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Arguably this was the biggest game in County’s history. There have been plenty of other crucial encounters of course – in my time the promotion play-off finals; the Carlisle game in 2006; the promotion winner at Saltergate in 1997, and even more recently the visit to Nuneaton in 2019. However, this game was the first, (and of course to date the only), opportunity to feature in the final of a competition featuring all 92 clubs. But without fear or favour the game, in our first visit to the Riverside, drew the largest audience for a County game. Forget the 29.600 who turned up – the game, (as had been the first leg) was live on terrestrial TV. Sure we had been on Sky more than a few times, (over the previous years and also the games against West Ham and Southampton earlier in the League Cup run), but terrestrial TV provides a far larger audience and it is more than likely that the viewing figures that night upstaged the first leg audience.. And those who tuned in were rewarded with 90 minutes in which one of the biggest upsets in many years could well have happened.

But turn the clock back two weeks. The first leg was played at EP, having been postponed the previous week after referee Elleray, (in our first meeting with him since the Burnley play-off debacle nearly three years previously), deemed the pitch unfit. And unlike many of his other decisions he was spot on with that one – the surface having suffered from a particularly wet period since the new year. It was sufficiently bad to lead to Chairman Elwood opening the purse strings and investing a reputed £12,000 in repairs. It was a game in which County gave their all, and it was only two late goals from the opposition which left us with reasonably long odds of progressing to Wembley when the teams locked horns in the north east. How little the pundits knew … and indeed how little the Boro fans knew as well, as they avidly purchased tee shirts and flags prior to the game proclaiming them to be already in the final!!

There was a decent following that night although not as big as it could, or indeed should, have been. Having sold out the initial allocation, County were offered more, but Elwood turned these down, probably reckoning that filling the seats with Boro fans was a more lucrative proposition, than risking not selling them. Some cynics may have suggested that the share from filled seats would go some way to offsetting the cost of the pitch repairs!! All of this generated plenty of discontent amongst the County fans, and certainly hadn’t been helped by the pricing policy for earlier games in the League Cup.

A two goal deficit had to be overturned and there couldn’t have been a better start. Only six minutes on the clock and after early County pressure Robbie Mustoe fouled Luis Cavaco about 30 yards out. Mike Flynn played the ball in to Alun Armstrong who very cleverly flicked the ball to the on rushing Sean Connelly who promptly slammed it into the bottom left corner past Schwarzer. Pandemonium reigned amongst the County fans. The unthinkable was on the cards. And it could have been so much better – chances came and went.

The best of them came in the 69th minute when the Boro defence lost possession on the edge of the box; the ball fell to Luis Cavaco and an equaliser was certain. Sadly not so, as Schwarzer spread himself and blocked Cavaco’s low shot which was heading for the left hand corner of his net. Five minutes later County were down to 10. Tony, (or Tom as the ITV titles had it!), Dinning clashed with Ravanelli and on the say so of the linesman the referee, Mr Jones of Leicestershire, brandished the red card. It was going to be hard work, and despite continually pushing the game ended with only Connelly’s strike featuring on the scoresheet.

It was a heroic performance, and the nearest that County have come to a final in a major competition. Travelling back down the A1 there was much to be proud about, but thoughts turned to the promotion push. 72 hours later we were on the A1 again, this time heading for London Road, Peterborough, where a 2-0 win left us 7th in the table 6 points adrift of leaders Brentford but with games in hand. The next 49 days saw 16 games, and with them promotion to the second tier .. truly an Annus Mirabilis.

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Memories of the trip to The Riverside

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THE GAMES

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Where the date is in bold click for highlights of the game

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	Date	Venue	Ground	Competition		F	A	Att:
Wed	26/02/97	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Cup (Semi-Final (1st Leg))	L	0	2	11,778
Wed	12/03/97	a	The Riverside	Coca-Cola Cup (Semi-final 2nd leg)	W	1	0	29,600
Tue	02/09/97	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	D	1	1	8,257

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