Man City's last Wembley final with Chelsea? A 5-4 defeat day after the derby!

For two clubs as big and successful as Manchester City and Chelsea, one might think that you do not have to go too far back to find the last time these modern football giants met in a cup final.

There have been two Community Shields, this season and in 2012, but unless you’re Jose Mourinho they don’t count. Not when you can make six subs.

Chelsea and City meet Sunday in the Carabao Cup final, the first trophy of the season. For their last — and only — previous meeting in a final we must go back 33 years. March 23, 1986. A nine-goal extravaganza in front of more than 67,000 at Wembley.

The competition? The inaugural Full Members’ Cup. Remember that? Also later known as the Simod Cup or the snappily-titled Zenith Data Systems Cup.

Chelsea beat City 5-4, having led 5-1, thanks to a hat-trick from David Speedie, the first at Wembley since Geoff Hurst in 1966, and two from Colin Lee.

Man City forward Mark Lillis thought he had scored a hat-trick of his own as he dragged his team back into contention with two headers and a penalty, even if all eventually in vain.

'At the end, Speedie came up to me with the ball,’ recalls Lillis. ‘He said: “We’re going to have to cut this ball in half, Mark”. Then the referee came over and told me that my second had gone in off a defender. “You’re joking, ref,” I replied.’

Not only that, the decision also denied Lillis the fastest hat-trick in Wembley history: 84’, 88’, 89’.

‘That’s just what I needed after losing the game,’ he added.

A brief history lesson: In May 1985, English clubs were banned from European competition in the wake of the Heysel Stadium disaster in which 39 fans were killed and 600 injured ahead of the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool, at whose door the blame was laid.

The Full Members’ Cup was one of the competitions created by the Football League in response.

‘It was hugely upsetting that some of us had our chances of playing in Europe ruined by hooligans,’ says Pat Nevin, who set up three of Chelsea’s goals at Wembley and would go on to lose two further finals with Everton in 1989 and 1991.

The competition ran until 1992, open to clubs from the top two divisions, although for the first instalment did not include the six clubs who would have qualified for Europe that season. They had their own elite tournament. And then only five other top division clubs entered the Full Members’ Cup. There were only 21 in total.

If that was not tinpot enough, the final was played on a Sunday after a full league programme. Chelsea, title contenders, had beaten Southampton while City, a side of scant wealth in those days, had just battled it out in the Manchester Derby, coming from 2-0 down to earn a draw.

There was no time for celebration, though.

‘We jumped straight on the bus to Wembley,’ says Lillis. United’s fans threw pies at the team coach as it left Old Trafford.

Manchester-born Lillis, nicknamed Bhuna for his love of curries, thought the team needed a different sort of fuel.

‘There was no food on the bus. One of the players said why don’t we ask the manager Billy McNeil if we can have a drink before bed. “Gaffer, can we have a beer,” I asked. He blew his top. “Who do you think we are, a pub team?” I turned around and everyone had hidden under their seats. It looked like it was just me.’

A Manchester Derby one day, a cup final the next. Imagine that. What about recovery?

‘We all had aches and pains,’ adds Lillis. ‘My hamstring was tight. The physio said he would let the manager know. “No you won’t,” I snapped back. I had an injection to get me through the game.’

Nevin, meanwhile, had a bottle of wine. ‘You went back to our home, had dinner, had a bath, got up and got on it with it.’

The big clubs had turned their backs on the competition and, in the early rounds at least, so did the fans. Man City’s attendance of 4,029 against Leeds in the group stages set a record for the lowest gate at Maine Road.

Oddly enough, the players got behind it.

‘It was important,’ says Lillis. ‘The old saying that you play for the badge and the shirt. It was tough that we could not play in Europe as I had worked my way through the leagues and had been a blue since I was born. But we knew Wembley was at the end of it.’

And by the time Wembley came around, the fans were well on board.

‘I remember walking out on the turf and looking at those Chelsea fans — boy did they make some noise – and thinking they deserve to be here,’ says Nevin. ‘They took it really seriously and it was a really memorable game. We battered them. There was a bit of mucking about at the end and I think the referee was giving them things. Any Chelsea fan that was there will never forget it.’

How much football has changed over the next three decades. How much those two clubs have changed. Billionaire owners have turned Chelsea and Man City into super powers.

‘No-one could have known what would happen to these clubs,’ says Nevin. ‘It is all about pumping the money in. If you ask me who will be the next club then it could be anyone. There’s plenty of big clubs out there who could be the next big one.’