Iconic Moments in Football No.92
Bottle. A term used in football meaning to succumb to pressure. This week’s iconic moment sees Blackburn Rovers’ goalkeeper Tim Flowers used the phrase quite a few times in a post-match interview.
Flowers was being interviewed by Sky Sports immediately after his Blackburn Rovers side had beaten Newcastle United 1-0 in their penultimate match of the 1994/95 season. Sir Alex Ferguson had been up to his mind game antics the night before and questioned whether Blackburn had the ‘bottle’ to get see out their championship bid and take the Premier League title from his Manchester United side.
Ferguson’s words must have given Blackburn all the incentive needed and a goal from Alan Shearer in the 29th minute was enough to give them all three points. It put Blackburn five points clear of United going into the final weekend of the season.
United faced Southampton the following evening and they won 2-1 to go two points behind Blackburn. They could only draw at West Ham on the last day of the season, meaning that Blackburn won the title despite losing 2-1 at Liverpool.
In the short interview Flowers gave, he used the phrase ‘bottle’ five times! Ironically, it was Ferguson’s players who bottled it at the end of the season and gave Blackburn their first league title in 81 years.
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