What is your worst ever day supporting your team?

[King Kev]

I have friends who are Carlisle supporters so it is interesting to read Shoddy's post. Alas first year of uni I was there for several Carlisle games, most memorably the 2-0 victory at Spotland that secured the title. I also went to a 1-1 draw at Vale Park in 2008 where a late Vale penalty scuppered Carlisle's top two hopes, though they probably didn't know it then. I looked around at the pubs packed with Cumbrians before that game envious of them, Bury had been a joke for years and seeing a club buzzing and on the up was great to see.
Take into account that up until 06/07 I only really went to Bury games with my younger brothers, so pre match normally just involved trudging to the ground. It was the Cumbrian lads that introduced me to the ritual of pre match boozing and the full away days with beers on the train. So safe to say Carlisle are still my second team.
When I saw they had won the first leg of their playoff in 08 at Elland Road I thought job done.
I remember passing out one night at a mate's flat and woke up remembering it had been leg 2 the night before. No access to internet I text one of the lads, 'mate what score was it?' He never replied, when I finally saw the manner of Carlisle's defeat I understood why. Said mate has since said he was in mourning for ages after that defeat and didn't reply to any texts from anyone. The fact it was Leeds probably made it ten times worse.

I was gutted for them then considered myself lucky such a defeat had not befallen Bury.
Fast forward a year, we go to Shrewsbury for playoff leg one having screwed up on Automatic Promotion on the final day. Shrewsbury, who had scraped into the playoffs on the final day of the season had a good home record but a poor away one, they also had Grant Holt. Simple objective, avoid defeat away and finish them off at home. Shrewsbury dominated from the outset, they hit the post, it is cleared off the line, our keeper makes numerous saves. Then having settled, midway through the second half we scored with a none shot on goal, their man lobs a back pass which bounces badly over their keeper and goes in. What luck, what fortune, what scenes. We held on just about going into leg 2.

Second leg and on the stroke of half time we get a penalty, up steps Phil Jevons who had already scored a penalty past the same keeper just weeks earlier. He sent the keeper the wrong way with a bad side footed penalty on that occasion. And the idiot tried the same, keeper easily saves it and the playoff is still wide open. The second half edges by tensely, by the 88th minute we can almost smell Wembley. A throw in lands at Buchannen's boot, all he has to do is clear it into row Z, he tries to be smart and skews it to their man who chests it down and volleys the ball into the net. 1-1 and Extra Time. Holt gets subbed off, one of their men gets sent off and we chuck the kitchen sink at them, hit both posts, the bar, save after save from their keeper, it became inevitable it would be penalties. And it would be inevitable we would lose and we did 4-2. Shrewsbury fans celebrated, we trudged out the ground. For no reason what so ever their meat head contingent run up to the gate gloating and rubbing it in our faces, 'fuck off were going to Wembley.' Not a single Bury fan said anything in response, the term dejected doesn't even cover it. That was it season over, no game the following Saturday to bounce back, we had blown it.

I have a couple of others to nominate but had to put that one down as the way we lost was so similar to Carlisle's :-(

 

[shoddycollins]

i

Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[Habbinalan]

Laker is spot on. That infamous 5-0 defeat to Histon doesn't even deserve a mention afaic as it was a meaningless cup game. Yeah it was a derby game but still not enough to make it as the worst day ever for a U's fan.

Laker's also right about that Torquay Wembley Final defeat, it felt much worse than the final the year prior to that against Exeter. While a Play off final defeat is always disappointing, I wasn't too optimistic that we would beat Exeter as I thought they had a very decent side (to be completely honest, I thought they had a stronger side than we did at the time), but it was the other way round when it came to Torquay. I was so confident going into that match so I was completely devastated when they beat us quite comfortably...........

In the greater scheme of things, you may be right, but the feeling in the stomach after (actually during) that Histon experience was probably as bad as I've felt on the day supporting the U's.

The feeling at Wembley 2009 was just numb, rather than sickening - even when Phil Bolland made that tackle then Tim Sills (who else?) got his header. I certainly didn't have your confidence going into it.

However, top of my list takes me back to 7 December 1968. A personal angle on an infamous descent following our only ever 24 hours at the top of Division 3 from Friday night 1 November until Swindon, Watford and Bournemouth finished their matches on the saturday and we dropped to 4th.

Barrow were away at Stockport in the FA Cup 2nd round, having beaten Goole Town away in the first round. We'd held Southampton (Ron Davies, Mick Shannon, Terry Payne, Jimmy Melia, etc) 2-2 in the 3rd round previous season before being edged out in the replay. My mate, Mick, and me travelled on the British Rail Football Special through the back lines of Manchester in high spirits and were tipped out a short walk from Edgley Park.

All went well until around 10 minutes in, when bottles rained into us on the big open terrace and all hell broke out. United were away that Saturday and some of the Stretford Boot Boys had come looking for entertainment. Being a rugby league player, my instincts kicked in and I quickly got the back of the scrum and safe. Mick was less fortunate. A head butt broke his nose and he went down. It all calmed down - we didn't actually provide any opposition - and I helped Mick out of the ground and we got directions to Casualty. As we were walking away, we heard the "roar" as the first goal went in. We eventually got back to the train in deflated mood to hear that we'd lost 2-0. The season didn't improve much from then on - our next win was 15 March. although we did manage a draw with Stockport at Holker Street on Boxing Day and managed to avoid relegation by the skin of our teeth.

Barrow's Division 3 League Position with Result 1968/69

For more on "The Curse of the Ivan Robinson (Ref) Goal," That played it's part in that descent, see:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/aug/17/the-joy-of-six-flukes

 

[AnimoEtFide]

This Conference National you lot speak of sounds horrendous. Hope we never get back into it.

 

[shoddycollins]

This Conference National you lot speak of sounds horrendous. Hope we never get back into it.

It's OK it's gone now. If you get promoted you get to play in something called the 'National League' which given its name is presumably the top division in English football.

 

[Bar Carousel]

As i've grown up, the defeats seem less painful. And the off-field troubles seem to go hand-in-hand as a Pompey fan right through the years.

I think the Liverpool semi-finals in '92 were the worst for me. Ronnie fucking Whelan tapping in followed by John Barnes fist punching celebration to a wild clock end full of scousers still haunt my dreams. Whelan shouldn't have still been on the pitch. Weirdly, reaching the semi's that year seemed a much bigger thing to me than winning it nearly 20 years later.

Ian Ormoroyd's off-side goal in a semi-final play-off the following year still gets brought up every time Leicester's name is mentioned and created a long-lasting rivalry, to a point that you'd be hard pushed to find a Pompey fan who wanted them to win the league last season.

Other than that, the majority of our crowd singing Peter Storrie's name in a home game v's Bolton sticks in the throat. What a shambles some of our premier league fans were back then. Even asking for autographs from our administrators, the fuckwits. Thank god we're a proper football club again now.

 

[AnimoEtFide]

It's OK it's gone now. If you get promoted you get to play in something called the 'National League' which given its name is presumably the top division in English football.

Poppycock. It'll always be the Alliance Premier League to me.

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Struggling to believe there are Cambridge fans seriously suggesting a defeat to West Ham in the second tier was worse than getting beat 5-0 by Histon! It doesn't matter if it was the Trophy (which regardless of what everyone thinks of it is still a competitive first team game), or that it wasn't a proper derby, it was what it signified, they were on their way to winning the Conference South, we were trying our best to get relegated out of the Conference, the club was in total disarray and this small little village team was not just absolutely hammering us on the pitch but they were pinching our staff, luring our "fans", and looking very much like they were going to usurp us, which even though it would've been as sustainable in the long-term for them as it has been in this world where they didn't quite manage it, it would've still put us out of business if we'd fallen below them.

There is absolutely no question that is the worst result we've ever endured for a whole myriad of reasons. The only other one I will let get remotely close is the 3-1 defeat at Rushden later that same season where it really looked like we were fucked, but it wasn't quite as atrocious on the pitch and nor did we have our murderer staring straight at us in the face as we did on that day at the Glassworld. I won't even allow the game the got us relegated out of the league as a) it was an inevitability at that point anyway, and b) in truth we had absolutely no idea what laid in front of us.

 

[shoddycollins]

It seems the common thread among these stories isn't necessarily what it meant on the day to have been defeated, but what people were imaging it would mean for the future of their club, from 'we'll never get a chance like this again' to 'this is just the sign of things to come' to 'we'll never recover from this setback' people on their worst ever days seem to have felt that this marked the end of one era and the start of a new, worse era.

I read an article once about Cambridge's ascent and how close they came to the very top of the game and their subsequent decline, and I can understand how that might have felt when that set in; and that's why I felt worse at play-off semi final defeat than I did at relegation to the Conference or during our season down there. Our 'new era' began when Knighton left the club, and though relegation came soon after, it still felt as though we were in the new, more positive era. That we didn't immediately improve once Knighton had gone was frustrating, but not unexpected. Relegation was depressing but inevitable and while there are a few scares in the conference that 'what if we don't bounce back, could we become just another non-league outfit?' those felt like fear of something that might happen rather than something that definitely was happening. I still felt like we were in a positive new era, albeit one that had to begin from a division below the one I was used to being in. That era ended with that play-off defeat and I knew that we would struggle to get such a chance again, maybe not in my lifetime.

I'm sure though losing 5-0 to Histon felt like the start of a new era too, even though it didn't come to pass, it must have felt that Cambridge were going to be one of the casualties of a change-over in fortunes as small bankrolled clubs usurped the places of some of the historic clubs.

 

[Richard Cranium]

110% agree with that, When York beat us in extra time of the second leg in 2012 I was absolutey gutted. Losing 4-0 away at Yeading and Hayes was bad, Infact fucking awful but we still had a day out to Wembley to look forward to in the FAT final and we all knew we were utter gash anyway. That Play off semi though, After writing us off after throwing a 2-0 lead away at York on NYD and being about 13th in the table and leaving us a decent amount of points to catch on the Play off pack. We then went on to win 16 of our final 20 games, Losing only 1 and went into the play offs full of confidence. We scored 13 goals in the space of 4 days V Barrow and Alfreton. We were all very confident. 1-1 away from home in the semi final 1st leg but we had Greeny sent off which was a massive blow. In truth no team actually looked like winning the second leg but when the goal comes with about 10 minutes of extra time left it was heart breaking.

All I remember is Adam Murray receiving the sponsors man of the match award that day and being required to come and do an interview in the hospitality suite after the game and you could see he'd been crying, He was just as heartbreaking as us and amongst all his mumbles the only thing anyone did make out was his promise to go one better the season after. That's easily the worst I've ever felt after a game, I thought that was our shot of getting back into the league gone for good.

Makes me so glad we managed it the year after, That same year Wrexham finished 2nd on 90 something points, Lost in the play offs, I think lost in the plays off the years before and after 2012 aswell and are still stuck there now. The following year we won it with 95 points and we collected 60 points in the final 23 games. Don't think that will ever happen again!

 

[GTFCfish]

The following year we won it with 95 points and we collected 60 points in the final 23 games. Don't think that will ever happen again!

I remember playing you early on in that season and after we beat you 4 - 1 i remember thinking at the time that Mansfield were as poor a team as i had ever seen at Blundell Park, you were so bad that day it could have been a cricket score.
Then fast forward 6 months or so and Mansfield are being crowned champions after winning about 25 games in a row, talk about a crazy turnaround!
Even crazier that season was Kidderminster, lost their first 5 games and after 10 games had only 5 points, and they end up only missing out on the title to you on the final day.
Only in the Conference.........!

 

[Vanni]

Spot on Shoddy and Richard. A 5-0 defeat at Histon could only be described as awful, a day you don't want to be reminded of, but one also has to look at the bigger picture. I have always believed that actually it was a blessing in disguise as our board released what was soon going to be inevitable if we didn't change things round. Sure, it took us a while to find our feet but we got there in the end. Another game similar to that Histon defeat was the 4-0 thumping at Bath, another simply awful day but ultimately another blessing in disguise as Richard Money come in after that and we saw nearly instant improvement in our performances.

Tom may disagree all he likes but those fans at WHU who had seen our rapid descent from the Second Division to the Fourth in just two years time back in 1984 -1986 certainly didn't see it his way. Perhaps they knew that a repeat was on the cards and therefore the depressing mood on the terraces after that WH game? Truth be told, they weren't wrong as after that WHU game we only got to spend two seasons playing Third Div footy before we were relegated back to the bottom division.

And oh, while the Trophy is still a competitive first team game, it's also a well known fact that circa 75% (or is it 76%? ) of clubs don't take it seriously. So I still stand by what I said. Histon may have humiliated us that day but they did so in a meaningless cup. They didn't beat us again by that score in the Conference now did they?

 

[Richard Cranium]

I remember playing you early on in that season and after we beat you 4 - 1 i remember thinking at the time that Mansfield were as poor a team as i had ever seen at Blundell Park, you were so bad that day it could have been a cricket score.
Then fast forward 6 months or so and Mansfield are being crowned champions after winning about 25 games in a row, talk about a crazy turnaround!
Even crazier that season was Kidderminster, lost their first 5 games and after 10 games had only 5 points, and they end up only missing out on the title to you on the final day.
Only in the Conference.........!

Had Green not scored in the 93rd minute of the penultimate game Kidderminster would have gone into the final day top needed a win against Stockport who were absolutely doomed. That 4-1 still bothers me, as does the 7-2. Hate Grimsby away

 

[shoddycollins]

Funny the way individual results from past seasons can still irk us. It still bothers me that Preston scored a late equaliser at Deepdale a few years back with us 3-2 up going into injury time.

 

[Flaxman's Alibi]

The thing with the Conference is that we all support small clubs, some of which have enjoyed more lofty times in the past than others but for the majority of more recent decades we've all bounced around the lower divisions, bemoaning our lot and suffering the pains that go with following unfashionable provincial clubs who very rarely get their days in the sun. However, you cling to that pride of being part of the exclusive elite club of 92 (though it feels more like 72 these days) and the status that comes with it and when that is ripped away from you those little intricacies that you once took for granted are suddenly amplified by their absence.

Being non-league leaves you soulless, the single worst thing that can happen to a club, barring extinction. A cloud hovers above all of these clubs whilst the FL carries on and forgets about them; and doesn't care either - every other club just happy that they aren't in your increasingly skint shoes.

Try and explain dropping in to the non-leagues to a fan of a Premiership club, or even a Championship club fan, they aren't even following the same game and can never truly suggest that they've felt the lowest experience in the sport. Losing a big game in the Premier/Football League doesn't even come close to the misery of kicking around outside of the exclusive club. It's like being kicked out of a nightclub and peering through the windows as your former friends are inside getting off with all the best looking girls.

 

[GTFCfish]

Had Green not scored in the 93rd minute of the penultimate game Kidderminster would have gone into the final day top needed a win against Stockport who were absolutely doomed. That 4-1 still bothers me, as does the 7-2. Hate Grimsby away

I think you scored In the 93rd minute every game for the last two months of that season didn't you, certainly felt like it anyway!

 

[shoddycollins]

Try and explain dropping in to the non-leagues to a fan of a Premiership club, or even a Championship club fan, they aren't even following the same game and can never truly suggest that they've felt the lowest experience in the sport. Losing a big game in the Premier/Football League doesn't even come close to the misery of kicking around outside of the exclusive club. It's like being kicked out of a nightclub and peering through the windows as your former friends are inside getting off with all the best looking girls.

It's difficult to understand for fans of clubs where the worst possible thing they can imagine happening is failing to qualify for the Champions League. It's like ManU fans when Blackburn won the Premiership all, 'you don't understand the pain I've been though, to finish first every season I've been following the club, and then one day, finish second, it's the worst pain anyone can ever feel'.

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

At the end of the day we'd still have gone down if we'd won but the gutless performance from the players that day was a disgrace to the shirt they were wearing.

I've never understood when people say the players were a disgrace that day. Maybe I'd have to watch it again but I don't think they gave up, we had over 30 shots, we were just severely outclassed by a much better team.

The gut wrenching part was definitely post-game. Watching hundreds of lunatics throw our reputation down the shitter.

 

[Kenneth E End]

The thing with the Conference is that we all support small clubs, some of which have enjoyed more lofty times in the past than others but for the majority of more recent decades we've all bounced around the lower divisions, bemoaning our lot and suffering the pains that go with following unfashionable provincial clubs who very rarely get their days in the sun. However, you cling to that pride of being part of the exclusive elite club of 92 (though it feels more like 72 these days) and the status that comes with it and when that is ripped away from you those little intricacies that you once took for granted are suddenly amplified by their absence.

Being non-league leaves you soulless, the single worst thing that can happen to a club, barring extinction. A cloud hovers above all of these clubs whilst the FL carries on and forgets about them; and doesn't care either - every other club just happy that they aren't in your increasingly skint shoes.

Try and explain dropping in to the non-leagues to a fan of a Premiership club, or even a Championship club fan, they aren't even following the same game and can never truly suggest that they've felt the lowest experience in the sport. Losing a big game in the Premier/Football League doesn't even come close to the misery of kicking around outside of the exclusive club. It's like being kicked out of a nightclub and peering through the windows as your former friends are inside getting off with all the best looking girls.

100% agree with this. But I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy at least some of it. The clubs, in the majority were very welcoming and it seemed a more relaxed atmosphere at away games. I remember travelling to Salisbury; they put out a beer tent for us and gave us half the ground. Our last game in non-league up at Hyde, they gave the home team a small covered terrace in the corner!

 

[Kenneth E End]

Worst ever day in football... hmmm.. the day we saw that we'd be starting on minus 30 and thinking OH FUCKETY FUCK.

 

[les.gtfc]

I've never understood when people say the players were a disgrace that day. Maybe I'd have to watch it again but I don't think they gave up, we had over 30 shots, we were just severely outclassed by a much better team.

The gut wrenching part was definitely post-game. Watching hundreds of lunatics throw our reputation down the shitter.

2-0 down, ball goes out for a corner to us. Not one player looking remotely interested. That's when a lad I know ran onto the pitch to kick the ball back to towards the corner flag and ended up getting a 3-year ban for his troubles. Many of the players that day just didn't care.

 

[Arbury]

Fuck the bigger picture vanni, being thumped 5-0 by the local village team is just embarrassing and for me was worst game I've ever been at, standing their in that poxy tin hut, hearing the laughter from the home end and watching our team of full timers get spanked/out battled was not fun, it was far from being a blessing in disguise, Quinn was charge that day so not really sure what the board done exactly to change things.

I'll let have the bath one though as that was the end of the thwee year plan and the board acted brilliantly in appointing money.


KTF

 

[Luke_ciderhead]

Werent Histon being bankrolled by a local sugar daddy though? Sure its embarassing but if you look at the cost of assembling the Cambridge/Histon squads at that point, there probably wasnt too much in it and Id wager there was plenty of football league experience in that Histon team.

 

[Hatter86]

I'll echo a few Luton fans sentiments. The playoff final defeat to Wimbledon was just horrific. How Walkers header did not go in I will never know. How we didn't get a penalty when Seb Brown bought Walker down defies logic. And why Jason Walker decided this was the perfect moment for a panenka is something that will haunt me until my dying day. Essentially, fuck off Jason Walker. Was a very long, silent coach ride home.

On nowhere near that level is the 2-3 home loss to Braintree in our Conference winning season. Early kick off, TV camaeras, tearing every team apart. All we had to do was win and confirm our promotion. Ruined what should have been a thoroughly excellent night out.

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

2-0 down, ball goes out for a corner to us. Not one player looking remotely interested. That's when a lad I know ran onto the pitch to kick the ball back to towards the corner flag and ended up getting a 3-year ban for his troubles. Many of the players that day just didn't care.

I agree we had half a team of wasters which is to be expected when we're second bottom all season but the other half did put their lives on the line, Devitt even played with a broken arm. We bombarded their goal but Kevin Poole played the game of his life, could've been very different had it been a bog standard league 2 goalkeeper, but of course it didn't even matter in the end. Nothing went right that day to say the least.

 

[Casey]

It's odd reading how awful everyone feels when they realise their team is going to play in the Conference/National/Alliance/Gola league. One of my best football days was when Crawley were promoted to it! If I mention that was the first time Crawley had EVER won a league you can guess what a shit fest we've had to put up with over the years. The relief when we escaped relegation from the Southern Premier because another club folded is something I'm still ashamed of.

The worst. At home to Northwich Victoria with 600 odd fans in attendance (home and away fans). I couldn't tell you the score but I just looked around a knew, just knew that we were headed back to the Southern Premier. The Majeeds had taken a friendly club that was progressing (all be it slowly) and turned it into a basket case. As others have mentioned it felt like a changing of the guard and there was no way out. The feeling of depression I had after that game took a long time to dissipate.

Casey

 

[Don Tonberry]

The last day of the 2011/2012 season has to be up there for me. We had already been relegated to League One due to a points deduction and we were beaten 2-0 by Nottingham Forest but there really was a sense of that game could well have been the last one in the club's history. At best, we would be stuck with Chainrai and doomed to years of misery before the club folded anyway.

In terms of strictly on-the-pitch matters, losing 3-0 at Rochdale on a Tuesday night during our first down here was hard to take. I genuinely thought that we would be getting relegated to non-league after that game but thankfully the board saw sense and sacked the useless wanker that is Richie Barker (still the worst manager in our history, in my opinion, and he has a shit-ton of competition!) and we got out of trouble.

 

[Casey]

Don; weird thing about Richie Barker. He looked a good manager for us until we lost 0-3 to Port Vale. After that it seemed the team were not allowed to attack and only allowed to pass forward if it was 100% sure if finding a team mate (is never). The dullest football I think I've ever seen.

Casey

 

[shoddycollins]

While it doesn't rank up there with the aforementioned Leeds play-off defeat for emotional pain, the FA cup draw reminded me of one of the worst times it felt to be a Carlisle supporter, and that was our first round display at home to Boreham Wood in 2013.

Carlisle United's Lee Miller shows a certain lack of grace as United celebrate grasping victory from the jaws of defeat​

We had been drawn away to them and played out a dull dull draw at their place, notable only for Mark Gillespie picking up an injury that would pretty much keep him out for the rest of the season.

Back at our place it was already a fairly dismal time to be a Carlisle fan, this would be the season which saw us relegated from League One, we were being managed by Graham Kavanagh and had become a total basket case of a football club, filled with players who mostly couldn't give a shit, we seemed to bring in an entire new team of emergency loanees and non-contract players every month. I think actually though we'd had a sort of mini-revival and may even have been verging on mid-table around November time when the match was. It didn't lift the gloom though, even if relegation didn't seem the dead certainty it had done in September, we were still a bad team, playing half-assed football in front of a disenchanted crowd, you know those times when it just seems like there's nothing to love about your club?

A pitiful performance in front of a tiny crowd of wannabe hooligans at a shit ground, live-streamed on a Russian website just about summed it all up, or so I thought, but the atmosphere at Brunton Park was even more hostile, and that was just on the pitch. It was just an awful awful game, it was as though I was witnessing a sneak preview of our future, because Boreham Wood went ahead and then just dug in and it became a war of attrition and occasional punches. We were bad but BHW were just beyond dire, there was time-wasting, and every other type of gamesmanship in the book there were off the ball spats, and dirty tackles and basically it was like playing a cross between 1970's Leeds and the current Wycombe side with half the class of either. The worst part was that period that we were behind and just hoofed and hoofed and hoofed and found no way through. Late on BHW crumbled and we grabbed two late goals, cue scenes of carnage on the pitch as our players gloated, theirs boiled over with rage and a melee ensued that saw Kavanagh have to man-handle Liam Noble off the pitch himself.

Evidence submitted to the FA which Boreham Wood described as an accident caused by a badly positioned teapot. If you want to read the full statement by them, you can here​

Afterwards they trashed the away dressing room and the feud between the two clubs continued as Carlisle lodged a formal complaint and Boreham Wood threatened legal action, releasing one of the world's most laughable ever statements.

It wasn't the worst I ever felt as a Carlisle fan, we won and so I left the ground with some sense of elation mixed in there, and at the same time we weren't on the worst run of form in the league, but it was just the feeling. I've never known Brunton Park to feel as negative as it did that night, such a stark contrast to how Curle has the place feeling now.

 

[Casey]

Did it get to court?

Casey