Why former Portsmouth star didn't want to do a conga as his Crawley Town side beat Leeds United

In 1997, Lee Bradbury missed out on appearing in one of the most famous pictures in Portsmouth Football Club's history.
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It showed a number of Pompey players doing the conga after the Championship side had beaten Leeds United in the FA Cup - and the Crawley Town assistant head coach scored the winner in that game.

And because, in his words, he had stomped off at the final whistle after an argument with teammate Paul Hall. He has always been gutted he missed out being in the picture.

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But did it cross his mind to do one yesterday as he helped mastermind the famous win over Leeds United? Of course it did.

Lee Bradbury in the bench as Crawley prepare to bring Mark Wright onLee Bradbury in the bench as Crawley prepare to bring Mark Wright on
Lee Bradbury in the bench as Crawley prepare to bring Mark Wright on

He said: "I was going to but I didn’t want it to be about me. I did think about it but thought better not."

And one of the reasons was there were no fans to 'bounce off'.

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He said: "I watched the highlights show last night and it showed when Sergio Torres scored his winner against Derby County ten years ago and all the fans were all running on the pitch there was a real buzz and I thought that would have been unbelievable yesterday if the fans were there.

The famous conga picture from 1997The famous conga picture from 1997
The famous conga picture from 1997

"It was surreal, we have beaten a Premier League team at home and it was almost like ‘well that’s that done, and you had noone to bounce in the stadium. As a group we were absolutely buzzing but we had noone else to celebrate with and that was a real shame."

But how did the feeling of beating Leeds compared to scoring the winner against them in 1997?

"Personally, it’s a different sense of achievement," he said. "From a coaches point of view, it's nice that we have pitted our wits against one of the best and most sought after coaches in world football and we have managed to come out on top.

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"From a player's point of view you don’t get that feeling of when the ball goes in. You score a winner in front of a crowd you get that raised hair on the back of your neck feeling.

"But yesterday was a much better achievement for sure."