BBC - Premier League's Greatest Escapes

[deanolegend1989]

5 hours ago, ttfn said:

The Sunderland one where they won at Stamford Bridge and the Etihad was the best one. Either that or the Fulham one where they were 2-0 down at half time at Man City and set to be mathematically relegated with about 3 games to go, came back and stayed up.

 

Ours was amazing but 3rd behind those two imo.

I’d agree you could have Fulham in 07/08 up there. They were down, mental comeback to get out of that.

Sunderland however, no. It was never a dead and buried feel. We were absolutely gone. Before West Ham we were so far off it, it was an amazing great escape.

To have villa last season over ours is mental!

[Xen]

It depends on what criteria you want to use for 'greatest', really.

 

Could a dramatic last-day result where you scrape through by the skin of your teeth be classed as 'greatest'? Sure. Equally, the team which was the furthest adrift and managed to turn it around could have had the greatest escape. Or even the team that managed to surpass expectations and not just stay up, but do so comfortably and with games to spare despite seeming to be dead-and-buried.

 

There's no question that our great escape is one of the greatest, but that top accolade is a bit more subjective. Even discounting what happened the season after (as that does tend to factor into these discussions) its hard to see us outside the top 3 though.

[SpacedX]

4 hours ago, trabuch said:

I disagree with Gary. We were never useless in that season. We weren't great but we had some truly dreadful luck that season, until the end.

You could certainly see the potential throughout - and we weren't losing games by high margins. You're right about our terrible luck - and in particular, some dreadful decisions such as the penalty away to Liverpool. 

[Gamble92]

Why does Lineker always talk about us like we were a useless Sunday League team before 2015? 

[Out Foxed]

17 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

Why does Lineker always talk about us like we were a useless Sunday League team before 2015? 

because he didn't support us before then

[Gamble92]

4 hours ago, Out Foxed said:

because he didn't support us before then

I remember in a World Cup game he said he's never seen a manager bring on a goalkeeper just for a penalty shoot out...

 

[sdb]

I thought we were down in Feb. 100%

 

King Power was absolutely electric from West Ham onwards.

[HitchinFox]

Let's be honest, we were never in this game. 

 

Beat Spurs and hope Burnley, Villa or Palace do is a favour. 

 

*edit: Oops. Wrong thread 😂

Edited 18 May 2021 by HitchinFox

[Guest worth_the_wait]

Maybe not the "greatest escape", but our survival in the 1974-75 season was pretty good.

 

By mid Feb, we were well adrift having only won 5 and drawn 8 of our first 28 games.

 

on 22nd Feb 1975, we beat Tottenham away 3-0, and went on a really good run to win 7 and draw 3 of our next 11 games.

 

We were just about safe, and only took 1 point from our last 3 games.   But it still ranked as a great escape.

[baldeagle]

Funny how people’s minds work  I mean how the hell has Shearer put Villa 2nd and us 5th  .I know the produces won’t want them picking then in the same order but still . 

[filthyfox]

The last 2 years have been great escapes from the Champions League.

 

#just saying

[enmac]

On 18/05/2021 at 11:40, kushiro said:

Here we go again with the 'Football started in 1992' nonsense.

 

The best story before our great escape was Sheffield Wednesday in 1927/28. Here's the bottom of the table approaching the end of the season:

 

Man U                    29       26

Portsmouth            30       26

Sheff Utd                29       25

Sheff W                  30       20

 

Just two points for a win then, of course. Wednesday then appointed the legendary Jimmy Seed captain and they turned it around, surviving on the final day, and sending down Spurs, who at the time of the table above were in the top half, but then lion-kinged rapidly downwards. 

 

Wednesday kept the momentum going, just like us in 2015, and won the League the following year, finishing just a point ahead of who else but Leicester City.

Remarkably similar to us. They eventually finished 14th just like us in 2014/15. Weird coincidence! 

[kushiro]

Love these promotion and relegation tales - the thing the Greedy Six want to banish forever.

 

Here's another one very rarely talked about.  Look at the bottom of Division One on the morning of Good Friday, 1959.

 

Spurs                34       27

Man City           33       27

Villa                   33      26

Leicester           33      21

Portsmouth       33      21   

 

We've just lost six on the trot and Matt Gillies' team are heading for the drop. It was a pretty miserable time - City employee Tom Bromilow had recently died on a train at Nuneaton while traveling back from Wrexham on a scouting mission. And to add to the gloomy mood, Birmingham City's Jeff Hall had just been diagnosed with polio, the disease being so contagious that Birmingham's recent opponents are told to take precautions - Leicester players are advised to see their doctor, and Portsmouth, their most recent opponents, are ordered to isolate themselves. Whether that isolation affected Portsmouth morale is impossible to say, but they lost all their remaining games, finishing on the same 21 points you can see above. Could Leicester do any better? 

 

Well, we went on an unbeaten run of six games, including the most important win of all, 2-1 at rivals Villa on April 4th, the day the city of Birmingham was coming to terms with the news that Jeff Hall had passed away (his death caused something close to panic, with people all over the country besieging their doctor's surgeries in the hope of receiving a polio vaccine).  The last game of that six game unbeaten run was a 4-1 win at Forest.  We were now two points above Man City and Villa, and nine clear of the doomed Pompey. 

 

Two days later, Apr 20th, was a great day for us, despite not having a game. Forest did us a favour by beating Villa 2-0, and Man City lost 5-1 at West Ham. That gave us a crucial cushion with our next game at Wolves, who needed to win to clinch the title. We were sufficiently relaxed that we could pay Wolves the tribute of a guard of honour as they ran out at Molineux. Wolves won 3-1, and our own Les Shipman, who was also president of the Football League president, presented Billy Wright with the trophy after the game.

 

The following week we beat Man U 2-1 at Filbert Street and we were safe with one game to play. We then lost out last game 3-1 at Man City - a result which sent Villa down.

 

Leicester        42     32

Man City         42    31

Villa                42     30

Pompey         42     21

 

It was a great escape that owed as much to the collapse of other teams as it did to our own recovery. From the last nine games, we took eleven points, Man City and Villa took just four, Pompey none at all (their last win in the League being way back in November). 

 

What were the long term consequences? Well, in the summer, Matt Gillies appointed Bert Johnson to replace Tom Bromilow as scout. He was soon promoted to assistant manager, and his progressive ideas set us on the road to the glorious early sixties years.

Edited 21 May 2021 by kushiro

[ozleicester]

On 18/05/2021 at 17:56, trabuch said:

I disagree with Gary. We were never useless in that season. We weren't great but we had some truly dreadful luck that season, until the end.

"Fine Margins" In the early part of the season every bounce, every decision went against us... that turned around at the end.

 

 

On 18/05/2021 at 17:58, messerschmitt said:

Me too was that the first day of the clappers?

Arrival of Rachel in the match thread?

Edited 21 May 2021 by ozleicester