Paphos People

Middlesbrough, were relegated on the final day of the season Middlebrough finished in 18th place, however they would have been placed outside the relegation zone without a 3-point deduction imposed for cancelling a December 1996 fixture against Blackburn Rovers, with the Middlesbrough board blaming the decision on the absence of 23 players ill or injured.[2][3] This sanction meant Coventry City, who had been in the top division since 1967, finished in 17th place and avoided relegation. The decision was very much frowned upon and has recently resurfaced as a major linchpin in the current West Ham saga. Ironically, West Ham were one of the very few clubs who insisted that Bryan Robson's men should be deducted points. (it gets better) The whole situation was turned into a farce by the FA after sanctioning the game to be canceled by Assistant Chief Exectutive and then for them to go back on their decision after this had been confirmed. If Middlesbrough had played the game against Blackburn with a team made up of youth and reserve players and lost, they still would have survived relegation quite comfortably which raised questions why they should be docked points for canceling the game to gain no advantage

and then last year they refuse to dock west ham points for a season long transgression grrrrrrrrrrrrr


this was taken from the wiki review of the 1996/97 season

Was that the day you played Leeds in your last match ?
If it was I was at Crystal Palace watching my lot get relegated too against Wimbledon and did Coventry play at Spurs and have the kick off put back cos of crowd congestion ( since when did Coventry take a crowd to an away match ?) I think they did and it mirrored what happened to us in 1977 when the last match was a night game at Everton and regardless of our result if Bristol City and Coventry drew we would be relegated. We lost two nil Bristol and Coventry kicked off late ( crowd congestion again !) and once they knew our score their game became a practice match( and that came from someone on Coventry's books!) and yes you guessed it they drew.
I was at Goodison that night too. I have disliked Jimmy Hill ever since !
Gary

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So close yet so far away

yes it was, the 15 minute delay should have been universal but it wasn't what a surprise

The Tevez fiasco last season was an absolute farce mind - surely no coincidence he headed off to Man U shortly after scoring the goal at Old Trafford that kept them up??

See old Red Nose is up to his tricks again this season - stories in the papers today linking them with a move for Ashton, surprise, surprise, the day before a big game gainst them!

The Tevez goal at Old Trafford did not keep us up. We'd have still finished 15th - out of 20 teams had he not scored.

There was no such griping when Sheff Utd beat us 3-0 several weeks before that, against a team that included Tevez himself.

Lets face it, Sheff Utd are no loss to the Prem, far from it - unlike the Hammers!

Ha CF we have a Hammer on board, watch yourself they're loonies!!
Gary

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So close yet so far away

i hope west ham turn utd. over tomorrow

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furniture maker

United are due a win against us..
We've beaten them the last three meetings - and our squad is so depleted at the minute that I really can't see us getting anything this time. Besides I'd rather them win it than Chelsea..

Hey, we're not all lunatics thank you..

Its about time we got some different fans on here, it was starting to get boring

This weekend will see some desperate matches:
Spams v Man Usa - Spam need to win to secure 10th place but Man Usa need the win to keep Chelski at bay (1-2)
Toon V Chelski - Chelski need to beat the TOON to stay in the race & do something they haven't in the last 5 seasons, get a win at SJP 3 wins & 2 draws is the record so far, we need the win to get above the Spurts, if the draw or lose (1-1)
Bolton v Makems, Bolton need to beat the Makems to stay up, the Makems are safe now, so this isn't really a vital match for them, unless getting close to the TOON is enough to spur them on (1-1)
Reading v Spurts Reading need the win to help stave off relegation, The Spurts need to win to stave of Us over taking them (1-1)
Fulham v Brums Both need to win to help get out of the bottom 3 (2-1)

You would have gone down if Man Utd had won though, which they surely would have done if they'd had something to play for? Not to mention the points he got you in earlier games, and the fact you really should probably have been docked points for using a player who didn't actually belong to you!

I don't miss Sheff Utd either mind (have a natural aversion to red and white stripes!) but I do think they were a bit hard done to in this instance....

Anyway, welcome to the Sports Bar - don't really want to risk upsetting you just in case Gary is right!