This weekend, 21 years on, Leeds United return to Cardiff City in the same round of the competition and for many the recollections will come flooding back. For Robert Earnshaw certainly. Earlier this week, Radio Wales played a clip of Scott Young’s winning goal in the 2-1 home victory that the match report in this newspaper called “one of the greatest upsets in FA Cup history". “It sounded great because it takes us back to that special day when so many people enjoyed what was happening, ” the former Wales striker said. “One of the tournament’s biggest shocks and I was lucky to be part of it. We were a young team with nothing to lose against a team full of superstars... Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler, Mark Viduka.
Sheep testicles and raging fans – the day Cardiff vs Leeds erupted into the Battle of Ninian ParkIt featured sheep testicles and an undignified eviction via the big steel gates. Yet, this was 2002 and was patently not “I’m a Celebrity…” There can be no doubt, however, that the then Premier League leaders were desperate to get out of Ninian Park that notorious Sunday evening. When an FA Cup third round match is granted its own Wikipedia page you can be sure it was a classic.
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Just as he was passing the away end, Young stuck out his boot in a melee and the place erupted. Hammam euphorically waved his arms and was showered by drink from the Leeds fans. The dye from his eyebrows proceeded to run down his face like warpaint, adding another sinister vision. It did not need it. On the whistle, Cardiff supporters invaded the pitch, heading directly towards their counterparts in full taunting mode. The police struggled to keep the groups apart and the fact there were only four arrests surely owed more to the chaos of the situation (watch video below). Leeds ran to their buses under what was claimed to be a hail of missiles.
Hammam befriended some of Cardiff’s best-known hooligans, appointing at least one as his bodyguard, and had the bolts loosened on the terrace fences so they would make more noise when rattled. When Leeds came visiting, the chatter was still about the clause inserted into Spencer Prior’s contract, before the defender signed for £700, 000 from Manchester City. “He must first eat sheeps’ testicles, ” Hammam said. Prior agreed. But only if they were cooked.
A Cardiff crowd who had for so long felt overlooked, and who had frankly been bored, lapped up the Lebanese lunacy. Every underdog has their day and the sense of belittlement was only elevated by David O’Leary’s prediction that "we will start and end our FA Cup run in Cardiff" a reference to the final being held in the capital’s Millennium Stadium as the Wembley rebuild got underway. The authorities - or TV, that is - decided that 4pm was an appropriate time and there reports of skirmishes across the city in the booze-raddled build-up. By the time a bottle had whistled past Ian Harte’s right ear as the left-back took a throw-in, the mood was set. Graham Kavanagh equalised after Viduka’s opener and Alan Smith saw a red card on the brink of half-time for an elbow on Andy Legg. Leeds went defensive, the Bluebirds rallied into swoop formation and, as was his want, Hammam left the director’s box to walk around the side of the pitch to whip up the faithful.
This was our one chance and we took it. It could happen again on Sunday, but it’s very different now. Indeed it is. Never mind their respective standings at the time - Leeds, having reached the European Cup semi-finals the previous year, were two points clear of Manchester United at the top, with Cardiff 10th in Division Two - the clash took place across the road from what is now the comparatively gleaming Cardiff City Stadium.
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Ferdinand, himself, summed up the hostility of the old ramshackle ground built on the site of an old tip. When he was asked a few years later if he was dreading facing Galatasaray away he replied: “When you’ve played at Ninian Park, you’ve played everywhere. ” To be generous, the scene could be described as rugged, the atmosphere as intimidating and the presence of chairman and owner Sam Hammam as utterly bizarre. On to his next project after Wimbledon’s “Crazy Gang”, Hammam was apparently determined to make that “Wombles” experience seem like a walk in the park. The building tycoon was forced to shelve a plan to burn the shirts of English rivals and vowed to rename the club “The Cardiff Celts” and play in green, red and white.
In the offices of the ground, the ambience was no less febrile. Jonathan Overend, the award-winning BBC 5Live broadcaster was still in his 20s and on duty as the reporter that day. “A Cup upset is usually the cue for wild jubilation but this was ghastly, comfortably my worst day in football, ” he told Telegraph Sport on Friday. “Being invited into the chairman’s office after a match is a privilege and pleasure, normally. But the presence of Sam Hammam’s bodyguard - shaven head, black suit - suggested the wine wasn’t about to be uncorked.
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