FA Cup Final loss in 1981 or Luton 83?

[Blue Streak]

I think both had shockwave effects for our beloved club for various reasons, but which to you was worse?

 

[WEMBLEY76]

Being relegated in 83 was devastating at the time,worse than losing the Cup Final to me.

 

[Corky]

The failure to win both the 1981 games was 10 x worse than the relegation in the long term and it took 30 years to make it right rather than 2.

 

[BimboBob]

Losing the Luton game hit me harder.

 

[Bluekiwi]

1981 - Big Joe was superb in both games and but for an unlucky deflection the spuds would never have equalised in the first game

 

[citymad]

Very upset with both events but relegation felt worse.

 

[spacecadet]

Couldn't seperate them for personal disappointment, but the Luton result created most damage to the club.

 

[ob]

Luton for me

 

[gillymcfc]

As a 12 yr old sat in platt lane it had to be Luton, felt like my world had caved in
Seeing pleat dancing on our pitch made my blood boil.
Look where we are now, made the journey all the more sweeter

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Losing the Luton game hit me harder.

After the first CF I just had a rock solid feeling that it would go tits up in the replay, and it's just typical City that we lose to what the FA call the best FAC goal of the millennium - at least it was put in by an Argie and not a Rag-arsed bandit! The Luton game was a near killer, but we're made of stout stuff, and remember, we always do a 'phoenix' some time or other. Just wish they'd come around a little more quickly!

 

[Hung]

Relegation in 1983 was the first time that it dawned on me that my beloved club was going down the pan. I was a kid in the 60’s and a teenager in the 70’s, so I’d really only known a club who had either won trophy's or had been challenging for trophy’s. Relegation came as a major shock. I honestly believed that it couldn’t happen to us and that our slow demise since 1979 was a ‘blip’, especially since the John Bond era had seen an improvement and a cup final. Little did I know that it would be the start of 30 years of torture with the double edged sword of our failures and Utd’s successes. The cup loss was a major disappointment, but relegation was life changing, so for me, it has to be the Luton game.

 

[the goats backside]

Found it hard to leave the ground on that Luton day, gutted does not come close

 

[liam81101]

Weirdly both games took place on the 14th May of that year!!!

 

[reedy]

losing to luton was the worst by far

 

[powersleftfoot]

The bus back from the cup final was still upbeat, singing we'll be back again next year. The packed number 44 bus back up Dickenson Rd after the Luton game was silent. I don't think I heard one person say a word all the way. It was a very strange and sad day.

 

[spam1967]

relegation by a country mile.

 

[Number13]

As hard as the defeat was in the final, the relegation day was far worse for me. I had grown up seeing City as a club and a team close to what we are now, either winning stuff or being up with the teams that could. That day put us in a bad place, you could argue it took until last year to get back

 

[Bill]

tbh losing the 74 league cup final made me feel worse. mind you i was 19 and city were everything to me back then.

 

[Manc Born & Bred]

Luton without a doubt

 

[Santiago Street]

As an 11 year old kid I was upset we lost the cup final but the excitement of going to wembley with my dad for the first time and the whole sense of occasion made it a bit more bearable.

I still remember driving home up Lloyd Street with my dad with tears streaming down my face after the Luton game and my dad saying "Don't be upset son it's happened before and it'll happen again." I was heartbroken.