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Post by space hardware on Dec 1, 2014 15:29:33 GMT 1
I'm sure we played bolton and were. 8 points up on them with three to play. And they got into play offs .. And I think went up ? Some statto ll know Or anybody who hasn't supressed the memories of Marcus Stewart firing Ipswich to promotion in the play-offs against Bolton and Barnsley that season But yeah, beat leaders Charlton leaving us with a fairly simple 4 game run-in to cement our play-off spot. We had 2 home games left vs Bolton and Stockport. We'd only lost 2 home games all season up to that point then lost both those. Went to Fulham on last day needing a win to guarantee keeping our play-off spot and started with one up front and a bench full of strikers. Lost. FFS. Technically, it was Wolves who took the last play-off spot from us on goal difference. Bolton had gone on a good run to get in there before losing to Ipswich 7-5 on aggregate in the semis. The 2 teams who nipped ahead of us at the death (Bolton/Wolves) played each other in the penultimate game. About the only result which could knack things up for Town was a narrow Bolton win, anything else would've left us sitting pretty. Bolton won 2-1. Hope that's statto enough Thanks for dredging all those memories up!
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Post by teddytheterrier on Dec 1, 2014 15:42:53 GMT 1
Shit players on lengthy contracts! Yeah good one, Bruce was brilliant!
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Post by Sugy , Paignton Devon Terrier on Dec 1, 2014 15:51:55 GMT 1
I'm sure we played bolton and were. 8 points up on them with three to play. And they got into play offs .. And I think went up ? Some statto ll know Or anybody who hasn't supressed the memories of Marcus Stewart firing Ipswich to promotion in the play-offs against Bolton and Barnsley that season But yeah, beat leaders Charlton leaving us with a fairly simple 4 game run-in to cement our play-off spot. We had 2 home games left vs Bolton and Stockport. We'd only lost 2 home games all season up to that point then lost both those. Went to Fulham on last day needing a win to guarantee keeping our play-off spot and started with one up front and a bench full of strikers. Lost. FFS. Technically, it was Wolves who took the last play-off spot from us on goal difference. Bolton had gone on a good run to get in there before losing to Ipswich 7-5 on aggregate in the semis. Bottom line is, Town would have played Ipswich Town in the semi final play-off play -off had we beat Fulham on the last day of the season. Think Rubery would have been strung up by his bollocks had Stewart scored the winning goal.
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Post by ritchie on Dec 1, 2014 19:55:24 GMT 1
Seems even worse when you see it like this!
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Post by 3Pipe on Dec 1, 2014 20:44:36 GMT 1
Painful thread.
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Post by Sugy , Paignton Devon Terrier on Dec 3, 2014 15:02:50 GMT 1
ive now had the pleasure of supporting this club for nigh on 43 years, the best player ive seen wearing the blue and white striped shirt is marcus stewart . after he was sold when we were in the best place to get to top division again, ......... mr bruce was quoted as saying " good business " and a " depreciating assett " whilst supporting the sale to our rivals who got promoted. ,. therefor i have nothing but contempt for the man. i am not sure that either i nor the club has actually recovered from this appalling bit of business. Sorry but that quote was most definitely from Ian Ayre!
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Post by bigfatmonkey on Oct 9, 2015 12:57:20 GMT 1
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Post by wigster on Oct 9, 2015 14:10:38 GMT 1
I've never understood the pure hatred that some of our fans have towards him. He had his faults & made some big mistakes but as said above, the standard of football in his first six months in charge was streets ahead of anything we've seen since. I think part of the problem Flp is that the good football - and it was good - lasted for two months maximum ie about 4 home games and 3 away from what I remember. All about opinion but, certainly financially, it took us literally years to recover from his management period - he spent a fortune - and he really did leave us in a mess - in terms of the squad, contracts, debts, lack of organisation, league position, almost any criteria you choose etc. I think I'm also right in saying that there was some arrangement - was he on the board ? - where he allegedly pocketed an absolute fortune.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 15:34:09 GMT 1
Crewe away, as far as I can remember. David May played his only 45 minutes or so in a Town shirt whilst Bent-Nose was away on some foreign junket in the Far East watching ManUre for TV. Never forgiven him for that.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 16:47:36 GMT 1
Mr X supported the sale of MS. I was at the Patron's meeting before MS's last game at Crystal Palace. He said you have to wonder why there had been no offer from a Premiership club for MS. The next season he was top scorer (or thereabouts) in the Premiership. That's Bruce's judgement for you. He also pissed off the women present with some tactless remarks. Put it down to experience (or lack of) at the time. On the other hand there were rumoured reasons of the 'other' sort for the enforced departure of MS. Maybe SB was merely a victim of the politics of the time. I remain neutral on all this. He seemed to be an honourable man and has done well since. Good luck to him. Now, as for Ayresole ....... what a queynt. Oi! I was dead against it. I think he soon saw he was the going to harm his burgeoning career with us. The race was on to be in pole position for the next Man Utd manager and a number of Utd stars were involved. He'd already quit Sheff Utd to come to us and was in a hurry to establish himself. The media work he did raised his profile. We were simply a vehicle for him to make a name for himself, much as we were for Ayre. Rubery's millions were the fuel to ignite many a career. When that dried up there was no loyalty or care for the club from anyone involved. We had sold our sole and almost folded as a consequence. Rubery emerged with credit for writing off the huge debts we owed him. The rest were mercenaries who didn't give a hoot. They deserve no good will whatsoever.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 16:50:50 GMT 1
I know I put sole not soul but am in bed ill and don't care*
3 Pipe disclaimer
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 16:54:29 GMT 1
Mr X supported the sale of MS. I was at the Patron's meeting before MS's last game at Crystal Palace. He said you have to wonder why there had been no offer from a Premiership club for MS. The next season he was top scorer (or thereabouts) in the Premiership. That's Bruce's judgement for you. He also pissed off the women present with some tactless remarks. Put it down to experience (or lack of) at the time. On the other hand there were rumoured reasons of the 'other' sort for the enforced departure of MS. Maybe SB was merely a victim of the politics of the time. I remain neutral on all this. He seemed to be an honourable man and has done well since. Good luck to him. Now, as for Ayresole ....... what a queynt. He was the top ENGLISH goal scorer in the Premiership in season 2000-01 behind Thierry 'Mr Netball' Henry yet never got even a sniff of a call-up.
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Post by goodshot (FGS) on Oct 9, 2015 17:20:00 GMT 1
Mr X supported the sale of MS. I was at the Patron's meeting before MS's last game at Crystal Palace. He said you have to wonder why there had been no offer from a Premiership club for MS. The next season he was top scorer (or thereabouts) in the Premiership. That's Bruce's judgement for you. He also pissed off the women present with some tactless remarks. Put it down to experience (or lack of) at the time. On the other hand there were rumoured reasons of the 'other' sort for the enforced departure of MS. Maybe SB was merely a victim of the politics of the time. I remain neutral on all this. He seemed to be an honourable man and has done well since. Good luck to him. Now, as for Ayresole ....... what a queynt. He was the top ENGLISH goal scorer in the Premiership in season 2000-01 behind Thierry 'Mr Netball' Henry yet never got even a sniff of a call-up. He was pretty close to a call up as far as I recall.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 17:41:13 GMT 1
What would you pay to smash the fucker right in the boat. In a few more weeks people would probably pay to do it to Klopp too.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 17:45:11 GMT 1
He was the top ENGLISH goal scorer in the Premiership in season 2000-01 behind Thierry 'Mr Netball' Henry yet never got even a sniff of a call-up. He was pretty close to a call up as far as I recall. Fact is though, that he never got one, did he?
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Post by goodshot (FGS) on Oct 9, 2015 18:07:42 GMT 1
He was pretty close to a call up as far as I recall. Fact is though, that he never got one, did he? That is a fact - but he was close.
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Post by teddytheterrier on Oct 9, 2015 18:42:33 GMT 1
Yeah massive congratulations to him
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Post by detox on Oct 9, 2015 18:58:47 GMT 1
now i did go down every game in those days...but as per usual Town managed to shoot themsleves in the foot - some great football , Sellars was it who pulled the strings for us ?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 19:08:11 GMT 1
now i did go down every game in those days...but as per usual Town managed to shoot themsleves in the foot - some great football , Sellars was it who pulled the strings for us ? Gorre, Irons, Sellars, Stewart were all pullers of strings back in those days. Good times
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Post by detox on Oct 9, 2015 21:56:50 GMT 1
now i did go down every game in those days...but as per usual Town managed to shoot themsleves in the foot - some great football , Sellars was it who pulled the strings for us ? Gorre, Irons, Sellars, Stewart were all pullers of strings back in those days. Good times apparently sellers is on the coaching staff at wolves...........
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Post by otium (EPBS) on Oct 9, 2015 22:02:07 GMT 1
Sure it was more than 2 months. remember stuffing palace 7-1 very early on in the season and also a game against charlton around Xmas where Im pretty sure that if we'd won we'd have started the new decade top of the division. Thats 4 months at least. It was only really in January that we started to drop down a bit, but don't think we dropped out of the play off spots until very late in the season. I feel sure we were top at Xmas...and i think i read we were the first team who were top at that time who did not make the play-offs since their inception. Could be wrong.
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Post by otium (EPBS) on Oct 9, 2015 22:09:41 GMT 1
No-one has mentioned the Rubery/Bruce fall-out (and rumours). All i know was that Bruce signed a lot of crap on high, unsustainable wages which were integral in our subsequent administration. Never liked the man.
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Post by Doc Halladay 32 on Oct 10, 2015 2:22:06 GMT 1
IMO Bruce quit on us and awaited the sack after Rubery's bankrolling came to an end - As that season ended and the next started we were an absolute shambles that is unforgivable, regardless of timespan.
Our unacceptable first couple of months effectively relegated us that season 1 win, 3 draws and 9 losses in the first 13 games including home and away to a lower league club before the axe fell.
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Post by wtd on Oct 10, 2015 7:54:44 GMT 1
IMO Bruce quit on us and awaited the sack after Rubery's bankrolling came to an end - As that season ended and the next started we were an absolute shambles that is unforgivable, regardless of timespan. Our unacceptable first couple of months effectively relegated us that season 1 win, 3 draws and 9 losses in the first 13 games including home and away to a lower league club before the axe fell. He quit on us away at Fulham, last game of the season. Had to get a result. 3-0 down and he never made one substitution. Throw the dice at least man! Total capitulation.
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Post by Torquayterrier on Oct 10, 2015 8:25:56 GMT 1
Yep, I remember it. The way the teams came out on the pitch at Fulham the coaching staff had to walk by the away end, Bruce wouldn't make eye contact with the fans at the end of the game iirc. Always seemed a bit of a cheque book manager to me, didn't he quit on Crystal Palace as well?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2015 8:52:10 GMT 1
Sure it was more than 2 months. remember stuffing palace 7-1 very early on in the season and also a game against charlton around Xmas where Im pretty sure that if we'd won we'd have started the new decade top of the division. Thats 4 months at least. It was only really in January that we started to drop down a bit, but don't think we dropped out of the play off spots until very late in the season. I feel sure we were top at Xmas...and i think i read we were the first team who were top at that time who did not make the play-offs since their inception. Could be wrong. I remember the year we went up into that division, Millwall were top at Christmas and were RELEGATED at the end of the season. We were lucky to finish 7th!
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Post by Chips Longhorn on Oct 10, 2015 8:56:27 GMT 1
Yep, I remember it. The way the teams came out on the pitch at Fulham the coaching staff had to walk by the away end, Bruce wouldn't make eye contact with the fans at the end of the game iirc. Always seemed a bit of a cheque book manager to me, didn't he quit on Crystal Palace as well? And wigan .. and Sheff utd ... And .. and ..
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Post by otium (EPBS) on Oct 10, 2015 11:19:20 GMT 1
I feel sure we were top at Xmas...and i think i read we were the first team who were top at that time who did not make the play-offs since their inception. Could be wrong. I remember the year we went up into that division, Millwall were top at Christmas and were RELEGATED at the end of the season. We were lucky to finish 7th! Wow, if true thats some collapse. Yes, we were lucky to get 7th, the team were not as good as many remember.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2015 11:23:33 GMT 1
And, at the risk of being boring, that pales into insignificance when in 1938 Manchester City were relegated to Division 2; why? Well they were the reigning Champions ... Spectacular fall from grace, eh? And, as a further point of interest, they had actually out scored every other team in the First Division the year that they went down. I think we call it 'Kevin Keegan Football' these days.
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Post by ACW on Oct 10, 2015 11:48:16 GMT 1
IMO Bruce quit on us and awaited the sack after Rubery's bankrolling came to an end - As that season ended and the next started we were an absolute shambles that is unforgivable, regardless of timespan. Our unacceptable first couple of months effectively relegated us that season 1 win, 3 draws and 9 losses in the first 13 games including home and away to a lower league club before the axe fell. He quit on us away at Fulham, last game of the season. Had to get a result. 3-0 down and he never made one substitution. Throw the dice at least man! Total capitulation. I was at that game and yes, it was an appalling performance with no fight or desire to get a result. If I remember rightly Karl Heinz Reidle got a couple for them and we didn't even have a shot on target. I seem to remember Steve Jenkins played as a centre half too - can't remember why. It was a beautiful day and Town had a big following - they gave us part of the stand opposite the cottage where I sat - and I remember one end of the stadium being a sea of blue and white. It was always a high pressure game that could be easily lost, but there are ways and means of losing. To go down without a fight was unforgivable. We never really recovered from that and it was no surprise when we started the following season badly. If truth be told we lost our momentum after the Liverpool cup game. Up to that point we had been generally playing great football, but after the Liverpool game we never really rediscovered the early season form. We got beaten by eventual champions Charlton live on Sky and although it was 2-1 it was never a close game. They taught us a lesson and soon overtook us in the league. We actually beat them in the return game - cracking Clyde volley I seem to remember - and that was also on Sky, but it was a smash and grab performance. Stewart leaving was a turning point, and a disastrous decision that arguably we've never recovered from, but the performances were going downhill before he left. That said, we were still picking up points and with him in the team I am sure that we would have had enough to make the play-offs. It was a real bitter-sweet season that one - probably the one that I have the clearest memories of, particularly early on. It included the best football I've ever seen a Town team play, and the biggest disappointment I've ever felt at the end. Wouldn't have missed it for the world though.
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