Iconic Moments in Football No.78
Watching Manchester City at the moment, it seems an impossible thought that they played out of the top flight. However, back in 1996 they were perilously close to relegation and went into the final match of the season needing to get a result at home to Liverpool to stay in the Premier League.
Southampton and Coventry City were also in the relegation dogfight. Fans only had transistor radios to check their rival’s progress as mobiles were rare at the time.
Steve Lomas scored an own goal for City after just six minutes before veteran striker Ian Rush doubled Liverpool’s lead shortly before half time. Uwe Rosler scored after 71 minutes before Kit Symons equalised seven minutes later to give the City faithful hope.
With a few minutes remaining, scores in the other matches meant that City were safe. Their manager Alan Ball got word out to his players and they sat back, content that their work had been done and they would be in the Premier League the following season. The players were resorting to time-wasting tactics, keeping the ball down by the corner flag and trying anything they could to preserve the scoreline.
Suddenly word got out that City had dropped into the bottom three. Their time-wasting tactics had come back and bit them in the backside and a relegation rival had climbed above them in the table.
City striker Niall Quinn was watching the game from the touchline and ran up and down to tell his team mates that a point wasn’t good enough.
The match ended 2-2 and Manchester City were relegated. They finished level on points with Southampton and Coventry City who ended the season on a -18 goal difference. City’s goal difference was -25 and they dropped into the First Division.
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