“They’ll be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight...”
On 14 August 2003, two worlds collided in what was City’s first official game at our new home…
Words: David Clayton
Legendary Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling perhaps summed up Welsh club Total Network Solutions’ somewhat bizarre club name in one hilarious moment several years ago.
It wasn’t anything to do with their game against City, he was just affectionately highlighting how a football club had been be named after a fibre optic installation company over their original name, Llansantffraid F.C.
They were the first club to adopt their sponsor’s name as their club name but were forced to play any European games as TNS due to sponsorship rules.
Based in Oswestry on the border of England and Wales, the (then) Guardian journalist Daniel Taylor broke the news of the UEFA Cup pairing between the Blues and the Welsh minnows with the line, “Manchester City have been drawn against a village team in Wales with 952 residents for their first European match in 24 years.”
That pretty much said it all.
Our last game in Europe had been a UEFA Cup quarter-final with Borussia Monchengladbach, with Kaziu Deyna’s stunning volley not enough to prevent a 3-1 defeat to a German side who had the European Footballer of the Year – Danish superstar Allan Simonsen – among their number.
That was 1979 – this was 2003 – and after City’s surprise qualification via the Fair Play League, the draw for the UEFA Cup qualifying round had been eagerly-awaited.
Taylor continued: “The draw for the first round of qualifiers left City struggling to disguise the overwhelming feeling of anticlimax at the City of Manchester Stadium, but TNS can look forward to two nights that will bring in more than their annual turnover of £400,000.”
Though the Blues had played a high profile friendly against Barcelona at our new home in East Manchester to effectively christen the new venue at the start of August, the match against TNS would be the first official match game played at what would become the Etihad Stadium in the years ahead.
Safety restrictions meant the top tier of the stadium had been given the necessary certificates, restricting the gate to 34,103, but it quickly became obvious that TNS would not be able to safely host the return leg at their 2,000-capacity Recreation Ground.
Wrexham’s 10,000-capacity Racecourse Ground looked the obvious choice being 15 miles from Oswestry, but with an opportunity to make it a night never to be forgotten, TNS opted to play the return at the 70,000-plus Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
“I feel sorry for Manchester City - they have waited 24 years to get back into Europe only to get beaten in Wales,” said the club's owner Mike Harris, in Geneva after the draw.
“We certainly won't be just there to make up the numbers. This is our fifth season in Europe, and we were in the Champions League three years ago. So we are certainly more experienced than City when it comes to European football.”
It was hard to argue with Harris and his tongue-in-cheek comments.
It was true – at that time, TNS had more European pedigree than the team that won the European Cup Winners’ Cup some 33 years prior.
The BBC envisaged a mass Mancunian exodus to South Wales, writing: “While the tie is unlikely to fill the 72,500 capacity Millennium, City could quite easily bring 30,000 supporters to the match - an attendance figure often reached when they were down in Division Two.”
Even by our supporters lofty standards, that was an optimistic prediction!
“I am absolutely made up - this is fantastic, the best draw we could possibly have had,” Harris continued.
“I have no plans to try and rearrange the tie so that we play them at home first. I am confident we can go up to Manchester and get a good result and then really put the pressure on them in the second leg.
“If we get the right result I will be looking to relocate the game to the Millennium Stadium - why not?”
Why not indeed – but City had no intention of fluffing our lines in the opening game at our new ground.
“I just remember feeling sorry for the City fans!” recalled Blues’ keeper David Seaman.
The former England and Arsenal legend had joined City for one season before retiring after a long and illustrious career, with Keegan wanting his experience and voice in the dressing room following Peter Schmeichel’s brief stay with the club.
And Seaman was well aware of the potential banana skin that lay ahead playing a side with nothing to lose.
“It was ironic,” continued Seaman. “As a club, City had waited 20 odd years for European football, and we draw a non-League Welsh club. I’ll be honest – I’d never heard of Total Network Solutions, or TNS, at that time.
“I know the City fans were desperate for European football, so it all felt a bit odd that we’d drawn this team from mid-Wales.
“That said, we didn’t take anything for granted because, with the greatest respect, this was their cup final and I’d been on the wrong end of a few cup upsets in the past, playing for Birmingham when Altrincham beat them at St Andrew’s and for Arsenal when Wrexham knocked them out of the FA Cup at the Racecourse Ground. We knew there was a job to do.
“It was just another game, albeit a European game – even if it was a Welsh club!”
For TNS skipper Gary Brabin, taking part in this historic mis-match was, by his own admission, lost on him at the time.
The much-travelled midfielder led his team out on a sunny Mancunian evening in 2003 and looks back on the occasion with pride now - but was in business mood at the time.
“As a player, you don’t really think about it but in hindsight, it’s something I’m really proud of now and I enjoy showing pictures of the game to my kids,” said Brabin, now assistant manager at Oldham Athletic.
“I walked out alongside David Seaman as we were both captains that day and I look back at it with fond memories.
“I must admit, I never got wrapped up in occasions or moments as a player, but when you look back to where City were then and are now, it’s incredible.
“I was a traditionalist, and I didn’t like the new stadiums that were popping up everywhere back then – to see grounds like Maine Road and other places I’d played at being demolished was pretty sad as there was so much history lost.
“Simon Davies was playing for us that day – he was ex-Man United and ended up as assistant to Patrick Vieira with City’s U21s.
“It was probably the start of an exciting new era at City – you had Kevin Keegan as manager, Nicolas Anelka up front, Seaman in goal and Shaun Wright-Phillips was an exciting young talent so it was quite a team that was filled with stars.
“We just thought it was a great game for us to go into and we went there believing we could get something, even though it was a tough ask.
“We played with a bit of a low block which wasn’t the done thing back then and contained City pretty well – our keeper was really good, but he probably had the worst game of his life that day! I think he conceded a couple of long range shots that sort of blew our plan out of the water.”
Trevor Sinclair’s clever chip put City ahead on 14 minutes and TNS clung on to go into the break just a goal behind.
But after the restart, the floodgates opened.
Wright-Phillips made it 2-0 on 51', and Sun Jihai added a third on the hour mark.
David Sommeil - who would score City’s first Premier League goal at Eastlands nine days later – made it 4-0 on 73' and Anelka wrapped up the scoring on 87'.
It hadn’t been a drubbing – more a par result and no more.
“One thing I do recall is that I was the first player to be officially booked at the Etihad!” recalled Brabin.
“It was an added time booking for a foul on Paulo Wanchope and that’s my claim to fame from that game!”
Despite the scoreline, the second leg was indeed played at Welsh football’s premier venue, but the BBC’s prediction of 30,000 travelling fans didn’t materialise.
However, a crowd of 10,123 did attend, with 8,000 Blues making the long midweek journey to Cardiff for a game that was effectively a dead rubber.
Keegan made 10 changes from the side that had won the first leg and the vastness of the ground made for an eerily subdued atmosphere.
“The Millennium Stadium had a bigger profile at the time because it had hosted FA Cup finals with Wembley closed for a rebuild – more so than even playing at the Etihad,” said Brabin.
“I think City played a sort of second string team for the return leg, but there was still a number of stars and internationals, and it was much closer as a contest.”
It was a tighter game, too.
The much-changed Blues had to wait until just before the break to take the lead, with Christian Negouai on target and Darren Huckerby added a second on 80 minutes to complete a 2-0 win and 7-0 aggregate victory.
TNS skipper Brabin admits he has always had a soft spot for the Blues, being an Evertonian.
He’s sporting director for TNS (who are now known as The New Saints these days following British Telecom’s purchase of Total Network Solutions), splitting his role with the Latics to continue his association with the Cymru Premier side into a third decade.
“As an Everton fan, I’ve also been a Man City fan for the past seven years!” he said, referring to our many title battles with Liverpool.
“I’ve played a few games for the Man City Vets team over the years, and I’ve always liked the club - plus obviously Pep Guardiola has done incredible things for football in this country.
“Looking back, I don’t think, as a club, TNS have made enough of playing Manchester City – or the fact that three years later we played Liverpool as well – so it’s something we should have celebrated more in my opinion because it’s quite something for a town that has a population of about 1,000.
“It was an historic day for the club and, given what’s happened since, something to take a lot of pride from.”
Total Network Solutions might not exist as a football club anymore, but their name is etched into the Manchester City history books and Jeff Stelling’s comments about their fans dancing in the streets will no doubt bring a smile to both sets of supporters…
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