Armitage ends a 30-year wait

HISTORY BOYS: High Crompton and Royton Supporters’ Club members Joe Warbuton (left), Bing Findlater (centre, chairman) and Dave Armitage (treasurer) are pictured with the 1981 FA Cup final programme.

SIX hours queuing for an FA Cup final ticket was a walk in the park for Manchester City fanatic Dave Armitage — he has been waiting 30 years for this game.

Saturday’s Wembley showdown with Stoke City will be three decades to the day since Dave, who runs High Crompton and Royton Supporters’ Club, watched his beloved Blues lose 3-2 to Tottenham Hotspur.

Dubbed the ‘Ricky Villa final’ — City fans are sick of seeing footage of THAT goal by the way — the heartbreaking replay defeat on May 14, 1981 came five days after the sides drew 1-1, with Tommy Hutchinson famously scoring at both ends for John Bond’s team.

Fast-forward through the relegations, false dawns and downright macabre events at Maine Road and Eastlands, and now Dave (46), and the rest of the success-starved City

faithful, have their long-awaited chance to achieve closure.

It comes after a memorable 1-0 win at the expense of rivals United in the semi-final last month.

“I knew it would take a while to get a ticket,” said season-ticket holder Dave, who lives in Littleborough.

“I went down on Bank Holiday Monday at 6.50am and was 346th in the queue! It took six hours but it was worth it.

“I didn’t go into the semi-final with much confidence, because a few days earlier Liverpool

hammered us at Anfield and Carlos Tevez went off injured.

“But we got the job done, and the scenes were unbelievable. Grown men crying and hugging each other, not just because of the opposition, but the fact we were through to a final.

“It has been a long time coming. I went to both Tottenham games 30 years ago and obviously the outcome hurt.

“This will be our first final since then and I cannot even begin to describe how it would feel to win.

“We basically won the lottery in 2008 when the current owners bought the club. From that moment onwards, anything was possible.”

It is easy to lose sight of the fact City were relegated to the third tier of English football as recently as 1998.

They looked destined to stay there until Paul Dickov — now Athletic manager of course — pulled off the mother of all rescue acts the following May with an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time against Gillingham in the play-off final.

The Scot slid across the Wembley surface on his knees, an image forever imprinted on the minds of supporters.

City won the penalty shoot-out that day (the fact Dickov missed his spot-kick is neither here nor there) and escaped the old Second Division.

“We never do things the easy way though do we?,” added Dave.

“Since then we’ve been up to the top-flight, down and back up again!

“We all feared the worst when Thaskin Shiniwatra’s takeover turned sour but he must have amazing contacts because he pulled off the deal of the century by selling to our owners.”

So London’s calling, and with it comes the chance to end the club’s 35-year wait for silverware.

“There will be 98 of us leaving Heyside Cricket Club on Saturday morning,” said Dave.

“We are filling two coaches, just like we did for the semi-final, and everything is planned down to the last detail.

“Then it is down to the players to lift that cup!

“It will not be as easy as some people think. Stoke are a big, physical side. They will want to kick us and Rory Delap will have that massive throw-in ready.

“All we can do is sing and shout and hope the players perform to the best of their ability.”