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We all know we finished 5th and it's something that the media have at least regularly mentioned this season with it being the last time we were promoted to the Premier League.
Whilst it's a proud achievement that rightly gets spoken about, the thing I always feels gets very lost is that we only finished 4 points off the runners off.
It's even more than just an incredible newly promoted season. 38 games and a single win separately us from 3rd place and the Champions League give or take goal difference. You could argue that over the course of that season, as we know was the case back then and still is now, that Arsenal and Liverpool are getting one or two decisions that little old Ipswich didn't.
As mad as it was living through that season and being up there all season and as mad as it was going to Derby knowing we could sneak an unlikely Champions League spot, I recall the whole way through the last few months believing we might just finish 2nd.
Nobody talks about points. It's all about the league position. We really weren't far off an even more ridiculous season that the anecdotal nod to 5th suggests.
Does everyone else just remember it as 5th or, like me, when we really were close to finishing 2nd?
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The 2000/01 team on 09:31 - Nov 27 with 3013 views
I have always remembered it as 5th and was happy with that then as I am now. I never felt we were quite as good as Leeds and definitely not the teams above them. But not by a huge margin - we were competitive (the late season Liverpool draw at home springs to mind) in the mix and better than the rest.
It was a brilliant season not just because of where we finished but how we did it. In style. You’d go to a game like say Newcastle, make sure Bobby Robson got a well deserved ovation (‘one Bobby Robson’ through the game too), and know there was a probability they’d go home with nothing. And they did. Spurs at home over a chilly Christmas - wiped the floor with them and so it went on.
GB deserved his award. It was an outstanding achievement, even if it was easier to do back then. I’ve followed ITFC a long time but never really appreciated the Robson era, having grown up in it, the way I should have. I did 2000/01. It was one of the most enjoyable seasons and I even got to do the old North Stand for it. Loved it.
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The 2000/01 team on 09:57 - Nov 27 with 2953 views
The one regret I've got about that season is not missing the Champions League, it's that darn League Cup semi final second leg that should never have been played at St Andrews. If it (rightly) had been postponed until the pitch was actually playable, I'm convinced we would've beaten Brum comfortably and then given Liverpool a right going over in the final. I remember watching that final and feeling extremely wistful.
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The 2000/01 team on 09:58 - Nov 27 with 2938 views
I remember the Derby fans singing “One Nil to the Liverpool” when news came through that they had taken the lead at Charlton, as though we were supposed to be gutted at not qualifying for the Champions League.
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The 2000/01 team on 11:04 - Nov 27 with 2680 views
My memory is a very good 5th place and George and Dale almost constantly in discussion in the technical area. IMO the main reason for this great season was that the formation was constantly changing, a quick wave of arms from GB and it was all change. Opposition teams struggled to cope with this, it also showed how adaptable the players were.
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The 2000/01 team on 11:12 - Nov 27 with 2636 views
I remember the Derby fans singing “One Nil to the Liverpool” when news came through that they had taken the lead at Charlton, as though we were supposed to be gutted at not qualifying for the Champions League.
Yeah. And really annoying as we went down with Derby the next season.
I never seriously expected us to get into the Champions League positions and was not at all disappointed walking out of Pride Park that day.
But maybe that was just the result of the natural pessimism of a football fan, I was always expecting things to go awry. Let's not forget that when we beat Leicester on 14th Jan to move into 4th place, two points off 2nd, the loudest song coming from the North Stand was "We've got 40 points". A little bit tongue-in-cheek, sure, but also a genuine celebration of the fact that it looked like we should stay up.
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The 2000/01 team on 11:48 - Nov 27 with 2527 views
The 2000/01 team on 11:46 - Nov 27 by TrumptonBlue
I never seriously expected us to get into the Champions League positions and was not at all disappointed walking out of Pride Park that day.
But maybe that was just the result of the natural pessimism of a football fan, I was always expecting things to go awry. Let's not forget that when we beat Leicester on 14th Jan to move into 4th place, two points off 2nd, the loudest song coming from the North Stand was "We've got 40 points". A little bit tongue-in-cheek, sure, but also a genuine celebration of the fact that it looked like we should stay up.
I'd bite my own arm off for 40 points this season.
I recall Liverpool getting a later winner one week and the feeling on the coach home (from whoever we were playing) being one of gutted that we’d not finish in the top 3!!
I do wonder how much championsleague would have changed our 01 season.
We had European football that season and it has been argued, with some justification I think, that the perceived need to "strengthen" the squad to cope with that extra competition and the reality of how that strengthening went contributed to our drop off in performance and ultimately relegation.
Would the prospect of CL football have allowed us to make a better fist of the squad acquisitions? And would that have made a difference to league performances/positions?
The one regret I've got about that season is not missing the Champions League, it's that darn League Cup semi final second leg that should never have been played at St Andrews. If it (rightly) had been postponed until the pitch was actually playable, I'm convinced we would've beaten Brum comfortably and then given Liverpool a right going over in the final. I remember watching that final and feeling extremely wistful.
was it really almost postponed? i remember our players from the time complaining in interviews that the pitch had been watered all day long before the game to make it hard for us to play on, but had no idea it was almost called off.
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The 2000/01 team on 13:25 - Nov 27 with 2198 views
I recall Liverpool getting a later winner one week and the feeling on the coach home (from whoever we were playing) being one of gutted that we’d not finish in the top 3!!
We were hopeful of catching Liverpool because they were in all the cups (including the Cup Winners I think) and had a fixture overload to the extent Houillier was complaining in the media.
Despite this though, they annoyingly kept churning out results. A late McAllister winner at Everton was one I remember p1ssing me off.
was it really almost postponed? i remember our players from the time complaining in interviews that the pitch had been watered all day long before the game to make it hard for us to play on, but had no idea it was almost called off.
I seem to recall reports of blowtorches being used to heat it up. That may have been a joke at the time though! Birmingham definitely benefited from Richard Wright 'doing a Bryan Gunn' for one of their goals, where the ball hit a divot and bobbled over his foot and into our net.
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The 2000/01 team on 13:32 - Nov 27 with 2149 views
I seem to recall reports of blowtorches being used to heat it up. That may have been a joke at the time though! Birmingham definitely benefited from Richard Wright 'doing a Bryan Gunn' for one of their goals, where the ball hit a divot and bobbled over his foot and into our net.
yeah, i'll never forget that. his swing (and miss) seemed to take forever, as did the ball rolling into the net.
the pitch invasions for all their goals (and ours, to be fair) were also mental. the atmosphere was probably the most hostile i've been to. maybe it was spurred by all the 'free drinks if blues win' posters i spotted on the pubs near the ground...
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The 2000/01 team on 14:23 - Nov 27 with 2029 views
As well as the shenanigans at St Andrew's, what sticks in the memory is a terrible miss from Marcus in the home leg that would have put us 2 up. You'd have put your proverbial mortgage on him scoring, but he sliced it horribly. He did OK for us otherwise, though.
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The 2000/01 team on 22:25 - Nov 27 with 1587 views
We had European football that season and it has been argued, with some justification I think, that the perceived need to "strengthen" the squad to cope with that extra competition and the reality of how that strengthening went contributed to our drop off in performance and ultimately relegation.
Would the prospect of CL football have allowed us to make a better fist of the squad acquisitions? And would that have made a difference to league performances/positions?
IMO probably not.
We would certainly have been able to sign those we did and probably an upgrade on what we did too.
The bigger difference would have been playing earlier in the week and having more time to recover from the away trips.
We would certainly have been able to sign those we did and probably an upgrade on what we did too.
The bigger difference would have been playing earlier in the week and having more time to recover from the away trips.
Also. Being championsleague and having group stages would have meant more European football so we probbalt would have attracted even higher level footballers compared to a knockout competition. ( I am remembering our euro campaign correctly and it was auto knockout rounds wasn't it.
I recall Liverpool getting a later winner one week and the feeling on the coach home (from whoever we were playing) being one of gutted that we’d not finish in the top 3!!
Pretty sure you are talking about McAllister last minute goal at Everton where he beat ex goalkeeper Paul Gerrard by distance.
We beat Middlesbrough away that same day 2-1. Both goals scored by Armstrong.
[Post edited 28 Nov 2024 17:01]
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The 2000/01 team on 14:24 - Nov 28 with 1266 views
The 2000/01 team on 11:46 - Nov 27 by TrumptonBlue
I never seriously expected us to get into the Champions League positions and was not at all disappointed walking out of Pride Park that day.
But maybe that was just the result of the natural pessimism of a football fan, I was always expecting things to go awry. Let's not forget that when we beat Leicester on 14th Jan to move into 4th place, two points off 2nd, the loudest song coming from the North Stand was "We've got 40 points". A little bit tongue-in-cheek, sure, but also a genuine celebration of the fact that it looked like we should stay up.
I was obvious happy with where we ended up, but there was an element of ‘what if’ during the really good run in we had through Feb and March. I remember thinking a CL spot was looking well within grasp for a little while.
We would certainly have been able to sign those we did and probably an upgrade on what we did too.
The bigger difference would have been playing earlier in the week and having more time to recover from the away trips.
It wasn't the trips that were the problem. The focus on staying up had gone, we'd finished 5th, cracked the Premier league hadnt we, bonuses all round, remember even Sheepshanks took a bonus. I wonder what today's fans would make of our CEO/Chairman paying themselves a bonus like that...or his standing on the pitch at the San Siro like Ozymandias admiring his works.
Even the Star who had steered a path of look 4th bottom is a great result in season 1, also took the eye off the ball in season 2.
There were 2 games that could have saved us, Bolton at Home, Bolton Away. Win those we stay up.we lost both, we barely even turned up for Bolton away.
It had nothing to do with Europe.
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The 2000/01 team on 20:58 - Nov 28 with 1036 views
It wasn't the trips that were the problem. The focus on staying up had gone, we'd finished 5th, cracked the Premier league hadnt we, bonuses all round, remember even Sheepshanks took a bonus. I wonder what today's fans would make of our CEO/Chairman paying themselves a bonus like that...or his standing on the pitch at the San Siro like Ozymandias admiring his works.
Even the Star who had steered a path of look 4th bottom is a great result in season 1, also took the eye off the ball in season 2.
There were 2 games that could have saved us, Bolton at Home, Bolton Away. Win those we stay up.we lost both, we barely even turned up for Bolton away.
It had nothing to do with Europe.
Whilst there is some truth in what you say, our record after travelling in Europe:
Even after the home matches the results were 2 draws and a defeat.
You are right Bolton away was an especially embarrassing capitulation. They were a bit of a bogey side for us apart from when we overcame them in the play-off semi-finals.
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