Manchester City overcame Newcastle United in the FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday but it could have been very different as Man City were helped by an astonishing Dwight Gayle miss just a moment before doubling their lead in the second half.
The defeat means that we are still awaiting our first earned trip to the new Wembley having not reached the semi-finals since 2005.
Pep Guardiola's side dominated the first half and will feel they should have scored more than their solitary first half goal from Kevin De Bruyne's penalty. Their attack may have been busy but Karl Darlow was not worked too strenuously.
We came out in the second half a much better team and one that stood a chance of getting back into the game. The equaliser would have come if Dwight Gayle had not managed to balloon his shot over the bar from close range. Joelinton would have scored it. Lascelles would have scored it to score his first non-headed goal for the club. A bloody Bambi on ice would have scored it. The feeling of despair was then compounded a moment later as Raheem Sterling perfectly placed his shot to double the lead before the rest of the match was calmly played out.
Stats from the game
117: The amount of shots Man City have had against us in the last seven encounters.
1987: The last year in the FA Cup where the away team won every match in the quarter-finals; Coventry, Tottenham, Watford and Leeds beat Sheffield Wednesday, Wimbledon, Arsenal and Wigan respectively.
3rd: The six goals we have scored past Man City since the start of the 2017/18 season is the third most they have conceded from one team in English football behind Liverpool (8) and Man United (11).
I wonder if the match would have played out differently if we had a proper home advantage as I am sure that the crowd have been a huge factor in our win and draw over Man City in 2019. However, given the current climate, I am pleased that we were still able to play the match even if it was with an absent crowd.
This defeat really hurt for me. It hurts to see that the final four teams left in the competition could not give a single s**t about the FA Cup. Whoever wins the final will shrug their shoulders, ungratefully say they want the league and ask for some sort of super league to be created. Whereas if we managed to go all the way, it would have meant so much to us all. We see how Liverpool celebrated their title last week; of course it was inevitable for it to happen most of the season but their fans celebrated like no tomorrow because it meant so much to them to end their 30-year long wait. Winning the FA Cup would have meant just as much, if not more, to us than to Liverpool fans winning the title.