FA Cup Final loss in 1981 or Luton 83?

gillymcfc said:
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
And look where Luton are, and look at what Pleat achieved as a manager...
 
The 81 Final was hard but not as hard as Luton 83 my dad gave up his season ticket in disgust - though he did keep buying me mine.

Took me until our last season there to get him back in Maine Road

Personally I can still see Pleat dancing on the pitch but God has a sense of humour cos Raddy Antic who score the winner for Luton went on to manage Barcelona in the early 90s took them to the top of La Liga and promptly got sacked.
 
Luton for me but i dont remember much about the fa cup final in 1981.Relegation is always worst than a cup final defeat
 
Being at Wembley was a buzzin day for the first game in 1981 ...couldn't make the replay so we watched it on the box and we all had a feeling we had missed the chance to win it first game...so when we did lose it was bad but not unbearable...
Luton was just fucking bad...really bad....still feels bad even writing about it...nothing but bad....so Luton was worse.
 
Luton was and still is the lowest point I've experienced. The cup final was the catalyst of what was to come two years down the line and malaise that engulfed the club for the next 20 years.
 
Easily Luton 83. It was the most crucial match in a generation and the way we lost was absolutely devastating. I have never felt lower watching City.
Most of us have seen some crap matches / seasons following City over the years, but no matter how bad things got we always found a reason to laugh about it. Luton 83 was a totally different experience. There was no humour to be found. It was truly heartbreaking.

As for the 81 cup final, that was comparatively disappointing. It wasn't even half as bad as standing pissed wet through in the mud at Halifax...
 
Although the Cup Final loss was disappointing it was still two great days out at Wembley.

The Luton relegation was devastating and summed up what Swales had done to the club after bringing back Allison and letting him dismantle a good team.
 
Luton easily, the worst day of my football life (been worse since mind). Going into it I really didn't believe we could go down and then the horror of them scoring and it suddenly being real.
Halifax and Shrewsbury away were bad but realised that day that we were in a mess.
Next couple of seasons were good fun but we weren't one of the big boys anymore and its taken a long time to come back.
 
I would say the 81 cup final for me as it was a chance to win something and possibly build on it
Which as we all know didn't happen and it all went down hill rather quickly after that culminating in relegation in 83, even after relegation though I thought we would come back stronger but that didn't go as planned either
 
Luton was the worst. Both matches in 81 were great days out with lots of ale taken to soften the blow but the David Pleat jig was certainly the worst day of my football life. Got home to Withington in a stunned state and split up with my girlfriend of three years when she told me: "It's only a game." None of the other relegations have come close in terms of anguish.
 
Luton for me easily especially as i thought we were safe,far worse for the club.
 
lancs blue said:
Although the Cup Final loss was disappointing it was still two great days out at Wembley.

The Luton relegation was devastating and summed up what Swales had done to the club after bringing back Allison and letting him dismantle a good team.

Pretty much my thoughts at the time, must admit though, if someone would have told me then that it would be another 30 years before we had another serious chance of winning anything I may have felt a little different, at the time it seemed inconceivable.
 
I'll go for the Luton one.
One thing I remember about the 1981 Cup Final Replay was my late father - who hated football - coming in from the pub just as Crooks had equalised, sitting down and saying "Is there anything else on?"
He was serious as well, I think.
 
Luton by a mile, but one thing i do remember was the big crowd singing "we'll support you evermore at the end. I was only young but this made a massive impression on me.
 
FANTASTIC TOPIC ROCKY !!!!

Losing to Luton was unbelievable - a few years earlier, we'd been going to the title and buying the best players. No, this is NOT Barry Davis/John Motson......

IMO - we didn't get over this until Shinawatra took over - I really do believe that the effect of going down was that deep. Since then, we kept fliting between the top 2 divisions until '98 when the truly unthinkable happened.......

Still, we turned up in our droves and I just looooovvvvvvv it with what has happened since '08.............
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top