Waiting 99 Years For Revenge

We've played City in the FA Cup twice before, most recently in 1926: a year better known for the country's only ever General Strike. And Orient were deep in our own interwar funk at the time...

March 6th 1926 - FA Cup 6th Round - Millfields Stadium

Clapton Orient 1 - 6 Manchester City

When Martin Keown pulled ball number four out of the pot (during what has now evolved into a now tortuously ‘made for TV’ FA cup draw) I’m sure that there were a fair few Os followers just waiting for the inevitable paring with Stoke or Cardiff City (away with a Sunday lunchtime kick off guaranteed) within the following five seconds. Unbelievably though, on this occasion it was not to be and due to the heroic actions of former Aussie ‘keeper Mark Schwarzer Orient were paired with ‘super club’ Manchester City in a plum encounter - although this depended on Derby County being overcome in the rescheduled third round tie that had been held over for seventy two hours while the frozen Brisbane Road turf thawed out.

Against all the odds the Club from the East Midlands that had swept us aside on two occasions last season were dumped out of the competition by an Orient side that produced one of the gutsiest cup performances witnessed at the old ground in many years. Discovering incredible reserves of determination from an already injury-depleted squad, we took the tie through 130 minutes to a shoot-out for more FA cup heroics from Josh Keeley alongside an ice cold ‘money shot’ penalty from the boot of Zech Oberio. Jubilation followed in both the stands and the boardroom as the opportunity to make a bit more cash this season presented itself and lots of punters took leave of their senses in an unseemly scramble for tickets.

Meanwhile, a few started wondering exactly when we last took on Manchester City in a game of association football. It transpires that City are one of just three clubs that the Os haven’t taken on in any sort of football for over half a century (see if you can guess the other two) as our last encounter with “the citizens” took place on the 7th May 1966 in the old Second Division. A Colin Bell inspired City team were gearing up for promotion while we took the fall the other way into the third tier as the ‘swinging sixties’ groove decidedly gave the Leyton area a swerve for the rest of the decade. The game ended up 2-2 and that was it as far as encounters against the blue half of Manchester went for the next 59 years until the O’s were paired up with Pep Guardiola’s team of superstars for a showdown that has probably generated more excitement and press interest than that of the Arsenal tie here of 2011.

There is FA cup history between the two clubs though, and we need to travel back in time via the Orientear Tardis for almost a century to 1926 to recount our most recent meeting in the famous competition. Back then some of London’s western Suburbs were still recovering from serious flooding as the Thames burst its banks in the February of that year and there was a gathering air of industrial unrest in the run up to the general strike that eventually came to a head in May.

Meanwhile there was the small matter of an FA cup 6th round tie to be decided at Orient’s Millfields stadium with Manchester City coming to town, although the fact that they had destroyed Crystal Palace 11-4 in the previous round carried portentous vibes. Despite that the O’s had previously defied the odds themselves by disposing of Middlesbrough 4-2 in Round Four and then sensationally knocked out Newcastle United 2-0 in the fifth round, an encounter that can be rediscovered on YouTube courtesy of Pathé News.

GAME ON…

With an opportunity to make the semi-finals of the FA cup at stake the sides lined up as follows:

Clapton Orient: Wood, Broadbent, Evans, Dixon, Townrow, Galbraith, Gavigan, Henderson, Cock, Tonner and McLaughlan.

Manchester City: Goodchild, Cookson, Appleton, Pringle, Cowan, McMullen, Austin, Browell, Roberts, Johnson and Hicks.

Going by the numerous match reports that the ‘Ear has come across it appears as if the blustery conditions that prevailed on that early spring afternoon played a significant part in the match action and as one newspaper report declares; “when McMullen won the toss, Manchester City won the match”. There’s no doubt that City’s visibly wind assisted opening goal (scored by the legendary Tommy Johnson - no, not that one) after a mere three minutes on the clock resulted in the O’s being dealt the worst possible start and being placed on the back foot from the off. But the way the visitors continued to press forward with the clever use of the prevailing conditions resulted in Orient finding themselves shellshocked at 0-3 down by half time with the match appearing to be over as a contest, despite some gallant resistance from the O’s half back line against the City forwards.

A Glimmer of hope…

If there was to be any chance of Orient dragging themselves back into the tie then it would rest on the men from Clapton scoring the next goal in quick time. With the wind advantage in their favour during the second half the O’s pressed forward and they found themselves back in the match after 65 minutes when former Arsenal forward Donald Cock pulled a goal back with a shot from outside of the penalty area to reduce the arrears to 1-3.

However, the threat of the visiting forwards was never extinguished as O’s keeper Arthur Wood (later to become Chair of the PFA, just as Mr Beckles is today) was constantly being called into action making two magnificent saves from point blank range to deny Austin and the ever threatening Johnson before City made the game safe with a fourth goal from Browell eleven minutes from the end. From then on it was a case of seeing the game out for the men from Maine Road and a brace of goals in the last two minutes of the match put some gloss on the scoreline. Johnson completed his hat-trick and Hicks put a sixth goal past a now exhausted Wood to book a place in the semi finals of the FA Cup and a meeting with local rivals Manchester United.

Where did it all go wrong?...

Although the scoreline still makes grim reading almost 99 years on from that match it has to be said that the Os appear not to have had too much luck on the day. Losing the toss and having to battle against the prevailing wind conditions in the first half probably made a demanding mission even more onerous. Although Manchester City possessing such a formidable frontman as Tommy Johnson and him being “the best inside left in the country on this form” according to one pressman -‘The Pilgrim’- illustrated the real difference between the two sides on the day. We mustn’t overlook the fact that City were a top flight side at the time - while Orient were struggling to stay in the Second Division (a fight they would eventually lose a couple of years later).

While Clapton’s finest could reflect on their first ever appearance in the FA Cup Sixth Round (a journey we’ve only ever bettered once in the century since) with mixed emotions they could take solace in the fact that a crowd of 24,600 crowbarred themselves into the Millfields Road ground to witness a bit of history in the making. One match report from back then even published the gate receipts figure of £3,140 and if you are wondering what that would be worth in todays money the sum of £248,902.63 was offered on one website that the we’ve typed the figures into. A total that I think wouldn’t be too far off the mark in relation to this coming Saturday’s encounter being generated for the two clubs with a bit of beer money left over for the F.A when the game is done and dusted at around 3pm.

As ever with the FA Cup there is a bit of a sting in the tail. Manchester City went on to thrash their neighbours United in the Semi-final 3-0 and then went on to narrowly lose the Final itself to the FA Cup kings of the time Bolton Wanderers 0-1 a month later. Maybe they should have ‘concentrated on the league’ a bit more as they ended up being relegated to the Second Division by a single point at the end of the season to compound a miserable end to the campaign for them. As for the Os a season of struggle continued, but at least they escaped the drop to Division Three South by a solitary point to set up two more meetings with the men from Manchester the following season (spoiler alert: they didn’t end well for us either).

Some might say that scoreline from the early 20th Century may well be a foretaste of what is likely to be coming our way this weekend. Even so, yet another chapter of Orient history will be written either way and if Orient somehow pull off the greatest cup shock of their 144 year existence it really would make news all around the world.

Some Pathe news footage of the match against City in 1926 can be seen here.

Words: Stripester

Pictures: Davis Watson

Above: Donald Cock, the scorer of Orient’s only goal against City that day