2-0 down…and seemingly out. Kevin Horlock pulling one back and hope rising.
Paul Dickov slamming home a last-gasp leveller and then producing a knee slide for the ages. Nicky Weaver captivating us all with a goalkeeping masterclass before going on a run around the pitch that we thought would never end. Then captain Andy Morrison lifting the trophy high as we all celebrated promotion.
Those were the memories we have on the pitch – but how about what happened off the field among, you, the loud and proud City faithful.
Check out the best of our fan entries below.
I remember it well. My wife went into labour on that day and I spent it in Shrewsbury Hospital. I was not allowed to take a radio in so spent the time popping out to phone my parents to let them know how the birth was going…but also finding out the score. I am glad to say our beautiful son was born and named him Joe after our great manager at the time, Joe Royle.
Paul Blunden
Went to Wembley in 1999 to watch the Mighty Blues.
It was an eventful day to say the least. My now wife decided I’d look good with blue hair so I duly dyed it sky blue - wash in, wash out but ‘oh no’ it didn’t wash out and I had blue hair for months, lol. It was a brilliant day. I stayed until the end as well. I didn’t leave at 2-0 down like many other Blues. I got so excited as well when Dickov scored. I jumped up and fell over two rows of seats onto a little boy and his dad. It was hilarious.
Wayne Nolan
I am a veteran of the British Army and I watched the final on a small TV in our rest room while serving on a tour of Bosnia.
Normally when there was live football on, the place would be packed but no one was interested in watching this game, so I was alone. To be fair for a lot of the game I was glad, I’d had enough of the Manchester United fans giving me grief for years. When Dickov got the equaliser, I went nuts and a couple of soldiers ran in to see what was going on. They left as soon as I said City had equalised. This is one of the best memories I have of City.
Craig Holmes
At the tender age of nine, I vividly remember the week of the 99 Play-Off final when a lot of my friends were teasing me due to their side (some other team down the road) pushing for an unprecedented Treble and little City preparing to face the mighty Gillingham just for an opportunity to be within one league of being featured on Match Of The Day! I would always stand my ground and argue until I was blue in the face that City were still more enjoyable to support and the ‘people’s club’. Unfortunately, my family were not in a position to be able to take me to Wembley to support the Blues but what they did do was set up a full day of fun at home.
I woke up to a new Man City shirt (I’m quite sure now it was a copy but at the time I was in awe), invited my City-mad uncle round, set up a buffet and even borrowed my grandad’s ‘big speakers’ for atmosphere! I remember the despair of falling behind, the final whistle growing closer and the moment the game went 2-0 to Gillingham I burst into tears, threw my half-eaten chicken drumstick and stormed to the bottom of the staircase to sulk and persistently scream ‘turn it off please Dad!’
Naturally, in true City fashion, my emotion completely flipped on its head when Paul Dickov stuck the ball into the top corner, past his best friend I might add, and we had a chance.
I knew at that moment it was our day. After Nicky Weaver made the final save and he embarked on THAT celebration, I had tears again, but this time they were spraying around our living room due to my incomprehensible screaming, dancing and downright wild behaviour.
To this day, the famous 99 kit remains my favourite of all-time and I think my school teachers can probably still remember my massive smile for the next week, probably the next month actually, even during geography lessons! What a day that was!
Calum Fox
I was serving and living in the Midlands in 1999 and I went to the game at Wembley with my teenage son, Conall. I believe my younger brother Jimmy was with us but he was sat elsewhere in the ground. Towards the end of the game when City did not look like turning the game around my son and I, like many City fans, decided to leave before the end of the match, which was unusual for me as I was the optimist in our group, always believing City could turn impossible scorelines around.
We had not yet got out of the stadium when City scored, ‘consolation goal’ said my son. Then almost at the top of Wembley Way, there was another loud cheer and there was a mounted policeman sitting on a white horse. I asked him ‘who scored?’ ‘City have equalised,’ he said.
My son and I immediately turned and ran back into Wembley Stadium. There were many City fans running back into the stadium and a message came over the tannoy asking fans not to run. But everybody continued running!
My son and I ended up in much better seats. Of course, we could not believe our eyes and we were over the Blue Moon when we came out on top with the penalties.
A wonderful day and though we missed the drama of the two goals I think our dramatic encounter with the policeman on the white horse at the top of Wembley Way made the day even more memorable. Blue Moon Rising!
Sean McGarr
My eldest son and I drove down to the old Wembley Stadium and ended up being surrounded by cars of Gillingham fans.
When we went 2-0 down lots of fans were streaming out of the stadium. I have never left before the end of a game and always stayed to applaud our players, win, lose or draw, whether the sun shines or it pours with rain. I said to my son ‘there is no point us even thinking of leaving as we won’t be able to get our car off the car park being surrounded by Gillingham fans cars’. What a wonderful turning point. I’ll never forget Nicky Weaver’s run and dance after his penalty save. CITY TILL WE DIE.
Desmond Walsh
My brother and I went to the game, travelling to Wembley via the train. I was 18, my brother 21. We had waited all our lives to go to Wembley.
When it came to the match itself, things didn’t go to plan. 0-0 at half time and we were pretty anxious, surely we can’t blow it??? As the second half progressed, I remember thinking: ‘We’re not going to score here, are we?’
Then disaster at 81 minutes when Gillingham scored. Cue thoughts of ‘Typical City’ and general malaise. Then Robert Taylor scored a second a few mins later. ‘Right, that’s it, we’re going’ my brother said in the foulest mood.
Cue a fraternal argument - I said we should stay to the end, my brother told me he was finished with football and we should get out of London asap, hoping never to see Wembley ever again! To placate him I agreed. As we were walking back towards Wembley Way, Horlock scored. I pleaded with my brother to go back in. ‘No, you’re being an idiot, it’s over’, he said and we carried on walking.
While on Wembley Way we heard a cheer and a copper told us City had scored and we thought he was pulling our leg but he wasn’t. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of City fans all celebrating. ‘Can we get back in?’ we asked a steward…we could! We legged it back to our seats, watched extra time and penalties and the rest is history! It took me about a year to see the highlights of the game as there were no highlights on TV and we had no computer at home in those days.
Tim Foulds
We had three tickets between the four of us – myself, my mate, my wife, and my eight-year-old son. Travelling from Shropshire and negotiating the underground seemed like a lot for a young boy so he spent the day with his nan while we all went to Wembley. We didn’t budge - no thought of leaving early - it was our day for a miracle in the shape of a fiery Scottish Jack Russell of a player called Paul Dickov.
We arrived back in time to celebrate at the pub and then to fetch little Matt. Surprisingly instead of a happy, smiley little City fan we found a grumpy, mardy sulker - what on earth was wrong? ‘I watched it on Teletext,’ he said. He’s a 33-year blue now, and to this day he still makes me feel guilty that I didn’t take him. Thankfully he was there for Agueroooo!
Mark Freeman
After queuing outside Maine Road for a ticket, for what felt like hours, we were told we needed to head into town as the tickets were no longer available. I’d missed the boat! The day before the big game, my brother-in-law at the time Stu, a giant red haired Viking of a man called and proclaimed: ‘I got you one!’ On the big day, off we went…on the minibus…aiming for the Green Man and WEMBLEY BABY!
As history tells us, things didn’t completely go to plan. With two minutes of the game remaining, Stu had had enough. ‘C’mon, let’s go, we can be on the bus and on our way before the rush.’ But I wasn’t leaving… GOAL! Super Kev! But too little, too late. Again. ‘C’mon, let’s go, we can be on the bus and on our way before the rush.’ Now I definitely wasn’t leaving. Stu managed to persuade me to start up the stairs when…GOAL!!!! Dickov. It was 2-2!
The next thing I know, the 6’4’ ginger mountain that was Stu was literally flying over my head into the crowd. By the time I realised, he was 6 feet left and 12 feet further down from me from a standing start. After 30 minutes, that felt like the worst trip to the dentists, it was penalties. And at our end!
I swear the Gillingham players had never heard a noise like it! Weaver was unbeatable! We’d done it!
The game taught me two lessons…NEVER leave before the final whistle and MY club would always find a way to prove I had made the right choice.
Paul Doodson
My 11-year-old son, my brother, his family and I travelled down on the luxurious Pulman train from Manchester direct to Wembley. We also had executive tickets which had a brilliant view of the whole stadium. When Gillingham went two nil up which I think was around the 87th minute I asked my son if he wanted to leave, but as it was his first visit to Wembley he wanted to stay to the bitter end. Over the next few minutes or so, it was like a blur and when Paul Dickov scored the equaliser it seemed unbelievable.
Some say that that goal saved City as a club, I’m not so sure about that but it was probably as important as the famous Sergio goal. After the excitement of the win on penalties, I had an headache so me and my son left straight after the presentation and said that we would meet my brother and family back on the train. Unfortunately, we got held up by the police as they were letting the Gillingham supporters go by first. So with the delay, we missed the luxury train journey back home and had to wait in a queue with other City fans for another train. When we got on, we had to stand all the way back to Piccadilly but it was totally worth it. Such a great day.
Craig Monton
I made the decision early in the year of 1999 to do something special for the millennium, bought a pushbike for £50 and started training to attempt to cycle Land’s End to John O Groats for charity. I wrote to Joe Royle and asked him if he would speak to the players on my behalf for some support.
The team generously sponsored me and, on my way down to Wembley on the train, I mentioned it to one or two fellow supporters and in no time at all, I was getting people I’d never met before filling up my sponsor sheets!
I completed the charity ride in September of 99 and wrote to Andy Morrison (Mr. Royle had passed my information on to him) asking him to thank all the players on my behalf. I never got the opportunity to let all the fans who supported me know that I raised £2,600 for the Make a Wish foundation thanks in part to the generosity of the players and fans alike. The match was an unforgettable experience and the feeling of camaraderie enhanced the whole weekend for me.
Howerd Shepherd
Camped out ALL night to get a ticket for myself and my daughter, 11 at the time, from the Junior Blues Office.
It was her first away game and obviously she’d never been to Wembley before. I knew I had to get her there. She had been to most home games with me being a season ticket holder for years and it wasn’t difficult to get tickets back then.
At 2-0 down, I honestly thought ‘why am I doing this to my daughter’. We all know what happened next, thank god! Since then, she has got her own season ticket, married a fellow blue who she met on an away game against Villa. She’s followed City in Europe. They have an eight-year-old daughter who has her own season ticket. CTID!
Neil Sherlock
Took my son to his first Wembley final. We queued for tickets for nine hours at Maine Road. On the way back from Wembley, I used a mobile phone for the first time to order the drinks at our local pub which closed at 10.30 then. I offered the driver £40 to get us home before last orders. He made it but 10 minutes late. We paid him though!
My son is 44 now, lives in the Philippines, but still loves City.
I am 70 and still go home and away. Once a blue, always a blue. Wembley 99 - the day we came back from the dead.
Stephen Roden
Went with dad, brother, sister, her partner and one friend from Manchester and met six others in London. Minibus to Wembley heading south from Northenden. The last game at the old Wembley. Two nil down and furious! Super Kevin Horlock scored the best goal of the game…still furious. City fans leaving but we were staying to the end.
Dickov scored, everything went to mayhem - bloke six rows ahead of us broke his leg celebrating. The noise that was released was massive. Extra time we ran it but no goals. Penalties, Nicky Weaver wheeling away and weaving through the squad. The sense of relief was massive. Journey home, we met a group of City fans at the services on M6. They had left early and had no idea we’d escaped the Second Division. Back to Manchester, driving everywhere with flags out the car. The following week went to school wearing a different City shirt every day.
Patrick Bedell
