The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 74

10 30 May 1999 The Observer Gillingham's limited resources face Manchester money-bags for a First Divison place at Wembley today for Cityitis bin Royle amtidoie By in Sutton Coldfield as their pre-Wembley retreat Photograph by Richard Lea-HairNews Team used the New Hall Hotel this week, Manchester City were English champions. A year later they won the FA Cup, then the European Cup Winners' Cup. Their subse quent decline has descended beyond jokes and into the realms of black humour. Self-mocking hopelessness springs eternal at Maine Road no self-respecting supporter hasn't envisaged losing in the play-off final to a last-minute own goal via the captain's backside. It's pure quintessential Man City.

Joe Royle calls it Cityitis, a syndrome based on the fear that everything that can go wrong and even some that surely can't will. He recalls one of the faithful pleading with him for another goal so he could stop biting his nails. They were 3-0 up at the time. Fortunately Royle. is a specialist in positive thinking.

He simply repeats his message until it clicks and, refreshingly, belief, and conviction now course through the club. 'We might fail for one or two things but we won't fail for he says. 'Honesty is the start of everything. Manchester United won the European Cup not because they were inspirational but because they were It must be hard to lead a quiet revolution in the shadows of a superpower. Is there the merest hint of jealousy? 'None shrugs Royle, in charge for a season and a half but still light years away from United.

'We're not a problem to United. When we start to be a problem, which is what we all want, it might feel different. For now it's well done United but we're His blue eyes ignite and a playful grin creeps over his face. The extent to which he is joking is unclear. 'It might take a few years but we're he adds, a little more menacingly.

'This club needs to finish this season with a happy ending but that's nothing to do with what's happened down the road. This club is unique. It's hard for. a big club to go down to the third tier. It's hard suddenly to see Colchester and Chesterfield when you are used to seeing Arsenal and Liver- mto of Kent Kent castle: Gillingham have Bv win Buckley THE FIRST SIGN up the long drive to the New HaH Hotel warns you to 'Beware low-flying pheasants'.

The second alerts you to "Slow-moving hedeehoss" while a third says frog? crossing'' 'he end of the drive you nuiih: expect to discover a hotel nlid with animal lovers. Instead, you find the Gillingham squad imwindmg in the oldest inhabited moated manor house in England prior to this afternoon's game against Manchester City. It win be Gillingham's first appearance at Wembley, if they win the match they will become the first team from Kent ever to play in the top two erosions. A big game, and to escape from the media hype engulfing the Medway town the team decamped last week to spend a few days in Sutton Coldfield. But why the West Midlands? Manager Tony Pulis explains: "WfeVe played games up north and Pve asked John Gregory, the Aston Villa manger if we can use their training facilities two new stands, although such redevelopment is unlikely to increase the capacity from a modest 10,600.

The finances are far healthier than they were when Pulis took on his first job at Bournemouth. There, he and chairman Norman Hayward were in charge of a club that lost 800,000 in the previous year. 'We sold 18 players for over three million and turned that into a profit of 200.000,' says Pulis. i have tremendous respect for Norman. He was a lovely fellow who lost a lot of money because of the You sense he might have slightly less respect for Scally.

'I'm a football man, he's a business man. Alec Stock once said, "The difference is that there used to be gentlemen in boardrooms, now all 1 see is I don't know, I never go into Whether Gillingham win or not he is likely to be invited into quite a few boardrooms over the summer for he is one of the most respected managers in the country. His name has even been linked with Wales although he downplays the speculation. 'It's not a big field. There's Brian Flynn, the crew at Wrexham who are Welsh lads, and apart from that there's only Kevin Ratchffe and mvself Amy Lawrence PICCADILLY STATION, Manchester.

Every arrival ferries in yet more red repUca-shirted believers from all corners of the country. The parade to herald United's team of footballing demigods is, naturally, a national pilgrimage. A few miles down the road in Moss Side, a handful of locals in blue hang about outside the Maine Road box office pretending to be blissfully oblivious to it all. Was there a game on the box last night? Didn't know anything about it, mate. Anyway, they are more interested in any stray tickets for this afternoon's Second Division play-off final, for Wembley, for a crusade of their own.

Massively over-subscribed by the eccentrically loyal legions, tickets have apparently become the subject of death threats. There might he one team in Europe but there are still a couple in Manchester. City diehards and geography pedants will tell you there is only one and it is them, but a proud rivalry should come down to more than a squabble over the borough boundaries. Yet such is the chasm between these Mancunian institutions that mutual antagonism has hardly been worth it in recent years. While United ought to manufacture own-brand Brasso to polish the legendary collection resident in their 4 million museum, City's trophy cabinet contains a number of antique crystal decanters, a few old shirts arid caps and, as evidence of a spell in the Premiership, a plaque for services to football in the community.

On the wall hangs a photograph of their last victory procession. All Sixties haircuts and woolly scarves depicted in grainy, black and white. Back in 1968, a date which brought misty-eyed nostalgia to 'you know who' in the light of 'you know what' being won Stubborn 0.85 The number of points, on average, Gillingham gain in matches where their opponents score first: the best recovery rate in Division Two Ian Ridley Leyton Orient Scunthorpe Calvo-Garcia 6 SCUNTHORPE UNITED can rarely have been mentioned in the same breath as Bayern Munich, but perhaps they learned from the German team's mistake this week. After grabbing an early goal, canny Scunny kept their nerve and concentration to the final whistle to secure themselves a place in the Second Division next season. Thus was justice done in the Third Division play-offs at least.

Scunthorpe had finished fourth to Leyton Orient's sixth and in this final were largely dominant despite Orient rousing themselves in the second half as they desperately sought to equalise a goal by Alex Calvo Garcia, a Basque who somehow found his way to South Humberside from the Spanish Second Division side Eibar. Such is English football's cosmopolitan culture at all levels these days. 'It's a better achievement getting promotion here than winning trophies with Nottingham said Brian Laws, the current Scunthorpe and former Grimsby manager, and one-time Forest full-back. 'I've had a few lows and this is one of the he added. Laws was adventurous in his tactics, playing three up front, and fortune quickly favoured his bravery.

From a throw-in on the left, 19-year-old Gareth Sheldon turned' the Joe Royle; Wembley victory will break downward spiral pool. Sometimes I've found myself saying. "I hate this bloody division." I would see us not being promoted as damning. If our jobs aren't on the line with this club in the Second Division there is something seriously wrong. We need promotion to cap all the Indeed there has been progress plenty of The club is so much more stable than the mess he joined, when a ridiculous 52 professionals, accumulated at the cost of 33 million in three years by six quickfire managers, took City to the verge of administration.

Royle's careful, pruning leaves a leaner group brimming with promise rather than a muddle weighed down with overpaid underachievers. Youngsters Nicky Weaver and Danny the vastly improved Michael Brown, and the newly acquired talents of Terry Cooke and Tony Morrison have played crucial roles in turning a relegation hangover into, a possible promotion party. Not many of the City side have played at Wembley In the dressing-room this afternoon Royle's message will be simple: Do yourselves justice. In 1968 funny how that year keeps corning up Royle's memories of the Cup Final are acute. He played for Everton, 'the hottest of favourites' against West Brom, only to be vanquished, and aching with bitter self-criticism.

'I'll tell my players not to come in with that feeling. I don't want to hear: "I wish. I had No Triumph would begin to ease the symptoms of Cityitis. 'It disappears with explains Royle. 'The second you win, the spell is After a season in Division Two it might even feel as euphoric as winning the European Cup.

If they stumble on another of those all-tochfamiliar banana skins, this year of all Mancunian football years, well, that's just another chapter'in the peculiar satire of Manchester City. Att: 36,985 Change was needed and for the second half the Orient manager, Tommy Taylor, threw on Craig Maskell and Alex Inglethorpe as wide play-ers. Just as important, though, was a more aggressive attittude. They might have had an equaliser when Maskell got to the byline on the left and cut the ball back for Watts, but Tom Evans saved bravely at his feet in the ensuing scramble. Watts was also just wide with a shot on the turn, but the bombardment was mostly with high balls that Scunthorpe swatted away.

After last Wednesday in Barcelona, never again should any team give up even on the most lost of causes, but Orient must have begun to when Evans beat away Inglethorpe's shot after Simba had found him in space. Scunthorpe might even have scored a decisive second, but Barrett saved at Paul Harsley's feet and Ling kicked Darren Stamp's shot off the line, from the rebound. No matter. In this instance, at least, one was enough. Not for nothing are Scunthorpe called the Iron.

Leyton Orient; Barrett, Joseph. Smith. Hicks, Clark. Richards (Inglethorpe h-t). Beall, Ling, Lockwood (Maskell h-t).

Simba, Watts. Scunthorpe United: Evans. Wilcox. Logan. Hope, Harsley, Walker.

Calvo-Garcia (Housham 77), Dawson; Sheldon. Gayle (Stamp 78). Forrester'lBull 84). Referee: Wilkes (Gloucester). Tight 108 The numberof minutes; on averagey it takes Mart City to concede away from home: making them the best defence on the road in Division Two at Wembley Stadium Taylor's pride Scunthorpe scuttle ordinary Orient mo time for tamps who push harder than the others He appears to have found them thanks to some clever wheeler-dealing learned from Harry Redknapp while they were at Bournemouth.

The biggest thing to be a manager is knowing players. knew even7 player in the Pulis's knowledge enabled him to exchange six front players last summer (including AMnbiyi to Bristol City for 1.2 million and 17-year-old Jimmy Corbett to Blackburn The biggest thing to be a manager is knowing players' for more than a million) for 'Bob Taylor and Carl Asaba and make a profit of 1.4m'. A sum that will have thrilled chairman Paul Scally. Scally. a Millwall fan, bought Gillingham for a penny when the club had just come out of receivership back in June 1995.

He was aided by former chairman Tony Smith, who agreed to guarantee the debt. The club was viable and is now profitable. Scally is planning to build finds from Trabzonspor because they hadn't kept up his wages. Last time they made it to the elite division they went out and bought the captain of Rangers. 'Can you imagine that he smirks.

Watford are a world away from Coventry and Southampton, never mind Man United and Chelsea Taylor is under no illusions about the challenges ahead. He always believed winning promotion to the top flight was the hardest test in English football, harder even than staying up Death wish The number of teams promoted via the First Division play-offs who have survived in the Premiership.The five others went straight back down. there. Now he reckons it's the other way round. But what the heck.

Td rather face all these massive problems in the Premiership than the unrealistic expectancy levels in the First Division, having got this far this There are. he argues, two ways of approaching Wembley. You either go there to enjoy vourselves regardless, as Watford did in the 1984 FA Cup Final, or you go there, as Taylor growls pointedly, to win. 'The experience I've had here might help these on Fndav. And every tame we've done it we've won games." Gillingham have come to Birmingham to work out on their lucky training ground.

And they've come to New Hall nine-hole par-three golf jcourse. croquet lawn, trout lake, yen-plush 'as a way of rewarding the players. We've the smallest playing squad in Divison Two and we're in the bottom three or four for wages. It's a tremendous achievement to have come Thi; says Pulis. Thus it is that the1 squad have gathered in thej Grand Carvery to eat cold-cuts and chat world politics.

Displaying a refreshing understanding of the front as well as the back pages, the team agree that India against Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup promises to be a cracker, Puns, too, is waxing political. The problem with society and our country is that there are too many middle-class people. People who are they have the car. the TV, a decent house and enough money to feed the family. They can drop into a bit of a rut.

The desire and determination to get out of the rut is lost because their life has become comfortable. "As a coach I have to find people with that little bit of fire turnip on my head. My problem is professional pride, and now that dear old Sir Alf and Don Re vie have passed away, only I understand what non-qualification for a World Cup can do to you. You ask yourself how the hell did I get that wrong0 How? Why? Fortunately for Taylor, and his clubj he has learned and let it go. Emerging from the Wembley tunnel with a hornet on his chest, all thoughts will be on the present, and the chance to emulate a wonderful adventure through the divisions Ithat the club and their messiah experi enced hand-in-hand atfthe-turn of the eighties.

To smalltown club up haul a by its bootlaces once is no mean twice achievement to do at makes you wonder whafs in his morning tea Maybe it has something to do with the idea Taylor needed Watford as much as Watford needed Taylor. 'Fitonjielt that after all been through. I needed to be part of somelhing where people love you a little bit' he confesses. Andlso it has turned out Surrounded by trusted old stalwarts such as Luther Bhssett Kenny Jackett and company, affectionately called 'Graham' by everyone in town, he flourishes again-Having walked the Second Division a year ago. Taylor was content to aim for top ten finish this time around, consolidation and all that Hejbought a couple of players forj 250.000 from Carlisle and tooka chance on a Zaireian, Michel' Ngonge.

he had seen only once on ideo and who was available for free What will particularly impress prospective employers is the results he has achieved with a 21-man squad, although 'Three or four have been injured for most of the season. Neil Masters, one game; Matty Bryant, out for a long time; Roland Edge, missed most of the To make the most of his limited numbers he has relied on utility men. 'Mark Saunders can play anywhere: centre-half, centre-forward, midfield, fullback. Galloway: Gals has played every which way. And little Hessenthaler has played Having a small squad makes one of the hardest jobs in management keeping the players who are not in the squad happy much easier.

Pretty much everyone is either in the team or on the bench. 'It's brought players together. Created a siege says Pulis. This afternoon the tightly knit squad will be long odds against to beat Manchester City and give Manchester United fans the chance to celebrate 'the impossible quadruple' the treble and City losing a play-off at Wembley. I ask if he has been in touch with his mentor Harry Redknapp.

'The only advice I've been taking from is horsing Andrew Dawson rises bodily Photograph by Richard Saker 0 United Orient captain Dean Smith near the byline and chipped a cross to the near post where Calvo-Garcia arrived ahead of his marker Billy Beall to send a sharp header into Scott Barrett's far corner. It was a cameo of what followed. Calvo-Garcia imposed himself physically on Beall. With Justin Walker, his partner in central midfield, doing a similar job on Martin Ling, Scunthorpe controlled the game for long periods. They should have been comfortably out of Orient's reach by the interval.

Busy little Jamie Forrester, who is said to interest the Coventry manager Gordon Strachan after his 23 goals this season, sent in a cross that Chris Hope headed over the bar; Andrew Dawson curled a free-kick just wide and Barrett had to be alert to save a volley from Dawson and a long-range attempt from Sheldon. Orient were barely seen as an attacking force at this point. The raw Steve Watts, playing in non-League football with Fisher Athletic a year ago, and the veteran Amara Simba, who won one of his three French caps in this stadium against England seven years ago, were frequently left isolated up front as Orient, seemingly wilting in the heat, were strung out by Scunthorpe's quicker, more precise, football. Amy Lawrence on a Wembley refugee's return IT WOULD BE quite understandable if Wembley had unfortunate connotations for Graham Taylor. It's rational enough that he hasn't dashed back there since the dreadful days when three hons tore into htm sis years ago.

Tomorrow he resumes his position on the infamous bench beneath the towers for the first time. One match away from the Premiership. There can be no more poignant place for him to celebrate a return to the highest echelons of Rngtish footbalL One of his friends in management puts it more simply, urging him to win the game, go to the press conference, offer a triumphant two-fingered gesture, and retire. Taylor chuckles at a scenario which is light years away from his style. Chairman Elton John recently said his promotions expert deserved to be back among the high-flyers.

His record at club level suggests he is over-laden with Premiership qualifications but it was never that simple. The England situation prevented me doing Taylor counters. 'It went wrong at the top and there's only one way from there. How do you cope0 How do you stop that shde. that perception of you? I've lived with the failure of being a manager that didn't qualify for the World Cup.

That's nothing to do with a 1 High-flyers: Scunthorpe's above Tony Richards..