Football The day Morgan’s horrible injury overshadowed City’s spirited performance
In the first of a new flashback series, RICHARD former Bristol City reporter for the Bristol Evening Post, recalls the 1993 game when the Robins battled out a draw against Peterborough. The sides meet in a Championship game at the same ground tomorrow
LATHAM,
THE sight of a professional footballer writhing in agony with an obviously serious injury is one that lingers as an unwanted memory.
As a 14-year-old supporter, I heard the crack when Gerry Sharpe broke his leg playing for Bristol City against Middlesbrough at Ashton Gate in January 1971 and recall to this day hoping it was his shin pad that had snapped.
The horror that afternoon was matched early in my reporting career when I witnessed Robins midfielder Russell Musker groping desperately at the grass as he lay stricken with an equally nasty injury during a League Cup tie at Swindon Town in August 1982.
No one present could forget the sight of loan recruit Dani Rodrigues laying on his back on the Ashton Gate pitch with a leg stretched in the air and a foot hanging at a grossly distorted angle after dislocating and breaking an ankle against Reading in October 2000.
To those nightmare memories must be added the sickening injury suffered by Nicky Morgan when City took on this weekend’s opponents Peterborough United at London Road in a Division One clash back on April 17, 1993.
The experienced striker, then 33, let out a piercing scream when victim of a tough, but fair, 26th-minute challenge by Posh defender Steve Welsh. Morgan later admitted to me that his first thought was that his football career was over. He had suffered a severe dislocation of his right ankle and also feared losing a foot.
“The shock was worse than any pain,” he said. “I felt certain something was broken. My foot was twisted round the wrong way and I couldn’t move it.”
My own distress at the initial response to the injury was reflected in my match report, in which I wrote: “The sluggish reaction of Peterborough ground staff in bringing a stretcher and moronic yells from home fans as Buster Footman comforted the distressed striker did their club no credit.
“Footman was involved in a scuffle with a stretcher-bearer in his anxiety to treat Morgan. The matter was later reported to referee Jim Rushton, who decided no action was necessary.”
Nicky was taken for X-rays, but allowed to travel back to Bristol in
the evening when no broken bone was revealed and spent the night in The Glen Hospital, Clifton, after being put in a knee-length plaster.
He faced a three-month recovery period. So serious did the injury appear at the time that City’s other players were visibly affected.
After a bright start to the game, in which player-boss Russell Osman and Wayne Allison tested Posh goalkeeper Ian Bennett, the team fell back on almost blanket defence.
Tony Philliskirk struck a post for the hosts with a 25-yard volley which took goalkeeper Keith Welch by surprise. Between Morgan’s injury and the break Peterborough dominated. Gary Shelton was pushed forward from midfield to operate alongside Allison up front, but even they had to rally to protect Welch’s goal.
The interval was a time for reflection
and Osman rallied his troops to such an extent that five minutes into the second half they took the lead. Substitute Ray Atteveld’s pass sprang the Posh offside trap and when Allison’s mishit shot was blocked, Shelton’s determined challenge saw the ball break for Brian Tinnion to net with a leftfooted shot. It was Tinnion’s second goal for the Robins in his seventh appearance since signing from Bradford City a month earlier and looked likely to seal a muchneeded away win in the battle to avoid relegation.
But several defensive errors combined to put Peterborough level on 68 minutes. Mark Aizlewood lost out in an aerial challenge on the edge of City’s box before Bobby Barnes eluded Stuart Munro’s challenge to hook a volley past Welch from an angle the goalkeeper might
have covered. Now it was the home side who fancied their chances of winning. But Osman had instilled a new defensive discipline and commitment since replacing Denis Smith as manager in January and his side held out with few alarms.
The 1-1 draw was still a boost to what proved a successful relegation fight and Tinnion revealed afterwards how the players had used Morgan’s injury as a spur.
“We played the second half for Nicky, desperately wanting to get a result for him,” he said. “All the players were sickened by what happened and it knocked us back for a bit. But at half-time we sorted things out and played a lot better.”
Osman had faced the difficult decision of how to reorganise after Morgan’s injury, while involved in the game himself in an unfamiliar defensive midfield role. “There was
no shortage of volunteers to go up front,” he told me. “Matt Bryant was ready to do the job and so were a few others. I opted for Gary Shelton because of his habit of nicking goals. He and Wayne Allison worked very hard.”
Osman spent the following Monday in London attending a Football League tribunal to decide the fee for Tinnion’s move from Bradford.
City had offered £50,000 for the then 25-year-old midfielder, with the Yorkshire club demanding £250,000. The price was set at £180,000 for a player who went on to make more than 450 League appearances for the Robins before taking top jobs in the club’s academy, where he still works, and cementing his status as a true City legend.
Not a bad bit of business as it turned out!