The head of Conventry City has discovered heartbreaking news about his all-time…
The legendary Ian Wright of Arsenal has frequently stated that he witnessed one of the best tunnel bust-ups ever between teammate Martin Keown and fellow hardman center-half Liam Daish against Coventry City.
In October 1996, the Sky Blues were in a precarious 19th place in the Premier League and traveled to Highbury to take on a Gunners team that was leading the division and virtually unbeatable under Ron Atkinson.
Togetherness and team spirit were crucial, and City emerged victorious when the punches started flying. Daish continues the narrative.
The former no-nonsense defender, who spent three years at City after being signed by Big Ron for £1.5 million from Birmingham City, said, “I think it was Arsene Wenger’s first home game in charge, and they had all their top players out, and we got a well-earned point out of that. It was quite an eventful game—an ill-tempered match with ugly incidents on the pitch and in the tunnel.”
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David Seaman in goal, defenders Lee Dixon, Martin Keown, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, and Nigel Winterburn, midfielders David Platt, Patrick Vieira, and Paul Merson, and a front two of Ian Wright and Paul Merson—with Dennis Bergkamp coming off the bench—were among the many well-known players on Arsenal’s roster that day.
With Steve Ogrizovic in goal, Paul Telfer, Paul Williams, Daish, and Richard Shaw in defense, Gary McAllister, Eion Jess, Kevin Richardson, and John Salako in midfield, and Dion Dublin and Noel Whelan up top on a day when Peter Ndlovu, David Burrows, and backup John Filan were needed off the bench, Coventry’s team wasn’t too bad either.
“We all knew going into it that they had a new manager, and playing at Arsenal was always going to be difficult,” the 53-year-old Daish recalled.
We were aware that the game would be extremely difficult and that, in order to succeed, we would need to demonstrate a strong sense of unity. We had to really come together and support one another instead of trying to do it on our own, and that’s exactly what happened.
“Wenger was probably thinking, ‘Coventry at home, that’s a good start,’ after seeing his first game, but we managed to upset that a little bit, and the one thing we didn’t do was roll over. It was a pretty needle-filled game.”
When asked about the initial indications that the match was becoming more competitive on the field, the player who, according to his former Blues manager Barry Fry, “would attempt to head away if a squadron of F-1 11s attacked the Birmingham penalty area” replied, “I don’t remember any particular signs or incidents but just think it was always going to be that.”
“It was always going to be that way because Arsenal had big players like Tony Adams, Ian Wright, Martin Keown, and John Hartson. They were all physical players. It was one of those situations where you knew you had to take a stand, show courage, and project strength because, if they detected even the slightest hint of weakness, they would abuse you.
