The 93:20 Mailbox
By Various | 27 March 2020In the second mailbox of the week, the question we asked was this:
If you could change one result in Manchester City’s history, what would it be?
Paul Cooney
A result that really hurt me was the Fa Cup quarter final defeat vs West Ham in 2006. It was live on BBC & we were home, at the time this felt like the closest we would ever come in my life to win a trophy, Dean Ashton scored twice & we lost 2-1. I remember feeling totally dejected & that I would never see us win a trophy. How times have changed.
Paul Dunn
Until recently this would have been the 1981 FA Cup final. I was bitter for a long time about that. For years I thought it was the closest I’d get to ever seeing City win a trophy. How times have changed. So the result I’d like to change now is last year’s Champions League semi final, second leg. Honestly I could live with either a clear win for either City or Spurs, but that last minute VAR decision was a punch in the gut.
Richard Makin
I can think of plenty of results I’d want to change, many precursors to relegation doomed seasons, v Luton, QPR game including Jamie Pollocks OG Lob, Alan Balls tactical masterclass v Liverpool holding out for 2-2 draw based on fake news, but the 2-3 home defeat v Rags 17/18 season when we had chance to lift title at home, & should have been home & dry at half-time has to be the one!? A wasted opportunity unlikely to happen again in my lifetime.
Les Daly
The 1981 F.A. Cup final result would be the one I’d change. I’m ignoring any relegation related games because it’s generally your form over a season that determines that. We were playing a Tottenham side full of world class players, but for 90 minutes with a mix of grit, determination and no lack of skill from the likes of Tommy Hutchison we made them look ordinary. The late deflected Tottenham equaliser was a complete freak and travesty of justice on the day. Although we took them to the line in the replay we couldn’t hit the heights of the first game and sadly lost to one of the most famous F.A Cup goals ever, although for me Steve McKenzie’s volley never got the recognition it deserved.
Lloyd Scragg
It’d have to be City 2-3 United in 2018. God that hurt. The atmosphere in the first half was incredible. We were all over them – on the pitch and in the stands. It should’ve been four or five at half-time such was our dominance. Sterling had missed some absolute sitters, but the mood was still very buoyant. Such was my excitement, I tried to sneak in two pints in at half-time with my mate Tony, which isn’t the easiest in 15 minutes. By the time we came back down onto the concourse, it was 2-2, Pogba wheeling away in celebration having scored his second. And then Smalling scored late. Rubbish. How did we throw that away? An incredible opportunity pissed up the wall. It still angers me a bit now.
Mark Meadowcroft
City 4 Leeds United 0 April 4 1992
In the end it didn’t matter, but at the time, I was raging. It was Leeds against United for title and we were playing both within days of each other. While Leeds winning the league was clearly sub-optimal, the plan was to lie down against them and go and win at Old Trafford. I can’t blame the City players totally. Re-watching the match for the first time in decades, it was the classic “uncharacteristic defensive horror show” from them, but did some of City’s finishing need to be that good and did Tony Coton need to play quite as well as that? He needed to save up his saves for United.
It was our best result of the season and a good honest thumping of Leeds is never unwelcome, but now? Really? Whatever, they got over an unaccountably poor performance immediately while we surprisingly dented United’s confidence by taking a point off them soon after. That match, in the end, had more significance than this strange match that left me nonplussed as I walked back across Platt Fields.
Karl Florczak
Ever since that day at Wembley in 1999 I have had a morbid curiosity with wondering where we’d be now if Dickov’s shot would have sailed over the crossbar. But no. Changing that result would have had far too many catastrophic consequences and the timeline it would have put us on doesn’t bear thinking about. So….
…it has to be the 2-3 derby defeat in the Centurions season. We will NEVER have that opportunity again. So yeah, it’s that one. Sterling buries those one-on-ones and we’re 4-0 up at half-time.
Shawn
City v Spurs in the Champions League last season.
Bradley
1990 City 3 United 3 – Brian McClair scored 2 goals in last 10 mins. Wish he hadn’t,I cried.
Neil Bonnar
Man United 6-1 away, it should have been 10.
David Meikleham
Luton, 1983.
Don Langford
The match I’d change is the April 2010 derby when Scholes scored the 93rd minute winner. God that pissed me off. A close second would be Stockport County scoring 2 late goals against Carlo Nash (in 2002 I think). I’m literally still annoyed to this day.
Bailoooooooo
Spurs in the Champions League.
Merlin’s Wand
THAT semi-final vs Real Madrid, who knows what could have happened in the final.
Howard Hockin
As far as City’s distant past goes, what’s done is done. So I will stay in recent times, and choose a result that didn’t really matter. Namely losing a 2 goal lead to United on the day we should have clinched the league. An opportunity like that may never present itself again. I was angry for days, not only because of the collapse, but the fact that Aguero could have his ankle almost snapped in half at the end and still not win a penalty.
The true answer certainly can be found in that week – if pushed, I may end up choosing the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League instead.
The Earl of Stirl.
The UEFA FFP investigation.
James Walton
There are plenty. The United 4 – City 3 match from 2009 hurt, Belamy’s goal alone was worthy of winning the game. The Owen winner was wounding but I think it would have to be the Wigan 2013 FA Cup final. Winning things was still very much a novelty then (it still is now to be fair, although apparently winning things make me unhappy according to the media, who knew?). As it was a final and knowing that if we had won the game we would have won the cup feels more prominent. More so than say the Real semi where we may have gone on to win something but could have just as easily been knocked out in the next round.
Tom Potts
The result I would change is the 2018 home derby when we should have the league against them. Doing that would have been a very close second to 13th May 2012. Other results that come close are the 1974 league cup final -a forward line of Summerbee, Bell, Lee, Law and Marsh yet we managed to lose – and the 1981 cup final, 1st game, that we should have won as we were much the better team.
Manc Lad
The QPR game when Jamie Pollock scores the own goal. A win and we don’t go down to League One.
Lee Mcilwaine
The home defeat against United that could have won us the title. Walked away from the Etihad feeling sick because that moment might never happen again, and we’d fucked it.
Dan Metcalf
The FA Cup final against Wigan. Still fuming. That night I self-flagellated in Uxbridge by only drinking cider.
Gareth Norris
The quarter-final tie against Blackburn. Was sure that was going to be our year (to get to a final).
Lee Glynn
Either the 1981 FA Cup Final, the Wigan Cup Final, or the 2007 quarter-final.
Bobby
Quarter final in the cup away to Crystal Palace. Such a let down.
Peter Brophy
The first game in the 1981 FA Cup final. I’d make Tommy Hutchison stay where he was as Hoddle lined up his free kick. This would have allowed Joe Corrigan to make the inevitable easy save from the England midfielder’s weak effort and City thus to see out a 1-0 win. The financial benefit European football the following season could have allowed us to keep Trevor Francis in the summer of 1982 and to continue to construct a decent side. Instead we saw a rapid decline, suffered the indignity of Luton sending us down on our own turf, and spent several seasons trying to rebuild with signings made on the cheap plus large numbers of kids thrown in before they were ready. The 1981 final always seemed to me like a turning point, and the Saturday match really was there to be won.
Ste Tudor
The 3-0 loss at Anfield in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg of 2018 hurt.
It hurt because, to a skewed mind, Liverpool’s ferocious power-play that effectively ended the tie within half an hour was an extension of the red horde vandalizing Manchester City’s team coach prior to kick-off. To a warped mind it justified it.
Had the home side huffed and puffed to little avail I’m convinced City would have game-managed the return fixture and reached their second semi-final in the tournament. From there who knows what could have happened.
A reversal of this result would also have made Twitter and the outside world significantly more bearable for a year and more.
