Three Goals Up and Losing

[Gangster Octopus]

For the first time in well over a thousand games, I've finally seen a team blow a three goal lead and actually lose.

[elguapo4]

Three goals down and winning. Can't embed YouTube videos from my phone but Google "the Santry stadium massacre " .4.1 down at half time to your bitterest rivals and winning 6.4 takes some beating.

[blameless]

Can't say I've ever seen a team surrender a three goal lead and lose, but I have seen a team squander two two-goal leads in the same game (2-0 and 4-2) and lose 5-4.

[Satchmo Distel]

De La Soul consider rewrite.

[irony towers]

In 1987 I was at Woking vs Windsor & Eton in the FA Cup 1st Round Qualifying replay. To the best of my recollection Woking trailed 3-0 after 82 minutes, then got it to 3-3 by the end of normal time before winning 6-3 after extra time.

[Janik]

This could almost be where the adjective 'Spursy' was coined. They were famously once 3-0 up against ten men and lost.

[Gangster Octopus]

De La Soul consider rewrite.

You got it...

[Greenlander]

21st December 1985 away at Reading. They were first in the table, we were second and it was my third ever away day following Argyle. Over 2000 made the trip and when John Clayton tapped in just after half time we were 3-0 up. With about half an hour to go Kevin Hodges missed a sitter but it didn't stop us singing that version of Jingle Bells. We were all over it and when they pulled a goal back from a penalty I turned to my mate and said 'oh well 3-1 doesn't look as good as 3-0'. Twenty minutes later our world had fallen in. Trevor Senior and Kevin Bremner ripped us apart. Ever reliable Gordon Lisbet lost his head and got sent off. And as we walked out of Elm Park to our coaches a kindly Reading fan said to us 'never mind lads you'll still go up with us' to which my mate just said 'fuck off'. That was pretty much the only thing anyone said until we got home five hours later.

We were stunned. It's left mental scars on a generation of Argyle fans. I've never since felt safe with any kind of lead and never sung any song celebrating a win while the game's still going. It was and will always remain my worst ever day following Argyle.

[George C.]

For the first time in well over a thousand games, I've finally seen a team blow a three goal lead and actually lose.

Try being 4 up and losing 5-4 in the final minute.

[Sam]

This could almost be where the adjective 'Spursy' was coined. They were famously once 3-0 up against ten men and lost.

Was it Spurs who came back from 3-0 down at half time to win 4-3 against Manchester City (?) in about the 2003-04 FA Cup? I'm guessing the season based on my memory of where I was (the kitchen of my student halls) when my mate came in from the pub and told me to make sure I watched MOTD that evening, but memory plays tricks on you so I might have both the year and the teams wrong.

[Janik]

Right teams, score and competition (not sure of dates off the top of my head, but sounds about right). Wrong winner and loser. Spurs blew a 3-0 half-time lead at home (forgot that bit, this was at White Hart Lane) against a 10-man Man City team to lose 3-4.

[ursus arctos]

4 February 2004

[Jah Womble]

That was a grim old evening for me - far grimmer than SAF's Man Utd turning over Spurs' three-goal half-time lead to win 5-3 at the Lane in 2001. (Mostly because that was SAF's Man Utd in 2001. And not their decidedly-noiseless neighbours in 2004.)

Fascinating fact/s moment: Glenn Hoddle - installed as manager in '01 - had earlier that same year been on the end of another three-goal capitulation when manager of Southampton, somehow losing 3-4 at Tranmere in the FA Cup. The late, underrated Dean Richards played - and scored - in both of those games: he'd followed Hoddle to Spurs and the Utd match was his debut for us. An eventful baptism.

[ale]

Saw the four goal comeback against Arsenal when Tiote scored only goal of his NUFC career to equalise. Couldnt wait to get back into pub to discuss with rest of lads only to find they had all left stadium after the 27 minutes it took Arsenal to score 4.
Conversely we blew a similar half time lead at Loftus Rd in 1984-and went 5-3 up with 5 minutes to play but still only managed a draw.

[kokamoa]

Ipswich Town have only done this once in their history. 23 November 1985 at Oxford United. From 3-0 up after 53 minutes, by the 62nd minute John Aldridge had scored a six minute hat-trick to bring Oxford level. Gary Slatter got their winner with 10 minutes remaining. Ipswich were relegated at the end of the season by 1 point.

[Simon G]

I'm sure I remember a Central Soccer Sunday game between Port Vale and QPR where one of the two teams was 4-0 up with about 10 mins to go and the game finished 4-4. It was the season after Rangers had been first relegated from the Premier League so, I think, 96/97.

EDIT: Found the game on YouTube

[Jah Womble]

Angola led Mali by 4-0 in the opening game of their Africa Cup Of Nations in January 2010: so delighted were they with their performance that they went into cruise control for the final ten minutes - conceding four goals as they did so.

In terms of actual victories from huge deficits, in September 1976, Bayern were 0-4 down to VfL Bochum with just over half an hour remaining: somehow they turned this around to win 6-5. At one stage, seven goals were converted in the space of twenty-six minutes.

[steviecowden]

Can't say I've ever seen a team surrender a three goal lead and lose, but I have seen a team squander two two-goal leads in the same game (2-0 and 4-2) and lose 5-4.

saw huntly do this at clach a couple of years back,pretty sure I saw rothes do the same,same place as well.for a couple of years you were almost guaranteed excitement at clach-theyd either go into the last few minutes with a healthy lead and blow it or vice versa

[steviecowden]

Angola led Mali by 4-0 in the opening game of their Africa Cup Of Nations in January 2010: so delighted were they with their performance that they went into cruise control for the final ten minutes - conceding four goals as they did so.

.

didn't some daft student put his entire grant on angola winning at ridiculous odds like 1/100 when they were 4 up?

[Tapiocahead]

The third game I ever went to and one of two times I sat in the wooden stand. Bradford City were 3-0 down after 20 minutes against Brentford in March 1985. City eventually won 5-4. I don't think I've seen it happen since

[Jon]

For the first time in well over a thousand games, I've finally seen a team blow a three goal lead and actually lose.

What was the game you saw, GO?

I've seen at least one. At Upton Park, November 2003. West Ham went 3-0 up in 17 minutes, Brian Deane, on his home debut, scoring two of them. Then Rob Hulse pulled two back for West Brom and Jermaine Defoe got sent off. All in the first half. 3-2.

Second half, Deane scored a third, but it was an own goal. 3-3. Near the end there was panic in the West Ham box, a Calamity James moment and substitute Lee Hughes slotted home via a deflection in front of the away fans. Then I went off to watch the fireworks on Blackheath.

[Antepli Ejderha]

The most famous match in Turkey that featured a 3-0 lead only to lose was the late Gaziantepspor versus Fenerbahçe. At half time we lead 3-0, early in the second half we missed a sitter and then lost the match 4-3.

A remarkable turnaround you might think but this match has been surrounded by controversy with many saying there was something not right. I've spoken to lots of people about this and almost every Fenerbahçe fan says it was a remarkable comeback and almost every Gaziantepspor fan says some players threw the match. Two players are almost always named too.

[Jah Womble]

(As mentioned before on OTF...) Holidaying in Scotland during August 1971, the old man and I attended a Highland League match between Inverness Caledonian (as was) and Keith. The latter stormed into a three-goal half-time lead, only for the home side to hit back with four in the second half. In the ninetieth minute, a Caley defender then dived to head the ball off his own goalline, thereby securing the points. It remains the most exciting match I've ever attended: imagine my disappointment when football wasn't always like this.

didn't some daft student put his entire grant on angola winning at ridiculous odds like 1/100 when they were 4 up?

Quite possibly. And, to be honest, I'd have been just behind him in the queue at William Hill's.

[Jah Womble]

Actually, just thought of another from more recent times...

Didn't the Arse turn over a four-goal deficit to knock Reading out of the League Cup a few years back? (7-5, IIRC?)

[Gangster Octopus]

What was the game you saw, GO?

Wembley v Oxhey Jets.