A former Premier League referee has joked that he deserves a statue outside Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium.
Ex-official Mark Halsey spent most of his carer in the Premier League but before reaching the top flight, he officiated in the lower leagues.
Back in 1999, he was in charge of the League One play-off final between City and Gillingham.
At the end of the match, five minutes were added on by Halsey after Gillingham were set for promotion thanks to two late goals.However, Kevin Horlock pulled one back before Paul Dickov scored in the 97th minute to send the game to penalties, with City winning the shootout 3-1.
Looking back on the match, Halsey told the Under The Cosh podcast: “I'm still getting stick now, especially on Twitter, oh the s*** I get from them fans. What a day, what a day.
“But the night was even better. It wasn't my fault the Football League put me in the same hotel as Man City fans, was it?
“Nicky Weaver (who saved the decisive penalty for City) does the run. While Nicky’s running one way, I’m running down the tunnel with all the Gillingham fans wanting to chase me.”Halsey continued: “It was five minutes, but it should’ve been longer but obviously with all the time wasting that was going on, goal scoring celebrations, cautions, substitutions, but as I say, City fans have got a lot to thank me for.“Just look where they are now, they wouldn’t be where they are now without me would they? And do you know what, there should be a statue up there of me outside the Etihad.”
In May this year, Halsey, who lives in Spain, sparked fury from Gillingham fans after he posted a picture of him going to the Champions League final with a caption that read: “Come on City.”Halsey said: “I took my daughter and her boyfriend, obviously he’s Spanish, a Madrid fan. My daughters been out in school here for several years so she’s fluent in Spanish.
“I got some tickets, went up there, had our picture taken in the train station at Alicante, ‘on our way to Madrid’. Being British, as you do, you always want the British side to do well.”
He added: “Some I just put a picture on, ‘come on City’ and then all of a sudden ‘bing, bing, bing, bing’. I went absolutely ballistic. The Gillingham fans, oh my god, wanted the FA to do an investigation 24 years after the event.”
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