Believe it or not, it's seventeen years to this day that David James caused an absolute scene...up front.
With the the Blue half of Manchester desperate for European football, a relatively unspectacular contest between Manchester City and Middlesbrough was petering out to a 1-1 draw on the final day of the 2004-05 campaign. With 15 minutes left, manager Stuart Pearce was assessing his substitution options.
As he glanced across his bench with the game ticking towards stoppage time, he made a bold decision to bring on goalkeeper Nicky Weaver in place of the outfield Claudio Reyna. Why? So he could push David James, who started in goal for City, up front for the final few minutes.
Speaking to the Athletic on the bonkers change all those years ago, James said: “Put it this way, the kitman mentioned at half-time that he had printed a shirt up for me, and I was like, ‘What do you mean?’, and he hinted that there may be a chance that I would go up front.
"I’ve spoken to Pearcey about it a few times since, and he’s said that he anticipated that I would play as a target man, so we could put it in the mixer, but I think I played more as a No 10; I didn’t know where I was supposed to be. Had I been told the day before that there was any chance, I would have stayed around for an extra hour at the end of training and just practised everything that I would have needed to do as an outfield player.”
The tactical change led to swinging miss-hits, several bad fouls and something of a lifeline. The switch, incredibly, almost paid off with James causing a nuisance and City winning a late penalty.
Robbie Fowler, though, saw his effort kept out by Boro stopper Mark Schwarzer. Had it gone in it would have ensured European football for Pearce's side.
As it finished 1-1, Boro finished seventh and qualified for the following season's UEFA Cup. Whilst the result was not what City wanted, the big talking point afterwards was all about Pearce's tweak.
Weaver, who replaced Reyna in the match, said of the memorable flashpoint: "I don’t think we’ll ever see a goalkeeper get put upfront for the last 10 minutes of a game. It was an unbelievable thing, that! That was the first thing I did at the stadium so that was my debut there!
“Jon Macken is sat next to me – we paid £5 million for him! God knows what he must have thought but it nearly worked!"
James caused a little bit of carnage and Robbie Fowler missed the penalty which would have put us into Europe. I very much doubt we’ll see it again. It was a bit of a corny thing at the time. Everyone had a laugh about it but it nearly worked."
Spare a thought for Macken who, as Weaver acknowledged, sat unused despite being a bona fide centre-forward. Speaking years later about the incident, Macken told the Athletic: "I knew (about the plan) before the game.
“There were whispers before the game that it was going to happen — there was a shirt printed with his number on, an outfield shirt, that’s how we knew about it. It was no big surprise to the players. I suppose the only big surprise was when he actually did it.”
It proved to be the final act of Macken's City career as he was sold to Crystal Palace that summer. As for James, he would go on to play until the age of 43 - thankfully for him, in his more comfortable position of between the sticks.
