MANCHESTER CITY fans were so livid when Raddy Antic’s late winner relegated them in 1983 that they took their anger out on the Luton bus trying to escape Maine Road.
One supporter ran towards the coach to vent his fury but was hit by a car going the other way.
Hatters physio John Sheridan sprang into action, defying police orders to get off the bus and help the injured man — who kept spouting expletives as he was treated.
Reflecting on that eventful day 40 years ago as if it were yesterday, Sheridan told SunSport: “The police said, ‘What are you doing?’
“I said, ‘I’ve got to, I can’t leave someone lying injured in the road’.
“I could never forgive myself if I had kept on the coach, it was the right thing to do.
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“The coach was under attack a bit. The police told us to keep down below the windows.
“The supporter was quite badly injured, he had a suspected fractured leg. I was bandaging him up.
“And he was raving at me, spitting at me, saying, ‘You put us down’.
“He had a few obscenities which weren’t to be repeated.
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“It was quite hairy. The police told me to get on the coach because we were putting the players in danger.
“I sorted him out, got on the coach and was a bit shellshocked.”
Both sides went into the game facing relegation from the top flight and Antic’s heroics kept Luton up, with Hatters chief David Pleat famously dancing on the pitch in celebration.
Sheridan was there with him and recalls the atmosphere was so hostile that they were “scared for our lives”.
It sparked an unlikely rivalry between the clubs and Sheridan reckons some fans will be well aware of it when City come to The Kenny today.
He added: “The older supporters will remember that game.
“It was one of the games that goes down in history with so much at stake.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
