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Kenny Cunningham resurrects the story of a lively tunnel brawl against Chelsea

Back in February 2000, Wimbledon and Chelsea ended up getting into a mass brawl at the end of&nbs...
Newstalk
Newstalk

21.46 11 Jan 2017


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Kenny Cunningham resurrects th...

Kenny Cunningham resurrects the story of a lively tunnel brawl against Chelsea

Newstalk
Newstalk

21.46 11 Jan 2017


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Back in February 2000, Wimbledon and Chelsea ended up getting into a mass brawl at the end of a Premier League clash.

Kenny Cunningham was at Wimbledon at the time and saw everything occur with his own eyes.

Naturally, the story was dug out as he appeared on Off The Ball for an #AskKenny session on Twitter with listener's firing him in questions from his career.

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"All I'd say is the lead up to it, we were struggling. Surprise, surprise. We were towards the end of the table, it was a big game, we were actually in front at Stamford Bridge, we ended up losing the game 4-2," Cunningham recalled.

"I had a little bit of niggle with Dennis Wise during the course of the game. As I went up the tunnel, I actually saw him at the top of the tunnel. He was waiting for me so I got to about a couple of yards from him and I actually don't remember the next 10-20 seconds.

"The next thing I remember was recognising I was in the Chelsea dressing room, wedged in the narrow corridor that leads in through the door into their dressing room. Mick Harford was wedged against the wall on my left, John Hartson was behind me and at that stage, nobody could throw any punches because the space was that small. It was like a freeze frame!" 

Somebody did make contact with Chelsea's then manager Gianluca Vialla though it seems.

"I remember Gianluca Vialli doing an interview on the pitch afterwards. He had a big shiner underneath his cheekbone. He got clumped off one of our lads." 

Wimbledon's then manager Egil Olsen ended up getting caught up in the middle of it all. 

"I remember Mick actually saying as we were stumbling out of the dressing room, somebody recognised Egil looking a bit dishevelled. His glasses were hanging diagonally across his face and he's been pushed up against a wall and looking up a little bit disorientated," said Cunningham.


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