Time machine time - You can change 1 Boro moment ...

MichaelDebeve

MichaelDebeve

Well-known member
I've taken a bit of inspiration from the “most gutted” thread (apologies!), but If you had the chance to alter 1 moment for the Boro what would you pick?

Not a full result/ game, but just a single action or situation during a game, or alternatively off the pitch?

One of mine would have to be the Viduka ‘penalty’ that never was in Eindhoven – who’s to say it would have made a massive difference on the overall result or not as that Seville team had some serious talent in it, But at 0-0 if we get that pen and converted it…. Who knows! (probably 4-1 😂 )

Another, off pitch, appointing Monk – if we had just went down a different route, and spent the money a different way – who knows (see also Strachan appointment!)
 
Teesste said:
I think we were 1 down when the Viduka penalty shout happened at Eindhoven.. could be wrong though.

For me it has to be play the game at Blackburn. Relegation that season was utterly disastrous and avoidable. A true sliding doors moment which has defined us ever since.
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You may be right there - my memory of the match is hazy nowadays, I've never brought myself to watch any highlights back, and in the ground i was well and truly oiled!
 
Definitely the Heskey goal. We win that and there's a good chance we stay up anyway with the momentum it would have given us. Instead it was a right kick in the nuts and I'm not sure the squad fully recovered after it
 
I think the whole 3pts thing galvanised the team a bit. I'm not sure we'd have had the results we got if we had just turned up and got thumped.

I think winning that League cup game at Wembley would have been huge for us. I think we'd have stayed up. Would have eased some pressure and meant another fixture wouldn't have to be squeezed in.

Maybe beating chesterfield in normal time a few days earlier would've meant not playing 120 mins twice in a week so we would have been fresher for the Leicester game, avoided 2 more replays and been fresher for the rest of the season.

Whatever the moment is it was almost definitely in those few months in 1997.
 
MichaelDebeve said:
You may be right there - my memory of the match is hazy nowadays, I've never brought myself to watch any highlights back, and in the ground i was well and truly oiled!
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Same here i've never watched it back.. Pretty sure I had it recorded on Sky + (was that a thing then?) and kept it unwatched for years before deleting it.
 
Teesste said:
I think we were 1 down when the Viduka penalty shout happened at Eindhoven.. could be wrong though.

For me it has to be play the game at Blackburn. Relegation that season was utterly disastrous and avoidable. A true sliding doors moment which has defined us ever since.
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Given how good Sevilla were I think we likely still would have lost sadly. That one doesn't upset me too much as they were a great team and only just behind Real Madrid and Barca that season. Their Uefa Cup record since is amazing!
 
Alzi said:
Given how good Sevilla were I think we likely still would have lost sadly. That one doesn't upset me too much as they were a great team and only just behind Real Madrid and Barca that season. Their Uefa Cup record since is amazing!
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I do agree, but why that match really irks me still to this day, is that even back then I knew this is very very very likely the only european final I will see Boro in, so I think I have always had that niggle of just really wanting us to make a better fist of it one way or another.

Would a penalty to bring us level make much of a difference overall probably not, but bar a Rochy palm stinging free-kick and a Viduka header (I think) we didn't make any real impact, and its always bugged me.

You are dead right though - that Seville side was right up there in Spanish football at the time. Some real standout players.
 
I was only 3 when the three points and heskey moments happened.

There's a few for me.

Appointing Agnew when we still had a chance in the prem. If we could've just gotten somebody who could lift the team to one or two wins we'd have been okay.

Garry Monks appointment and everything that followed him.

Vossens effort hitting the bar at Wembley, that goes in we take control.

More recently, Chubas shot going in instead of hitting the bar. Had that gone in and we had a 1-0 lead I think we're all on a high discussing Wembley right now
 
Appointing Agnew when we still had a chance in the prem. If we could've just gotten somebody who could lift the team to one or two wins we'd have been okay.

Good shout - and the Vossen bar hit. (y)
 
De Roon doesn't bafflingly stick his leg out in injury time in 2016.

We beat Leicester 2-1 and are 12th going in to December, even if every result in December stayed the same, we'd be 6 points clear of relegation when the transfer window opens and above the team that tried to poach Ramirez and disrupted our season.
On 20 points and halfway to safety at the halfway point.

I suspect we'd have got a few better results just off the confidence of beating the champions (even if they were struggling).
Burnley was a close run thing, as was Man United and Southampton.
 
Definitely the Heskey equaliser. Was the start of the domino effect that made the last few weeks of that season so chaotic and difficult.

I know the three points technically sent us down, but off the back of winning that cup I think we'd have been OK in the league. We were in pretty good form in the league at the time, but that goal started a sequence of massive games twice a week that we just couldn't cope with physically or mentally. Seemed to spend all my time up and down the A1/M62/East Coast mainline heading to Hillsborough, Old Trafford and Wembley and it was hard to keep on top of. I just feel we'd have been so much more composed and successful without that goal happening.

Would probably have stayed up and beaten Chelsea in the FA Cup if we'd held on vs Leicester. And then who the hell knows what after that...
 
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