Tommy Conway stirs memories of Anfield win as Bristol City dump West Ham out of FA Cup
For this year’s fairy-tale FA Cup edition, read Tommy Conway, a Bristol City starlet who writes himself into club folklore after being groomed by their greatest cup hero of all.
Another impressive FA Cup upset for City, who revel in these big nights to shake off reminders that they remain the biggest club never to play in the Premier League.
All the more romantic that West Country smiles have been delivered by young Conway, whose arrival in the City first team was overseen by Brian Tinnion, the famous goalscorer as City shocked Liverpool at Anfield in 1993.
“That goal at Anfield is still played to this day,” said the 21-year-old afterwards. “That was a pretty special moment for the club and hopefully I’ve sent the fans home happy with another special moment for them today.”
Nobody is prouder of this bright young attacker’s rapid progress than Tinnion, the development chief in charge of one of the most successful academy systems in the Championship. After the pure profit £25 million sale of Alex Scott to Bournemouth following an impressive display against Manchester City last season, this was a night to underline that Conway is this year’s breakthrough City talent. Ambitious Conway said afterwards that he dares to dream of a call up for the Scotland squad for the Euros this summer.
Tinnion, he said, had been a “massive” influence but he also praised the club’s young head coach Liam Manning, saying his workaholic manager would be up until 3am “clipping” elements of the game to help Conway and the others improve.
Misery, meanwhile, for West Ham, who were needlessly reduced to 10 men on a febrile night and looked woefully short in attack without the likes of Jarrod Bowen. David Moyes, who played for City in the 1980s, conceded City had been “very good” over the two matches.
Conway, who had struck the crisp equaliser to secure a draw at the London Stadium, was razor sharp from the outset, intercepting Konstantinos Mavropanos’s dreadful pass back towards goal before rounding Lukasz Fabianski and slotting home from a narrow angle. The early strike sparked an Ashton Gate roar almost as loud as their last cup high point, a 2017 League Cup win over Manchester United, when the team were described by then manager Lee Johnson as a “Premier League team in waiting”.
That wait has shown few signs of ending in recent years, but there have been promising signs under the recently recruited 38-year-old Manning, who previously coached at West Ham.
It took a solid 20 minutes for a rattled West Ham, deprived of key attacking talent, to impose any form matching sparkling displays in the Premier League this season. They came inches away from equalising as Danny Ings received the ball with his back to goal and fired narrowly wide.
Any hopes of a fightback were torpedoed by petulant Saïd Benrahma, however, as he kicked out at Joe Williams following the City midfielder’s badly-timed foul. After a melee between the players, calm was restored as Darren England sent Benrahma packing. Another young City talent, Sam Bell, impressed from the bench as City looked the more threatening in the closing minutes to secure a thoroughly-deserved fourth round tie against the winners of Wednesday’s replay between Nottingham Forest and Blackpool.
