Robbo on our 3pts article today

So much to dwell on still regarding the 96/97 season. Some of the articles written in the press about the area etc. were an absolute disgrace, it was clearly due to the fact that little Boro had managed to sign (in my unbiased opinion) the best player in the world. There's much discussion about the rights and wrongs of whether or not we should have played, but it's clear there was an agenda against us. If by he FA's logic we cheated in that one game, why were West Ham several years later not deducted points for cheating in several games? (And we heard things like "it wouldn't be fair on their fans as it would effectively relegate them" :mad:)

Another thing that doesn't make sense, why were the 3 points not just awarded to Blackburn??

Worst thing about us going down though, had we stayed up, we could have had several more years of Juninho in his prime. It still feels like an injustice that we only got one year of the best player I've ever seen at Boro.

Anyway, has anybody heard more news on Mikkel Beck's charity match?
 
The 3 point fiasco and current situation are not really comparable I think. 96/97 wasn't played in the midst of a two year pandemic that has completely stopped all sport at one point.

I do think clubs are now using the leeway of the pandemic to their advantage but I suspect cancelling games is a control measure preventing the league potentially being stopped completely again.
 
whiteadder said:
So much to dwell on still regarding the 96/97 season. Some of the articles written in the press about the area etc. were an absolute disgrace, it was clearly due to the fact that little Boro had managed to sign (in my unbiased opinion) the best player in the world. There's much discussion about the rights and wrongs of whether or not we should have played, but it's clear there was an agenda against us. If by he FA's logic we cheated in that one game, why were West Ham several years later not deducted points for cheating in several games? (And we heard things like "it wouldn't be fair on their fans as it would effectively relegate them" :mad:)

Another thing that doesn't make sense, why were the 3 points not just awarded to Blackburn??

Worst thing about us going down though, had we stayed up, we could have had several more years of Juninho in his prime. It still feels like an injustice that we only got one year of the best player I've ever seen at Boro.

Anyway, has anybody heard more news on Mikkel Beck's charity match?
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Why would Blackburn get 3 points for nothing?
 
Smoggle said:
I don’t know what the true picture was, but for a bit of balance, players like Mustoe have come out and said maybe things weren’t quite as bad as has been suggested and we could have put a team out.

Whatever the truth and any blame on boro, the worst part for me it’s the absolute amateur and shoddy running of the PL that no one with authority could be reached and some jobsworth farted a bit of hope our way. A multi-million pound organisation with responsibilities to its members but all the gravy-boaters out of contact or on a golf course, farcical.
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Probably a good job we never stayed up because whoever would have been relegated could have sued us for cheating.

I guess the main difference with the current situation is that clubs are receiving official permission to cancel the game not taking action without official permission.
 
Rofesleg said:
Pretty much standard practice at all levels of sport. If a team fails to fulfill a fixture without good reason, the game is awarded to the opposition. Usually.
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I wouldn't say it's standard in league competition. Punishing a team for not turning up does make more sense. It was just total chance it was Blackburn so it's right they didn't get 3 points. What if they'd been a team going for the title or battling relegation?
 
Yes it was criminal.
But if you're honest we should never have been anywhere near the drop with that team.
We were poorly managed.
 
zzzzz said:
Yes it was criminal.
But if you're honest we should never have been anywhere near the drop with that team.
We were poorly managed.
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We were poorly managed all round, including not turning up at Blackburn.

We tried it on and it blew up in our faces.

However I do think it is extremely galling that some clubs are getting games called off the way they are at the moment.
 
zzzzz said:
Yes it was criminal.
But if you're honest we should never have been anywhere near the drop with that team.
We were poorly managed.
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I'd agree we were poorly managed. But I'm not convinced we had a particularly good side. We were pretty average other than 3 stars, one of whom went awol. Don't get me wrong we had some good pros, but we were a real mix of quality and absolutely miles behind the McClaren team of 2005ish
 
We drew the rearranged game with Blackburn whereas we would have probably lost with a weakened team. We would have finished joint 3rd bottom not sure if we would have stayed up on goal difference?
 
wilkos_perm said:
I'd agree we were poorly managed. But I'm not convinced we had a particularly good side. We were pretty average other than 3 stars, one of whom went awol. Don't get me wrong we had some good pros, but we were a real mix of quality and absolutely miles behind the McClaren team of 2005ish
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Our form in the first half of the previous season belies that. We were far better before juninho came in. Hignett, barmby and fjortoft were a very formidable front line.
 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret said:
Our form in the first half of the previous season belies that. We were far better before juninho came in. Hignett, barmby and fjortoft were a very formidable front line.
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Yes i agree, although our form for the2nd half of that season was largely poor, infact we had a very long run without winning a game. And Barmby wasn't there in '96/97 after a few games. It's common that newly promoted teams have a flying start but we obviously didn't have the quality to maintain it.
 
wilkos_perm said:
Yes i agree, although our form for the2nd half of that season was largely poor, infact we had a very long run without winning a game. And Barmby wasn't there in '96/97 after a few games. It's common that newly promoted teams have a flying start but we obviously didn't have the quality to maintain it.
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We had a poor defence and keeper, remedied slightly with the Festa and Schwarzer signings. Robbo was slow to see our failings at the back.
 
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