10 of the best relegation great escapes in English football history

English football’s great escape artists.

The relegation battle at the bottom of the Premier League has heated up with victories for Leicester and QPR last weekend. Any victory between now and the end of the season will be so crucial for the sides involved.

And fans of those clubs will be looking at the fixtures and the tables wondering if their team could pull off a ‘Great Escape’. But before Steve McQueen appears this year, here are ten famous escape acts from English football.

HARTLEPOOL UNITED (1976/1977):

WAIT a few more weeks and Hartlepool United might be able to add another escape to this pair from the 1970s. Yet, these had nothing to do with what happened on the pitch, but off it. After two bad seasons in the old Fourth Division, Hartlepool were forced to apply for re-election to the Football League. On each occasion, their application was successful. They were joined in the league by previous non-leaguers in the form of Wimbledon and Wigan, who both made it all the way to the top division and won the FA Cup. They took the places of Workington and Southport, who never played in the Football League again. Hartlepool have neither reached the heights nor plumbed the depths since, but come May 2, they’ll hope to remain a League Two club for another season.

COVENTRY and BRISTOL CITY (1977):

The World Cup match between Austria and West Germany in 1982 was always known as football’s ‘Anschluss’ as the two nations played out a 1-0 win for the Austrians, which ensured they both qualified at Algeria’s expense.

Well, First Division football experienced something similar five years earlier.

Coventry, Bristol City and Sunderland were all level on points going into the final match, with the added twist of the former two playing each other at Highfield Road.

The game kicked off late and when Sunderland had lost, Coventry Chairman Jimmy Hill announced that result over the tannoy with the match still going on.

What happened next was understandable, if not exactly in the spirit of the game. With the score 2-2, both sides retreated into their own halves for the last few minutes as they knew the result was enough for both of them to stay up.

LUTON TOWN (1983):

First Division survival in 1983 came down to a straight shoot-out between Manchester City and Luton.

Newly promoted Luton had struggled for much of the season, but City had suffered a horrendous run of nine points from 11 games from February onwards as they dropped down the table.

Still, a draw at a nervous Maine Road would have been enough. And for much of the afternoon it was. That was until Luton’s veteran Yugoslavian midfielder Raddy Antic produced a dagger to City’s heart with a goal five minutes from time.

The home side desperately tried to find the goal that would keep them up, but it didn’t arrive. Luton were safe, and at the final whistle, manager David Pleat famously went skipping across the Maine Road pitch in his light-coloured suit!

BURNLEY (1987):

IN 1987, for the first time ever, the winners of the Conference would be granted a place in the Football League at the expense of the Fourth Division’s bottom club.

With one game to go, the team to drop out appeared to be Burnley, one of the founder members of the Football League. The proud Lancashire club, who had been Champions of England as recently as 1960, had fallen on very hard times.

They had one match to save themselves against Orient. More than 15,000 packed into Turf Moor to witness the last rites, but the players were inspired and ran out 2-1 winners, which ensured their survival thanks to Lincoln’s City defeat to Swansea.

The Clarets would never suffer like that again and are now fighting for survival in the Premier League. Even if they go down on May 24, the consequences won’t be as stark as they might have been 28 years ago.

OLDHAM (1993):

IN the inaugural Premier League season, Oldham produced arguably as good an escape as any that have followed subsequently. When Crystal Palace won on the penultimate Saturday, they were so nearly safe.

With an eight-point gap and an inferior goal difference, Oldham needed snookers. First, they won at Aston Villa to hand the title to Manchester United and keep their own race alive.

Then they beat Liverpool and coupled with Palace’s goalless draw at Manchester City, it went to the last day. Oldham had to win and the Eagles had to lose, as well as suffer a swing in the goal difference.

Bingo! The Latics beat Southampton 4-3 at Boundary Park, while Palace were on the end of a 3-0 loss at Arsenal, as two goals in the last ten minutes sealed their fate at Oldham’s expense.

EVERTON (1994):

EVERTON had never been relegated from English football’s top division. But the portents didn’t look good as they began the final day in the bottom three. And they were decidedly awful as they quickly fell 2-0 behind at home to Wimbledon.

A goal from Graham Stuart reduced the arrears before Barry Horne equalised with a piledriver one of only three goals in more than 150 games for the Toffees.

But that still wasn’t enough. With minutes remaining, the ball broke to Stuart inside the area and his shot squirmed under Wimbledon goalkeeper Hans Segers and rolled into the net. Goodison Park went crazy and Everton’s proud record remained intact and still does to this day. The unfortunate team to fall at their expense were Sheffield United, who conceded two late goals to lose 3-2 at Chelsea.

CARLISLE (1999):

CARLISLE UNITED were facing the ignominious drop out of the Football League on the final day of the 1998/99 season. Drawing 1-1 at home to mid-table Plymouth, they were going down and Scarborough were staying up.

As the game went into injury time, goalkeeper Jimmy Glass was sent up for a corner in an act of pure desperation. What happened next is the stuff of legend.

The ball bounced around the box before Glass pounced to fire into the net and spark incredible scenes to keep Carlisle up. Amazingly, Glass never played another game for the club and drifted around the lower and non-leagues until retirement. Yet, long after he is gone, his name will live on in the pantheon of football’s most famous moments.

WEST BROM (2005):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fRFY2zdDGmM

THE final day of this Premier League campaign was very much ‘Survival Sunday’. Four teams were fighting for one life raft to safety, so whoever avoided relegation was most definitely fortunate.

Norwich knew a win would do it but were thrashed 6-0 at Fulham. Southampton couldn’t capitalise and they lost 2-1 at home to Manchester United to join them. So it came down to West Brom and Crystal Palace.

Palace were winning 2-1 at Charlton until a late goal (not another one see Oldham in 1993) meant that West Brom’s 2-0 win over Portsmouth prompted jubilation at The Hawthorns.

The Baggies had begun the day bottom but most crucially of all, ended in 17th when the music stopped. And Bryan Robson’s side also became the first side in the Premier League to be bottom at Christmas and escape relegation.

WEST HAM (2007):

WHEN West Ham lost 3-0 at Sheffield United on 14 April 2007, their Premier League future looked grim. After losing such a pivotal relegation battle,

I confidently wrote that the two sides would play in different divisions in the following season. A few weeks later, that turned out to be true only the wrong way round!

But in Carlos Tevez, West Ham had a controversial and brilliant striker who made all the difference to their fortunes.

Tevez was the catalyst to the Hammers winning each of their last four games to avoid the drop, most spectacularly with the winner at Champions Manchester United on the final day of the season.

However, that was only half the story. Tevez had been signed from a third-party owner along with compatriot Javier Mascherano, and thus his registration was not valid.

West Ham escaped with a £5.5 million move for fielding an ineligible player, but no points deduction. This meant the final game between Sheffield United and Wigan would decide the final spot, with Wigan winning 2-1.

The Blades would later be awarded £30 million in compensation by West Ham, but they have never returned to the top flight since that miserable May afternoon.

BIRMINGHAM (2014)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vLQBytTQBV0

BIRMINGHAM CITY began the final day of the last Championship season needing to better Doncaster Rovers’ result to survive. When Blues fell 2-0 behind at Bolton with less than 15 minutes remaining, the game appeared up.

Doncaster had just gone 1-0 down at Leicester, but that was of no use if they couldn’t do their own job.

Nikola Zigic pulled one back for Birmingham before defender Paul Caddis popped up with a header in injury time to keep his side in the division and relegate Doncaster.

Watching manager Lee Clark hare up the touchline to celebrate showed just what an act of escapology this was.