bond among the players but also between those players and the fans.
“If the club had possessed the money to buy their way out of trouble they would have done it but there wasn’t the cash to go out and buy a £500,000 centre half.
“They had to find players where they could – I know they had to scrape together the £80,000 to bring me in from Huddersfield.”
It was perhaps the best £80,000 City ever spent. Morrison was the leader the Blues needed out on the pitch, in the unforgiving thud and blunder of lower league football.
Blackpool fans knew all about him – he was one of five Nineties players voted into their Hall of Fame for his contribution to their club.
Favourites
And City fans grew to love their new skipper for his extreme commitment.
Now Morrison is relishing the fact that two of his former clubs have hit such purple patches in their histories.
“I don’t think, back then, there were many people who would have guessed this would happen,” says Morrison with a chuckle. “City’s rise has been staggering, and Blackpool’s even more so, in some ways – a real fairy tale.
“I only found out the other day that Blackpool fans had voted me into their Hall of Fame, which is nice to hear.
“What Ian Holloway achieved last year, when Blackpool were favourites to be relegated, won’t be matched for a long, long time. Burnley did it the year before, but they had bigger crowds and bigger finances.
“Now every week is a cup final for Blackpool, and they are still getting results. People thought Olly would change the way his team plays, but he soon found out that he is best sticking to what they are good at, which is breaking with speed, having players changing positions in an attacking formation – a very positive way of playing.”
That attacking bent will come up against the Premier League’s arch-destroyer on Sunday, when Nigel de Jong turns out for the Blues after a fortnight of being hounded and castigated for his tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa.
But Morrison was quick to defend the City man: “It’s all about two challenges – the one in the World Cup, which people are bound to remember, and the one against Newcastle.
“The fact is that if the lad had gone into the tackle quarter of an inch differently, his leg wouldn’t have broken, and no-one would have even mentioned it.
“Take those two challenges out of the equation and de Jong is no different to any other competitive, hard-working, tough midfielder. He has been harshly treated. I remember playing against Gillingham just after joining City, and I put in a very similar challenge on Marcus Browning, who had been a teammate of mine at Huddersfield,
“There was no way I would have set out to hurt him, but he fell awkwardly and did his cruciate ligament. That could have been labelled a reckless challenge, but it wasn’t.
“Everyone seems to need a bad guy at some stage of the season, and it seems to be Nigel’s turn – until someone else comes along!”
Thank you Andy, one of my true City Legends.
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