Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 3–4 Manchester City F.C. (2004)

In the Fourth Round of the 2003–04 FA Cup, the tie between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City went to a replay – played at White Hart Lane, London, on the evening of 4 February 2004 – after the original match 10 days earlier finished in a 1–1 draw.

Spurs took a convincing 3–0 lead into the half-time interval after goals from Ledley King, Robbie Keane and a Christian Ziege free kick. Having already seen their star striker, Nicolas Anelka, limp off with an injury in the 27th minute of the game, the situation was made even worse for City just before the half-time interval when key central midfielder Joey Barton was dismissed by the referee for dissent as both teams and the match officials were leaving the pitch at the end of the first half. However, after the break, goals from Sylvain Distin, Paul Bosvelt, Shaun Wright-Phillips plus an injury-time strike from Jon Macken sealed a victory described by one journalistic source as "as great a comeback as English football has ever known".

In footballing circles, it is frequently referred to as one of the greatest comebacks of FA Cup history.

Background

The match was played between two of English football's more notable clubs, at a time when both were experiencing lengthy periods of relative mediocrity. Neither team had finished higher than seventh in the Premier League since its creation more than a decade earlier. Manchester City had won promotion back to the Premier League just two seasons earlier, having spent just one of the previous seven seasons in the Premier League, and spending one season in Division Two. Furthermore, neither team had reached the final of the FA Cup since Spurs won the competition in 1991, although Spurs had won the Football League Cup five seasons earlier. City's last major trophy was the League Cup in 1976.

Being top division teams, both had entered the competition in the Third Round Proper, played in the previous month. Tottenham had advanced with an easy 3–0 victory over Crystal Palace while City had laboured to beat Leicester City, having been held to a replay after a 2–2 draw at home.

Being one of only three replays in the Fourth Round, it was already known that the winner of the match between the two teams would face Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Fifth Round.

Match

Summary

Tottenham took the lead early in the match, their shot from outside the penalty area giving them a one-goal advantage after two minutes. However, their strong early position was knocked six minutes later when striker Hélder Postiga left the field with an injury, to be replaced by Gus Poyet.

In the 19th minute, Stephen Carr's long ball over the Manchester City defence was put past City goalkeeper Árni Arason by Robbie Keane, increasing Spurs' advantage to two goals. Less than ten minutes later, City themselves saw a striker substituted through injury when Nicolas Anelka incurred a hamstring strain in the 27th minute. His replacement was Jon Macken, who had been blamed for missing an open goal at the end of the previous match which had necessitated the replay be played in the first place. Spurs scored their final goal just before half-time as Christian Ziege took a free-kick caused by a Joey Barton foul on Michael Brown, in the process receiving a yellow card which would become far more relevant very shortly afterwards.

Barton's yellow card would come back to bite him on the stroke of half-time when, in a move which was indicative of the start of a career which would ultimately be characterised by controversy, he was reported to have remonstrated with referee Rob Styles

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