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Sliding Doors - the moments that mattered

T

TrentEndDr

2 Weeks Away
What have been the biggest moments of this season (and for fun, the last 2 seasons)?

Point against Man City?
0-0 v Brighton after being tonked by Leic?
Cooper signing the contract?
The goal before HT v Brighton?
 
Flaggers

Flaggers

May not be the best moderator on LTLF, but he's...
LTLF Minion
This season, undoubtedly for me the goal at half time v Brighton.

That was the first time the support unity was threatening to crack. The team was going to be booed off 0-1 down.

As it was the team goes off on a high, standing ovation, 1-1 and....

...the rest is history.

That one, for me.
 
BryanRoy22

BryanRoy22

Ian Bowyer
This season: I think the win against Southampton was huge. To get breathing space over one relegation rival. Before that the Brighton home win was a huge moment in beating such a good opponent after not winning for 11 games. So probably those two games stand out as significant moments in generating belief that ultimately saw the team stay up.

Last season: Very easy. Bristol City away. I had a feeling after that promotion was going to happen.
 
Quntib Hollox

Quntib Hollox

Jack Armstrong
Flaggers said:
This season, undoubtedly for me the goal at half time v Brighton.

That was the first time the support unity was threatening to crack. The team was going to be booed off 0-1 down.

As it was the team goes off on a high, standing ovation, 1-1 and....

...the rest is history.

That one, for me.
Click to expand...
No way were the team getting booed but I take the importance of the timing of that goal.
 
DizzyBala

DizzyBala

Jack Armstrong
I like these types of discussions.

Leicester away was one for a few reasons. That is exactly the sort of occasion and score that gets managers the sack and turns fanbases. But we doubled down on Steve and those away fans were f***ing immense that night. Even at 3-0, singing their hearts out. Even if the players didn't do well, real football clubs are forged in fire.

For me, Liverpool at Home was one. That's always a special fixture any way but that felt like to me, we've got some fight in us and we wouldn't just go gentle into that good night. That was the start of a pretty good run for us where we got 5 wins and 3 draws in 10.

Wolves at home in the cup, because penalty shootout wins are always class but it also showed us behind the scenes that that ever expanding squad of players were massively together.

Brighton at home, for me was the turning point that saved us in the end. We had gone 11 without a win, staring down the barrel, Brennan missed a penalty, they scored first and I'm not ashamed to say I'd lost my belief. We get a little bit of luck before half-time which changed the mood then Danilo's great goal was like a f***ing beacon of light through the clouds.

Finally, I think both Southampton games. Away game was making Nathan Jones miserable and the home game was a game we should win, a game we had to win and a game we did win.
 
Mr RayReardon

Mr RayReardon

Jack Burkitt
I posted this in the Steve Cooper is Still thread.

Spurs at home. Cooper seeing something different to the rest of us. Cooper being brave enough to change the plan and essentially shut up shop. Admittedly the team had a few subsequent hammerings but slowly and surely we created our style and had a plan to detain teams and hit them on the break. For me, despite those humiliating defeats on the road at City and Leicester this was a team in transition. A team that were being told to do something they, perhaps, didn't want. All the while Cooper could see the end game - safety.

Perhaps it was EM not pulling the trigger, perhaps it was the blind, but good, faith us fans showed in Cooper but a change then would result in us on our third manager of the season by now and Steve's masterplan would be forever in his notebook. More is the point. Cooper's insight to decide then. Not in January allowed for enough time for the plan to work.

The three relegated grand teams have all chopped and changed. Who's to say Rogers didn't have a plan to get Leicester out of that mess (although we all know Lampard didn't at Everton... But you know what I mean!).



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M

MaxiRobriguez

Bob McKinlay
Both Liverpool games gave us the belief and kick started a run of form that has ultimately kept us up.

Fans singing Cooper's name whilst being 4-0 down to Leicester away another moment because it kept him in his job and hindsight now shows it was the right thing to do.

To be honest don't think we had the same moments this year as we did last that you could consider sliding doors. Nothing like Brice's save deep into extra time Vs Sheff Utd that allowed us to go to pens...
 
IJPS

IJPS

Supporting NFFC since 1977
Brighton home. I had accepted that although I'd prefer to in the championship with Cooper, the results vs Villa and Leeds seemed a bridge too far for our survival. I watch the match from Mexico, via vpn, never celebrated a result with so much emotion as that one.
 
valspoodle

valspoodle

Steve Chettle
I began, right from the first Newcastle game, to think how the heck are we going to get to the magic 40 points or anywhere near it.

We did OK for the first three games, then we had an awful time, losing from winning positions, just plain losing and shipping goals, it seemed hopeless, but then slowly but surely points dribbled in.

I think the moment that sealed it for me, that we might just sneak enough points was Liverpool at home. If we had enough guts and gumption to get something from them, then anything was possible.
 
Erik

Erik

oopsy daisy!
LTLF Minion
Marinakis not sacking Cooper and the support of the vast majority for Cooper.

Twice.

Even when some in the fanbase were questioning Cooper, his tactics, his ability to get us out of it, his ability at this level - Previously that's been enough to help see a manager on his way but Marinakis knew Cooper retained massive support and knew he could not get anyone better and stuck by his man.

And that's why we stayed up.
 
isaacs

isaacs

Viv Anderson
Most of the huge moments have already been mentioned but i will always look back on the 0-0 backs to the wall Alamo like performance away to Brighton as the moment that i personally felt that Coops and the players were in sync with the change in system. It was only the 3rd game of using the 4 at the back, Villa and Wolves before it, but there was something about the Brighton defensive display that laid the foundations for what would be our bedrock over the next 10 or so fixtures. We beat Liverpool immediately after it, the Brentford and Palace results before the world cup followed it shortly after and we used it all the way through a massive January.

And the second moment was when he adapted from the 4 at the back which by now had been completely worked out and exposed by everyone in the league, Villa away. The Shelvey game. But we had gone back to 3/5 at the back only this time we played with the box midfield, 5-2-2-1. Allowed Villa to have the wide areas but completely shut them down through the middle and countered effectively for the entire first half. Then Shelvey happened. But it was the next away game that it really started to click, same formation only now showing its threat and execution on the counter - the 3-2 loss to Liverpool. Apart from set pieces they got one half chance in that game.

So two pragmatic sliding door moments of where Coops had made a significant change in formation and personnel, and where it showed that his adaption was going to get points on the table for us.

Had he not adapted we would have been down by March.
 
Barry

Barry

Where's me hammer?
Quntib Hollox said:
No way were the team getting booed but I take the importance of the timing of that goal.
Click to expand...
I'm with Flaggers, we were so far off it until the fluke of a goal.. missed the pen, Brighton score and we couldn't pass the ball 5 yards or get out... it had a thrashing on the cards and boo's at half time.

We get a bit of luck, get to half time somehow still in it and made the changes required.

That first half is the worst we'd played at home imo.

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G

grassyvic

A. Trialist
The draw at the City Ground against Villa after the club had announced they were backing Steve despite the rumours he had been sacked. It stopped the rot and gave us an even greater togetherness that over the rest of the season has made all the difference.


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Barry

Barry

Where's me hammer?
Harvey said:
I 'd hardly call not getting booed at half time a turning point in our season
Click to expand...
It's not the booing it's the goal, the goal changed everything. We'd been shite, but somehow were still in it... if that goal don't come I think the first cracks of disgruntlement appear and we quite possibly give the owner justification to roll the dice like others have.

We can't say they kept Cooper because of the fans at Leicester and then not think the opposite reaction from the fans could get the opposite reaction from the owner.

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