• Chelsea's players celebrate David Speedie's hat-trick against Manchester City in the 1986 Full Members Cup final. Getty Images
    Chelsea's players celebrate David Speedie's hat-trick against Manchester City in the 1986 Full Members Cup final. Getty Images
  • Chelsea's David Speedie gets away from Manchester City's Paul Power. Getty Images
    Chelsea's David Speedie gets away from Manchester City's Paul Power. Getty Images
  • Pat Nevin of Chelsea poses with the trophy . Reuters
    Pat Nevin of Chelsea poses with the trophy . Reuters
  • Chelsea's Joe McLaughlin and Doug Rougvie challenge for the ball. Getty Images
    Chelsea's Joe McLaughlin and Doug Rougvie challenge for the ball. Getty Images
  • The Wembley ground staff signal Chelsea's second goal on the stadium scoreboard. Getty Images
    The Wembley ground staff signal Chelsea's second goal on the stadium scoreboard. Getty Images
  • Chelsea captain Colin Pates lifts the Full Members' Cup trophy. Getty Images
    Chelsea captain Colin Pates lifts the Full Members' Cup trophy. Getty Images
  • Chelsea's David Speedie scores his and Chelsea's first goal. Getty Images
    Chelsea's David Speedie scores his and Chelsea's first goal. Getty Images
  • Chelsea's John Bumstead in possession. Getty Images
    Chelsea's John Bumstead in possession. Getty Images
  • Chelsea celebrate with the Full Members Cup after their 5-4 victory: (back row, l-r) Micky Hazard, Colin Lee, Keith Dublin, Steve Francis, John Bumstead, Colin Pates, Joey McLaughlin, Nigel Spackman; (front row, l-r) Doug Rougvie, Pat Nevin, Darren Wood, David Speedie, Kevin McAllister. Getty Images
    Chelsea celebrate with the Full Members Cup after their 5-4 victory: (back row, l-r) Micky Hazard, Colin Lee, Keith Dublin, Steve Francis, John Bumstead, Colin Pates, Joey McLaughlin, Nigel Spackman; (front row, l-r) Doug Rougvie, Pat Nevin, Darren Wood, David Speedie, Kevin McAllister. Getty Images

Chelsea 5-4 Manchester City: 'I don't know if there's ever been a more open and mad game'


Steve Luckings
  • English
  • Arabic

When Manchester City face Chelsea for the biggest prize in club football in Saturday's Champions League final it will be the third final the two clubs will have contested.

The most recent - the 2019 League Cup final - was a dull affair, with City needing penalties to retain the title.

Their first final, however, was one of the most entertaining British football has ever seen.

Granted, the 1986 Full Members Cup final is hardly on a par with the European Cup, but then few matches are.

The brainchild of then Chelsea chairman Ken Bates, the Full members Cup was open for teams in the top two divisions of the Football League.

Dismissed by most as a needless competition created purely to swell the coffers during difficult times with English clubs banned from European competition following the 1985 Heysel disaster, participation was voluntary. Not surprisingly the inaugural tournament was snubbed by 'The Big Five' of Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham and Everton.

Even supporters of the teams who did enter were far from convinced by its merits, as some pitiful crowds in the regional group stages and knockout rounds proved.

"Sadly, it was a bit like the FA Cup now, you took it more seriously the closer you got to the final," Pat Nevin, Chelsea's wispy winger and Scotland international, told The National.

"Man City and Chelsea didn't regularly get to finals in those days. For Chelsea it had been a long time - maybe two decades since they had been to Wembley. We were a young team, so Chelsea fans must have thought this is a great opportunity to win something."

Chelsea's Joe McLaughlin and Doug Rougvie challenge for the ball. Getty Images
Chelsea's Joe McLaughlin and Doug Rougvie challenge for the ball. Getty Images

Two games in two days

The numbers support Nevin's analysis: 68,000 fans packed Wembley on a sunny Sunday afternoon on March 23 - a healthy turnout by any metric - in a time when supporters could just turn up and buy a ticket on the door.

A common refrain of managers today is to bemoan the number of matches they have to play in any given week, but City and Chelsea both fulfilled Division One fixtures the day before the Wembley showpiece. City eked out a 2-2 draw at Manchester United to aid their survival bid while a 1-0 win at Southampton took Chelsea up to fourth. "Player burnout" was not in the football lexicon.

"We weren't bothered by it at all," Nevin recalls when asked about player fatigue. "People nowadays say: 'Two games in two days! What?' But actually that wasn't uncommon. I did that a few times in my career. Don't get me wrong, at the end of the second game you were a bit tired, but if you were one of the younger players, like me, it was easier.

"It was lovely going to Wembley. I'd played there before, but every time you go to Wembley it's special. We played the day before but when we got to the stadium the adrenalin kicked in. Seeing that number of people, the noise, the passion and the desperation to win, that was absolutely brilliant."

David Speedie, right, scores his and Chelsea's first goal. Getty Images
David Speedie, right, scores his and Chelsea's first goal. Getty Images

Speedie's hat-trick

The game itself was a humdinger; the 5-4 scoreline only telling part of the story.

City led through an early Steve Kinsey strike, but David Speedie headed an equaliser courtesy of Nevin's cross. Speedie and Nevin were club and international teammates who had an almost telepathic understanding on the pitch that belied their pathological hatred for each other off it. Speedie would score twice more, the first hat-trick at Wembley since Geoff Hurst's in the World Cup final 20 years earlier. Stand-in striker Colin Lee helped himself to two more, giving Chelsea a four-goal advantage going into the final 10 minutes.

"One thing I'll always remember is being stood on the halfway line after Chelsea had scored, looking up and seeing where my family were and then looking round at the big scoreboard showing 5-1 and thinking: 'Oh God, I can't go back to Manchester now. I'll just get hammered by my family and everyone else'." City midfielder Mark Lillis told the BBC.

City manager Billy McNeill turned to his bench and his own wispy winger Paul Simpson to try and conjure some magic. It proved inspired. Lillis headed home a sumptuous Simpson cross to reduce the arrears before Chelsea defender Doug Rougvie headed another centre from the City sub into his own net on 88 minutes.

"When it was 5-2 we really weren't too bothered," Nevin says. "When it's 5-3 you start to think 'well wait a minute, steady on.' And then the referee gives a penalty."

'I went mental'

The decision to award a spot kick can probably be best described as "generous". Clips of the aftermath show Nevin berating referee Alan Saunders. "I went mental," Nevin admits. "I screamed at him: 'This is a joke! What are you doing? Are you trying to make a game of this?'

Lillis converted what must be the quickest penalty ever taken to make it 5-4 as City dreamed of pulling off the greatest of all comebacks.

By that point, though, Nevin's angst had already subsided. In a moment of levity rarely seen with match officials these days, Nevin said Saunders revealed to him that he was just letting the theatre play out for the fans' entertainment.

"Don't worry, Pat, I'll blow for full time after this.'" Nevin said. "And I thought, 'well, go on then, I hope he scores'.

"I don't know if there's ever been a more open and mad game than that one between the two teams."

Fast forward 35 years and Nevin doubts we will see a similar scoreline in Porto.

"Maybe 3-2."

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The National Archives, Abu Dhabi

Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.

Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en

FIGHT CARD

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Catchweight 67kg Mohamed El Mesbahi (MAR) v Fouad Mesdari (ALG)

Lighweight Abdullah Mohammed Ali (UAE) v Abdelhak Amhidra (MAR)

Catchweight 73kg Mostafa Ibrahim Radi (PAL) v Yazid Chouchane (ALG)

Middleweight Yousri Belgaroui (TUN) v Badreddine Diani (MAR)

Catchweight 78kg Rashed Dawood (UAE) v Adnan Bushashy (ALG)

Middleweight Sallaheddine Dekhissi (MAR) v Abdel Emam (EGY)

Catchweight 65kg Rachid Hazoume (MAR) v Yanis Ghemmouri (ALG)

Lighweight Mohammed Yahya (UAE) v Azouz Anwar (EGY)

Catchweight 79kg Omar Hussein (PAL) v Souhil Tahiri (ALG)

Middleweight Tarek Suleiman (SYR) v Laid Zerhouni (ALG)

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

Key developments

All times UTC 4

Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press

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Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

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Juvenile arthritis

Along with doctors, families and teachers can help pick up cases of arthritis in children.
Most types of childhood arthritis are known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis. JIA causes pain and inflammation in one or more joints for at least six weeks.
Dr Betina Rogalski said "The younger the child the more difficult it into pick up the symptoms. If the child is small, it may just be a bit grumpy or pull its leg a way or not feel like walking,” she said.
According to The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in US, the most common symptoms of juvenile arthritis are joint swelling, pain, and stiffness that doesn’t go away. Usually it affects the knees, hands, and feet, and it’s worse in the morning or after a nap.
Limping in the morning because of a stiff knee, excessive clumsiness, having a high fever and skin rash are other symptoms. Children may also have swelling in lymph nodes in the neck and other parts of the body.
Arthritis in children can cause eye inflammation and growth problems and can cause bones and joints to grow unevenly.
In the UK, about 15,000 children and young people are affected by arthritis.

PREMIER LEAGUE STATS

Romelu Lukaku's goalscoring statistics in the Premier League 
Season/club/appearances (substitute)/goals

2011/12 Chelsea: 8(7) - 0
2012/13 West Brom (loan): 35(15) - 17
2013/14 Chelsea: 2(2) - 0
2013/14 Everton (loan): 31(2) - 15
2014/15 Everton: 36(4) - 10
2015/16 Everton: 37(1) - 18
2016/17 Everton: 37(1) - 25  

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Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor

Creator: Jenna Lamia

Rating: 3/5