There’s more to come on Saturday’s game, but until then, a little bit of slightly smug reminiscing. It was January 1980 and an eight year old Perm was woken in what felt like the middle of the night by a Perm snr, smelling of ale, and telling him that Latics had beaten Chelsea. What was all the fuss about? Of course they had, they were the best team in the world.
No, I wasn’t that naïve, even at that age, but I was a bit bemused. Mostly because of the hour, but also because I hadn’t got a clue that my dad had traipsed off to London for the evening. Not that I’d have been able to go if I’d known, and I’m sure I’d have been able to summon up all of my 8 year old maturity and been very accepting of the fact.
And the point? Well there isn’t one particularly, other than to remind people that Saturday wasn’t the first time Latics defeated Chelsea, and to show off the second of the pictures provided by mirrorfootball.co.uk.
This one was taken the morning after the night before, and to be fair the lads were putting a brave face on things and looking a lot less bleary eyed than you might expect and certainly on better form than I did at school the day after (I can stop up all night but, I’ve never done well on disturbed sleep).
The caption for the picture from the time was:
Hero of Wigan Tommy Gore has that ‘on top of the world’ feeling after scoring the winning goal that beat Chelsea in the third round of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge.
Pictured with team mates at photocall following morning in London January 1980.
Final score: Chelsea 0-1 Wigan Athletic
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