At least you woke up at 5, could of been much worse of a start to your birthday
The Darkest Day - 20 years today
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At least you woke up at 5, could of been much worse of a start to your birthday
lancs blue
Well-Known Member
I was in the away stand that day, to me the relegation had an air of inevitability about it as we were depending on other results to stay up so I'd already passed the angry stage by then. Stoke fucked up by not giving us the same allocation of tickets as they'd given to Forest(?) in the Cup earlier that season - that was one reason for the large number of Blues in the home sections and the subsequent trouble. The most eventful bit was getting back to my car after the match which involved crossing that bridge while the missiles were flying both ways.
Happy days! (ha!)
Happy days! (ha!)
blue b4 the moon
Well-Known Member
casualdeyna
Well-Known Member
I ended up running across the motorway with my dad to get away from the ground as the knuckle-draggers were blocking the bridge at the time, it was kicking off everywhere and I'd only just turned 16. I'd never seen so many car windows smashed up as we eventually got out of that hell hole.
Also remember near the end of the game, as it became clear we were going to win but still go down, that someone behind me in the stand obviously had enough of listening to scores not going our way, so decided to launch their radio presumably towards the pitch. It didn't make it that far and cracked a blue on the back of the head about 3 rows from the front, looked painful.
Really odd day, our best performance in years on a lovely day backed by blues all over the stadium, many of them ending up on the pitch running towards our end! and yet relegated to the third tier. It took all summer to sink in, fans were great that day though, many point to "it's Dickov again" as the turning point but I reckon that day 20 years ago was when we started the come-back, even if we did relatively struggle first half of the following season.
I had tears of pride with our support at the end of the game. "We'll support you ever more"
Also remember near the end of the game, as it became clear we were going to win but still go down, that someone behind me in the stand obviously had enough of listening to scores not going our way, so decided to launch their radio presumably towards the pitch. It didn't make it that far and cracked a blue on the back of the head about 3 rows from the front, looked painful.
Really odd day, our best performance in years on a lovely day backed by blues all over the stadium, many of them ending up on the pitch running towards our end! and yet relegated to the third tier. It took all summer to sink in, fans were great that day though, many point to "it's Dickov again" as the turning point but I reckon that day 20 years ago was when we started the come-back, even if we did relatively struggle first half of the following season.
I had tears of pride with our support at the end of the game. "We'll support you ever more"
OneTonyHenry
Well-Known Member
First day of that season I looked at the fixtures and said - “Stoke away... that will be the day we get promoted ... or relegated “.
Was not too happy to be proven right.
Knew we were down though QPR at home ... Margetson handing the ball to Mike Sheron who promptly put it straight down and kicked it unopposed into our net.
And who could forget Pollocks own goal.
A nightmare from which I thought we d never wake up - and didn’t really until the end of 2011.
How good is it now though!!!!
Was not too happy to be proven right.
Knew we were down though QPR at home ... Margetson handing the ball to Mike Sheron who promptly put it straight down and kicked it unopposed into our net.
And who could forget Pollocks own goal.
A nightmare from which I thought we d never wake up - and didn’t really until the end of 2011.
How good is it now though!!!!
BringBackSwales
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I was in our end, but was living in sjoke at the time, got 16 tickets in their end, 2 of the 16 didn’t get battered!
The perfect fumble
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Crying Man City fan looks back at the darkest day in the club's history....
https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...man-city-fan-crying-stoke-14604675#r3z-addoor
Having visited Stoke's ground a few times before and met their knuckle dragging fans I didn't apply for a ticket. I listened to the match on GMR and remember hearing the commentator saying about the trouble " oh look a football match has broken out".
I think situations and games like these have given me a real feeling of connection with the club. Something the rags and dippers don't have, yet.
I think situations and games like these have given me a real feeling of connection with the club. Something the rags and dippers don't have, yet.
Lancet Fluke
Well-Known Member
TBF, Liverpool getting to a CL final is enough to make any sane human being shit uncontrollably.
I was working in St Petersburg, Russia then, as I am today. I had no home internet so went into the office and followed it there, on my own. IIRC, we needed one of Pompey and Port Vale to drpop points (they were away to Bradford and Huddersfield respectively). Vale went two up early, but my memory is that we went one up while Pompey were still goalless at Valley Parade and we had two or three minutes where we were outside the drop zone in the 'as it stands' table. Then Pompey scored and that was pretty well that, even though we went on to win convincingly oursleves.
It's true that we'd all seen it coming, and it coukldn't have been clearer after the QPR game the previous week: when you go ahead in the first minute but relinquish the lead to THAT Pollock own goal and Margetson handing over the ball to allow the opposition to score a quick free kick, the signs point pretty definitively in only one direction. But it's like when a relative is desperately sick and you've been told to expect the worst. Somehow, there's still a small sliver of hope, and the death knell still then comes as a terrible shock. I remember buying a load of beers on the way home that night and sitting there, necking them in the dark, with the curtains closed and the lights off, until I attained a sufficient level of drunken numbness.
My memory is that over the next week or two, the mood among at least the nascent online City community became much more bullish. Yes, we'd gone down, but that meant the club couldn't duck just how bad things had become. We'd address the tough issues, renew ourselves and bounce back a leaner, fitter club. That mood persisted through the summer but didn't last long into the new campaign.
My memory is that the worst time, minutes 81 to 94 of the Gillingham play-off aside, was from October to December of 1998. We hadn't just dropped to those depths, but looked for all the world as if we belonged there. There was a series of goalless home performances (we lost to Preston, while Gillingham and Bristol Rovers each took a point that they celebrated as though they'd won the Champions League). At the time, I remember assistant manager Willie Donachie commenting on how poisonous the atmosphere around the club was becoming. But in the second half of the season, things clicked, we picked up momentum and the crowd was much more buoyant, those awful 13 minutes aside.
As it turned out, the club did return to the second tier as a stronger and more cohesive unit. The momentum that had started around Christmas 1998 was hastened by that incredible play-off escape and carried us forward to a second successive promotion. In short, and by the skin of our teeth, it all worked out pretty well as handsomely as we had any right to expect when looking forward on 3 May 1998. By Christ, it wasn't half a grim evening, though.
It's true that we'd all seen it coming, and it coukldn't have been clearer after the QPR game the previous week: when you go ahead in the first minute but relinquish the lead to THAT Pollock own goal and Margetson handing over the ball to allow the opposition to score a quick free kick, the signs point pretty definitively in only one direction. But it's like when a relative is desperately sick and you've been told to expect the worst. Somehow, there's still a small sliver of hope, and the death knell still then comes as a terrible shock. I remember buying a load of beers on the way home that night and sitting there, necking them in the dark, with the curtains closed and the lights off, until I attained a sufficient level of drunken numbness.
My memory is that over the next week or two, the mood among at least the nascent online City community became much more bullish. Yes, we'd gone down, but that meant the club couldn't duck just how bad things had become. We'd address the tough issues, renew ourselves and bounce back a leaner, fitter club. That mood persisted through the summer but didn't last long into the new campaign.
My memory is that the worst time, minutes 81 to 94 of the Gillingham play-off aside, was from October to December of 1998. We hadn't just dropped to those depths, but looked for all the world as if we belonged there. There was a series of goalless home performances (we lost to Preston, while Gillingham and Bristol Rovers each took a point that they celebrated as though they'd won the Champions League). At the time, I remember assistant manager Willie Donachie commenting on how poisonous the atmosphere around the club was becoming. But in the second half of the season, things clicked, we picked up momentum and the crowd was much more buoyant, those awful 13 minutes aside.
As it turned out, the club did return to the second tier as a stronger and more cohesive unit. The momentum that had started around Christmas 1998 was hastened by that incredible play-off escape and carried us forward to a second successive promotion. In short, and by the skin of our teeth, it all worked out pretty well as handsomely as we had any right to expect when looking forward on 3 May 1998. By Christ, it wasn't half a grim evening, though.