Fulham vs Manchester City: Twenty years on from City's third-tier low

This weekend, Manchester City go to Fulham as one of the game's elite clubs and are still on course to win four major trophies this season. But 20 years ago, this was a fixture in English football's third tier. That campaign proved to be pivotal in City's history...

When City were relegated in May 1998 to what was then the Second Division, it marked a new all-time low in an era of underachievement and long-term decline.

"It was a big club, constantly under-performing," says David Bernstein, who succeeded former chairman Francis Lee in March 1998. "It was described, if I remember correctly, as 'A Theatre Of Comedy' at Maine Road, which didn't go very well alongside 'The Theatre Of Dreams' elsewhere!"

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On his appointment as manager a month earlier, Joe Royle recalls discovering a losing culture. "The club and the players were probably feeling somewhat sorry for themselves... 'This can't happen to us - we're too good for this'."

In the early 90s Lee, a legendary player from City's glory days of the 60s and 70s, had returned as chairman to try to recapture the good times. But Alan Ball, Steve Coppell and Frank Clark were among a succession of managers who, under Lee, had been unable to arrest the slide.

"There were so many different managers, new players getting signed, players that were there already," says former City striker Paul Dickov. "The whole atmosphere was poison really and that translated to the fans as well."

Royle, another former City star, had been handed the onerous task of trying to turn things around.

"The big advantage I had was I'd played there and played in probably their best side before now," he says. "I had a City background which I think gave me time with the fans."

At Maine Road, gates which averaged over 28,000 in the 1998/99 season expected City to escape from what is now League One at the first time of asking.

"My mindset was that we were going to bounce straight back, we were going to do well and win two out of three games," former City striker Shaun Goater admits. "I really had this false illusion that we'd be alright in terms of getting promotion straightaway."

But in only their second game of the season, they suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Kevin Keegan's Fulham at Craven Cottage. It brought home the reality of the challenge they faced.

"Whenever we went anywhere, it was a full house because Man City were in town," says former City goalkeeper Nicky Weaver, who had just broken into the first team at that stage. "Everybody raised their game and we found that difficult to cope with."

"It took us three or four months," says Dickov, "whoever we were playing against, it was their biggest game of the season."

By Christmas, City had slipped to their lowest ever league position - 12th in English football's third tier.

"I'm credited or discredited with the phrase 'City-itis'," says Royle. "'City-itis' was that just when you think nothing can get worse, it usually did!"

Dickov remembers a 2-1 defeat at York City in December 1998 as the low point.

"I was suspended for the York game," he says, "and I remember the result coming in while I was sitting at home. I was thinking that we might have blown it!"

A 2-1 win against Stoke at Maine Road shortly afterwards proved to be pivotal. City lost just two more games all season and made a determined late bid for promotion.

"That was the moment," says Bernstein, recalling the Stoke game. "From there on, our results improved and we began to get that momentum which was so important to us. And, frankly, we've had that momentum, by and large, for 20 years."

City reached the play-offs, at which point things looked like they might still go wrong. In the first leg of their semi-final at Wigan a mix-up between Weaver and defender Gerard Wiekens gifted the home side a goal inside the first 60 seconds.

"You're thinking 'here we go again!'" Weaver says. "Typical City! We've got there and we're going to throw it away."

A goal by Dickov brought the tie level going into the second leg. At Maine Road, Shaun Goater's goal was enough to take City to Wembley for the first time in more than a decade.

"I think everyone remembers my goals against Manchester Utd," he says, "but if we don't get into that final, who knows? So, in terms of importance, it's probably my most important goal."

For City, the need to beat Gillingham at Wembley could not be downplayed.

"I felt before it started that it was going to be the most important game in the club's history," says Bernstein. "If the club was really going to progress we had to win that game."

But goals from Carl Asaba and Robert Taylor inside the final 10 minutes left City once again looking destined to be disappointed.

"I thought: 'Oh no, this is City-itis all over again,'" Royle recalls. "What have you done to us? Why did we deserve this?"

In the 90th minute, Kevin Horlock pulled a goal back for City. Then, five minutes into stoppage time, Dickov dramatically equalised.

Penalties would decide the outcome. With saves from Paul Smith and Guy Butters, Nicky Weaver was City's Wembley hero. His wild celebrations remain the iconic image of City's success that afternoon.

"I could just feel this electricity running through my body and I didn't want it to end," he says. "So I thought I'd go for a little run! I think the overriding emotion was just relief because we'd done it. And the way we'd done it, it was just typical City, wasn't it?"

After so many years of decline and disappointment, it gave City's fans something to shout about again.

"They just can't believe what's happening at Manchester City now but they still remember that season with a smile," says Royle. "And, funnily enough, they don't have any of the angst that we had at the time. They just say: 'It was great, it was great.' I wish I'd have known!"

Twenty years on, the fans still celebrate the season when Manchester City stopped the rot - and paved the way for what's become an extraordinary new era.

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