Post by QPR Report on Dec 6, 2008 9:09:47 GMT
From The Guardian
The Joy of Six: hot football funksFrom Diego Maradona gaining revenge on the Butcher of Bilbao to Franny Lee KO'ing Norman Hunter, Scott Murray looks at the footballers and managers who lost it big time
5) Georges Santos starts the Battle of Bramall Lane
[Watch Video - nl.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDsjY3uFdE
From Jack Charlton's little black book – in which he kept names of players who had looked at him in a funny way, with a view to later dispatching them into the top tier of the stand, on their teeth, all the way up via the stairs – to Roy Keane's ice-cold pursuit of Alf-Inge Haaland, players have harboured grudges. But nobody has completely disregarded the task in hand, eschewing both needs of the team and the concept of professionalism in general, quite like Sheffield United's Georges Santos, who in 2002 instigated the Second Battle of Bramall Lane by finding closure on a year-long seethe. The first Battle of Bramall Lane was, incidentally, at the very first match at the ground, during which the gentlemen of Sheffield and Hallam setting about each other's jowls in, according to the press of the day, "the most irritable manner". One can only imagine, but surely it had nothing on what happened when Sheffield United played West Bromwich Albion in 2002.
During a match at Bramall Lane the previous season, Santos had his cheekbone shattered after being elbowed by Nottingham Forest's Andy Johnson. Johnson had since been transferred to West Bromwich Albion, and was returning to the scene of his crime for the first time since that incident. Santos, named as a substitute, was lying in wait on the bench for his prey, temper nicely on the boil.
United were already two goals and one man down when, on 62 minutes, Neil Warnock sent Santos and Patrick Suffo on. Santos's first and last act would be to scythe down Johnson with a sickening two-footed lunge. Off! A melee ensued, which saw Suffo headbutt Derek McInnes. Off! And we were only in the 64th minute. Two United injuries then reduced the home side to six men, after which the game abandoned after 82 minutes with WBA 3-0 up. The result of the match – one of the most infamous in Football League history, all thanks to Santos and his righteous anger – stood.
The Six
1) Diego Maradona gives hot, hot heat to The Butcher of Bilbao
2) John Sitton goes postal in the TV Documentary Club For A Fiver
3) Graeme Souness loses it on his Rangers debut
4) Franny Lee knocks down Norman Hunter
5) Georges Santos starts the Battle of Bramall Lane
6) André Bikey takes out a stretcher bearer
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/dec/05/joy-of-six-scott-murray