One Monday back in December, David Seaman dipped his hand into a glass bowl, fished out ball No 61, chortled into a camera and sent an FA Cup flashback through a market town in north-east Derbyshire.
‘Unfinished business,’ smiled Chesterfield chairman Mike Goodwin once the din of being drawn against Chelsea subsided. ‘If David Elleray had given that goal when he should have, that would’ve been 3-1 up with 20 minutes left. I’m sure we’d have gone on to Wembley and played Chelsea in the final.’
At Stamford Bridge on Saturday, comes a third round tie with hidden depth for fans of a club with little to cheer in recent years, nagged by a footballing injustice for a quarter of a century.
Non-league Chesterfield will hope to pull of a huge giant-killing against Chelsea in the FA Cup
Chesterfield were cruelly denied of a chance to play Chelsea in the FA Cup final back in 1997
Chesterfield were in the third tier when they reached the semi-finals in 1997, up against Bryan Robson’s Middlesbrough and their Premier League stars, such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, Juninho and Emerson.
It was a daunting prospect, but the Spireites had already beaten top-flight Nottingham Forest and Championship high-flyers Bolton, and manager John Duncan cut through the nerves ahead of the game at Old Trafford.
‘He told everyone to sit down,’ recalls Sean Dyche, Chesterfield’s captain, now boss of Burnley. ‘It all felt a bit serious so we sat down and he said, “Lads, you look like you’re s****ing yourselves”. We all stared at him. Then he went, “I know I certainly am”.
‘We burst out laughing. I thought it was a moment of magic, a brilliant way to defuse a room full of very nervous lower-league footballers about to play the biggest game of their lives.’
With an hour gone, Chesterfield were 2-0 up thanks to goals from Andy Morris and a Dyche penalty and Boro were down to 10 men with Vladimir Kinder sent off.
Ravanelli pulled one back before the infamous goal that never was. Jon Howard’s shot crashed into the bar and down over the line, a clear goal missed by referee Elleray in an age before goal-line technology, mics, ear-pieces or buzzing wrist watches.
‘The linesman gave the goal, 100 per cent,’ recalls Jamie Hewitt, Chesterfield legend of more than 500 games. ‘He was running back towards the halfway line as he would if we’d scored but the ref didn’t even look at him.
‘It was poor officiating. The linesman should have had the guts to put his flag up and tell him. David Elleray was a bit arrogant in the way he was towards us. He just dismissed you. You couldn’t really talk to him.’
Chesterfield who were then in the third tier took Middlesbrough to a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals
The incident dominated post-match discussions. Elleray admitted his mistake as soon as he saw the replay, although it did nothing to restore his reputation in Chesterfield.
‘Not only is the ball over the line but there’s a foul on Andy Morris when it bounces out and it had to be a penalty,’ says Dyche. ‘It was a strange twist. I’ve never lost any sleep over it because there’s so many good memories from that time, but part of you does wonder if it might have been different.’
Like Goodwin, who was in the stands that day, Chesterfield’s players still think they could have won it. ‘John would have battened down the hatches,’ says Hewitt. ‘A flat back eight, maybe. That would have been game over.’
As it was, Middlesbrough’s Craig Hignett scored a penalty and Gianluca Festa put them 3-2 up in extra time before Hewitt struck in the final seconds.
‘Chris Beaumont was out wide,’ recalls Hewitt. ‘How he got the cross in from there I’ll never know. It hit the turf, skidded up like a beach ball and I knew I could get my head on it. When I did it felt good, I thought, “that’s not far off”. The goalkeeper Ben Roberts was wrong-footed and it looped slowly over him.
Burnley manager and then Chesterfield captain Sean Dyche scored from the penalty spot
‘I
