If you could change the result of one match....

[Scaring Europe to Death]

I attended virtually all the disappointments previously mentioned, but it’s worth noting that some had a far wider impact than others.


1976-77

Dave Watson’s own goal v Liverpool prevented a two point swing. However, it’s worth noting that Liverpool were crowned Champions with a game in hand, (which they ultimately lost at relegation-threatened Bristol City), just a few days before their FA Cup Final v United. Surely, they would have taken it more seriously if they had needed the points?

1980-81 LC Semi Final.

Alf “fucking” Grey from Great Yarmouth disallowed a perfectly decent goal, and Liverpool enjoyed further luck in the Final, with a controversial goal against Second Division West Han. Even allowing for the Cup-Tied Gow, Hutchinson and McDonald, we would still have been favourites at Wembley.

1980-81 FA Cup Final.

We should have won the first game, but another irritating aspect is that Tottenham enjoyed a decent run in the ECWC the following season. We had to wait till 2003

82-83 relegation

Unlike the 10-1 and the two legendary 5-1 victories, (fantastic distractions, but nothing more) the Antic goal reshaped our history for the next decade.

95-96

Similar to the Antic goal, if we’d beaten a clearly disinterested Liverpool, then the rest of the decade would have been completely different. No Dickov goal at Wembley, because we wouldn’t have been poor enough to qualify for the League One Play Off in the first place.

09-10

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so nervous, and ultimately sick, as when Rooney scored in the last minute of the LC Semi Final. However, we got our revenge the following season.

09-10

Tottenham qualified for the CL at our expense, but 11 trophies later, we’ve had the last laugh.

12-13

Wigan was the self inflicted, sickening exception, but I’m pretty confident that nobody can match our 7 from 8 record in major Finals at the new Wembley.

17-18

I find it more of a coincidence that City’s worst 45 minutes of the season followed the pre match bus attack. Whether we’d have beaten Real Madrid in the Final is debatable.

17-18
I still wonder how the fuck we managed to lose that game v United. I don't even think we choked or bottled-it. An utterly bizarre defeat in an otherwise wonderful season.

18-19

The pain of the last minute disallowed goal v Spurs is still too raw. However, we can also point to Aguero’s missed penalty, and some frustratingly strange tactics in the First Leg. However, I'm not convinced that we would have won the League if we'd been distracted by an CL Semi Final.


So, in conclusion, I would point to the Raddy Antic goal, and City taking the ball to the corner flag when another goal was required. However, as somebody has already suggested, our history is our history

 

[Double R]

For me I wouldn't change any results we are where we are because of them all, each one was a step in the journey to being currently the strongest team in the country over the past ten years. There was a film about this in the 90s a woman misses a tube train in one timeline because she is avoiding a little girl and the other she catches it, I forget how the whole plot ends up but in one timeline she is killed months later(in an accident)and the other one she isn't, but it all came down to a little girl getting in her way as she tried to catch a train. So as much as it pains me to say it Alan Ball helped City become what they are today!

It's like when people talk about a single event in a game and say...."if that goal had not been allowed" and making the score 1 goal closer, but the thing is from the point of that change everything changes(for a start you recommence with a free kick and not a kick off)

Yep, like when people say we should be 3 up. No, if we scored the first, then the other 2 chances would not exist.

 

[Semper aggressus]

That fucking Wigan FA Cup Final. Still bitter about it!

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

Yep, like when people say we should be 3 up. No, if we scored the first, then the other 2 chances would not exist.

Totally, indeed your example is even more extreme, but you could argue that even a throw-in being overruled changes the game

 

[Double R]

Totally, indeed your example is even more extreme, but you could argue that even a throw-in being overruled changes the game

Proper Back to the Future stuff.

 

[big gaz]

Loosing to Fenerbahce 2 - 1, we should have pissed that cup, that year.

 

[jimharri]

The Luton relegation game for me. It marked the start of a long, painful descent down to the depths. The sight of that ALLEGED (is that okay Ric?) kerb crawler galloping across the pitch at full time is still like a dagger in my heart.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

Liverpool v Barcelona. Its been the catalyst for their success. Without that everything was ours

 

[AliBobbyJ]

Losing to Newcastle in the '55 Cup Final as it gave me the odd impression that following City would bring heartache.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Totally, indeed your example is even more extreme, but you could argue that even a throw-in being overruled changes the game

This is actually a very deep argument, related to chaos theory and the so-called "butterfly effect”. I don't know anything about the maths and physics of it but far more serious people than me believe in it. That's why you could never go back in a time machine and go back forward to the world you had left. They believe that your mere presence in the past would disturb the linear unfolding of event in far-reaching ways. Perfectly seriously, it makes me think about that "mistake" by Nasri of letting the ball run out of play in May, 2012. If he hadn't, Nedum Onuoha wouldn't have taken that throw-in in exactly that way, and so on and so on…

In answer to the question, it's the cup final in ’81 that really hurts. We deserved to win it, and I genuinely believe that we could have kicked on from that. The lost cup final against Wigan annoyed me at the time, but now seems trivial. We were never at the races. If I didn't know better, I'd almost believe that the players threw it.