Pivotal Matches

S

Shields26

Goalkeeper
What matches over the last 30+ years do you reckon changed the Course of things and what might of Been with a different result :

Derby away 1990 3 nil up and drew 3-3 - 3 points may of kept us up and a second season with a bit more money who knows

West ham away 1999 - They equalised in the last minute and I'm sure we could of gone top and who knows

Everton 2012 F a cup - Everything was going so well under Martin o neil. After this game everything just went down hill.
 


was at the whu game and it was a reet kick in the teeth their equaliser,saying that the game should have been wrapped up before that
 
That Fa Cup replay was a total disaster like. Killed all momentum O’Neill had.

The Peterborough game last season around easter time when we conceded at the end seemed like the point we really showed how little bottle we had and that we wouldnt go up.

Leeds at home in the Championship season was the moment we really got a glimpse at how shit we were.
 
Bamber said:
That Fa Cup replay was a total disaster like. Killed all momentum O’Neill had.

The Peterborough game last season around easter time when we conceded at the end seemed like the point we really showed how little bottle we had and that we wouldnt go up.

Leeds at home in the Championship season was the moment we really got a glimpse at how shit we were.
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Sad but true...We were in a mire of mediocrity...but I'll always remember Burton away on a bleak November day..we got a 2-0 win (our first in months) Vaughan scored the opener, then cupped his ears at us...Honeyman made it two..and Coleman was on the pitch at full-time giving us the old clenched-fist salutes. For a brief fleeting moment I recall thinking that maybe, just maybe we had stopped the rot....It was another false dawn of course, and hardly a "pivotal match", but at the time it could have been...
 
Norwich away in 85, 1 week before Milk Cup final. We stuffed them, 3 goals away from home. What a confidence boost ahead of Wembley the following weekend. Huge lift in morale to kick on last few league games and avoid the drop. Arsed it up at Wembley and we were crap last few league games getting relegated. Nowt fecking changes, what another false dawn that was.
 
Hull in the cup under poyet writing was on the wall for him when he picked that team. They then played a championship team in semi which they won an qualified them for European footy.
That would of been a quality being on foreign soil watching safc.
Add millwall semi same reasons we had the chances just got bullied a out of it a bit if I remember right I was 15 or summit and drunk.
 
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I honestly don't think the Everton game was as big as people make out. Yes it was a blow, but in our next game a couple of days later we went to Man City and lead 3-1 with 5 minutes to go in one of our best performances of the season then drew at home to Spurs (admittedly they were in awful form but still went on to finish 4th). Our league form had already started to dip before the cup game and we had nothing left to play for in the league as we were comfortable mid table. We still only lost 3 of the last 8 though after the quarter final and they were to Everton who were flying, Fulham who were in good form and Man United on the last day.

Always thought we saw two sides to MON - the charismatic, energetic, bubbly one from the first few months and the downbeat, sulky bastard for most of the rest. Results seemed to mirror whichever MON turned up - Shearer had a pop at him on MOTD around December of his second season and he came out fighting which coincided with a good run of results for us. Just after that Everton game there were reports he'd had talks with Short about transfer targets and he'd told Short we needed to spend big on big names like Llorente, the reports in the press at the time were that he didn't get the assurances he was after and seemed to go in his shell a bit which coincided with the drop off in the team. I think that was a bigger factor in his downfall than losing to Everton.
 
Ipswich away, 1998. Win that and we’d very likely have gone up automatically. I think we’d have been second with only Swindon to play (which we won). Instead, Middlesbrough stayed ahead of us and they hammered Oxford in their final game.

I’ve never enjoyed our games at Portman Road and that was a bad one. I think it was a live Sky midweek game. We came up short.
safc_1973 said:
Hull in the cup under poyet writing was on the wall for him when he picked that team. They then played a championship team in semi which they won an qualified them for European footy.
That would of been a quality being on foreign soil watching safc.
Add millwall semi same reasons we had the chances just got bullied a out of it a bit if I remember right I was 15 or summit and drunk.
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They actually played a League One team in the semi (Sheffield United).
 
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Portsmouth at home in the 15 point season.

Hear me out... We'd started the season playing ok but not getting results - Charlton on the opening day was shite but we played well away at Liverpool with 10 men after a ridiculous red card, battered Man City but gave away 2 stupid goals and got beat 2-1, we took 5 points from West Brom, Boro and West Ham but conceded in the last second to Zoltan Gera, then were excellent and really deserved more in defeat against Man United and the Mags. We then played Pompey at home in the next game and amazingly weren't bottom of the league and only 2 points from safety behind Pompey in 17th. At half time we went in 1-0 up and looked in a good position to kick on, then capitulated and got beat 4-1. Felt like that was the game the fans and players really gave up and we took a single point between then and the end of January, but could have moved out the bottom 3 and actually we've seen us survive from much worse positions since then.
 
Definitely Maybe said:
Portsmouth at home in the 15 point season.

Hear me out... We'd started the season playing ok but not getting results - Charlton on the opening day was shite but we played well away at Liverpool with 10 men after a ridiculous red card, battered Man City but gave away 2 stupid goals and got beat 2-1, we took 5 points from West Brom, Boro and West Ham but conceded in the last second to Zoltan Gera, then were excellent and really deserved more in defeat against Man United and the Mags. We then played Pompey at home in the next game and amazingly weren't bottom of the league and only 2 points from safety behind Pompey in 17th. At half time we went in 1-0 up and looked in a good position to kick on, then capitulated and got beat 4-1. Felt like that was the game the fans and players really gave up and we took a single point between then and the end of January, but could have moved out the bottom 3 and actually we've seen us survive from much worse positions since then.
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During the 19 point season, I’d say Man United and Southampton away. We were in the pack pushing for safety around Christmas and those games killed us. Two late goals to lose to United from us being one up and then Southampton scored in the last minute against us and we lost 2-1. We went on an horrific run after that.
 
Southampton 8-0 Sunderland. Poyet never played the same brand of football again, that was truly when the rot set in too in the sense of our inevitable decline and the realisation we would never achieve anything. We improved remarkably in a defensive sense afterwards but offensively went back over massively, and the football was very turgid and toothless.
 
safc_1973 said:
Hull in the cup under poyet writing was on the wall for him when he picked that team. They then played a championship team in semi which they won an qualified them for European footy.
That would of been a quality being on foreign soil watching safc.
Add millwall semi same reasons we had the chances just got bullied a out of it a bit if I remember right I was 15 or summit and drunk.
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I wouldn’t worry about that one, Sheffield United would’ve beat us at Wembley. Millwall will always be the one where we blew the chance of watching us in Europe
 
Shields26 said:
What matches over the last 30+ years do you reckon changed the Course of things and what might of Been with a different result :

Derby away 1990 3 nil up and drew 3-3 - 3 points may of kept us up and a second season with a bit more money who knows

West ham away 1999 - They equalised in the last minute and I'm sure we could of gone top and who knows

Everton 2012 F a cup - Everything was going so well under Martin o neil. After this game everything just went down hill.
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Peter Reid first game in charge v Sheffield Utd

That win was the catalyst for everything else that happened since
When Iceland beat England & woy got the sack

BSA left & fucked us right up getting the useless one in
 
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Definitely Maybe said:
Portsmouth at home in the 15 point season.

Hear me out... We'd started the season playing ok but not getting results - Charlton on the opening day was shite but we played well away at Liverpool with 10 men after a ridiculous red card, battered Man City but gave away 2 stupid goals and got beat 2-1, we took 5 points from West Brom, Boro and West Ham but conceded in the last second to Zoltan Gera, then were excellent and really deserved more in defeat against Man United and the Mags. We then played Pompey at home in the next game and amazingly weren't bottom of the league and only 2 points from safety behind Pompey in 17th. At half time we went in 1-0 up and looked in a good position to kick on, then capitulated and got beat 4-1. Felt like that was the game the fans and players really gave up and we took a single point between then and the end of January, but could have moved out the bottom 3 and actually we've seen us survive from much worse positions since then.
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I was going to put that game too until I seen you already had. My first year as a ST holder, an absolute baptism of fire.

The West Brom game before then was another one I'd say was damning...we conceded late on (possibly injury time iirc from a corner?), really knocked the stuffing out of us. That Portsmouth game was vile as you mention like, remember Matty Taylor lobbing Davies from what seemed about 40 plus yards out from where we were sat in the North West Corner.

Every home game that season after that was awful, it would usually be a case of turning up and wondering how many goals we'd get beat by.

Just looked at the Wikipedia page for that season to remind myself how awful it was; aside from the replayed Fulham game we won, I can't even recall us getting draws against Bolton and Spurs at home (even though I'd of been there). Also strange how the attendance of the first game V Charlton (first Prem game in over 2 years) only got a crowd of 34k in, and they stayed around that all year on average.....pretty much what we get now in League 1! That was pre 2008 recession anarl.
 
Thunder Road said:
Boxing day 1999 - Everton 5-0 Sunderland


We were flying and then just capitulated after that game. Still finished 7th mind
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Great spot mate, I only remember the 2-2 against Man Utd 2 day later. I didn't realise (until I read it on statcat) we actually went 12 games without a win until we beat Everton at the end of March. We won 5 of the last 9 to seal 7th spot though
 
Wise Man Says said:
During the 19 point season, I’d say Man United and Southampton away. We were in the pack pushing for safety around Christmas and those games killed us. Two late goals to lose to United from us being one up and then Southampton scored in the last minute against us and we lost 2-1. We went on an horrific run after that.
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That Man Utd game was one of the worst I’ve felt, I was only young and genuinely thought I was about to see us beat one of the best teams in the world, only for them to do what they did to so many teams back then.
 

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