I’m not a fancy dan
Posted in General on 17. Aug, 2010
I’m not a fancy dan.”Spurs were one of the few clubs where the powerhouse aspect of Gray’s game would go down badly. “When Venners signed me he said, `You showed a lot of bottle and that’s why I bought you’.”But what should have been the dream move for someone with international ambition turned into a nightmare “It was the worst mistake I ever made,” Gray says. That it was Venables who bought him was particularly sweet, for Venables had been covering that Poland game for television.”In the studio with Venners was big chin Jimmy Hill and he was giving me pelters,” says Gray. “He used to talk widget beer, widgets in cans, and I just had the hump with it. I thought: `I’ve slogged my guts out for this club and we pay this money for this guy and he’s talking about some widget in a can’.”It was not long before Gray escaped the obese widget expert and decamped for Terry Venables’ Spurs in a pounds 1m deal. “We sell Ian for pounds 2.5m to Arsenal and we buy this overweight guy from Sunderland.”Gabbiadini had a bad time at Palace.
The fans dubbed him “Gabbia-donkey”, he failed to score regularly and, worst of all, he spent most of his free time with his widgets.”That’s all I used to hear when we were getting changed,” Gray says. “I was trying to prove a point to myself.”He took out some of his frustrations on his stomach – “that was when I put the weight on” – and on the Palace manager, Steve Coppell, but primarily on Marco Gabbiadini who had replaced his close friend Ian Wright at Selhurst Park.”I hated him,” Gray says. Things just didn’t go right for him.”Gray’s fortunes plummeted after Poland “I just tried too hard,” he says. “That for your first touch in international football you’re kicking the ball out for a throw.”Despite that bizarre piece of coaching, and despite his strikingly brief England career, Gray has nothing but praise for Taylor “I love Graham Taylor to death. “Taylor said he was making a few technical changes and that was it,” Gray said. “I was hurting real bad.”Taylor gave Gray instructions to belt the ball out of play if he got it early on “I was a bit shocked to hear the manager say that,” he says.
Before his Poland mishap he had been in peak form, helping Palace reach the FA Cup final in 1990 and finish third in the top flight the following year.”If I had scored that goal my career would have been much different,” Gray says, without bitterness. As it was, the England manager, Graham Taylor, hauled him off at half-time. With England due to visit Poland next Saturday, one-cap wonder Gray will be assailed by cruel memories that took him almost five years to put into perspective.”I just sort of screwed it wide of the post,” he says, his mind drifting back to the moment in a European Championship qualifier against the Poles in 1991 when he blew England’s best chance of the first half and blew his own chances of appearing for his country again.Gray traces his slide in fortune to that match. “I feel like a young kid again,” Gray, the former Crystal Palace and Tottenham midfielder whose career bombed spectacularly, says of his renaissance on the south side of the Firth of Forth.
Gray, now 32, plies his trade as a central defender alongside the young Kevin James and the partnership has formed the bedrock for Falkirk’s Cup run.He could be forgiven a jealous look at the towering Scottish Under-21 squad member as James sets out on the international high road. Limelight and Falkirk are an unlikely pairing, but for Andy Gray an unexpected day in the sun at the Scottish Cup final is just what he needed. In 1994 they did advance, but only because they finished high enough to go up automatically “We need all the team to perform,” Gradi said. “We cannot carry anyone.”Crewe recorded a double over Brentford this season, although Gradi knows that means little.
Their only selection problem is midfielder Danny Murphy, who has a thigh injury “Our plans will revolve around his fitness,” Gradi said.. This will be the third successive year that Alex have tried to reach the First Division through the play- offsTheir record is five appearances in the play-off lottery in six seasons without one promotion. “It will be very tight and maybe just one goal will be enough. Wembley is supposed to be a very tiring pitch so it’ll be the fitter side that will come out on top in the later stages. Hopefully that will be us.”Northampton will have the backing of around 35,000 of their fans. Warburton said: “On a lot of away trips this season we’ve taken 600 to places like Carlisle and Hartlepool on a Tuesday night, so we hope they all have a good day because they thoroughly deserve it. They’ve been the best in the division for the last three or four years since I’ve been here.”Crewe Alexandra will not have so many behind them tomorrow against Brentford, but if anyone knows that reaching the play-offs is a twin-edged sword then it is their manager, Dario Gradi.
Swansea won both games between the two sides this season, but the Northampton captain, Ray Warburton, remains confident.”I think it will be a fair old game,” he said. Even though defeat would cost Palace pounds 6m in lost revenue, Coppell’s caretaker role is to be upgraded.Today it is the turn of Swansea City and Northampton Town to take centre stage for the Third Division final. Record crowds are anticipated at Wembley, beating the 158,566 set at the end of the 1993-94 season.The highlight comes on Monday, when a 75,000 sell-out is expected for the First Division final between Sheffield United and Crystal Palace, who are to make Steve Coppell their permanent manager next season win or lose. By Monday night three will be promoted, while three will taste the bitterness of being close but not close enough.
Any system that allows a team who finished sixth or seventh to go up instead of opponents who were four places ahead of them is grossly unfair, but you cannot fault the play-offs for their popularity.