HERO HOUCHEN’S WARNING
FA CUP legend Keith Houchen has warned his old club Coventry that they will need to match Maidstone “yard for yard” to avoid a major last- 16 upset tomorrow night.
Houchen’s name is synonymous with Cup glory – his diving header during the Sky Blues’ famous 1987 triumph against Tottenham being firmly etched in final folklore.
Two seasons earlier, meanwhile, his 90th-minute penalty for York had dumped Arsenal out of the competition’s fourth round.
But the Middlesbrough-born forward was also on the receiving end of one of the tournament’s biggest shocks, as a 70th-minute sub when Coventry – still a top-flight team at that point – lost 2-1 at then Non-League hosts Sutton United in 1989.
Recalling that contest – just a month on from its 35-year anniversary – and the lessons the current Sky Blues can learn from it, Houchen told The FLP: : “We’d trained on Sutton’s ground before we played the game, so we knew what to expect. The dressing rooms were really tight but a lot of us, including myself, had come up from the lower leagues, so we weren’t fazed by that. I remember (manager) John Sillett even saying to us, ‘Don’t be the idiots that everybody is writing and talking about tomorrow’.
“So, we took the game seriously and did all our prep correctly but we were usually a strong setpiece team and I remember us being a bit sluggish from them defensively because we conceded both goals from corners.
“Sutton also treated it like the game of their lives as I’m sure Maidstone will do and, when that’s the case, you have to make sure you put the hard yards in and match them yard for yard.”
Houchen, now 63, admits his love for the professional game has waned, with his only involvement in the sport now seeing him run fun football coaching sessions at two schools close to his North Yorkshire home.
His enthusiasm was reignited, though, by National League South Maidstone’s fourth-round giant-killing of Ipswich and he’ll be back in front of the screen as the Sky Blues bid to reach the quarter-finals for just a third time since 1987.
Excit
