When Millwall's Tony Cascarino scuffed an easy chance horribly wide of
the Chelsea goal during his club's 4-0 defeat in November 1989, little
did the mocking Stamford Bridge faithful realise that they would be
experiencing dèja vu on more than one occasion in seasons to follow.
After a truly horrendous spell with Celtic, the Irish international with
absolutely no Irish connections whatsoever, moved back to London in
February 1992 in a swap deal which took Tom Boyd in the opposite
direction. Something of an emergency signing, recruited to bolster the
Blues' attack as they began to emerge as genuine candidates to win the
1991/92 FA Cup, he made a successful debut when he scored the Blues'
goal in a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, but despite the good early
portents, he never truly succeeded in winning over the Chelsea
supporters, in the main because he simply didn't appear to possess the
skills to do what he had been recruited to do - convert chances into
goals.
Chelsea fell out of the FA Cup at the quarter-final stage and the
big striker found the net just one more time that season, directing a
powerful header past Ludek Miklosko to earn the Blues a 2-1 win over
West Ham, before undergoing knee surgery in the summer of 1992 which
ruled him out of much of the following campaign. Manager Ian Porterfield
signed three strikers that summer - the similarly equipped Mick Harford
plus Robert Fleck and John Spencer - and even once he had returned to
fitness, Tony failed to break into the side until Porterfield was
replaced by caretaker-boss David Webb in February.
Webb, an advocate of
no-nonsense football, selected both Cascarino and Harford in attack for
his first match in charge, and although the experiment failed to bear
fruit, it was Cascarino who stayed in the side for much of the remainder
of the season, Harford being moved on to Sunderland in the process.
Tony scored twice in nine appearances after returning, and also picked
up a red card for a stray elbow in a match at Leeds. It was expected
that Cascarino would be surplus to requirements once Glenn Hoddle had
been installed as manager in time for the 1993/94 season but his form in
pre-season was such that Hoddle simply couldn't ignore him.
A Makita
Tournament hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Spurs at White Hart Lane sealed
his place in the starting line-up and his fine form continued with
excellent goals against QPR and on his return to Spurs in the league.
However, despite some poor luck - he seemed to hit the woodwork with
frustrating regularity - he soon found himself out of the side. His only
other goals of the campaign came in his final two league matches for
the club, against Manchester City (even Fleck scored that day) and
Coventry, and his final appearance before a free-transfer move to French
side Nancy came in the shape of a twelve-minute cameo in the FA Cup
final defeat by Manchester United, Tony having played a significant role
in helping the Blues reach the final with a fine performance in the
semi-final victory over Luton Town. (Kelvin Barker)
Complete club career:
1980–1981 Crockenhill
1981–1987 Gillingham 219 (78)
1987–1990 Millwall 105 (42)
1990–1991 Aston Villa 46 (11)
1991–1992 Celtic 24 (4)
1992–1994 Chelsea 40 (8)
1994–1997 Marseille 84 (61)
1997–2000 Nancy 109 (44)
2000 Red Star 93 2 (0)
Total 629 (248 goals)
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