Hooliganism and Violence Maine Road 80's/early 90's

Scaring Europe to Death said:
Interesting and being a lot older my memories are slightly different, albeit neither right nor wrong

1983 came as a complete shock, but I do recall the previous season falling off a cliff and harbouring doubts and concerns about our lack of quality, particularly after thrashings at Swansea and Wolves.
It was also patently obvious that John Bond's short termism had a shelf life, and with hindsight, he sold players who weren't good enough for where we wanted to be (Palmer Mackenzie Bennett) but were superior to where we ended up.
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We were top after three games and firmly in mid table when Bond walked in January (think we were ninth). The collapse was spectacular so I don’t agree about your recollection of the trajectory continuing from the previous season, although we did miss Francis terribly from the season before.

Agree about those disposals though. We sold Joe in the March too and I often wonder if he’d have flapped at that cross against Luton like Alex did.

Lots of terrible decisions in the second half of the season, most conspicuously appointing Benson and being too cautious against Luton, conspired to relegate us. That group of players should never have been relegated.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
We were top after three games and firmly in mid table when Bond walked in January (think we were ninth). The collapse was spectacular so I don’t agree about your recollection of the trajectory continuing from the previous season, although we did miss Francis terribly from the season before.

Agree about those disposals though. We sold Joe in the March too and I often wonder if he’d have flapped at that cross against Luton like Alex did.

Lots of terrible decisions in the second half of the season, most conspicuously appointing Benson and being too cautious against Luton, conspired to relegate us. That group of players should never have been relegated.
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I think you might have misunderstood my recollection of the previous season as I neither expected nor suggested that our downward curve in 81-82 would lead to relegation the following season

What I definitely did sense was the team suddenly ageing overnight and the heroes of the 81 resurgence (Gow, Hutchison and McDonald) hardly contributing anything of note in the second half of 81-82.

We were also still relying on Corrigan, Hartford and Tueart, none of whom would play for much longer in the top flight.
Yes, it looked a good team on paper, but we lacked speed and physicality, and after briefing topping the table at Christmas the season soon fell off a cliff.

Tueart had just suffered an achilles injury, and after signing John Ryan and Age Hareide we only won 2 of our last 16 games.

We then replaced Trevor Francis with yet another veteran in David Cross so I was expecting 82-83 to start and finish in mid table mediocrity, neither of which happened.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
I think you might have misunderstood my recollection of the previous season as I neither expected nor suggested that our downward curve in 81-82 would lead to relegation the following season

What I definitely did sense was the team suddenly ageing overnight and the heroes of the 81 resurgence (Gow, Hutchison and McDonald) hardly contributing anything of note in the second half of 81-82.

We were also still relying on Corrigan, Hartford and Tueart, none of whom would play for much longer in the top flight.
Yes, it looked a good team on paper, but we lacked speed and physicality, and after briefing topping the table at Christmas the season soon fell off a cliff.

Tueart had just suffered an achilles injury, and after signing John Ryan and Age Hareide we only won 2 of our last 16 games.

We then replaced Trevor Francis with yet another veteran in David Cross so I was expecting 82-83 to start and finish in mid table mediocrity, neither of which happened.
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I think that’s fair comment about the ago profile of that squad and tellingly I can’t think of any kids that broke through the following season so there wasn’t much quality coming through.

Pretty sure Tueart’s achilles injury was the previous season (1981-82) though. It happened as he was running with the ball in a game at Maine Road with no one around him. Went down like he’d been shot.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
Interesting and being a lot older my memories are slightly different, albeit neither right nor wrong

1983 came as a complete shock, but I do recall the previous season falling off a cliff and harbouring doubts and concerns about our lack of quality, particularly after thrashings at Swansea and Wolves.
It was also patently obvious that John Bond's short termism had a shelf life, and with hindsight, he sold players who weren't good enough for where we wanted to be (Palmer Mackenzie Bennett) but were superior to where we ended up.

1987 was horrible from start to finish, and apart from Mick McCarthy's bullet header to snatch a draw against United, a fortuitous Christmas victory over Sheffield Wednesday and maybe a sense that we had 3-4 emerging youngsters, it was a depressingly familiar tale of late home defeats against Everton, Liverpool and Chelsea.

1996 only seems like yesterday, but following a disastrous start we actually played some good football, particularly at Maine Road.
We had a good nucleus of players, but appeared spineless and even mutinous when things were going wrong.

Everyone remembers the infamous time wasting when we needed another goal, but I would also argue that selling Gary Flitcroft at such a crucial time was equally disastrous

2001 was the only season when I attended every game and there was a moment during the 3-2 defeat at home to Ipswich when I feared that the Joe Royle Feelgood Factor had passed its sell by date, and the team was now running on empty fumes.
However 4-5 of those players were good enough to feature regularly in the early days of the Keegan era when City returned to the PL in a much stronger position

So my list (from best to worst)

1996
2001
1983
1987
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I only went to about 9 or 10 home games in 2001. Was in 3rd year at uni and had less time than first two years! So probably the season I remember least about since 86.

Like you said, we had 4 or 5 good players. Though when you look in detail the two players with best PL careers were Dunne (who was very raw at the time though), ditto SWP. Howey, Huckerby and Wanchope decent pros. Loan players like Kanchelskis and Ostenstadt past it. Haaland too, probably. I loved Horlock, Weaver, Wiekens and Goater, but all probably at their best in Championship. Weah was a weird one! Tiatto our best player that season, which probably tells a tale.

I'd really like to see a season review of 2000-2001 (understandably never released!). Looking back at the fixtures now, there's a good 4 or 5 that I have virtually no memory of, and a few others that are distinctiy hazy!
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
Of the four teams we had that were relegated from the top flight between 1983 and 2001, that one was unquestionably the worst.
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I’m not so sure but I get your rationale.
Statistically the 2001 team went down the “earliest”.
The ‘83 one was devastating and without doubt my worst day as a Blue (Spurs was almost as bad).
The other relegations seemed somewhat inevitable. I went to QPR during the ‘87 season and remembered thinking just how utterly bereft we were up front. An ageing Peter Barnes trying (and failing) to trap the ball on their plastic pitch kind of summed it all up.
The Ball team never gave itself a chance - not winning until we beat Bolton in October/ November was suicide.i went to every game that season, home and away - mullered by the Mickeys 4/0 then 6/0 in same week. Can’t remember many / any glimmers of light.
That Royle team in 2001 was absolutely batting above its weight. I can’t remember many home wins - Bradford, Everton? We were getting mullered by the likes of Charlton, Villa st home.
It’s hard to say who was the shittest. I’d go (best to worst):
‘83
‘87
‘96
‘01

It’s akin in some ways to saying what the best method of suicide is - same result but just a shit outcome however you do it!
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
We were top after three games and firmly in mid table when Bond walked in January (think we were ninth). The collapse was spectacular so I don’t agree about your recollection of the trajectory continuing from the previous season, although we did miss Francis terribly from the season before.

Agree about those disposals though. We sold Joe in the March too and I often wonder if he’d have flapped at that cross against Luton like Alex did.

Lots of terrible decisions in the second half of the season, most conspicuously appointing Benson and being too cautious against Luton, conspired to relegate us. That group of players should never have been relegated.
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I have vague memories of Luton playing United midweek prior to our game. United IIRC won, which meant we “only” had to draw. I’m sure that increased the sense of “caution”.
 
BAB.DAB said:

I was there ,
Remember the hammer's singing
"You'll be back in 88 " to us
Dont think stone island was around in them days
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IMO, there has has always been a connection between City and West Ham, i think we have it with Everton also!

Local fans, who were then we they were shit, just like us!!
 
Ysabel 123 said:
IMO, there has has always been a connection between City and West Ham, i think we have it with Everton also!

Local fans, who were then we they were shit, just like us!!
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Since when exactly has there always been a connection with West Ham? (before the aforementioned relegation match)
What landed on Euston that particular morning n afternoon suggest otherwise!

As for them Everton, are you sure?

Not having a dig at your opinion, its obviously your perception, just curious.

Agree with sticking by through shite years as far as West Ham are concerned back in the day but, before the premier league them Everton had a boss team making noises their neighbours couldn't ignore ...side by side at that, unlike us.

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Close nit grounds (of old) n working class similarities i'll grant you, mind.
 
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Maintainin said:
Since when exactly has there always been a connection with West Ham? (before the aforementioned relegation match)
What landed on Euston that particular morning n afternoon suggest otherwise!

As for them Everton, are you sure?

Not having a dig at your opinion, its obviously your perception, just curious.

Agree with sticking by through shite years as far as West Ham are concerned back in the day but, before the premier league them Everton had a boss team making noises their neighbours couldn't ignore ...side by side at that, unlike us.

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Close nit grounds (of old) n working class similarities i'll grant you, mind.
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Never had any connection with Everton that’ll be the original posters own opinions on the blue dippers, any encounter we had with them as far more lively than with their red neighbours, the friendly relationship with west ham has been around since 87 i believe but wasn’t before that, there’s been numerous situations whereby there could of been mither between us & those good relations between us avoided them by mutual effect some humorous close calls, got lotta time like loadsa us blues for west ham as they do with us its mutual but i’m fully aware this ceasing of hostilities mainly came about after the infamous 87 game.
 
johnnytapia said:
I have vague memories of Luton playing United midweek prior to our game. United IIRC won, which meant we “only” had to draw. I’m sure that increased the sense of “caution”.
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i actually went to that game hoping utd would beat them to give us a chance of staying up , thats how shit we were that season
 
johnnytapia said:
I have vague memories of Luton playing United midweek prior to our game. United IIRC won, which meant we “only” had to draw. I’m sure that increased the sense of “caution”.
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I don’t remember that (although that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen) but I do remember that it was widely reported there were a decent number of United fans in the Luton end at Maine Road on that final day.

The cunts have always been obsessed with us, despite their strenuous and tedious denials.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
I think you might have misunderstood my recollection of the previous season as I neither expected nor suggested that our downward curve in 81-82 would lead to relegation the following season

What I definitely did sense was the team suddenly ageing overnight and the heroes of the 81 resurgence (Gow, Hutchison and McDonald) hardly contributing anything of note in the second half of 81-82.

We were also still relying on Corrigan, Hartford and Tueart, none of whom would play for much longer in the top flight.
Yes, it looked a good team on paper, but we lacked speed and physicality, and after briefing topping the table at Christmas the season soon fell off a cliff.

Tueart had just suffered an achilles injury, and after signing John Ryan and Age Hareide we only won 2 of our last 16 games.

We then replaced Trevor Francis with yet another veteran in David Cross so I was expecting 82-83 to start and finish in mid table mediocrity, neither of which happened.
Click to expand...
Too young to remember but the post echos a lot of parallels with the back end of the Peter Reid earlier. You could see the rot coming the back end of the 92/93 season, defeats to Spurs in the Cup, Everton 5-2 on the last day at home. Players had aged, replacements were poor.
 
franksinatra said:
Too young to remember but the post echos a lot of parallels with the back end of the Peter Reid earlier. You could see the rot coming the back end of the 92/93 season, defeats to Spurs in the Cup, Everton 5-2 on the last day at home. Players had aged, replacements were poor.
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Exactly, and I remember making the same point in the Frank Clark days when people were telling me that we should have given Reid more time at the start of 93-94.

Reid inherited a decent team that had started the 90-91 season with only 1 defeat (on the opening day) from the first 10 games.

In terms of quality, City weren't that far behind United and there was a general mood of optimism.

However, by 1993 (at the age of 37) he was still starting games alongside Steve McMahon (33) and Ray Ranson (32) back at the club.

He'd also bought Fitzroy Simpson, Ricky Holden and then Alfonse Groenendijk, and overspent (albeit that might have been Swales' fault) on Curle and Phelan.

Every City game post Tottenham cup defeat was like a microcosm of the whole 92-93 season with early promise soon fading into instantly forgettable mediocrity

Indeed, I've just googled that period and aside from the farcical Keith Curle handball at Villa Park, I'm struggling to remember much more than 2-3 incidents
Wimbledon 0-0?
Palace 1-1?
Did those games actually happen?

Then Everton thrashed us 5-2 at Maine Road and our weaknesses had finally been exposed

To borrow one of Joe Royle's quotes, he might have been in charge when we sank into the third tier, but the club had hit the iceberg five years earlier
 
franksinatra said:
Too young to remember but the post echos a lot of parallels with the back end of the Peter Reid earlier. You could see the rot coming the back end of the 92/93 season, defeats to Spurs in the Cup, Everton 5-2 on the last day at home. Players had aged, replacements were poor.
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Martyn Margetson in net. If he played in our current team we’d get relegated
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
Or the reenactment of the Normandy Landings when City arrived at Lime Street for the 81 FA Cup Quarter Final
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I swear the morphed out of the sewers that night. Remember looking over at the Las Vegas amusement arcade nothing, looked back 10 seconds later & there were loads of them. I'm sure that Las Vegas wasn't that big inside
 
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