SOCCER: Foes today, Crazy Gang mates of old

HAMISH BIDWELL
May 14, 1988 is a day that will forever stand the test of time as one of the most remarkable in FA Cup history.
A day when Wimbledon, the most unfashionable team in English football, beat Liverpool, one of the most successful teams ever in European competition.
The history books will tell you that a 37th minute header by Lawrie Sanchez from a Dennis Wise free kick was enough to give the Dons a 1-0 win but that doesn't begin to tell the full story.
For that we rely on Jonathan Gould and Terry Phelan.
Coaching combatants today as Hawke's Bay United play Otago United at Bluewater Stadium, the pair will always be linked by that day at Wembley.
Gould's father, Bobby, was Wimbledon's manager, with Jonathan himself being the third-string goalkeeper for the team, while Phelan's effort at left back helped launch a career that included 41 caps for the Republic of Ireland and stints with Manchester City, Chelsea, Everton and Fulham.
"I remember it like it was yesterday," said Phelan.
"Growing up, it was every boy's dream to get to Wembley and to get there with Wimbledon and play against a fantastic Liverpool side was unbelievable. We virtually gave ourselves no chance, in fact, we thought we'd probably lose 2-0, 3-0 or 4-0 and to tell the truth, we were just there to have a laugh and a good day out, because Liverpool was one of the best teams in Europe at that stage."
But looking back, Gould says he could sniff an upset right from the start.
"I remember the first challenge was probably after about 10 seconds and Vinnie Jones absolutely cut Steve McMahon in half, and Steve was one of the hardest footballers around," Gould said.
"I'm not even sure if Steve had the ball at the time but that set the tone for the day." "That was us, the Mad Dons," agreed Phelan.
"That was the way we played and that was just Vinnie being Vinnie and if the ball was there to be won, he went for it. I've had great talks with Steve since then and I've asked him 'what happened, were you guys afraid of us after that tackle?' And he just said it was 'one of those off days'. "I won't say Vinnie won the game with that tackle, because there were 10 other lads out there, but it did set the tone," said Phelan.
With Sanchez scoring after Phelan was fouled near the corner flag by Steve Nicol, the stage was set for the most talked about sequence of the match. It was a moment when Wimbledon goalkeeper and captain Dave Beasant etched his name in the history books, becoming the first man to save a penalty in an FA Cup final.
"It was John Aldridge and the crazy thing was that everybody knew which way he put his penalties, so it was almost like a double bluff," recalled Gould.
"And big Dave Beasant, all six-foot five of him, went the right way and it was a fantastic save."
Liverpool continued to enjoy most of the possession but Wimbledon hung on to win and the rest is history.
"I'd gone the year before when dad was the manager of Coventry and they played Tottenham in the final, so to go back the next year was a real buzz," said Gould.
"In 1975 my dad had won it as a player with West Ham, so I was eight when I was there that time and I was down on the pitch with my dad and the FA Cup. He's one of the few people to win it as a player and a manager and I can remember with Wimbledon getting chased off the pitch by the police at the end of the game because me and a mate were out there pretending that we'd scored the winning goal.
"From there, I can remember we got on the coach and went through Wimbledon town and there were 20,000 people on the streets and all the pubs had been drunk dry. Sam Hammam, the club owner, had put on a party in a marquee on the middle of the pitch back at Plough Lane."
But to truly understand the enormity of the win, you have to appreciate the mentality of the club and it's players. Known as the Crazy Gang, Bobby Gould's men truly put the rough into rough diamond.
"We were not your typical football team," said Phelan. "We were more like a bunch of naughty boys in a good-natured gang. We were like a family and we looked after each other, whether it was on the training pitch, on a night out, or travelling to the games.
"We used to go to the games in mini-vans or in a jeep, not like these other teams who lorded it over you from their flash coach."
Gould was in the infancy of his professional career and says it was an intimidating environment to be part of. "New people who came into the dressing room were treated with absolute abjectness - they just wouldn't let you into their clan," he said.
"It was like an initiation into one of the more ferocious gangs. I remember Vinnie Jones turning up to training one day and he had a little Fiat Turbo and he had a shotgun in the back of it.
"It was honestly that crazy."
Those heady days didn't last long and the humble Plough Lane was swapped for Selhurst Park and many of the players made multi-million pound moves to bigger teams. Even the club itself has largely disappeared, these days battling away in the third division of English football as the re-located Milton Keynes Dons.
"You look back now and those days will never come again," said Phelan.