A question for those who remember the bad old days ... which is more nerve wracking, relegation last days or title deciders?

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Pam

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I remember Luton and bloody David Pleat (barely but just about) and then the debacle when we thought a draw would do on the last day and we were keeping it in the corner with Niall Quinn screaming "no, we need 3 points"! And then getting relegated at Ipswich has always haunted me for some reason. And the bloody Stoke thing, when we scored 5 or 6 and went down anyway. Don't even go there. Win lose or draw, tomorrow, nothing comes close to those vile relegation games for me. Tomorrow is terrifying for us but I feel for Burnley and Leeds fans. It's worse for them.

Anyway, do you agree, those of you who remember those times?
 
Relegation just shades it but both are nervy experience; Brighton away in the 2018-19 season and the 93:20 and the run in to the 2013-14 after 3-2 defeat to Liverpool
 
In many of the bad old days there were relegation deciders pre Christmas, game after game searching for 40 points I almost became immune to it. I find this constant fear of failing to win much more stressful than what used to be the fear of failure.
 
Most times we have gone down we were favourites on the last day and it was a bonus if we stayed up, so not really nerve racking at all.

Ipswich was with games to go and we needed snookers before it, 1998 and 1996 we relied on other teams dropping more points than us, 1987 we needed snooker to finish in the play-off place, only 1983 we threw anything away.
 
Luton at home 83 was an awful day
Liverpool was a shambles
And Stoke, I was pissed in the Windmill
Typical City
But here we go Today
 
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Was only saying this to my brother tonight! It might be different nerves but I’ll take our situation over Burnley and Leeds every time.

To think of when we used to think avoiding relegation was an achievement!
 
Pam said:
I remember Luton and bloody David Pleat (barely but just about) and then the debacle when we thought a draw would do on the last day and we were keeping it in the corner with Niall Quinn screaming "no, we need 3 points"! And then getting relegated at Ipswich has always haunted me for some reason. And the bloody Stoke thing, when we scored 5 or 6 and went down anyway. Don't even go there. Win lose or draw, tomorrow, nothing comes close to those vile relegation games for me. Tomorrow is terrifying for us but I feel for Burnley and Leeds fans. It's worse for them.

Anyway, do you agree, those of you who remember those times?
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Corky said:
Most times we have gone down we were favourites on the last day and it was a bonus if we stayed up, so not really nerve racking at all.

Ipswich was with games to go and we needed snookers before it, 1998 and 1996 we relied on other teams dropping more points than us, 1987 we needed snooker to finish in the play-off place, only 1983 we threw anything away.
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Yes, you're absolutely right about the Ipswich one. I mentioned it because the behaviour pof Ipswich fans that day was beyond shite. Hated them ever since. But we went into a couple of games at least with a chance of saving ourselves and it didn't happen. That's more what I was talking about. Funnily enough though, we went into a couple of last day promotion games and managed to win those. Four at least, actually, if you count the play-off final. They were equally nerve wracking. It was VS Blackburn, Bradford and Charlton as well, I seem to remember. Back in the inflatable banana days. It's nice to reminisce about how far we've come since then, anyway, you have to admit.
 
samarasra said:
In many of the bad old days there were relegation deciders pre Christmas, game after game searching for 40 points I almost became immune to it. I find this constant fear of failing to win much more stressful than what used to be the fear of failure.
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I know exactly what you mean. Bloody horrible days. Especially after the Rags started routinely winning trophies after a few years with Fergiesum.
 
Pam said:
I know exactly what you mean. Bloody horrible days. Especially after the Rags started routinely winning trophies after a few years with Fergiesum.
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Horrible days indeed, tipping around in the garden trying to postpone going in to listen to the final results.
 
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Corky said:
Most times we have gone down we were favourites on the last day and it was a bonus if we stayed up, so not really nerve racking at all.

Ipswich was with games to go and we needed snookers before it, 1998 and 1996 we relied on other teams dropping more points than us, 1987 we needed snooker to finish in the play-off place, only 1983 we threw anything away.
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We're favourites tomorrow too. What's the difference? You're surely still nervous about tomorrow, whether we're favourites against Villa or not.
 
samarasra said:
In many of the bad old days there were relegation deciders pre Christmas, game after game searching for 40 points I almost became immune to it. I find this constant fear of failing to win much more stressful than what used to be the fear of failure.
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This, it feels like every single game is a must win, every loss feels potentially season defining .
 
Relegation, of course. If we lose a title decider, we get to have another go next season. If you go down, it changes everything for at least a year (often more, in our case).

The difference is in the season as a whole though. Every game throughout the season becomes more stressful if you're going for the title. But just on the last game, relegation is way worse.
 
The two are interlinked. The relegation days were really stressful and there aren't many times we survived. And those memories make us all an absolute state when it comes to title deciders because we have seen things go wrong and expect the same. That's natural for a lot of football fans.

Was in 2003 or 2004 we beat Leeds and managed to drag ourselves out of a relegation fight?

One thing is for sure today, Pep will have the lads bang up for it. We might be unlucky and lose out, but we will have given it everything.
 
Relegations were awful, Luton was a low and dropping into the third tier. However, I knew with the attendance that day we were going to be okay. We have been blessed this last 10 years, but when Pep leaves who knows how long it might be before we win another title. Because of this going to go with todays title decider.
 
I've got vague memories of some close encounter with relegation in the late 50s/early 60s. About Easter each year the cry would be 'bring back Dave Ewing' and we survived until it actually happened. But while we were down there something magic happened in the form of Mercer and Allison which before long led to the last day win at Newcastle. Bloody fantastic and a memory that had to last for years until Kun Day.
 
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