Robbie Fowler's missed penalty vs Middlesbrough - did it save us from relegation?

[Le Havre Oswald]

I was there that day. Bewildered by us playing in our new away shirts instead of our home kit, convinced it would put a curse on us. Hoping against hope that we could beat one of our bogey teams from that era. David James up front. Absolutely devastated as a 10-year-old, watching on as Robbie Fowler missed that last minute penalty that would have sent us to Europe.

But here's the thing. Did it save us from relegation the next year? After that game, the Pearce bubble well and truly burst. We had a good start but as the season dragged on it was obvious he wasn't the man to lead us forward. We dropped from 8th (on 52 points) to 15th (on 43 points). We lost Shauny Wright to Chelsea and with it went our spark. 1 win in our last 10 games, 9 defeats.

So I do sometimes wonder, would we have gone down at the end of the 05-06 season if we'd had to juggle a UEFA Cup campaign with trying to stay in the Premier League with the likes of Samaras expected to save us? There was probably just enough talent in the spine of the squad to keep us afloat (James, Dunne, Distin, Barton, Cole, Vassell) but balancing it across two competitions might have been a step too far.

We finished just 9 points above the drop after Cole's injury fucked us. Luckily we already had points on the board and were 10th as late as March, but I'd argue the UEFA Cup would have knocked 5-8 points off our total across the season, and suddenly we'd have been drifting into a relegation fight in the last weeks of the season with our hopes resting on Samaras after Cole and Vassell's partnership was prematurely ended.

And if you look at Boro's fortunes - they had a stronger squad than we did and made it all the way to the UEFA Cup final, but dropped from 7th to 14th as a result and were relegated by 2009. It was another eight years before they came back to the Premier League, and even then it couldn't be sustained for more than a season. Can't help wondering if we'd have fallen to a similar fate if Fowler had scored that penalty.

Was the audio for that video recorded in a different country?

 

[TonyM]

Where was Beanie?

 

[5 Hit Gibbon]

Him & McMinimum were shite for us.

He didn't really looked that arsed after he missed the pen.

 

[mattcity5]

our best attack was Anelka up front with Sibierski just behind him as we did first few games at Charlton and Blackburn, Fowler should have been nowhere near the team

The Goat was a better option than Fowler at that stage in their careers. One always gave his all, the other had fuck all to give.

Loved Keegan, but the worst thing about him was how desperate he was for Fowler to succeed. Felt like we played with ten players in most of the games.

 

[jimharri]

Pearce gets a lot of stick and deserves almost all of it but the game was drifting and when James came on it created chaos on and off the pitch. This created the penalty which if Fowler could kick the ball properly would have seen us win the game.

Well; that's one take on it, I guess.

Though, I suppose when our own team didn't have a clue what Pearce was up to, it'd be hard for Boro's players to.

 

[eastmanc]

We hit 40 points on 5th March at home to Sunderland with a 2-1 win.

We beat MU at home 3-1 in the second half of that season, failed score in 2 games but season was over after we got knocked out the cup and there was no motivation once we were safe. Scored 26 at home in the league.

We struggled every season we got in Europe, the 16 games under Hughes didn't help in the Uefa cup, but we may have only had 2 European games in 2005/06 so who knows?

I don't think you're talking about the same season. We got beaten by United 1nil and we missed a penalty. I think you are talking about the season before.

 

[HelloCity]

Always remember a chant of ‘there’s only one Robbie Fowler’ in the south stand and when it quietened down, a single City fan shouted ‘thank fuck!’, and everyone around him just burst out laughing.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

We hit 40 points on 5th March at home to Sunderland with a 2-1 win.

We beat MU at home 3-1 in the second half of that season, failed score in 2 games but season was over after we got knocked out the cup and there was no motivation once we were safe. Scored 26 at home in the league.

We struggled every season we got in Europe, the 16 games under Hughes didn't help in the Uefa cup, but we may have only had 2 European games in 2005/06 so who knows?

I think we are talking of different seasons. The season we scored but ten at home all season is etched in my mind as my Swindon Town supporting mate broke his leg and had to be airlifted to hospital, and he set out on a sponsored walk when his leg was back together, and I said I'd give £2 for every home goal we scored that season - cost me £20!

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

I'd go the other way and look at what happened to Steve Mclaren, as a result of Fowler's missed penalty.

McLaren was appointed England Manager on the strength of one European campaign, which would never have happened if Fowler had scored.

 

[SWPISHOME]

Never liked Fowler when he was with us, Always got the impression he never wanted to be at the club.

Himself and McManaman were a pair of twats.

As for the missed penalty, He took it like he wasn't bothered which summed up his career at City. Prick.