Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
1987 was sadly before my time as i was only 5 when we lifted the cup. But the 87 Final was a great end-to-end match (i have it on VHS), and apparently the semi-final with Leeds was even better, although I've not seen the full match. The quarter final at Sheffield Wednesady, again at Hillsborough was also pretty superb. City fans had the Leppings Lane End on this occasion and took a huge following, and a disaster type scenario was narrowly averted a couple of years early. People who were there have said it was decidedly hairy.
I was 16. I used to go with a mate to Elland Road at the time but I had a season ticket and he didn't. This meant that he couldn't get a ticket for the semi final so I actually went on my own. In retrospect I can't believe my parents allowed it. I remember Coventry beating Sheffield Wednesday in the previous round, 3-1 as I recall. I recollect thinking before our match, this is going to be really tough. You did have a good team.

Your comments are interesting about a potential disaster at the Leppings Lane end because the same thing has been said about the 1987 semi final too. This is from the Yorkshire Post in 1996.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...ster-1-7880063

I was never aware of this at the time. The problem appeared to occur in the central pen, just as it did two years later. I was in the right hand pen and don't remember there being a problem. The article also mentions that 38 people were injured in the Leppings Lane end the last time a semi final had been played in 1981 - between Spurs and Wolves. Lessons were clearly not learned.

It seems strange now to look at photographs with big perimeter fencing caging the fans in. But that seemed normal at the time, we didn't know any different.