Joe Hart recalls “15-minute nightmare”

'Keeper ready to kick-off new campaign with Saints visit

By Zain Alvi | 19th August 2012

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has urged his teammates to fight successfully for silverware every season but admits that the roller-coaster 2011-12 title race left him sweating on the final match-day.

City, who controlled their destiny going into the last game of the season at home to QPR, needed to match Manchester United’s result to lift the title at the Red Devils’ expense.

However, trailing 2-1 late in the match and knowing that United were on course for a win away to Sunderland, Hart and his teammates felt that they were pretty much out of it until two stunning goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero dramatically won them the title.

While Hart admits that winning the title in such memorable fashion was thrilling, he has described the whole match as a blur that mostly reminds him of the anxious feelings he experienced with the Citizens trailing.

“I’ve watched the goals back but not the whole game. It was a bit of a depressing blur to be honest until the very end. For about 15 minutes during the game — and it felt like three or four hours — I was thinking what effect it would have on the club if we didn’t win the title,” Hart was quoted.

He added: “I was thinking I was going to be a horrible person to be around, and what a waste of time the whole year would have been. It would have been a horrendous summer, but we got there.

“It was chaos after Aguero’s goal, but now we are just looking forward to getting it on again. For a while we felt like we were the most important people in the world but things move on.”

Indeed, moving on will be the key for Roberto Mancini’s defending champions, with a strong start critical as they host Southampton at the Etihad Stadium shortly.