I was just thinking this morning about relegation, not in a wishful way, but realising we are maybe just 90 minutes away from that possibility. I was trying to remember how I felt after each of our previous drops and how long it took before I realised there wasn't going to be a quick return. 68/69 Doesn't really sit clear how I felt as that was my 1st season of actually going to HQ and having come off two great years the shock of suddenly being cast adrift at the bottom and being down before Easter if my memory is right was a bit unreal, it was like we'd suddenly appeared in something we'd all read about for years but didn't fit in. Worse memory was the 8-1 at Old Trafford, I didn't go but had the piss taken at school for the rest of that season. I remember us winning quite few games at the start of the following season but fading away as we did the following season. 78/79 This was a real comedown, from the dreamy mid 70s when we were the best footballing team in the country to a pretty disjointed and poor side that looked the part for most of that season. The only consolation was Chelsea finished bottom and we won 3-1 at the Bridge. The worse part of it was the beginning of the following season thinking at last we'll start winning some matches and I vividly remember a dire performance at home to Leicester who thrashed us 4-1 in August, the realisation that it wasn't going to be a quick return was as bad as the relegation. 95/96 "He's as versatile as an egg" is a phrase which 16 years later still makes my blood boil. The unremarkable Ned Zelic was one of the misfits Sir Les's £6 million was squandered on by Wilkins who led us tamely to the drop. Three late home wins were too little too late and our demise was hastened by the appointment of 'Houston, we have a problem' early the following season. Sheron and Spencer arrived at over £2 million each and failed to turn us into anything more than an average side under uninspiring leadership. Paulo Wanchope was given three trial games for the reserves and scored five goals but then released, a few months later he popped up at Old Trafford scoring a wonder goal for Derby, that said it all! 00/01 The inevitable happened as our financial meltdown saw Gerry Francis depart a second time and Ian Holloway arrive too late to stop the rot. 24 players were released in the end-of-season adminstrator's cull and Ollie was reduced to running 'turn up and try your luck' trials for new players during the summer. Somehow the seriousness of our plight produced some of the most enjoyable matches to be at that I can remember, it was like the club was reborn with us as part of it. Us against the world and Ollie's incredible verve really struck a chord. So we come to this season, strangely, I don't feel relegation will be anywhere near as bad as before as we have an owner who is publicly stating that it will not deter him. That remains to be seen, but with some key additions I would expect us to be right in the mix and challenging. It won't be as easy as some may think but we are better placed than at any of the previous relegations. What are your memories of the drop?
Good Lord Sooper, great post, but that last paragraph reads like you fully expect us to be relegated, or am I adrift of your intentions there?
I'm confident Bolton won't win, but if they do and we do go down I think we're in better shape than any of the previous times, even at the end of the 70s...
Horrible memories, especially 78/79. Prefer to remember the good times like we all going to have this Sunday evening
I only remember the last two and the one from the Prem was definitely the worst - the realisation that we were an empty shell without Ferdinand scoring 20 a season and Francis in charge. Didn't John Spencer do alright for us? I seem to remember seeing him a couple of times and thinking his ball control and movement were above the division we were in.
He did better than Sheron but their partnership didn't really work and we failed to make the play-offs, he tailed off the following season...
Cheers sooper. I do try to forget Sheron though (pushing him to the recesses of my brain where only psychiatrists can unearth him).
