| Eight years ago today 11:35 - May 13 with 1808 views | Noelmc |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/52604782
This brings back some memories. I was lucky enough to be there and it was one of the most tense afternoons I've ever spent watching the R's. Very mixed feelings at full-time as we had battled so bravely and deserved at least a draw to stay up thanks to our own efforts. However there was a lot of satisfaction at the end that United had the title snatched away at the death - payback for the Ashley Young penalty dive earlier in the season resulting in the Derry red card.
I also wonder if Citeh would ever have recovered from "blowing it" if we had held on. |  | | |  |
| Eight years ago today on 11:41 - May 13 with 1793 views | Watford_Ranger |
I was gutted at the time we couldn’t hold out though it made no difference. Interesting question about how City would have coped mentally with bottling it. They absolutely did bottle it on the day- Mancini was all over the place.
Still think we’d have held out if the right side of our team wasn’t half-celebrating in the knowledge we were safe. Would’ve made for an interesting exit from the stadium. |  | | |
| Eight years ago today on 12:06 - May 13 with 1750 views | TheChef |
Yeah getting the train back I was a bit p1ssed off that we'd thrown away a 2-1 lead in injury time. Never mind that we'd managed to stay up.
Of course it was just delaying the inevitable with Meticulous Mark Hughes in charge. |  |
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| Eight years ago today on 12:10 - May 13 with 1739 views | rrrspricey |
Mixed feelings about this day.
I was wearing my Guinness shirt with nothing to cover it so from a health and safety it was probably the right outcome.
However, as much as i enjoy watching Citeh in full flow, from a financial perspective, they are the epitome of what's wrong with football and as such i would have loved it, in a Kevin Keeganesque way, if we'd have piṣṣed on their parade |  | | |
| Eight years ago today on 12:18 - May 13 with 1720 views | 2Thomas2Bowles |
! was so proud of how we were playing till that idiot got himself sent off and then to go ahead with a great goal, disappointed to lose it in the end but the pictures of Man U and AF losing their minds was priceless.
From a neural view, it was an amazing game and finish, just don't feel we got the credit in making it such. |  |
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| Eight years ago today on 12:19 - May 13 with 1723 views | Juzzie |
I was there and got to the ground early and had a walk around and the atmosphere was very tense from the home fans. Despite winning every single home game that season bar one (2-2 with Sunderland) there was an air they may blow it to their fiercest rivals despite playing a team fighting against relegation and in appalling form away from home.
I was at Chelsea a few weeks earlier when we got battered 6-1 and the first half at City felt like an even bigger onslaught but nervy finishing from City and superb defending from us, Kenny in particular, kept it 1-0 at the break.
We all know how the 2nd half panned out.
When Augerooooooooo scored I was kicking the chair in front of me as I thought we were down. So many mixed messages going around about the Stoke/Bolton game including rumours Bolton got a last minute penalty. I didn't understand why my mate wasn't texting me until I realised my phone was in Flight mode!
Of course, once I realised we were safe I was relived about us more than being happy about them but it made leaving the ground and riding out of the city a lot easier.
I was sitting in the upper tier to the right (as you look at the pitch) and only a dozen seats away from the home fans. Around 90mins they were giving us slit-throat gestures. Two minutes later they were wanting to get over the netting to hug us. Funny old game.
As I was riding out of town I saw Man Utd fans throwing eggs at cars with City scarves. Nice.
edit: As others have said, never felt we really got the credit we deserved but reading that BBC report it seems that's changing as it wasn't just all about City, we massively played our part in making that game what it was.
Interesting stat that we just didn't concede in the last 10 mins, lowest amount of goals conceded in the PL that season between 80-90mins.
Joey deserved everything he got but it's little reported that Tevez elbowed him first, convieniently overlooked. Joey's reaction was appalling though. Little sh@t.
[Post edited 13 May 2020 12:48]
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| Eight years ago today on 12:32 - May 13 with 1687 views | Noelmc |
I did wonder at the time what would have happened if Hughes had the balls to sub Adel on near the end at 2-1when they were throwing the kitchen sink at us. My gut feeling is we would have won the match as he would have kept the ball, drawn fouls and possibly created havoc as City defenders piled forward.
Instead we just booted the ball into their half with no one up and invited pressure back on us. Even from the kick off after they equalised, we just kicked the ball away, if I remember right. | | | |
| Eight years ago today on 13:08 - May 13 with 1604 views | ted_hendrix |
Drove up there with the impossible intention of getting a ticket for my lad who was on the way up from Kent on the train, met some QPR lads over from Northern Ireland one of whom knew someone who had a spare ticket, exchanged numbers and left it to my lad to pick the ticket up, never saw him but I knew he managed somehow to get in.
I was row A seat one so virtually directly behind Joe Hart, when Djibril Cissé scored he let out one hell of a loud scream, when Barton got sent off I let out one hell of a loud scream.
Games like these are rarities you couldn't have scripted that finish.
I think that game held the record for televised live fixtures Worldwide?
Apart from recognizing and respecting Alex Ferguson's Managerial skills I'm no fan of the bloke but a video appeared on Youtube of the ending of the Sunderland game, they thought they had won the league and were virtually celebrating when the news came through that City had scored the winner, the look on Alex Ferguson's face is a beaut, I sat there watching it and thinking "take that you 96th minute tvvat, take that"
Great drive home for once on that bloody M6, great drive. (another rarity)
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| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
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| Eight years ago today on 16:24 - May 13 with 1445 views | TomS |
I was lucky enough to be there too and it is a never to be forgotten experience. We went from the depths of utter despair at half time, to the high of the moment Mackie scored. At that point I realised I was about to endure the longest half hour of my life. And so it proved to be. The City fans to our right were distraught. "Is this a fire drill" and "We're winning away , how sh1t must you be, etc" were sung by us with increasing confidence, despite only having 15% of possession and 10 men on the pitch in the second half. Come the iconic winning goal, we all knew we were safe at that point and cheered as Aguero scored, as we all collectively wanted to to deny that diver Ashley Young another League winning medal. We also wanted to get back to the train station without any hassle.
The pride in our performance was tangible. Everyone stood up to the challenge and we could identify with that. For one brief moment, it looked as though it had all come together and we finally had a team that could compete in the Premiership. History would prove otherwise.
As an aside, I had secured a ticket in the QPR end for my brother in law, who is a Citeh fan. When Dzeko scored, he couldn't take the pressure anymore and retired to the concourse and saw Aguero scoring literally through the tunnel vision towards that end of the ground. He started celebrating with another, clearly obviously City, fan in the same position.
A drunken QPR fan started to attack them thinking we were relegated, but had to be re-assured by the lads that we were already safe. On our flight back to Dublin that evening he got to sit alongside Niall Quinn and chatted to him for the whole flight, swapping business cards . I just asked him on arriving into Dublin whether his day could possibly have gotten any better.  [Post edited 13 May 2020 22:46]
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| Eight years ago today on 17:25 - May 13 with 1391 views | ManinBlack |
It would have been better if Sunderland had got a late equaliser that day as then City would have settled for 2-2 with their stoppage time equaliser. We would have got a deserved point then. I agree with the point made that bringing on Taarabt for the last 20 minutes would have given us an outlet to worry their defence.
I believe Sky are showing the whole game again on Sunday. Like Nedum, I have never been able to bring myself to watch it since as I still don't like the ending. [Post edited 13 May 2020 17:29]
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| Eight years ago today on 18:00 - May 13 with 1367 views | stowmarketrange |
I had a ticket for the match,but my daughter was in her 1st county cup final on the same day.It certainly was a tough decision, but as her game was on in the morning,I thought I’d watch our game on tv in the afternoon.
Her game went to extra time and penalties,which saw her save 3 of their penalties.
We managed to get home in time to watch the game,and what a game it was. |  | | |
| Eight years ago today on 18:32 - May 13 with 1326 views | daveB |
Such a good day, we got the train up and was full of City and QPR fans plus a few Stoke fans.
All we cared about was Stoke winning, I didn't think we stood a chance, even less so when Adel was dropped as we had no attacking intent at all for the first half.
First half brought hope, they were so nervous but when they went ahead it looked like game over. I was gutted at half time and sure we were down.
The Cisse goal was crazy, out of nothing and all of a sudden hope again. The Joey Barton thing was ridiculous, I felt ashamed to be honest on such a bog day for him to do that, yes Tevez should have gone as well but he let us down badly.
Then when Mackie scored it seemed to go n slow motion, the celebrations were unbelievable, bodies everywhere I couldn't believe it.
City fans started to leave we were getting throat cutting gestures and genuinely feared for our saftey. I remember in 98 leaving Maine Road on my own after we sent them down and was shitting myself all the way back until a taxi pulled up, I got in and the bloke in a thick Manchester accent asked how the game was. I said Oh you know gutted for City and he laughed saying your QPR aren't you, don't worry I'm United and gave the ride back for free.
Anyway back to that game I couldn't see them scoring but the game was taking so long to finish, each minute took forever. When they got back to 2-2 it was panic stations again and Bothroyd just couldn't hold the ball up as Zamora had, news came through we were safe so celebrations began but in that way of is this real are we really safe. I asked the bloke next to me about 10 times if he was sure.
As I believed it was true I laughed and said go on let them score and I know the exact moment I said this as it was as Balotelli laid the ball off to Aguero about 15 seconds before he scored. I cheered then laughed then grabbed the bloke with the phone signal saying you are sure we are safe? A year earlier at the Hull game some bloke had told us we were champions so we ran on the pitch like idiots only for him to have miss read a text to say we were not champions so was all a bit of a panic.
Great scenes after the game, the fans doing throat slitting signs to us were now hugging us and swapping shirts. We stayed to watch the trophy presentation, I mean not something you see every day.
We then walked back to get a taxi and saw Paddy Kenny running down the road arguing with some City fans. Got in the taxi and shared it with some City fans who paid for it before going to the off licence and when the man in there saw our QPR shirts he gave us a free case of beer for the journey home.
My mobile was dead so hadn't been able to ring my misses who was at her Nans with no smart phone to tell her the result. She had assumed we were down as I hadn't rung for 2 hours after the game but found a pay phone to give her the news
Journey home was very messy, mate of mine started chatting up what he thought was a 20 year old but quickly found out she was 15 so he made a move on her Mum instead which proved more successful and legal.
Ended the day singing QPR songs at Euston and then bumping into some QPR fans at Paddington who had watched it on TV and sang plenty of QPR songs on the last train home.
A very memorable day. |  | | |
| Eight years ago today on 19:59 - May 13 with 1246 views | Juzzie |
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| Eight years ago today on 11:08 - May 14 with 1013 views | Noelmc |
Very entertaining report. Thanks for linking it in. | | | |
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