Manchester City’s Last Win at Anfield: 3 May 2003

What were you doing in May 2003?

Cast your mind back to that time over 15 years ago. The biggest film at the pictures was Johnny English, Busted sat at the top of the charts with “You Said No” (no, me neither). Of interest to Manchester City fans – new into the singles chart that week in the UK at number 7 was 7 Nation Army by the White Stripes, now part of a much loved chant in homage to our wonderful player Kevin de Bruyne. On Saturday 3rd May 2003 we didn’t hurry home post match to catch the BBC Match of The Day – back then BBC had lost the Premier League Broadcast rights and we were in the dark ages of ITV Saturday Night Football. We didn’t have mobile phones with google, so couldn’t access latest scores without a radio. Google was only 5 years old then – and we used to use other search engines on our computers back in those days! No one said “I’ll google it” to anything – we just searched for things on the worldwide web.

On the way home from the match we used to have to either rely on someone in the crowd who had one of those small portable radios and who would relay the score to those walking, or wait till you got back to your car. Both were subject to interference, and on so many occasions we never quite hard the score as the signal faded and presenters voices disappeared under water.

Whilst its surprising to cast your mind back those 15 years and realise how much of the world has moved on. Parkinson was prime time BBC Saturday Night TV back on 3 May 2003 – interviewing Shirley Bassey! Such programmes all seem a lifetime ago. But ask many Manchester City fans and they will be able to tell you exactly where they were on 3 May 2003. At Anfield watching Manchester City win. The fans remember it partly because we still have not won there since.

You’ve got to remember a few things about that 2002/3 season. It was momentous for a number of reasons. We were back in the Premier League under the great Kevin Keegan. We were saying goodbye to our home – Maine Road – and preparing to move to the City of Manchester Stadium the following season. Back on 3 May 2003 we had just one more match left at Maine Road – a game we were destined to lose to Southampton, cementing a comfortable 9th position finish in a typical City fashion.

Ali Benarbia had a great game against Liverpool. At his best he looked inspired, controlling games with guile and skill. Somehow Keegan seemed to get the best out of him and to all intents and purposes he looked like a world class player. He wasn’t the only great player in our side because we had the inimitable Nicolas Anelka. Anelka had been on loan at Liverpool the season before and had done well but there had been a reported fall out with Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier and somehow we signed Anelka.

To be clear our Manchester City team that day against Liverpool was:

Schmeichel, Dunne, Sommeil, Distin, Wright-Phillips, Barton, Benarbia, Horlock, Jensen, Fowler, Anelka.

Liverpool raced into a lead in the game as Milan Baros struck a well taken goal on 59 minutes. We all had no expectation of a win. But at some point Anelka bounced into life. He was the kind of player for us who only had to wake up once in a game to make a contribution, but in this match he applied himself, seemingly eager to make a point to Liverpool. In the 74th minute his pace brought a dodgy penalty. Anelka got up and fired the ball into the net for the equaliser. Let’s be honest we were all happy with that.

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But something happened in the 3rd minute of injury time at the end of the match. The ball bounced up to Anelka at the edge of the penalty area and he hit a sweet volley straight into the net. City had won at Anfield.

At the time, I thought this City team were genuine contenders, I thought we had turned a corner and the recent past was well behind us. I thought our football was on the verge of greatness. I did not think for one minute, we would still be waiting for our next victory at Anfield over 15 years later.

The Liverpool team that day, where we deservedly won, had 3 current football pundits on the pitch. Danny Murphy, Micheal Owen and Jamie Carragher. So if you ever want to wonder why those 3 particular pundits never give us any credit you may want to remember how they were well beaten by City so may not have fond memories.

Whilst it is hard to fathom our last win at Anfield was back in 2003 – back then it was equally hard to remember the last time we had won at Anfield. That win in 2003 was our first in 22 years – the previous one being a victory on Boxing Day in 1981. Of course for some of those intervening years Liverpool were in the ascendancy. Back in the 1980s they were famous, much like Five Star and Colonel Abrams.

So 15 years since our last win at Anfield and its clear to us Manchester City fans we are long overdue another.