Honour the Man City Wembley 99 heroes with this Icons T-shirt from Campo Retro. Celebrating City greats, goalkeeper Nicky Weaver, midfielder Kevin Horlock and strike pair Paul Dickov and "the Goat" Shaun Goater this t-shirt is a must for City fans.

Man City Wembley 99 heroes Weaver, Goater, Horlock and Dickov celebrated in Campo Retro icons t-shirt

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As part of Campo Retro’s icons t-shirt range, four Man City Wembley 99 heroes have been celebrated in the form of an icons t-shirt.

The quartet that the t-shirt focuses on — Nicky Weaver, Shaun Goater, Kevin Horlock and Paul Dickov — were four of the most popular, City players of the team, and are still revered to this day.Take a trip down memory lane as Wembley 99 survivor @thegingerwig discusses these 4 Man City icons.

Nicky Weaver

Goalkeeper, Nicky Weaver had actually joined the club the previous year, from Mansfield Town, but it was the first game of the 1998/99 season that he made his debut for City (the same game which saw the debut of the Ginger Wig!).

The Yorkshire born, Weaver, played 55 times for City during the season cumulating in the Wembley play off final. In the final Weaver saved two penalties before seeing Guy Butler blaze over. Following the miss, in a scene from Benny Hill, Nicky ran around the field chased by his teammates before Andy Morrison took him down and all the other players piled on top.

Knee injury

Nicky went on to play 209 times for City over a ten year period. He would have played much more except for a serious knee injury that led to him having a dead man’s cartilage implanted into his knee.

Weav’s left City during the Thaskin Shinawatra take-over to join Charlton on a Bosman free.

Shaun Goater

It’s odd that a player so well loved, was actually a focus of the boo boys in his first year at the club. In a period where things had gone very wrong for the club, Shaun Goater’s difficulty in adjusting to being at such a big club, made him unliked by the supporters.

How times change: @thegingerwig with the Goat – outside Wembley 2013

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Shaun’s willingness to improve, saw him train every day with fans favourite Paul Dickov to alter his game.

And boy what a transformation!

Fans Favourite

The Goat went from being a £400,000 deadline day signing in 1998 to being one of Man City’s all time fans favourites.

Loved by the Maine Road crowd, with at least 3 songs dedicated to the Goat, the big Bermudian scored 103 goals in 235 appearances for the club. He was top scorer for four successive seasons, in which time he was relegated twice and promoted 3 times.

Leaving City and Maine Road

Shaun’s final season at City was also the Man City’s final season at Maine Road. Shaun scored his 99th and 100th goals in the final Maine Road derby, the 99th thanks in a large part to Gary Neville’s shocking defending!

In the final game of the season, Kevin Keegan named The Goat as captain of the team for the last every game at Maine Road. A fitting send-off to two City legends who both not so great on the eye but loved no the less.

Kevin Horlock

The like-able Northern Irish international, who was born in south London, joined City as manager Frank Clark’s 1st signing in January 1997. Midfielder Kevin Horlock is perhaps best known for two incidents during his time at City.

1st incident – Wembley 99

Kevin scored what was thought to be a consolation goal in the 89th minute at Wembley. The goal was an important part in the game enabling Paul Dickov to equalise deep into injury time. He also, as the season’s regular penalty taker, took, and scored, the first penalty in the shoot out.

2nd incident – Bournemouth away

In a bizarre event Horlock was sent off for “aggressive walking towards the referee”!

I kid you not. After a bad tackle, the ball went out and Kevin walked towards the referee to protest at the tackle. As he walked, the referee pulled out the red card and pointed it at Kevin. Bewildered Horlock questioned a referee, who had already sent off City’s Jamie Pollock earlier in the game, but the referee refused to answer Kevin’s questions as to the reason for the red card.

On the official match report the reason given was walking in an aggressive manner – only City!

Kevin played 253 times scoring 41 goals before leaving to join West Ham, the club he supported as a boy.

He still supports City, regularly attending matches (such as this season’s Derby) and is regularly baiting Man U fans on Twitter!

Gutted about the result yesterday after such a bright start,and the drive back south killed me…don't know how the Reds do it …..

— Kevin Horlock (@Kevinhorlock6) April 13, 2015

Paul Dickov

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Paul Dickov’s celebration is the most iconic image from Wembley 99.

The small Scottish striker was perhaps not the best goalscorer City had ever had, with only 41 goals from 265 appearances. However he did score one of the most important goals in the clubs history.

The Wembley 99 win was vital for the financial stability of the club and was pivotal in the clubs rise to present day success.

Dickov was signed by Alan Ball in August 1996. Dickov signed on the Friday and Alan Ball left on the Sunday! Dickov’s went through a few managers prior to the Wembley appearance with Ball, Hartford (caretaker), Coppell, Neil (caretaker) and Frank Clarke all leaving before Joe Royle steadied the ship.

Under Kevin Keegan

Dickov played in City’s rise up in the Premier League and in the title winning campaign under Kevin Keegan. However Keegan didn’t rate Dickov and he left to join Leicester and then Blackburn (scoring against City on a couple of occasions!).

Under Stuart Pearce’s City management, Dickov rejoined City adding experience to a youthful team. During this spell Dickov played for 9-10 weeks with a broken foot!

No matter what you think about Dickov’s ability his workrate and passion for the club can not be faulted. Without his goal there may not be the City we know today.

Campo Retro Icon T-shirt range

At £15 or 2 for £20, and made from 100% soft handle luxury Cotton, they are very reasonably priced.
One word of warning is that it is a slim fit, so going up a size in order to be safe would be recommended. That’s assuming you enjoy the odd pre-match beverage and half-time chicken balti pie, of course.