What was the most toxic period at City?

Most toxic - the hour ticking-up to the end of and immediately after the Luton game. Fucking ferocious.

But those impromptu Swales Out/Sack the Board gatherings outside the players entrance were amazing. Usually pissing down, a maelstrom of disgruntled chanting fans, coppers, horses, dogs, and the City suits nervously peeping out from behind the blinds. Loved it.
 
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It was way before my time so I will have to do some substantial reading on this but a quick Google tells me Swales was chair for 20 years. That’s far too long in itself.
 
Swales out.

Swales and City staff locked in the main stand after the match.
Police guarding the main stand entrance.
Storming the main stand.
Throwing metal barriers at the main stand entrance.
Throwing bricks at the Police.
Getting charged by the Police and Police horses.
Mayhem that went on before and after numerous home games.
 
GortonBlue62 said:
I take a certain pride in those demos. We protested brfore the games and then went inside and supported our team.

(I can't remember exactly, but wasn't there at least one occasion when we went back around the front for another little protest?).

No history? Fuck off!
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There was a protest on the forecourt after we lost to Blackburn, which was Reidy's last game in charge. That was my lad's first match and he enjoyed the protest far more than the game.
 
One that was toxic behind the scenes was the second half of Thaksin & Sven's tenure. I'm told they had a serious falling out over transfers, with Sven wanting to build on what he'd started and Thaksin either wanting someone more box office or we had no dosh. It got so heated that Thaksin apparently threw a vase at Sven, which fortunately missed.

Sven was then a dead man walking and that got through to the players. The second half of the season saw our form drop off a bit of a cliff. In addition the financial situation was getting difficult, with further debt being incurred and John Wardle having to lend us money to pay wages.

Garry Cook joined in May 2008 and virtually his first big task was to save us from administration because we couldn't find the money to pay the second instalment of £15m for the previous summer's transfers. He did that and the rest is history, with Sheikh Mansour arriving a couple of months later.
 
Groke said:
1986-87 season was pretty bad - remember losing at home to Southampton and the city players getting some pretty nasty abuse
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I’m surprised it took 9 pages for this to get mentioned. That Southampton game especially.

Honourable mentions to Blackburn away FAC QF. I left with 30 minutes to go and bought a bottle of whisky which I drank completely neat on the way home to Leeds.

Wycombe away in 98. I thought we were never climbing out of the hole - smoking cigs to stay warm - the only highlight was seeing Noel Gallagher and Goldie queuing for tickets pre game.
 
As far as shareholders are concerned I would say that Thaksin takes some beating. He was a fraud and a liar who ripped them off. Then he sacked Sven, bastard.
 
jimharri said:
The telly went off bang on the final whistle. Never watched a single second of it back since.
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I went for a long walk round Kensington Gardens. It was dark by that time which suited my mood absolutely fine.
Some woman had got locked in with her bike so she went out the turnstile and asked me would I lift it over the railings for her. I'm an obliging chap and I managed to lift it over but it was a bit awkward and I ended up twisting my wrist at which point she grabbed hold of the bike shouting thanks very much with not an ounce of care for my well being and nearly snapped my bleeding hand off. I ended up with a sore wrist and an unexpected champions league final loss. To compound it all I later started thinking she was nicking the bike and wanted my help to lift it over the railings. It took the win over Inter to take away that one.
 
invisibleandalone said:
The Swales OUT protests were actually good fun, far better than the football. Found myself on the front pages of the M/c Evening News outside the Main Stand with a few thousand others. Then we had a game with the police called "dodging the charging horses"
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I was also on that front page…. I’ve still got it somewhere
 
invisibleandalone said:
The Swales OUT protests were actually good fun, far better than the football. Found myself on the front pages of the M/c Evening News outside the Main Stand with a few thousand others. Then we had a game with the police called "dodging the charging horses"
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Nowadays our faces would be identified from the press and we would get two years for riot.
 
Absolutely now.

Ok we had 20 shit years under my namesake, not much better under Franny, numerous relegations, won fuck all from 1976 but we were well liked, as a fan base we were admired and respected. Now we are hated for being Arab owned, well run and successful, and not being members of the establishment - that’s VERY toxic
 
invisibleandalone said:
The Swales OUT protests were actually good fun, far better than the football. Found myself on the front pages of the M/c Evening News outside the Main Stand with a few thousand others. Then we had a game with the police called "dodging the charging horses"
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For certain periods it was every home game. The only reason I ever left a game early was to get from the Kippax to the main stand for the Swales out demos/riots
 
I think there are different types of toxicity:
Fans v club would probably be the Swales Out era. Lee was just as bad as a chairman but retained a lot of goodwill from his time a s a player. The Official Supporters Club sticking to their rules and not opposing Swales even though he was dragging the club down was a disgrace, but it never descended to blue v blue battles.
Blue v blue would be the Pearce era, culminating in the cup-tie at Blackburn where 7,000 argued amongst themselves as we went out the cup. Though Luton 83 had its moments with some wanting to proclaim their loyalty while others wanted to vent their anger. I was one of those venting anger; I'd already renewed for the following season.
Fans v team has been fairly rare though "you're not fit to wear the shirt" wasn't exactly unknown under Ball, Coppell, and Clarke. The treatment of Edghill was a disgrace. IIRC Nicky Summerbee and Nigel Clough also copped for a load of stick.
 
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