MANCHESTER CITY v WATFORD The Gray d a y I ’l l n e v e r forget

1984 GOAL STILL RANKLES WITH SHERWOOD, WHO IS BACKING GOMES TO GO ONE BETTER

STEVE SHERWOOD was a half-time guest on the pitch in February when Watford’s winner against Everton was scored by Andre Gray.

The incident brought a wry smile to Sherwood’s face. Games involving the Hornets, Merseyside’s Bluenoses and strikers called A Gray have not always been kind to him.

In 1984, the only previous occasion when Watford reached the FA Cup Final, their goalkeeper was unfairly cast as the fall guy when Andy Gray came barging in to score Everton’s second goal.

It was a foul. Gray made no contact with the ball, bundling centre-half Steve Terry out of the way and knocking the ball from Sherwood’s grasp by heading his arm.

The Hornets’ long-serving keeper, who had played in three promotions and Europe on Graham Taylor’s magic carpet ride from obscurity, had already been upset that he could not warm up properly because the marching band kept encroaching on his territory.

And Gray’s goal knocked the stuffing out of a young Watford team already hampered by the undeserved suspension of captain Wilf Rostron.

However, the worst aspect of the anti-climax, was the witless abuse Sherwood suffered in the aftermath – including dog excrement being shoved through his postbox at home.

He will be at Wembley on Saturday to cheer on Javi Gracia’s underdogs against Manchester City. Sherwood (above) showed off a standing ticket from 1984, that cost a fiver. A similar view from behind the goal in 2019 will set supporters back £115.

Now 65 and a financial adviser based in Grimsby, he has no truck with Gray’s battering ram-raid, but ref John Hunting’s lenient interpretation of it still rankles. “Of course it was a foul,” said Sherwood.

“As time’s gone by, it has become looked upon as one of the most controversial goals in a cup final.

“One replay from behind the goal showed Andy didn’t even touch the ball.

“He headed the side of my arm. Some people say I never had the ball under full control, but I had two hands on it and it’s a bit difficult to have it under full control when you are still in mid-air and falling backwards.

“I bear no grudges against Andy – it’s the referee who let us down. I’m sure John Hunting is a lovely guy, but in hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have expected much protection from him.

“The previous season, on New Year’s Day at Brighton, Michael Robinson headbutted me for no reason – I needed six stitches over my eyelid – and Hunting didn’t even send him off. I had blood pouring into my eye.” Robinson was only hauled before the disciplinary beaks when Ann Swanson, who ran Watford’s family enclosure, made a written complaint to the FA.

But for Sherwood (below before kick-off on final day in ’84 with club owner at the time, Elton John), the hardest part about losing at Wembley was the shocking backlash.

“Some of the headlines, like ‘Stevie Blunder’, pinned the blame on me and it hurt to be castigated for defeat,” he said. “I didn’t drop the cross. If I made a mistake, I still don’t know what it was. I got some unpleasant stuff shoved through my letterbox at home. My family didn’t deserve that.” Unpleasant stuff? Are we talking dog’s mess? Sherwood, briefly repulsed by the memory, lowered his head and nodded. “Yeah, once. Horrible. Probably Luton supporters. “Watford had become a club with a deserved reputation for its community work, and some nights players would visit local pubs to crack open a bottle full of pennies, that sort of thing.

“I will always remember one time, when we were having a really good night, and this woman suddenly comes up to me, pointing her finger, and said, ‘You lost us the FA Cup Final. You shouldn’t be in here’. That was hard to take.

“Now it’s time for the current team to make their own history. I’m a big fan of Heurelho Gomes and I’d love to see him lift the cup in his last game.”

Sherwood never made it back to Wembley as a player. The closest he came was in 1987, when he dislocated a finger three days before the FA Cup semi-final with Tottenham at Villa Park.

Although ‘Shirley’ passed a fitness test on the morning of the game, Taylor – who had sounded out 45-year-old TV presenter Bob Wilson and former Hornets keeper Pat Jennings, 41, as emergency cover – inexplicably played Ebbw Vale wine bar manager Gary Plumley.

Watford lost 4-1, Plumley was at fault for two of the goals and bought a fridge with his £250 match fee. He never made another appearance.

The cup final goal that Steve Sherwood (left) says should have been ruled out