Not trying to steal Hazza's thunder as he usually starts one of these but haven't seen one for tomorrow's game so here goes.
Most memoirs of Manchester City will be the Millers' games against them in the FA Cup in the late 70s or in the Championship in the early 2000s but I'll leave those for others and mine actually come from following City as my 2nd team.
It all started around 1981 when having moved away from Rotherham to go to college in Northampton and playing football there I met up with someone who would become a good friend over the next 18 years. Ben was a City fan and a pretty good footballer, playing semi-pro for Irthlingborough Diamonds after college before they merged with Rushden Town and his knees gave out ending his playing days in his mid 20s. We used to go to games together, sharing our time between watching Northampton at the old County Ground (including a couple of Millers games there), Maine Road and Millmoor, including our League Cup tie against Man U where as a City fan Ben seemed to verbally abuse the likes of Bryan Robson, Brian McClair and Peter Davenport as much as the rest of us put together
Third round FA Cup day was always special and despite the fact City weren't that good in those days unlike us they were always guaranteed to have a match that day. So over the years we attended some great games that gave rise to great memories including the time we were mistaken for undercover cops in one of the roughest pubs in Moss Side (The Blackheath?) or the time we miraculously managed to blag free tickets at a sell out game at Brentford. I'll save those stories for another day.
The one regret we had is that in all the time we used to go to games we never got to see us play each other up until I left the shores of England, twenty years ago this week. So when this draw was made you would have thought this would be our chance. Not even 4,500 miles would keep us from The Ethiad Stadium on Sunday? One major problem. Ben died just a month after I flew out of Heathrow back in 1999. So I'll be watching alone online at 6am Sunday morning, tinged with sadness even if we win, but reflecting on some happy memories.