Now head of performance service for our women\u2019s team, Gary Lewin was the men\u2019s team head physiotherapist for 22 years, and quite improbably received his marching orders in this pre-match friendly in August 1989 – on the occasion of our first team’s second-ever visit Stateside, following on from a game in the same city back in 1972, when we beat Miami Gatos 3-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of the first times we\u2019d ever played in America,\u201d Lewin begins, \u201cand it turned into a really horrible, nasty game.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main memory was of how hot it was, it was into the 40s, and so humid. So I went on to the pitch during a break in play and took the crate of drinks on. For whatever reason, the referee too offence to it, got his red card out and sent me off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was surprised, because you are not allowed to do that. Under the rules, you can report medical staff for poor behaviour, but you can\u2019t send them off. I tried to explain that, but the American referee obviously didn\u2019t realise that, and I had no choice but to go off and leave the bench too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no point complaining, the game was live on TV back home. Anyway we had Vic Akers on the bench, who was kitman at the time, and through his work with the women\u2019s team he had done the FA Diploma, so in theory he was qualified to take over from me. So he did that, and I had to stand behind the goal. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cI remember calling my family afterwards, and they were just laughing their heads off!”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cIt was certainly a first for me,\u201d he continues, \u201cI never got sent off as a player before I went into physiotherapy. I knew the referee was in the wrong, but he just wasn\u2019t having it. We got a letter of apology from the US Football Federation acknowledging their mistake and that was the end of it. It was only a friendly, but it was definitely a talking point on the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember calling my family afterwards, they had watched it back home and they were just laughing their heads off!”<\/p>\n
Lewin\u2019s red card came in the first half, and his replacement Akers certainly had a busy evening. The game was littered with stoppages. The South American side had a very physical approach from the first whistle, and Graham\u2019s side \u2013 featuring Tony Adams, David O\u2019Leary, Kevin Richardson and Lee Dixon among others, would not back down either. <\/p>\n
The moustachioed referee Raul Dominguez brandished several yellow cards in a bad-tempered match, and sent off a player on each side late on. In the end though, we came out on top. <\/p>\n
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