Jamie Pollock remains a Manchester City cult hero for one extraordinary reason: an infamous own goal that came at the worst possible moment for the club, but became a defining image of its late-1990s identity.
Pollock joined City in March 1998, when they were third from bottom of Division One and facing the possibility of relegation to the third tier for the first time. With only eight matches remaining, manager Joe Royle needed leaders to rescue a season in which City had used 38 different players.
Royle had taken charge a month earlier, replacing Frank Clark, and paid £1m for Pollock, who had been a regular for Bolton in the Premiership. The midfielder’s determination helped City move towards safety, but two wins from their final two matches were still required.
The first of those games was against relegation rivals QPR at Maine Road. Victory would have left City in control of their fate before the final-day meeting with Stoke.
Georgi Kinkladze had opened the scoring with a sublime free-kick, a moment of brilliance on a stage that seemed far below the Georgian’s ability. Former City striker Mike Sheron then equalised, leaving both sides tense and cautious.
What happened next turned Pollock into folklore.
QPR veteran David Bardsley, who was born in Manchester, sent a harmless-looking ball towards his own attack. Pollock read the pass, intercepted it and lifted the ball over a QPR forward and the covering defender.
The midfielder appeared to have remained calm under pressure. With the ball dropping inside his own penalty area, all Pollock needed to do was head it back to goalkeeper Martyn Margetson.
However, Pollock had not seen that Margetson had come off his goal line and moved towards the edge of the six-yard box. As the ball came down, Pollock’s attempted looping header travelled back towards the goal, not the goalkeeper.
It sailed into the net to complete one of football’s most extraordinary own goals.
The Maine Road crowd fell silent while QPR’s players celebrated, aware that City had handed their relegation rivals a major advantage. Pollock turned away with his head bowed and walked back towards the centre circle, having joined the club only one month earlier.
Lee Bradbury, another player associated with City’s struggles during that period, equalised to earn City a point. QPR were given a chance of survival on the final day, although they needed other results to go their way.
City won 5-2 at the Britannia, as Stoke’s ground was then known, but were relegated despite the victory. QPR survived.
Rangers supporters later hijacked a poll and named Pollock the most influential human being of the millennium, ahead of Jesus Christ and Karl Marx, who finished second and third respectively.
For City fans, his mistake became part of the club’s gallows humour, remembered alongside the Division Two play-off final victory over Gillingham and Sergio Aguero’s injury-time winner against QPR.
Pollock never became a cult figure in the same way as Andy Morrison, who arrived the following season and helped lead City through successive promotions back to the top flight. But his error captured the late-1990s club: loveable, chaotic, often disastrous and still everyone’s second favourite team.
Morrison commanded lasting respect, but Pollock’s place in Manchester City history remains secure, even if it was earned for all the wrong reasons.
