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Channon: Why Fonte’s an “idiot” and United should stop “whingeing”
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Manchester United and Southampton go head to head in the EFL Cup final on Sunday - 41 years on from Saints’ most famous day.
Lawrie McMenemy’s Second Division side shocked the football world by beating Tommy Docherty’s much-fancied United 1-0 in the 1976 FA Cup final through the late Bobby Stokes’ goal.
Southampton midfielder Mick Channon and United winger Gordon Hill played in the 1976 final and, ahead of the Wembley rematch, spoke about that day, that goal and this weekend.
HOW DID THE UPSET COME ABOUT?
Channon: “We were all experienced players. You have got to look at it a little bit differently. If there was an inexperienced team, it was Manchester United that day. They were a lot younger than us. We had Peter Osgood, Jim McCalliog, Peter Rodrigues - we had a lot of experience. But if I went to the bookies, I bet Southampton were long odds.”
Hill: “They put out a very strong side and full of experience. When we realised we got Southampton it was a case of, ‘We can’t be complacent’, but I’m afraid we were just a little bit complacent.”
PEOPLE STILL TALK ABOUT STOKES’ GOAL. WAS IT OFFSIDE?
Hill: “I still think it was a fine line. When I look at it into today’s football I would’ve had said yes and, when (United captain) Martin Buchan says he is offside, he pretty much is offside because I trust Martin. But you’ve got to play to the whistle. Bobby put it away, put it where no goalkeeper would have got it and good luck to him. God bless his soul, Bobby.”
Channon: “Who gives a f_*_? Don’t ask me to feel sorry for Manchester United for goodness’ sake. They get more things go their way than any other team in the league, so I certainly don’t feel sorry for them. It may have been level, but you mark my words: Martin Buchan tried to play offside. He was being lazy. We’re talking fractions. He decided to play offside and he got caught and he’s never stopped whingeing since!”
IT WAS QUITE A SHOCK. WHAT WAS THE FALLOUT?
Hill: “We didn’t play a good game. Back then we used numbered cards to call the players off and that day and they put my number, 11, up so I thought, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to walk all across this field’. I was really upset. I looked at the number and the boss, then said, ‘What, me?’ Doc said ‘No, the whole f ** team, one to 11’. We got beaten, Southampton played very well and they got it. Lawrie came to America about three months ago and I had lunch with him. I asked him, ‘When did you know that you’d won the FA Cup?’ He said, ‘Believe it or not, when you got substituted, we knew you were the only danger that could score against us’. Well, that’s marvellous, that.”
Channon: “Ah, Southampton came alive. You wouldn’t believe it. There’s nothing ever been seen like that since. I always remember saying, ‘The only thing that matters in a cup final is winning’, because no-one ever remembers a loser, do they? You always remember the winners of cup finals, you don’t remember the runners-up. Had Manchester United beat Southampton, you wouldn’t have been talking to me now. And Martin Buchan is still whingeing.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE CURRENT CROP?
Hill: “If Manchester United supporters like what they see, they accept you. I have even mellowed to Jose Mourinho as he says this is a club bigger than anything in the world so you can’t come in and start dictating. I think he has also got the players to buy into his philosophy in terms of what he wants to play. He’s upset a few people on the way but that’s football and you can’t satisfy all these players. Some of them are not going to fit in your plans, even though they are great players.”
Channon: “The game is the same but the people have changed. I am delighted for the players and everything else. Certainly a lot them have worked bloody hard for this and they’re good professionals. Then you get the idiots like (former Southampton captain Jose) Fonte, who wants to leave and not honour his contract. I can’t understand it.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN ON SUNDAY?
Channon: “I think there could well be another trophy to go alongside 1976. It’s a great final - Manchester United playing us, playing Southampton. It’s great for all the fans. You couldn’t wish for a better tie. It is cup football at its best. I’ve got eight season tickets for my kids and everyone else, so I am almost a bloody shareholder in the place! They all enjoy it and when they enjoy it, I do. I hope there will be new heroes.”
Hill: “It will be a completely different game to 1976. It’s even-stevens, even though Southampton are the ‘underdogs’. To me, they are not underdogs because they’ve pulled off some good results. It’ll be a close battle at the weekend and I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be a game of chess. I just want to see an open type of game, albeit not necessarily as severe as Manchester City v Monaco!”
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