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The Bridge a bit too far
8/ 1/2007
MACC skipper David Morley won't forget the day he became an emergency keeper in the third round of the FA Cup. Here, in his exclusive diary, he tells M.E.N. Sport what went on behind the scenes at millionaire club Chelsea.
IT'S the day before the game and, following training, the lads
all sit down together for dinner - pasta and jacket potatoes -
before setting off to meet the coach at Junction 17 of the M6 at
2.15pm.
2.45pm - The players' coach arrives. After
settling down the Scousers get their usual seats at the back of the
bus and begin their PlayStation football competition.
3.00 - The rest of the lads board the coach at
Junction 15 and this sets off an eight-man poker tournament.
After a couple of stops to pick up Matty McNeil, he finally gets on
at the M40 Junction 8 because firstly he forgets an after-match
pass and has to go home to Oldham and then he goes the wrong way on
the M42, which not only results in him having a long car journey
but also a club fine for being late.
7.00 - After a couple of games of poker and a few
DVDs, we arrive at Stamford Bridge. You can see the excitement on
the boys' faces as we pull up at the Chelsea hotel, which in
fairness is a million miles away from what we are used to at the
Moss Rose.
We only had to walk into reception and straight away the lads see
famous faces, Jamie Redknapp and Ian Wright to name a couple.
7.30 - The lads are down for dinner. The usual
stuff - pasta, jacket potatoes, chicken and veg. After dinner we
all retire to our rooms for some rest and shut-eye to prepare for
the match.
The day of the game
7.00am-9.00am - Breakfast at the hotel. Not many
of the lads turn up as it's too early.
The usual faces are here, however - the coach drivers, Matty
Tipton, John Miles, Alan Navarro to name a few.
11.15 - We meet in reception for our usual morning
walk so some of us can walk off our breakfast, but as the rain is
so heavy the walk is cancelled and it's straight in for our
pre-match meal, again the usual plus cereals, toast and a bit of
fruit.
It's then back to the rooms for a relax, although I don't think
many are relaxing as we are playing the Premiership champions
Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a short while.
1.20pm - It's downstairs to meet the team coach,
not that the coach is needed as the players entrance is only 100
metres from where we are!
1.30 - We walk into the Chelsea away dressing
rooms. WOW! I'm sure the lads had thought about what it would be
like, but to actually be there, we were living the dream.
Straight away the lads have got their camera phones out taking
pictures then, after a few snaps, it was out onto the pitch.
1.40 - It suddenly dawns that we are here for
real, looking round the stadium that in an hour and 20 minutes we
are going to be playing at in front of a 42,000 full house.
2.00 - As skipper, I go in to meet the referee and
Chelsea captain Frank Lampard for the usual pre-match
`natter'.
I cheekily ask Frank for his shirt after the game and he
agrees.
2.15 - We take to the field for our pre-match
warm-up. The stadium is starting to fill up and I can feel the
butterflies and excitement starting to creep in as I'm sure the
rest of the lads can.
2.45 - It's back in for our team talk and the
gaffer gives it to us straight. We are here to win, we are not here
for a day out and he tells us to get our minds on the game.
After going through our set pieces on who we are picking up and our
other tactical plays the referee's bell sounds and it's time for
the game.
3.00 - We take to the pitch and the match kicks
off, Stamford Bridge is full to the rafters.
After a nervous start we settle and the game gets going but 16
minutes into the first half Frank Lampard opens the scoring.
We then reply with big John Murphy's equaliser and we start to
think that just maybe we could cause an upset here.
As they say, you are at your most vunerable after scoring and this
time was no different as Lampard smashes in his second to make it
2-1 going into the break. Not a bad score at half-time against
Chelsea!
4.00 - The second half gets underway and it's a
bad start, our keeper comes rushing out to deny Andriy Shevchenko
and not only does he give a penalty away, he finds himself harshly
sent off. This leads to me going in goal to face a penalty from
Lampard, who is for his hat-trick.
How canny is this? A central defender in goal trying to stop one of
the best midfielders in the world from putting the ball past
him.
It goes to say, my first touch of the ball with the gloves on was
picking it out of the back of the net. From now on with only 10 men
on the pitch and me (a defender) in goal, we know it is definitely
going to be an uphill struggle, but we carry on pushing
forward.
This sees us get stretched at the back and the chances start to
open up for Chelsea and another one hits the back of the net for
them. After starting out to try and stop Shevchenko as a
centre-half, not only do I pull off a great save to deny him I also
concede four goals as a keeper which, all in all, goes down as a
hard day at the office and one I'll never forget.
After the game and it's over to the great Macclesfield supporters
to show our appreciation for their support throughout the
match.
As we are making our way back up the tunnel Chelsea boss Jose
Mourinho invites the lads into the home dressing room so we can get
autographs and shirts from his players, which in fairness to Jose
was a great gesture on his part.
It is now back to our dressing room to shower and reflect on the
day's events.
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