Huddersfield Town v Manchester City FA Cup 3rd Round 1987/88

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 2 CITY 2

FA Cup 3rd Round

9th January 1988

Attendance 18,102

Scorers
City Brightwell(5), Gidman(91)
Huddersfield Shearer(57 & 73)

Ref Michael Peck

City Nixon, Gidman, Hinchcliffe, Clements, Brightwell, Redmond, White, Adcock, Varadi, McNab, Scott – subs Simpson(75), Moulden(75)

Huddersfield Cox, Trevitt, Bray, Banks, Webster, Mitchell, France, May, Shearer, Ward, Cox – subs Cooper(75), Tucker

IAN BRIGHTWELL GIVES CITY THE LEAD AND JOHN GIDMAN SCORES A LAST MINUTE EQUALISER

John Gidman was City’s hero as he cracked in the last gasp free-kick equaliser.
But the game will be remembered for it’s unsavoury moments. Manager Mel Machin was sent off by Ref Michael Peck, who also gave a late red card to Neil McNab.
Ian Brightwell had given City the lead but Huddersfield, in an effort to avenge the season’s earlier embarrassing 10-1 defeat, clawed their way into a 2-1 lead.
However with seconds ticking away up stepped veteran Gidman to curl a great free-kick into the net to earn the Blues a replay

HUDDERSFIELD’S GOALS

From LETHAL, THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF PAUL MOULDEN
Within three weeks, I was playing again. My first game for Mel Machin was in January 1988, an FA Cup third round tie away to Huddersfield Town and, all of a Sudden, he was my best mate. Brighty had put us 1-0 up after about five minutes and there must have been nearly 10,000 City fans at Leeds Road that afternoon. Bear in mind we’d beaten them 10-1 at Maine Road in the league just a couple of months before, they scored twice just after the break to lead 2-1. I came on as sub and Machin was complaining about something or other and the referee went across to talk with him. He must have carried on complaining because the ref
then sent him off.
We were seven minutes into added time when John Gidman’s free kick made it 2-2 and won us a replay, but Machin was in hot water with the FA. A few days later, he was summoned to a disciplinary hearing in Manchester, and I had to go as a witness with a team-mate, while Jimmy Frizzell and Machin sat in the front. On the way to town, he was saying, “This is what happened, isn’t it boys?” He was instructing us on what to say at the hearing,
It didn’t sit well with me, but we went into the enquiry, said what we’d been told and then a guy from the FA said, “Thank you very much Mr Moulden for coming in,” and as I got up to leave, I Passed the referee and linesmen who had brought the complaint and they had been sat there listening to me tell lies behind the door. I wasn’t happy with any of it, and I told myself I’d never put myself in that position again.
Machin was fined, but it further soured our relationship, only this time from my side. He’d called me a cheat and made me look a liar in front of an FA panel, so there was only one way our relationship was going to go from that point on. I hinted as much on the car journey back to Maine Road and Machin said nothing in response.