Funny What Reminds You

Relaxing in the bath last Sunday, my mind turned to Saturday's football results.  One of the matches that came to mind was Colchester's 4-3 defeat at West Brom, and there seemed to be something very familiar about the course of events in that game.

The away team had gone 2-0 up.  The home team had come back to 2-2. The away team went ahead again 3-2.  Then, in the final minutes, the home team came back again to win 4-3.

I had seen this course of events before.  In fact, I was there...  Highbury, 4th November 1989...  Arsenal 4, Norwich 3... had gone in exactly the same way.  But what we had in our game that Colchester and West Brom missed was a big punch-up at the end, followed later by big fines all round from the F.A.

I think City were fined more than Arsenal, and that's probably fair.  I confess that it looked like it was our side that started the big brawl.  In the stand, we all felt badly about Arsenal's two penalties, and the bad luck we felt we'd had, and down on the pitch, City players probably felt the same. 

My memory isn't great, but I had a good seat at Highbury to see what happened.  I remember Bryan Gunn punching Alan Smith in the face, which I think got the fun started... or did I imagine that?

My thoughts then drifted to Kevin Keelan.  I'm sure I heard that he punched an opposing player a couple of times.  Wasn't it the same opposing player but in two different matches?  This was before my time at Carrow Road, so if anyone has more on that, I'd love to get the full details.

As for City's match at Bristol City last Saturday, I don't have much to say.  I don't recall us ever getting much joy down there.  I think the only time I went we lost 3-2. Or did I imagine that too?