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Post by squeeze. on Sept 7, 2023 10:34:42 GMT
Saw this elsewhere & with no game the weekend thought I’d ask out of curiosity -
What are the biggest sliding doors / what if moments in our history for you?
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Post by mike_CUFC on Sept 7, 2023 10:43:28 GMT
First one that comes to mind is:
- What if we'd beaten Leicester and then made it to the inaugural PL season? Would we have done a Derby or would the money have given us an early chance and sustaining ourselves in top 1/2 leagues
The other obvious one being what if we hadn't survived in 2007 in the conference and had gone down to the regionals. Surely oblivion and a new phoenix club would have potentially happened.
Two very polar opposites but the biggest I can think of in my years of watching United.
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Post by texaspete on Sept 7, 2023 10:44:34 GMT
Lots of pretty obvious stand-outs:
(1) Bradford Park Avenue were re-elected/ Cambridge City were elected to the Football League in 1970
(2) We beat Leicester in the play-offs in 1992 and became inaugural members of the Premier League
(3) Robbie Simpson didn’t become a goal machine in spring 2007 and we were relegated to regional football
(4) We beat Altrincham 4-0 on the final day in 2009 and went up to League 2 as Champions completing the greatest ever promotion comeback
(5) Gateshead equalised in the 2014 play-off final and went on to win against our 10 men
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Post by El Goodo on Sept 7, 2023 10:50:10 GMT
(5) Gateshead equalised in the 2014 play-off final and went on to win against our 10 men I often wonder about this one. I think we absolutely would have gone on to lose if they'd got another goal. But as to what that might have meant the next season, I think it wouldn't have derailed us. I think Money would have stayed, and I think without Luton in the division we'd likely have won it. The 2-2 away at Altrincham under Jez that was one of the key results in keeping us up comes to mind for me. Came back from 2-0 down to draw against a team that I think would have gone above us (and out of the relegation zone, dropping us into it) with a win. |
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soulhalshall
Youth team star
Posts: 1,460
Favourite CUFC player: Courtney Pitt
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Post by soulhalshall on Sept 7, 2023 11:01:11 GMT
When I first became a fan, without any previous family connection to the club, the idea that we had ever even been in the second tier, let alone close to top level, was totally unbelievable to me. I used to think that getting there would have changed everything but I imagine probably we'd have become an Oldham, Swindon, etc. and no-one would have remembered we were there in the first place, not that that matters actually, it's more important what we remember.
So the other ones mentioned above probably more important - Cambridge City, league election, going out of business. I wonder how far back we'd be now had that happened in 2005.
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Post by Andrewlang on Sept 7, 2023 11:12:19 GMT
I believe we would have just about survived regional football but it would have dramatically shifted the size of the club and it's immediate potential. I think we'd possibly be a Torquay or York type club right now.
The potential of a phoenix club is interesting but as I suspect us going bust would've meant a housing estate on the Abbey site right now I'm really not sure I see us having the relative successes of a Chester or Halifax who were able to stay at their grounds...or even without a decent sized non-league club we could exploit I don't think we'd be able to replicate Wimbledon's success either. We'd ground share with St Neots maybe..? There's not much potential for recovery there.
Andrew
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Post by milesfenton on Sept 7, 2023 11:21:42 GMT
Not as monumental as some of these, but more recent. If Sam Smith wasn't wrongly given offside at MK Dons last year, and we go on to win 1-0 rather than lose 1-0.
Does that kick start an earlier revival, leading to us staying up comfortably? Or do we never get the Great Escape momentum later on and end up relegated?
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Post by milesfenton on Sept 7, 2023 11:23:52 GMT
Actually, maybe a better one.
What if Covid didn't happen, so Bonner takes over straight away instead of having such an unusually long planning period at the start of his career. Do we assemble such a good squad of cast offs and get promoted anyway or not?
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Post by Andrewlang on Sept 7, 2023 11:28:02 GMT
"Actually, maybe a better one.
What if Covid didn't happen, so Bonner takes over straight away instead of having such an unusually long planning period at the start of his career. Do we assemble such a good squad of cast offs and get promoted anyway or not?"
I guess the situation was the same for everyone where they all had the same planning time and circumstances they were working under so...yes. Maybe.
Andrew
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belly77
Reserve team substitute
Posts: 2,722
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Post by belly77 on Sept 7, 2023 11:34:48 GMT
If George Hoddle had come on the pitch in that 2-0 defeat the club would have been docked points and relegated over an admin error.
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Post by ilovechadders on Sept 7, 2023 11:40:29 GMT
What if we had employed a decent manager instead of John Ryan … same can be said of Ken Shiletto and Steve Thompson. Would we have stayed up and managed to re-build.
Leicester away was obviously the biggest one in terms of ambition though.
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Post by HelterSkelter on Sept 7, 2023 11:52:12 GMT
I still maintain we'd have been a mid-table PL team had we gone up. It's possible the team would have been dismantled - but this was pre "extremely silly money" in the PL and I'm sure everyone would have wanted to stick around and see what they could have done.
You can argue that we were found out by Leicester and would it have taken PL teams long to also figure us out? I think it would, none of them were particularly geared up for a team effectively missing out the middle third of the field.
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Mark of Carnage
Reserve team substitute
Responsibility, Resilience, Respect
Posts: 2,556 
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Post by Mark of Carnage on Sept 7, 2023 11:58:10 GMT
Losing to Torquay in the 2009 play off final was disapointing enough but had Histon beaten Torquay in the play off semis and we instead lost to them at Wembley who knows how our future would have panned out.
Nightmarish alternative universe with Histon as the local EFL club. Not saying it necessarily would have been as catastrophic to us as it was to Camb City when we were elected to the EFL in 1970 but would certainly have been a disaster for us.
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Post by saltyvinegar on Sept 7, 2023 12:02:13 GMT
What if JB had come to his senses around December of the 1991/92 season & realised we had quite a few decent footballers who could play a bit. We wouldn't have needed the play-offs then as we were definitely better than Middlesborough who went up automatically to the inaugural Premiershite
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laker
Youth team star
Posts: 1,593
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Post by laker on Sept 7, 2023 12:07:03 GMT
What if JB had come to his senses around December of the 1991/92 season & realised we had quite a few decent footballers who could play a bit. We wouldn't have needed the play-offs then as we were definitely better than Middlesborough who went up automatically to the inaugural Premiershite Yes I agree. That team was incredibly effective and efficient in Division 3 and the first half of Division 2 but then we got found out a bit and kept drawing games. If Beck had let us off the leash a bit and given the players a bit more freedom then I do think we’d have gained more points and therefore been a lot closer to automatic promotion, maybe even going up. |
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