Blasts from the past

[denzel ecfc]

On a day off and bored today, I found myself flicking through an old Playfair from 1993.
I SAID PLAYFAIR NOT MAYFAIR
Anyway, intriguingly I was reading that whilst one of the current league two sides was surviving another division in the top flight, and another was narrowly missing out in the play offs to get there (losing to a team later relegated for 'financial irregularities', a third was losing 6-0 at home to Tiverton Town in the fifth round of the FA Vase.

A night with Jobi McAnuff to whomever names all three without googling.

 

[RLC]

Us, Oldham and Forest Green ?

I will swerve the prize.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Us, Oldham and Forest Green ?

I will swerve the prize.

I doubt the second one will ever be forgotten by you lot. I was house sharing at the time with a Pompey fan and I dont think he ever got over not going up despite leading for much of the season and ending on 88 points with Whittingham getting 42 league goals.

 

[RLC]

I doubt the second one will ever be forgotten by you lot. I was house sharing at the time with a Pompey fan and I dont think he ever got over not going up despite leading for much of the season and ending on 88 points with Whittingham getting 42 league goals.

Yes, it was our highest ever League finish. Unfortunately, we were two down inside three minutes in the play off first leg at the County Ground and never recovered.

However, Swindon were allowed to go up that season. It was three years earlier that they were demoted, although it did have implications for us as we were briefly promoted to the Second Division, but were 'relegated' again when Swindon's punishment was reduced.

 

[masi51]

On a day off and bored today, I found myself flicking through an old Playfair from 1993.
I SAID PLAYFAIR NOT MAYFAIR
Anyway, intriguingly I was reading that whilst one of the current league two sides was surviving another division in the top flight, and another was narrowly missing out in the play offs to get there (losing to a team later relegated for 'financial irregularities', a third was losing 6-0 at home to Tiverton Town in the fifth round of the FA Vase.

A night with Jobi McAnuff to whomever names all three without googling.

You never mentioned which lge 2 team got promoted from lge one that year and which lge 2 team lost in the play offs
Dont know if that question is correct as it was named lge 2 back then

 

[denzel ecfc]

Ok, funny how you forget things.
We stayed up by three points, but i don't remember being in a relegation fight. Maybe we just tailed off because what I recall the most from that season was losing in the area final of the Autoglass trophy when it mattered. A trip to Wembley would have been our first and I still dont know how Port Vale ended up in the Southern section. It was a tense night on the terraces that evening.

 

[valefan16]

Ok, funny how you forget things.
We stayed up by three points, but i don't remember being in a relegation fight. Maybe we just tailed off because what I recall the most from that season was losing in the area final of the Autoglass trophy when it mattered. A trip to Wembley would have been our first and I still dont know how Port Vale ended up in the Southern section. It was a tense night on the terraces that evening.

Ended up our first Wembley visit... oddly only had to wait a week for the second in the play off final. Great side we had, sure it’s up there as the highest points total not to go up, got auto promotion on less the next season.

Didn’t we get a dodgy penalty to win it and your fans attacked the referee?

 

[denzel ecfc]

Ended up our first Wembley visit... oddly only had to wait a week for the second in the play off final. Great side we had, sure it’s up there as the highest points total not to go up, got auto promotion on less the next season.

Didn’t we get a dodgy penalty to win it and your fans attacked the referee?

Passions ran high in those days. I recall some incidents but couldn't possibly say if they were conclusive.
That may have been the season when we had three or four thousand in to see us win the Devon Bowl. Strange times.

 

[GTFCfish]

I was gonna guess Oldham Cambridge and FGR so 2 out of 3 ain’t bad as Meatloaf once said.

 

[denzel ecfc]

I was gonna guess Oldham Cambridge and FGR so 2 out of 3 ain’t bad as Meatloaf once said.

Cambridge were relegated that season. When we were champions of Division 4 in 90 the 3 other teams who came up were Cambridge, Grimsby and Southend. All three of those were promoted again 12 months later. We sold half our side and finished 16th. What might have been..

 

[GTFCfish]

Cambridge were relegated that season. When we were champions of Division 4 in 90 the 3 other teams who came up were Cambridge, Grimsby and Southend. All three of those were promoted again 12 months later. We sold half our side and finished 16th. What might have been..

Yeah and funnily enough that second season promotion our last game was against you with 14000+ at Blundell Park.
We had to win or else the biggest team in England - Bolton - would have gone up instead.
We went 2-0 up then you pulled one back second half and then you hit the post near the end, I was shitting bricks.
Bizarrely enough despite Bolton being massive according to some uneducated people their final game only had 12800 there, over a thousand less than at Blundell Park.
And then Bolton lost the play off final to Tranmere.

 

[masi51]

Yeah and funnily enough that second season promotion our last game was against you with 14000+ at Blundell Park.
We had to win or else the biggest team in England - Bolton - would have gone up instead.
We went 2-0 up then you pulled one back second half and then you hit the post near the end, I was shitting bricks.
Bizarrely enough despite Bolton being massive according to some uneducated people their final game only had 12800 there, over a thousand less than at Blundell Park.
And then Bolton lost the play off final to Tranmere.

ahh but who is the one uneducated.....That was our penultimate home game
Our last home game of that season was against Bury over 19k on

 

[Robshep]

ahh but who is the one uneducated.....That was our penultimate home game
Our last home game of that season was against Bury over 19k on

Such an enormous club.

 

[Robshep]

ahh but who is the one uneducated.....That was our penultimate home game
Our last home game of that season was against Bury over 19k on

If you want to prove how big your club really is why not suggest on your fan forum that you start a charity fund for local causes and run it for 3 weeks.

 

[masi51]

If you want to prove how big your club really is why not suggest on your fan forum that you start a charity fund for local causes and run it for 3 weeks.

Well that is pretty random
Plenty who do that sort of thing.......The club has a nominated charity Derrian house Which is a local Hospice
The club has donated 1000s over the years

 

[Robshep]

Well that is pretty random
Plenty who do that sort of thing.......The club has a nominated charity Derrian house Which is a local Hospice
The club has donated 1000s over the years

Fans not the club.

 

[GTFCfish]

Such an enormous club.

Go on, what’s he said now?

 

[masi51]

Go on, what’s he said now?

give it a rest for once

 

[Laker]

I was gonna guess Oldham Cambridge and FGR so 2 out of 3 ain’t bad as Meatloaf once said.

We lost in the play off semis the year before. We were relegated in 92/93 by a point.

 

[GTFCfish]

We lost in the play off semis the year before. We were relegated in 92/93 by a point.

Ahh right I remembered you being in the play offs around that time, with that team you had with Dion Dublin up front.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Not as such subject but related, but I do sometimes think back to just how many sides I grew up watching as regulars in div 4/3 in the 90’s who were your mainstays in this league have drastically changed these days one way or other.

you have Exeter, Carlisle, Scunthorpe, Colchester who still dig around here after odd spells higher or lower. You also have orient and Walsall who have usually been mainstays in bottom 2 leagues for a long while. Northampton usually shuffle between here and above.

but Torquay, Chester, Hartlepool, Hereford, Darlington, Barnet, York, Scarborough, Rochdale, now bury all long gone probs dale one of few who may get back.....not that they’d want to.

north got hit very badly with a lot of the established older L2 level clubs long gone, shame as we used to get good 500-1000 away crowds from many of them.

sometimes feel more like an old Carlisle fan when watching Curzon in conf north

 

[Laker]

Ahh right I remembered you being in the play offs around that time, with that team you had with Dion Dublin up front.

Ah the days. My first game was Cambridge v Grimsby at the Abbey in December 1990. The company my dad worked for used to sponsor Grimsby at the time and we got free tickets - he didn’t think I was bothered about football (and I wasn’t really until I went) and I was only six. Anyway Dublin scored a 90th minute winner and I was hooked - we went to nearly every league game for the rest of the season and we won Division 3 on the final day.

 

[Robshep]

Not as such subject but related, but I do sometimes think back to just how many sides I grew up watching as regulars in div 4/3 in the 90’s who were your mainstays in this league have drastically changed these days one way or other.

you have Exeter, Carlisle, Scunthorpe, Colchester who still dig around here after odd spells higher or lower. You also have orient and Walsall who have usually been mainstays in bottom 2 leagues for a long while. Northampton usually shuffle between here and above.

but Torquay, Chester, Hartlepool, Hereford, Darlington, Barnet, York, Scarborough, Rochdale, now bury all long gone probs dale one of few who may get back.....not that they’d want to.

north got hit very badly with a lot of the established older L2 level clubs long gone, shame as we used to get good 500-1000 away crowds from many of them.

sometimes feel more like an old Carlisle fan when watching Curzon in conf north

Rochdale are in League 1

 

[GTFCfish]

Ah the days. My first game was Cambridge v Grimsby at the Abbey in December 1990. The company my dad worked for used to sponsor Grimsby at the time and we got free tickets - he didn’t think I was bothered about football (and I wasn’t really until I went) and I was only six. Anyway Dublin scored a 90th minute winner and I was hooked - we went to nearly every league game for the rest of the season and we won Division 3 on the final day.

My first game was in 1990 too but the season before (April 1990) our final home game v Wrexham where we won 5-1 to get promoted.
I was hooked straight away too for obvious reasons.

 

[Casey]

Ahhh memories.

Casey

 

[Andy Proctor]

Ahhh memories.

Casey

Nothings changed vale lost then too

 

[chipmunx]

Ahhh memories.

Casey

6 now in the National League and 2 National League North sides on there...

 

[Agombar stool]

Yes, it was our highest ever League finish. Unfortunately, we were two down inside three minutes in the play off first leg at the County Ground and never recovered.

However, Swindon were allowed to go up that season. It was three years earlier that they were demoted, although it did have implications for us as we were briefly promoted to the Second Division, but were 'relegated' again when Swindon's punishment was reduced.

Good old Steve Vickers in that first leg had an absoute nightmare first 10 minutes or so. A good show of sporting cameraderie after the second leg when your fans ran towards ours in what initially must have looked like an attempt of hooliganism, however they just wanted to swap scarves in the end.

You are right, it was in 1990 when we beat Sunderland in the play-off final to the top league only to be demoted 2 divisions (1 after appeal) for Financial Irregularities.

 

[RLC]

Good old Steve Vickers in that first leg had an absoute nightmare first 10 minutes or so. A good show of sporting cameraderie after the second leg when your fans ran towards ours in what initially must have looked like an attempt of hooliganism, however they just wanted to swap scarves in the end.

You are right, it was in 1990 when we beat Sunderland in the play-off final to the top league only to be demoted 2 divisions (1 after appeal) for Financial Irregularities.

Steve Vickers was one of my boyhood heroes as well.