Who was in your view the strongest L2/Div 3/Div 4 team we've Had??

[BigDaveCUFC]

Just really to fill a boring summer gap, get your old memories going and think back to strong sides from the past.

I was watching highlights from our (Carlisle) 2005/6 title winning side and while it didn't do much in first half of season when watching the results I was thinking that team was dominant in the 2nd half of season once it got into a settled groove of Bridges/Holmes/Hawley we were at times destroying teams.

of the last 22 games we thumped 7 sides by 3 or more goals, plus a couple of 4-0, 6-0 results in first half of season also.

I sat there thinking was there ever a side stronger than us that 2nd half of season........but then also thought that you cannot class a side as strongest ever from just really 22 games out of 46.

so i'm throwing it out to people to remember the solid sides............who was the strongest most dominating Div4, Div 3, L2 side you can remember and why?

 

[Saddlerrad]

Southampton in league 1 a few years back. Fonte, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Lambert, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain as the core of a league 1 side. They were excellent the season they went up. Far superior to the Norwich, Charlton and Leeds of previous seasons.

 

[EricSabin]

Southampton were the first to pop into my head too

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

Many moons ago York ran away with the division 4 title 1984 I think , they seemed unstoppable

 

[Trapdoor]

Fonte was a dirty b*stard that season - I remember him sticking a boot square in one of our players chests and then pretending he was the victim. Horrific...

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Well officially for you young'uns I meant L2 level....div 4 and 3 were old names for it

but I can let you off and it can be strongest Lower League side, so can include old L1 or maybe conf......they always seem to get strong dominating sides.

 

[EricSabin]

We ran away with Div 4 in the late 80's, big Graham Carr's side got 99 points and scored 103 goals.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Plymouth in 01/02.

They were unbelievable that season, winning the league with 102 points. Maybe not the most spectacular team ever, but certainly one of the most consistent. They had to be to finish above us that year... we finished on 97 points, with 13 wins and 1 draw from our last 14 games still not enough to overhaul them (and our team that season was very similar to the one that pissed League Two and came mid-table in the Championship a few seasons later, on wages that dwarfed anything else at L2 level). That Plymouth team only conceded 28 goals all season, an unbelievable defensive record.

Plymouth and us both finished on 65 points, 8th and 9th place respectively, in League One the following season. The season after that, Plymouth smashed the league again with 90 points and 21 clean sheets. They had more or less the same team they'd smashed L2 with.

 

[Stagat]

Plymouth 01/02 springs to mind from my time watching the division, although I lost track a bit (a lot) when we were in the Conference.

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

The year we came up with Posh and Dons was strong at the top. Both were very good.

 

[Urban]

Well officially for you young'uns I meant L2 level....div 4 and 3 were old names for it

but I can let you off and it can be strongest Lower League side, so can include old L1 or maybe conf......they always seem to get strong dominating sides.

 

[UTS]

MK Dons 07/08

 

[Habbinalan]

The team that immediately came to mind for me was Ken Furphy's Watford team that won Div 3 in 1969 (now L1). Furphy had joined from Workington as player manager in 1964. When I looked up the records, they beat Barrow 4-1 and 4-0, lost 9 games up to Xmas then went unbeaten (W 27, D 10 & L 9). I still remember them as the best and most dominant team that I saw at Holker Street, although Swindon, with Don Rogers were a close second - they won 3-0 at Holker Street.

"Ken Furphy's rebuilding came to fruition in 1969 with the signing of Barry Endean, whose arrival marked the start of an unbeaten run after Christmas.[29] Watford secured the league title in April, at home to Plymouth Argyle. A year later Watford reached the FA Cup semi-final for the first time, defeating First Division teams Stoke City and Liverpool along the way."

Swindon finished on the same points as Watford and beat Arsenal in the League Cup Final that season, followed by the Anglo-Italian Cup because they weren't allowed in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

Teams from my programmes were:

Watford

1. Mike Walker
2. Duncan Welbourne
3. John Williams
4. Keith Eddy (ex-Barrow)
5. Brian Harvey
6. Tom Walley
7. Stewart Scullion
8. Dixie Hale (ex-Barrow)
9. Terry Garbett
10. Brian Endean
11. Brian Owen
12. Rodney Green

Swindon

1. Peter Downsborough
2. Rod Thomas
3. Norman Trolope
4. Joe Butler
5. Frank Barrows
6. Stan Harland
7. Don Health
8. Rodger Smart
9. Ray Jones
10. Peter Noble
11. Don Rogers

 

[Richard Cranium]

Plymouth and Luton back in 01/02, then during the following season we were in Division 2/L1 and Wigan were a strong outfit that year. Can't not mention Crewe though, We played them 4 times that season. Losing 5-0 then 4-0 then 3-0 and finally 2-0.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Plymouth started off really bad that season, with just 1 point from the first 3 games. But then didn't lose until 3 days before Christmas!

Did it without a main goalscorer either - their joint top scorer was Graham Coughlan with 11 goals from the defence, as well as keeping all those clean sheets too. Remarkable record.

To beat our team which had Steve Howard who scored 24 that year and went onto score over 100 in his spell with us across 3 divisions, Matthew Taylor who has played around 350 Premier League games and Jean-Louis Valois who oozed class and who was in my opinion, the best player to ever play at this level. Our budget the following season in the 3rd tier was £4m!

 

[Grecian O'Grecian]

Accrington Stanley 2015/16

 

[Judge Dredd]

Plymouth and Luton back in 01/02, then during the following season we were in Division 2/L1 and Wigan were a strong outfit that year. Can't not mention Crewe though, We played them 4 times that season. Losing 5-0 then 4-0 then 3-0 and finally 2-0.

Yeah, that Crewe team finished miles behind Wigan in the end, but at their best they were something special. Some of the football they played was sensational.

They smashed us 0-4 at the Kenny around March time in that 02/03 season. A 19-year old Dean Ashton scored two, hit the woodwork and assisted another. He was given a standing ovation by the entire crowd when he was subbed off. The best opposition performance I've seen against us to this day.

 

[thewwfc]

I agree with that Wigan side, they were sugardaddied to death but ah well.

I remember Swansea shitting all over us from a great height in the JPT one season, we were in the basement, they were L1 (under Martinez) but it was one of those times when you didn't really care - a) it was the JPT but b) they were actually playing some great football.

 

[Stanleyfan]

I remember Peterborough wiping the floor with us around 2007ish - they hammered us 3-0 at ours and 8-2 at their place. We also had 2 heavy defeats against MK Dons who I think went up with them that year.

 

[Wizwag]

Many moons ago York ran away with the division 4 title 1984 I think , they seemed unstoppable

Yep we were the first team to get more than 100 points in a season. I think we won it by 17 points in the end. Im not saying we were the best ever 4th division side but we were damn good. The core of that side, but minus John Byrne finished about 5th in the 3rd division the following season.

 

[Sergei from IT]

Many moons ago York ran away with the division 4 title 1984 I think , they seemed unstoppable

You were indeed good that season. The same season my club won Div 3 title. Not as convincingly you won D4 but the following year we also won the Div 2 title using 8 or 9 of the same players . We are the ONLY club ever to have won 2 titles in 2 different divisions in consecutive years Furthermore the season after that (1986) 6 or 7 of those players were in the team that won the League Cup. .

 

[northstandexile]

You were indeed good that season. The same season my club won Div 3 title. Not as convincingly you won D4 but the following year we also won the Div 2 title using 8 or 9 of the same players . We are the ONLY club ever to have won 2 titles in 2 different divisions in consecutive years Furthermore the season after that (1986) 6 or 7 of those players were in the team that won the League Cup. .

Doesn't the Ipswich side of the earlier sixties count in winning back to back titles

 

[WSBee]

Us this year.

Watch this space

 

[rudebwoyben]

Yep we were the first team to get more than 100 points in a season. I think we won it by 17 points in the end. Im not saying we were the best ever 4th division side but we were damn good. The core of that side, but minus John Byrne finished about 5th in the 3rd division the following season.

Very underrated player Byrne was.
Keith Walwyn was a big nuisance up front as well.
That York side was very good; knocking Arsenal out of the cup and taking Liverpool to a replay in both 84/85 and 85/86 shows that.

 

[DoorBuzzer]

Conference - Barnet 'The Kings on Non League' FC
L2 - When Swindon were last down here with DiCanio they were ruddy good after their dodgy start.
L1 - Don't know, was too young to remember when we were last there.

 

[Sergei from IT]

You were indeed good that season. The same season my club won Div 3 title. Not as convincingly you won D4 but the following year we also won the Div 2 title using 8 or 9 of the same players . We are the ONLY club ever to have won 2 titles in 2 different divisions in consecutive years Furthermore the season after that (1986) 6 or 7 of those players were in the team that won the League Cup. .

Doesn't the Ipswich side of the earlier sixties count in winning back to back titles

You are sort of right - Ipswich were Champions of Div 2 in 1960 and Div 1 in 1961. However - I have just checked our club history and what it actually says is we are the only side to have been promoted as champions in two consecutive years

I guess my pathetic get out is going to have to be that Ipswich weren't promoted from Div 1. The was nowhere to promote them to.

Thanks for increasing my knowledge. I won't get the wording wrong if I use that fact again.

 

[Laker]

I've been out of touch with this tier due to my side's inability to get out of the Conference for aeons. But our last promotion side from this division in 1999 was pretty handy, was smashing teams at one point but ultimately fell short to Brentford on the final day.

I can remember Wigan and Fulham both having pretty strong sides one season in the 90s, must have been a fair amount of dosh behind both sides.

 

[yellow]

I was watching highlights from our (Carlisle) 2005/6 title winning side and while it didn't do much in first half of season when watching the results I was thinking that team was dominant in the 2nd half of season once it got into a settled groove of Bridges/Holmes/Hawley we were at times destroying teams.

of the last 22 games we thumped 7 sides by 3 or more goals, plus a couple of 4-0, 6-0 results in first half of season also.

I sat there thinking was there ever a side stronger than us that 2nd half of season.....

..Yet we turned up and beat you! Remember that day well.

As for teams, Burton were pretty good the year they won the conference, although perhaps diminished because they lost in in the final month or so and had their 20+ lead cut to 2, or whatever it was.

Not so much dominance in League One, but when we were there in 04/05 we got completely hammered by a lot of teams. Certainly remember Hull, Wednesday, Luton and Bristol City tearing us a new arsehole at Plainmoor.

 

[hellogregory]

It's mainly league one that is fresh in the memory for me as that's where we've spent most of the last decade. There have been a few teams that spring to mind. Wolves 2 seasons ago were pretty strong with the likes of Bakary Sako, Leigh Griffiths, Kevin Doyle and plenty of other quality players. Won the league quite comfortably.
Southampton had a great side on paper, Lambert, Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fonte, Schneiderlin, but incredibly didn't win the league 1 title.

Other standout teams were Martinez's Swansea, Sheffield United of 11/12 until Ched Evans got locked up, and Charlton of that same season.

 

[Hooped Wizard]

We were pretty damn good 2003-2004