Our most important game of the last 20 years ???

[little curly alan ball]

I was staring into the mirror for an hour , and , as you do , things started going through my head .
Once I'd finished with how boss and gorgeous I am , I got to musing on footie . Portsmouth FC , actually . I was comparing their present situation to our own in the mid-90's .
So , me point being ; effectively , our stay in the big-time , ended in May 1989 , losing to the RS at Wembley .
What then , would you suggest , was our MOST important SINGLE game of the interim ???
I've just done a quick straw poll of a couple of me mates - I've got some , Swear to God - , and was surprised to hear their responses .
One , went for Wimbledon . Fair do's . Another said , Fulham 02/03 ; Moysey's first game . Yet another , said L'pool last year in the Cup ; it gave us THE BELIEF that we could beat the moneybags teams . Bolton ; 04/05 , got another shout . Some on here may legitimately feel that the day , Kenwright - wrong - , took over , is a contender .

Me , I'm going ; Coventry 1998 .
I was at both " Relegation " , games , but this was the one that scared me most . Even despite Wimbledon's early lead .
This game , should we have lost - and I SHALL NEVER forget that little no-mark , Huckerby , being on a one-man mission to put us down in the last 15 minutes - , would have left us bereft of , well , everything .
We were PROPER SKINT , had the worst team perhaps that we have EVER had , particularly in the top division , with a Chairman who cared not a jot for the club , and a manager - God love him , - clearly past his best . This , only a couple of years after winning the F.A. Cup , yet we still couldn't raise a shilling . It was bad . Very , very bad indeed . The consequences would not have been worth thinking about . All jokes aside .
This really was , The Great Escape .
I look at Leeds , Forest , etc , and imminently Portsmouth , and think , " There , but for the grace of God , ... " , peeps .

What say you ??? - Correspondents from the Emerald Isle , may choose to refrain . To IGNORE , if you will - .

I than' yo' .

 

[Lien]

If we're talking about important, and not necessarily best, then it's the Coventry game by a mile.

 

[little curly alan ball]

If we're talking about important, and not necessarily best, then it's the Coventry game by a mile.

Importance . For whatever reasons .

 

[bluebloodinmyveins]

For me it was the Wimbledon game. A game i was at, and the only game to have me in tears more than once.

 

[SuffolkBlue]

Everton v Arsenal, the year that Rooney scored the winner was important for me because it was the first time I can remember in my Everton memories that we had a player who looked like he could be one of the best in the world.

The only previous argument that I could have with mates at school (who supported various teams, all better at the time) was that big Dunc could beat up any other player.

 

[Lao]

Coventry game is probably the one because we won and it ensured we avoided the catastrophe of relegation.

I think the Villareal CL qualifiers are worth a shout - we lost but what a difference it would have made financially if we had qualified for the CL group stages at that time.

 

[teppic]

Coventry is a great shout LCAB.

I was in a sports bar at uni and I swear everyone in there was hoping we went down.

Even though it ended well, it was a horrible day.

We might have gone the way of Forest and Wednesday who went off the radar around that same time.

 

[DMOEFC]

Easily the Coventry game. It was my last game as a season ticket holder before moving to Canada and I remember it so well. I remember the fake reports of Chelsea scoring sending the crowd crazy. I remember seeing people in the boxes banging on the glass when Chelsea did score. And then when everyone was running onto the pitch getting the nod from my dad to go run on too. Kissing the post that Farrellys shot went in off. Topped off by stopping the celebrations to make our feelings known to get Johnson out.

I also recall really wanting to take some turf but didnt knowing I couldnt take it to Canada.

The Wimbledon game would have been up there but having lost every game i attended that year I couldnt bring my self to go. Listening to it on the radio and crying when we were down, followed by the longest 8 minutes of my life waiting for the final whistle.

 

[Matt Damon]

I was staring into the mirror for an hour , and , as you do , things started going through my head .
Once I'd finished with how boss and gorgeous I am , I got to musing on footie . Portsmouth FC , actually . I was comparing their present situation to our own in the mid-90's .
So , me point being ; effectively , our stay in the big-time , ended in May 1989 , losing to the RS at Wembley .
What then , would you suggest , was our MOST important SINGLE game of the interim ???
I've just done a quick straw poll of a couple of me mates - I've got some , Swear to God - , and was surprised to hear their responses .
One , went for Wimbledon . Fair do's . Another said , Fulham 02/03 ; Moysey's first game . Yet another , said L'pool last year in the Cup ; it gave us THE BELIEF that we could beat the moneybags teams . Bolton ; 04/05 , got another shout . Some on here may legitimately feel that the day , Kenwright - wrong - , took over , is a contender .

Me , I'm going ; Coventry 1998 .
I was at both " Relegation " , games , but this was the one that scared me most . Even despite Wimbledon's early lead .
This game , should we have lost - and I SHALL NEVER forget that little no-mark , Huckerby , being on a one-man mission to put us down in the last 15 minutes - , would have left us bereft of , well , everything .
We were PROPER SKINT , had the worst team perhaps that we have EVER had , particularly in the top division , with a Chairman who cared not a jot for the club , and a manager - God love him , - clearly past his best . This , only a couple of years after winning the F.A. Cup , yet we still couldn't raise a shilling . It was bad . Very , very bad indeed . The consequences would not have been worth thinking about . All jokes aside .
This really was , The Great Escape .
I look at Leeds , Forest , etc , and imminently Portsmouth , and think , " There , but for the grace of God , ... " , peeps .

What say you ??? - Correspondents from the Emerald Isle , may choose to refrain . To IGNORE , if you will - .

I than' yo' .

I'd argue every game between now and the end of this season.

Because each place earn's the club an extra 500k prize money...

and IT'S ON! If we got champions league now, boy oh boy...

Next season with players starting to reach their peaks, youngsters starting to really show us what they are... and if we stay free of injury, Champions League I tell ye.

Every games going to be massive for us.

* How times have changed to the coventry and wimbledon games!

 

[Columbia6]

I'd say the Coventry game. The only thing I can remember about it is being up almost the entire night beforehand crying (I was a young fella). I can't remember the match at all, really strange thing, but I remember the night before very vividly.

Ask me in 5 years time and I might very well go for the Liverpool cup game last year. The moment our name came out of that hat, Liverpool away, I knew we were going to win. There was no doubt in my mind, we were going to draw at Anfield and beat them at Goodison, and that's how it happened. I think from the moment we won that game we were on our way to Wembley, and even though we lost there I think our team matured no end that day. In five years time when we've won a couple of those shiny silver things, I think the Liverpool game will be the one that's recognised as having been the point at which our club began to stop knocking on the door, and started kicking it down.

 

[ToffeeDan]

In recent years we've seen a few Key Moments - perhaps more than we choose to recall but Moyes has always made the team the stronger for the low points - we've bounced back to greater heights...

For me - early 05-06 was just one of those "Moyesie might walk away" moments. After the 5-1 drubbing at Dinamo (albeit with a very weak midfield and a number of key men missing) he must seriously have doubted his future at the club - and, 3 months later, getting shafted 4-0 at home by Bolton, 4-0 at Villa and 3-1 by the RS (not forgetting a 4-0 drubbing at West Brom) and the end might well have been nigh...

It's true that some of those defeats had excuses - but thinly veiled ones it must be said. The 4-0 drubbing at The Hawthorns came on the back of an atrocious refereeing decisions (Gallagher) to award a penalty on halftime when, at 0-0, the opponent literally dived over the white line into the box to get a ridiculously bad decision - thereafter we caved in, Bolton were allowed to kick us off Goodison (Wiley) and Villa benefitted from some highly dubious decisions (handball and push first 2 goals.. Riley) but there was no getting away from the fact that things were getting serious.

2 days after Villa and we caved in 3-1, at home, to the RS. Could it get any worse? Then up popped Tim Cahill in injury time at Sunderland

I forgot to mention my personal agony over the Coventry game. I was flying back from Italy - only knew we were 1-0 up after 20 when the plane set off. 2 and a half hours of sheer agony waiting for news.

 

[Robert Jarvis]

I remember the Coventry game, I hated Huckerby because I was scared of him, great pace and a scorer but we came through.

 

[Hayee]

Wimbledon. We were gone but a miracle kept us up, it certainly wasn't walkers tactics!

 

[little curly alan ball]

Easily the Coventry game. It was my last game as a season ticket holder before moving to Canada and I remember it so well. I remember the fake reports of Chelsea scoring sending the crowd crazy. I remember seeing people in the boxes banging on the glass when Chelsea did score. And then when everyone was running onto the pitch getting the nod from my dad to go run on too. Kissing the post that Farrellys shot went in off. Topped off by stopping the celebrations to make our feelings known to get Johnson out.

I also recall really wanting to take some turf but didnt knowing I couldnt take it to Canada.

The Wimbledon game would have been up there but having lost every game i attended that year I couldnt bring my self to go. Listening to it on the radio and crying when we were down, followed by the longest 8 minutes of my life waiting for the final whistle.

That's right , lad . Happened in '86 that , too . Chelsea again , though that time it didn't work out so well .
Why would you do that ???

I was on the pitch that day , too .
Wimbledon , I was upstairs , St. End , the bit where it joins the bullens . I look at that same seat - from my spec' in the Park End - every home game

 

[little curly alan ball]

I'd say the Coventry game. The only thing I can remember about it is being up almost the entire night beforehand crying (I was a young fella). I can't remember the match at all, really strange thing, but I remember the night before very vividly.

Ask me in 5 years time and I might very well go for the Liverpool cup game last year. The moment our name came out of that hat, Liverpool away, I knew we were going to win. There was no doubt in my mind, we were going to draw at Anfield and beat them at Goodison, and that's how it happened. I think from the moment we won that game we were on our way to Wembley, and even though we lost there I think our team matured no end that day. In five years time when we've won a couple of those shiny silver things, I think the Liverpool game will be the one that's recognised as having been the point at which our club began to stop knocking on the door, and started kicking it down.

Me mate , on his - it's the future , not the past - trip , said the same .
Let's hope you're both right .