[howardb]

Read the article and decide your Chesterfield "Sliding Doors" moment - ideally looking beyond the semi-final


You don't have to have seen the film Sliding Doors (and I haven't) to know about the concept it spawned – that of the "sliding doors moment", the instant in time where a minor action has life-changing repercussions. Football is full of them.

John Terry slipping as he takes his penalty in the 2008 Champions League final shoot-out. Alex Ferguson as an afterthought (in a conversation about Dennis Irwin) asking Howard Wilkinson if he could buy Eric Cantona. Harry Kane inexplicably failing to square it when Raheem Sterling had an open goal when England were 1-0 up on Croatia in the 2018 World Cup semi-final.

Today's Premier League programme includes one of the ultimate sliding doors fixtures. Seeing "Burnley v Leicester" on the schedule always makes me think of April 2015, when both teams were facing relegation. At 0-0, in the 60th minute, Burnley had a penalty, Matty Taylor hit the post and Leicester countered to score – less than 60 seconds later – through Jamie Vardy.

They won 1-0 to move out of the bottom three for the first time in six months, went on to survive – and we all know what happened in 2015-16.

It is not the only one of today's games with "sliding doors" resonance. Whenever Sheffield United and Aston Villa play each other, it will always have echoes of their meeting last June in England's first match after lockdown.

In the game, you might remember, Villa's goalkeeper, Orjan Nyland, fell behind his own line clutching Oliver Norwood's free kick. 999,999 times out of 1,000,000 it would have been 1-0 to Sheffield United – but this was the once in a million that goalline technology malfunctioned and the match finished 0-0. At the end of the season, Villa survived by the single point they won that day.

And by a quirk of the fixture computer, there is another "sliding doors" fixture on tomorrow. Liverpool v Chelsea. 2014, Steven Gerrard, Demba Ba and all that.

"What ifs" are everywhere you look in football – and if you doubt it, just Google "players Arsène Wenger claims he almost signed for Arsenal".

[JonB]

League One under Paul Cook, had Dave Allen let Cook sign Daniel Johnson could we have go on to beat Preston and maybe make the Championship....instead of Cook ending up leaving for Portsmouth and us ending up with Saunders and what started from there.

I suppose looking at it the other way....had Jim Brown not stepped up, then CFSS happening and instead Darren Brown managed to go through with everything that was starting to happen and we ended up ground sharing at Field Mill like he was planning.

[HoneyTrippa]

and of course..... Chesterfields sliding door moment happened at Old Trafford in 1997....... years before the intervention of Goal Line Technology.

[dim view]

howardb, on 03 March 2021 - 10:19 AM, said:

Read the article and decide your Chesterfield "Sliding Doors" moment - ideally looking beyond the semi-final

Wow, great idea for a topic. We'll all probably think of several over time.....

What if Dave Allen had rejected Barrie Hubbard's suggestion that he get involved with CFC?

My understanding is that we had a new stadium but insufficient funds to pay for it. Knowing Barrie, I'm sure summat would have turned up, but what?

[Siberian Spireite]

Edit: it's too harsh to start writing individuals out of human history, even if they did try and wreck the club.....

....so in my Town-supporting life I'll go for the month or so (Dec 94, I think) during which we brought in Phil Robinson and Tony Lormor, and turned a moribund club into one which really moved forwards, at least for a while.

Also, the season we went down from the league, it seemed like every match, every goal conceded, was a sliding doors moment which went the wrong way.... until the last few matches of meek surrender, anyhow, when it became clear that the train had run us over instead of stopping.

This post has been edited by Siberian Spireite: 03 March 2021 - 11:27 AM

[gordon_brittas]

A couple from me:

Season 95/96 Division 2 - Last day of the season. Chesterfield beat Notts County 1-0 at home. Main opponents for the playoffs Bradford City away at already relegated Hull City. Into 90th minute, Bradford lead Hull 3-2. Hull get a penalty which is missed. Final score 3-2 Bradford. Bradford beat Chesterfield to last playoff place by 1 point.

Bradford up in the playoffs, and they reach the Premier League in 3 seasons. Not saying that would have happened at Town. But if we went up that season, which I think we would have, I am confident we would have had a few seasons in the First Division.

Season 10/11 League 1 - The non signing of Clayton Donaldson from Crewe on a free. Up from League 2 as Champions we needed a proven goalscorer. Clayton wanted a big wage increase from his Crewe salary, we refused, he signed for Brentford the next day, and we went down with a whimper from League 1. The inability of not having a proven goalscorer being the main. Momentum well and truly gone and it took 3 years to recover under Cook.

[howardb]

Season 10/11 League 1 - The non signing of Clayton Donaldson from Crewe on a free. Up from League 2 as Champions we needed a proven goalscorer. Clayton wanted a big wage increase from his Crewe salary, we refused, he signed for Brentford the next day, and we went down with a whimper from League 1. The inability of not having a proven goalscorer being the main. Momentum well and truly gone and it took 3 years to recover under Cook. e



Agree with this one........huge error; was the catalyst for Brentford's success and our immediate demise