Legendary Peterborough United goalkeeper on a great night in the pouring rain at Wembley 25 years ago
Legendary Peterborough United goalkeeper Mark Tyler feared the worst after his 'horrendous’ warm-up ahead of the Division Three play-off final at Wembley in May, 2000.
Tyler, who wasn’t long back from a serious shoulder injury, couldn’t complete simple catches in the driving rain as Posh, managed back then by Barry Fry, prepared to face hot favourites Darlington in a winner-takes-all promotion battle 25 years ago today (May 26). The then 23 year-old was expecting to be busy as Darlington had ace striker Marco Gabbiadini in their starting line-up, but an early face-off between the pair proved pivotal.
Posh went on to win the Friday night game 1-0 in the pouring rain courtesy of a late Andy Clarke goal, but there were other Posh heroes that night, including the goalkeeper.
“My warm-up was horrendous,” Tyler admitted in an interview with the Posh Plus service. “The pitch was bad and I couldn’t catch a thing. Then the first time I went to kick the ball in the match I slipped and I just thought this was going to be one of those nights.
"No-one had expected us to be in the final because we’d had a horrible season. We sneaked into the play-offs whereas Darlington has been favourites to go up all season and they had Gabbiadini who must have been the highest paid player in the league. You always felt something could happen when he was on the pitch.
"We didn’t start the game great and Gabbiadini sent a low hard shot towards the corner which he obviously felt was going in judging by his reaction, but I literally just got my little finger on the ball and it went wide. I just turned round and laughed. I was there to make saves, but that was a big moment in the game.
"We had to do a lot of defending in the first-half, but the lads stood up and put their lives on the line when defending and just blocked everything.
"Baz got stuck into us at half-time. He was a great motivator and told us we’d shown them too much respect. We were better in the second-half and we all settled down as we realised we could keep a clean sheet and if we did that we had match-winners in the side like Andy Clarke and David Farrell.
"Mind you when the ball dropped to Clarkey on his right foot I thought this could go anywhere as he never used it. Thankfully it went in and we celebrated wildly before realising we still had 15 minutes to play.
“We still had to do some defending and we did it well with Richard Scott making a great block towards the end. We saw the game through and chairman Peter Boizot took us to Knightsbridge where he had laid on a great spread for the boys. We got home about 4 or 5am the next day and then had to get up early for the bus tour the next day when a few looked worse for wear.
"Personally it had been touch and go whether or not I played in the play-offs as I’d not long had a shoulder operation. Bart Griemink had deputised for me and played well, but Baz brought me back for the last game of the season at Chester. There was nothing on the game, but I was a bit nervous until I’d made my first diving save.
"I still had to be careful and after we’d beaten Barnet in the play-off semi-final thanks to Dave Farrell’s brilliant hat-trick the fans stormed onto the pitch and I was just praying no-one touched my shoulder!
“I survived and we had a few days in Jersey ahead of the final which helped us all relax ahead of what turned out to be a great night, one full of memories.”
Tyler went on to make 494 Posh appearances - the second most in club history after Tommy Robson – in two spells and was recently inducted into the Posh Hall of Fame.