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What if Gerry Taggart’s goal had stood against Everton 20 years ago?
When referee Stephen Lodge failed to agree the Northern Irishman’s header had crossed the line before Terry Phelan’s intervention, no-one could have possibly predicted the far-reaching effects two dropped points could have on Wanderers.
Eight months later, Colin Todd’s team were relegated on goal difference at Chelsea and it was Howard Kendall’s Blues who preserved their position in the top flight with a dramatic point against Coventry City, the crucial goal scored by Gareth Farrelly – who would go on to play at Bolton.
Todd’s exciting team was largely disbanded and financial pressures forced the club to seek a different direction.
The man himself has always maintained the team would have evolved had they kept their Premier League status.
“One goal,” he reflected when speaking with The Bolton News over the summer. “It is funny to think that one goal could have changed a lot for us.
“I know a lot of things happened over the course of the season but the team we had was riding on the crest of a wave after promotion. It was sad what happened in the end.
“It is hard not to look back and wonder if it would have been different.”
At the time it happened, a serious injury to defender Robbie Elliott looked like having the biggest impact on Wanderers’ season after the final whistle – the club record signing breaking his leg in a challenge with Blues’ full-back Tony Thomas.
Indeed, looking back at results between December and March, there were ample occasions on which the Whites could have picked up some slack. Capitulations against Coventry City, Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday spring to mind.
In truth, there were all sorts of reasons why Todd’s side did not have the same success they had enjoyed as First Division champions, and perhaps in that there is a lesson for the modern day side.
Another 30-plus games came and went before the fateful day at Stamford Bridge when Gianluca Vialli and Jody Morris rubber-stamped relegation, shining the spotlight on the ‘goal that never was’.
Had Wanderers switched on quicker to the higher level and recognised they had to curb their free-flowing attacking ways against a better class of opponent, they may have salvaged a few extra results?
Phil Parkinson’s side were promoted on the back of supreme organisation, an almost mechanical work ethic and a physical threat with which most teams in League One struggled to contend. Now, in the Championship, the manager and the players are having to think on their feet.
The addition of Craig Noone should give the manager some added tactical flexibility, perhaps even the opportunity to resort back to a back four with two protective midfielders offering a little extra protection which was lacking so evidently at Hull City.
It is ironic that goal-line technology which would have detected the officials’ error was installed for the first time at the Macron Stadium this summer, meaning this kind of injustice should – theoretically – never happen again.
There will always be a flashpoint like Taggart’s ‘goal’ on which failure can be pinned and maybe the trick for Parkinson and his team is to make sure they don’t get left wondering what might have been.
There is a school of thought that referee Lodge may even have done the Whites a favour – although the bank manager is sure to disagree.
Had Wanderers not taken a step back at that stage, they may never have reached out for former player Sam Allardyce, and the most successful spell in the club’s modern history ‘may’ never have appeared at all.
With a bigger budget, the Whites would not have been scouring far and wide for the same bargains and who is to say whether gambles would have been taken on players like Gary Speed, Jay Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff and Fernando Hierro?
Perhaps, in the long run, it was worth it.
Source
When referee Stephen Lodge failed to agree the Northern Irishman’s header had crossed the line before Terry Phelan’s intervention, no-one could have possibly predicted the far-reaching effects two dropped points could have on Wanderers.
Eight months later, Colin Todd’s team were relegated on goal difference at Chelsea and it was Howard Kendall’s Blues who preserved their position in the top flight with a dramatic point against Coventry City, the crucial goal scored by Gareth Farrelly – who would go on to play at Bolton.
Todd’s exciting team was largely disbanded and financial pressures forced the club to seek a different direction.
The man himself has always maintained the team would have evolved had they kept their Premier League status.
“One goal,” he reflected when speaking with The Bolton News over the summer. “It is funny to think that one goal could have changed a lot for us.
“I know a lot of things happened over the course of the season but the team we had was riding on the crest of a wave after promotion. It was sad what happened in the end.
“It is hard not to look back and wonder if it would have been different.”
At the time it happened, a serious injury to defender Robbie Elliott looked like having the biggest impact on Wanderers’ season after the final whistle – the club record signing breaking his leg in a challenge with Blues’ full-back Tony Thomas.
Indeed, looking back at results between December and March, there were ample occasions on which the Whites could have picked up some slack. Capitulations against Coventry City, Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday spring to mind.
In truth, there were all sorts of reasons why Todd’s side did not have the same success they had enjoyed as First Division champions, and perhaps in that there is a lesson for the modern day side.
Another 30-plus games came and went before the fateful day at Stamford Bridge when Gianluca Vialli and Jody Morris rubber-stamped relegation, shining the spotlight on the ‘goal that never was’.
Had Wanderers switched on quicker to the higher level and recognised they had to curb their free-flowing attacking ways against a better class of opponent, they may have salvaged a few extra results?
Phil Parkinson’s side were promoted on the back of supreme organisation, an almost mechanical work ethic and a physical threat with which most teams in League One struggled to contend. Now, in the Championship, the manager and the players are having to think on their feet.
The addition of Craig Noone should give the manager some added tactical flexibility, perhaps even the opportunity to resort back to a back four with two protective midfielders offering a little extra protection which was lacking so evidently at Hull City.
It is ironic that goal-line technology which would have detected the officials’ error was installed for the first time at the Macron Stadium this summer, meaning this kind of injustice should – theoretically – never happen again.
There will always be a flashpoint like Taggart’s ‘goal’ on which failure can be pinned and maybe the trick for Parkinson and his team is to make sure they don’t get left wondering what might have been.
There is a school of thought that referee Lodge may even have done the Whites a favour – although the bank manager is sure to disagree.
Had Wanderers not taken a step back at that stage, they may never have reached out for former player Sam Allardyce, and the most successful spell in the club’s modern history ‘may’ never have appeared at all.
With a bigger budget, the Whites would not have been scouring far and wide for the same bargains and who is to say whether gambles would have been taken on players like Gary Speed, Jay Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff and Fernando Hierro?
Perhaps, in the long run, it was worth it.
Source
