FA Cup magic: When a shaggy-haired veteran helped Wrexham shock Arsenal
In anticipation of the FA Cup third round, we take a look back at some of the best giant-killing stories from that stage of the competition.
In the 1990-91 season, Welsh club Wrexham finished bottom of English football's 92 professional clubs. Any other campaign would have seen the Dragons relegated, but they were saved thanks to slightly worse financial issues at Aldershot, which instead dropped into the non-league.
With North Wales as a whole struggling under the recession, a draw against league champion Arsenal in the FA Cup third round on Jan. 4, 1992 offered a distraction for locals. It also sparked a rallying cry from Wrexham managing director David Rhodes.
"We have been down to absolute rock bottom, but now we will continue to get stronger," he said. "Every bit of spare cash is being spent on youth development. There are six teenagers in the side, but old hands are still needed."
One "old hand" in particular had his head turned by the draw. Mickey Thomas, who at 37 had returned to the club where he spent his formative years (above), had been upset by the Gunners in 1978, when Arsenal snatched a late 3-2 victory from Manchester United (for whom he was playing) in the FA Cup final.
On his eventual return to Wrexham, Thomas brought a reputation of being a playboy, with his flowing locks and penchant for a night out.
"I had a great rapport with the fans and would have a drink with some of them after games. I was sometimes in the pub before they were," he once said of his time at Stoke City.
In the first half against Arsenal though, the veteran Thomas, who trained on his own watch during the week and tended to follow a personal game plan, was off the pace much like the rest of his side. By the half, the visitor was dominating and unlucky to just be 1-0 up after Alan Smith converted Paul Merson's cross.
"We didn't touch the ball, they were that good," rookie manager Brian Flynn recalled to Wales Online. "They got their goal before the break and people were thinking it was going to be an avalanche."
It was what Thomas predicted: "We honestly didn't think we had any chance of winning. You hear some players after shocks say that they always fancied themselves. We just wondered how many they were going to score."
The Arsenal deluge continued in the second half, with the woodwork and goalkeeping heroics of Vince O'Keefe somehow keeping Wrexham in it.
Then, a questionable call by referee Kevin Breen gifted the host a free-kick on 82 minutes, following a nothing challenge from Nigel Winterburn. Only one man was going to take it.
England No. 1 David Seaman got fingertips to Thomas' thunderbolt, but anything more and the mustachioed shot-stopper could have joined the ball in the net.
Flynn's side was on the verge of earning a much-needed money-spinner at Highbury, but Wrexham would again shock the defence of Seaman, Winterburn, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, and David O'Leary. The move was started by an aimless, desperate hoof upfield.
The goalscorer was 20-year-old Steve Watkin, who was among the legion of youngsters entrusted by the Dragons. If it wasn't for the local lad's goals against Winsford United and Telford in the previous rounds, the 13,343 packed into the Racecourse Ground would have never witnessed this historic occasion.
Wrexham held on for six minutes plus stoppage time, during which there was a disallowed Arsenal goal which left Adams furiously protesting. No wonder, as manager George Graham later described it as "probably the biggest low of my managerial career." He was yet to be sacked in 1995 for accepting illegal payments from players' agents.
For the Welsh outfit's players, it marks the finest moment of many of their careers.
Due to the ferocity of the strike and the reputation of its dispatcher, it is Thomas' effort - rather than Watkins' - that endures in FA Cup folklore.
"I was with Robbie Savage the other week and he was showing it to his lad on YouTube," Thomas said. "That reminded me how long ago it was but still everybody brings it up. I don't mind, though. It's still my best ever."
The win spurred Wrexham to back-to-back promotions in 1992-93 and 1993-94, but Thomas was handed an 18-month jail term in 1993. He shared his cell with a double murderer for a counterfeit currency scandal for which he still proclaims his innocence.
Despite his questionable behaviour during and after his playing days, Thomas is proud of his achievements in football.
"I've had a great life out of football. I played 22 years professionally and never had to beg for a club," he told the Observer's Duncan Mackay. "I had all the big clubs after me. Despite all the off-field stuff, I had respect."
