Spurs’ dodgy lasagne and the four-minute Champions 10 of football’s strangest final days

The last day of the football season is like no other. Things happen, they are usually dramatic, and they go down in folklore.

As the curtain comes down on the Premier League this Sunday, we look at ten final day incidents that are still remembered now – for better or worse. And there is no Sergio Aguero or Michael Thomas in sight.

Misinformation proves costly for Manchester City (1996)

LONG before everyone had a mobile phone, good old transistor radios were the only way of keeping up with events elsewhere. But with so few people having them, you had to rely on their information being correct. 19 years ago, Manchester City, Coventry and Southampton began the last day level on points, but City’s worse goal difference meant they were in the bottom three. Coventry and Southampton were both drawing 0-0 at home. City had come back from 2-0 down to be level with Liverpool, but Alan Ball’s side needed another goal. Yet, information came through that Southampton had conceded, so a draw was suddenly good enough for City. Ball instructed Steve Lomas to keep the ball in the corner and waste time, as far away from City’s goal as possible. Irish striker Niall Quinn had gone off and was watching TV and realised that his team-mates and manager were wrong and he raced up the touchline to tell them they still needed to score. In a desperate panic, City couldn’t find the winner and were relegated in embarrassing fashion.

Perugia rain on Juventus’ parade (2000)

ONE thing you can never control in football is the weather and so it proved for Juventus. A win on the final day at mid-table Perugia would guarantee another Scudetto, but things started to go wrong when there was a storm of biblical proportions at half-time. Referee Pierluigi Collina was forced to delay the second half for an hour to let the rain die down and the pitch recover. By this time, second-placed Lazio had already won their game 3-0 to leapfrog Juve at the top. Disaster struck when the match resumed as centre-half Alessandro Calori gave Perugia a shock lead. And Juventus, containing Zinedine Zidane, could not muster the goal they needed on a pitch that now resembled a paddy field. So, it was Lazio, managed by Sven Goran Eriksson who would be Champions.

Title-winning back pass (2001)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QGuJhGnF5Pg

BAYERN MUNICH have not always cantered to the Bundesliga as they have done in the last three seasons, and it certainly wasn’t the case in 2001. They began the final day three points ahead of Schalke and for 74 minutes, there was no need to worry. But having trailed 2-0 and 3-2 at home to relegated Unterhacing, the challengers were now ahead 4-3, which would become 5-3. Away to Hamburg, Bayern dramatically fell behind in the 90th minute. Schalke were going to win their first title for 43 years on goal difference! But wait, late drama in injury time in Hamburg as goalkeeper Mattias Schober picked up Tomas Ujfalusi’s back pass. It was now or never for FC Hollywood. Steffan Effenberg rolled the ball to the unlikely figure of Patrick Andersson. The Swedish central defender blasted the ball into the net from ten yards to spark incredible celebrations for Bayern and misery for Schalke, who history would remember as the four-minute Champions.

The madness of King Stuart (2005)

THEY say it is hard to separate madness and genius, so you decide on this one. Manchester City needed to beat Middlesbrough on the final day to qualify for the following season’s UEFA Cup. With the score 1-1 and only two minutes remaining, City manager Stuart Pearce summoned sub goalkeeper Nicky Weaver from the bench. Was there an injury to No.1 David James? No, Pearce had other ideas. He sent Weaver on in place of midfielder Claudio Reyna and pushed James up front. And yes, he had designed an outfield shirt for him too, suggesting this was a pre-conceived idea. James looked a fish out of water out of net, but in the chaos he created up front, City won a penalty which was missed by Robbie Fowler. If he had scored City would have qualified for the UEFA Cup and Pearce may have been hailed as a tactical genius. That did not happen, so spare a penny for the thoughts of sub striker Jon Macken. He had to contend with the idea that a goalkeeper was more likely in his manager’s mind to score or set up a goal than he was!

Helicopter Sunday (2005)

THOSE two words strike up contrasting emotions in the football-mad city of Glasgow. Celtic were a goal up at Motherwell and the title was theirs with the helicopter heading to Fir Park to hand over the SPL trophy. Up popped boyhood Celtic fan Scott McDonald to produce two goals in the last two minutes to secure a dramatic 2-1 win for Motherwell and hand the title to Rangers, who had won 1-0 at Hibernian. So, instead of Fir Park, the helicopter headed over to Easter Road in Edinburgh to deliver the trophy to jubilant Rangers. Back in Motherwell, Australian McDonald was crying in the home dressing room about what he had done to his beloved Celtic. But he would get the chance to rectify it when he signed for them nearly two years later.

Blame the Chef! (2006)

IT was Tottenham’s biggest game for years. They needed to match Arsenal’s result in their final game to finish in the top four and have a chance of reaching the Champions League. Yet, preparations were hampered as several players were struck by food poisoning from a portion of lasagne at the Marriott Hotel where they were staying on the night before their match at West Ham. Spurs tried to get the game postponed, but they were forced to play. And with some of their team looking decidedly groggy, they slipped to a costly 2-1 defeat. Coupled with Arsenal winning 4-2 at home to Wigan, it was a nightmare afternoon for everyone at Tottenham. Allegations about the hotel being culpable were not proved, although myths about the hotel chef being a Gooner never go away. And even now, you won’t find many Spurs fans who think of lasagne in the same light!

Hollywood ending from the bench (2007)

THROUGHOUT his career, David Beckham was used to being the star attraction. Ahead of his final game for Real Madrid in 2007, he was set for the grand ending, as Real needed to win to claim La Liga ahead of Barcelona. It would mean that Beckham could walk away from Madrid as a Champion, just as he had done at Manchester United. And Hollywood star Tom Cruise was in the Bernabeu to see if his friend Beckham could deliver the blockbusting finale. The answer would be, ‘Sort of’. Real came from behind in the second half to beat Mallorca 3-1 and take the title but Beckham had been substituted by this stage. He went off when they were losing and his replacement, Jose Antonio Reyes, scored twice to turn the match around. So Beckham left with his winner’s medal, but not having been on the pitch when the main drama had taken place.

The cult hero makes an appearance (2009)

THERE is always something of a carnival atmosphere about the last day of the season, especially when nothing is at stake. When Manchester City played Bolton in 2009, all the fans wanted was to see an appearance from cult hero Glauber Berti. The Brazilian had been signed on a free transfer on the day City were taken over by the Abu Dhabi billionaires in August 2008, but he had never made an appearance. Yet, he was consistently named as a substitute by manager Mark Hughes but never brought on. Until, with six minutes to go, Berti was summoned from the bench where he was welcomed by a standing ovation and his every touch was cheered. He left that summer, but his memory lives on as some City fans refer to the subs’ bench as ‘The Berti’!

The singing manager (2009)

EMOTIONS always run high on the last day of the season when the events of the previous nine months are squeezed into 90 minutes. It had been a rollercoaster year for Hull manager Phil Brown, who had seen his side promoted for the first time to the Premier League, win at Arsenal and Tottenham on their way to the top six, admonish his players on the pitch at half-time at Manchester City and then slide into relegation trouble. On a dramatic final day, Hull lost 1-0 at home to Manchester United (a result they do not want this Sunday), but stayed up because Newcastle also lost at Aston Villa (a scenario the Tigers do want repeated this time). Brown had kept them up and responded by taking a microphone and singing ‘Sloop John B’ on the pitch at full time. Let’s hope Steve Bruce does not have similar ideas this year.

Misery to Champions in 20 seconds (2013)

IT was everything to play for as Brentford and Doncaster met on the final day of the 2012/13 League One season. After 93 minutes of tension and the score at 0-0, Brentford were awarded a penalty. Score and the Bees would go up in place of their Yorkshire opponents. Up stepped on-loan Italian forward Marcello Trotta instead of regular taker Kevin O’Connor, but he smashed his spot-kick against the bar. The ball was cleared after a scramble, setting up a Doncaster attack, which ended with James Coppinger rolling it into an empty net at the other end. Doncaster had gone from looking like finishing third and dropping into the play-offs to being promoted as Champions all in the space of 20 seconds.