What was the most toxic period at City?

[mayo31]

I remember hearing " we're shit and we're sick of it" at Maine Road and that hero running on the pitch and tearing his season ticket up in front of the Kippax. Bury. 1998?

I heard a different story

The lad threw his season ticket, it hit someone who contyavcted teh cluibto say he had fouind the ticket

The club gave him the address of the thrower and it was posted back with a note saying something along the lines of, if i have to go, so do you

 

[Cellarite]

The 115 era pisses this.

The toxicity, bile, jealousy and pure hatred from most of the country is without question the biggest sticking the boot in ever.

The impact on our supporters has been insane.

Look how many “what if this, this and this?” posts appear on here daily.

There are posters genuinely taking about relegations, stripping of titles and people going to jail. That’s how toxic it’s been to their mental health and rationality.

I have to admit that I struggle with the "empty seats" jibes. I've lived in East Yorkshire for 20-odd years since I was 21. Football fans around here are split into two camps - Hull City fans and plastic fans of usually United or Liverpool, but occasionally Leeds, Chelsea or Arsenal.

I get the same "jokes" from both sets about us not having fans or being unable to fill the Etihad. The problem I have is this comes from Hull City fans (whose average attendances have ranged from 13,000 to 22,000 over a five year period and play in a 25,500 capacity stadium), or "fans" of the red-shirts who at most, go to the legends games in the closed season.

If you respond in anyway, they see it as a win. A typical example would be this...

Them - "Kev, do you think Oasis will sell all their tickets because they're Man City fans and you lot can't sell anything out."

Me - "When was the last time you attended a match at Anfield/Old Trafford/Emirates?"

Them - "Oh he's biting! Don't get wound up!

 

[Hoghead]

The most toxic for the Etihad would be when Bradford Road gas works was operating.
Boom Boom

 

[paulchapo]

You could add Ian Bowyer who is alleged to have been forced out by the boo-boys. Then some bloke called Brian turned him into a European Cup winner.

I remember Ian Bowyer coming into the team as a young lad. He scored a fair few goals very quickly and was even being touted for a call up for the England squad. He was a forward for us and nicknamed "Spring heels" for his ability to jump high from a standing start to head the ball. After a promising start his form tailed off and he started to miss some absolute sitters leading to the fans turning on him. When he eventually ended up at Forest Clough turned him into a midfield player. He actually won a league cup and a cup winners cup medal with us.

 

[East Level 2]

Was that when it kicked off with the police

Yes. The police weren't happy seeing City fans starving on the concourse and forced them back to watch the match.
Can't remember the result but I doubt we won.

Edit: Pretty sure it was a 2-1 defeat in March 2000 in whatever the real second division was called in those days.

 

[Sky Blue Thinking]

All about opinions!

Not defending Summerbee per se...just that I think he was often the first and easiest target. There's always a player first in the firing line. Doku, Sterling, Heath, Edghill, Morley, etc. For a variety of reasons, but once their status has been established they usually get the abuse before others even when they are not the worst on the pitch.

Remember Heath being booed on the pitch for his debut.
Keeping Clive Allen out of the team whilst not scoring didnt do much to improve his status with the fans.

 

[sktooblue]

Am I the only one who misses the carnage that seemed to always follow our last game of the season at Maine Road? The sight of thousands of angry & frustrated blues trying to storm the main entrance & being rebuffed by mounted police, it was much more organic than the orchestrated trophy ceremonies we have now!
Just as an aside & more about depressing than toxic, the FA cup run the year before the much mentioned Blackburn game was West Ham at home in another QF tie. Infinitely winnable with the prospect of a winnable semi against Middlesboro' awaiting the winners. Pearce rests Samaras' v Wigan the previous weekend to keep him fit but then decides to throw him on & he inevitably gets injured. So into the West Ham game we go without a striker..........and get beat 2-1. This was the first time all optimism left me & I realised than I'd probably never see us win another trophy!!! Roll on the Sheik!!!

 

[Cellarite]

Am I the only one who misses the carnage that seemed to always follow our last game of the season at Maine Road? The sight of thousands of angry & frustrated blues trying to storm the main entrance & being rebuffed by mounted police, it was much more organic than the orchestrated trophy ceremonies we have now!
Just as an aside & more about depressing than toxic, the FA cup run the year before the much mentioned Blackburn game was West Ham at home in another QF tie. Infinitely winnable with the prospect of a winnable semi against Middlesboro' awaiting the winners. Pearce rests Samaras' v Wigan the previous weekend to keep him fit but then decides to throw him on & he inevitably gets injured. So into the West Ham game we go without a striker..........and get beat 2-1. This was the first time all optimism left me & I realised than I'd probably never see us win another trophy!!! Roll on the Sheik!!!

That's exactly how I felt about that West Ham game. I went into it thinking "how are we going to fuck this up?" and had no confidence or belief that we might actually win the game. Wasn't it a replay after we'd drawn at Upton Park? I'm sure Nery Castillo made his debut in the first tie.

For toxic times, I have to agree with a lot on here that the Swales Out campaign from about 93 onwards was ferocious. The Candlelit Protest on a Monday night at home to Oldham with Paul Power marching up and down the Kippax handing candles out from a huge box, the post game demonstrations outside the Main Stand - I remember the game that Niall Quinn got his cruciate injury at home to Sheffield Wednesday, we lost 1-2 or 1-3. The game finished before 5 but I was still outside the Main Stand at quarter to 8. Sure someone had posters of the A-Z page where Swales lived and chants were going round - "He lives at number 10, he lives at number 10, Swales lives on Stanhope Road, he lives at number 10" and "Swales lives in Bowden, Swales lives in Bowdon, na na na na, na na na na!"

Just to finish off on a few players that have been mentioned who have had vitriol aimed at them. Nicky Summerbee was a lazy fucker who treated our fanbase with absolute disdain. After months of watching him lose the ball on the right wing and amble back without a care in the world, the North Stand snapped one afternoon and gave him both barrels. As he finished saunter back, he realised he was getting shit and casually put two fingers up at the North Stand. Couldn't fucking stand him and this was someone who was ridiculously excited about his signing after he ripped us a new one for Swindon Town a year or two earlier.

 

[danielwood5]

Football died for me that dark day when we ran out of chips at Eastlands, absolute rock bottom scenes on the terraces.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

Yes. The police weren't happy seeing City fans starving on the concourse and forced them back to watch the match.
Can't remember the result but I doubt we won.

Edit: Pretty sure it was a 2-1 defeat in March 2000 in whatever the real second division was called in those days.

That “hangry” term people use. Hungry and angry.

 

[.db.]

Obviously the Stuart Pearce era was horrible to watch football wise, but overall was it really that bad? We had odd moments to enjoy and we didn’t get relegated.

I think we’ve had much worse seasons, more toxic anyway.

We're all waiting.

We were all feeling positive when the Pearce era started.

We finished his first season in 8th place, we had the best defensive record in the league outside the Sky Four, we were unbeaten in our last eight games of the season and were a penalty kick away from qualifying for the UEFA Cup outright (no Fair Play whatsanameit). Plus Shauny Wright was arguably in the top three players in the league that season.



Remember the atmosphere at Spurs away when they refused to sell alcohol to us in the away stand so we all went back to the seats and sang ‘when the Blues go marching in’ for the entirety of half time and carried on singing all second half despite losing. Remember the atmosphere at Villa away where we had the usual away end we get now plus the entire bottom tier adjacent to the away end (we must have had 5,000 there for a league game) when Shauny Wright (wonder goal!) and Kiki Musampa won the game for us?

It definitely wasn’t toxic then.

Even the next two seasons were more boring than they were toxic.

Blackburn away in the FA Cup was a toxic atmosphere, although more of a one-off… and saying that, Pearce did better in the FA Cup with two quarter final appearances than any manager for decades. But on the whole, rather than trying to break into the stadium to storm the boardroom or throwing things at the board members when they were leaving the stadium like we did a decade earlier, people just stopped turning up. We only had a 39,997 average attendance in his final season, compared to over 42,000 in every season around that for five years (although even 39,997 puts a lot of so called big clubs and great sets of fans to shame even today when you consider we didn’t score a goal for five months!).

We knew the situation was due to lack of funds so we were more forgiving to Wardle.

Even so, the Emile Mpenza winner at Newcastle and the ‘limbs’ in the away end is still one of the best goal celebrations I’ve ever been part of. We were safe from relegation and could look forward to the next season.

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

We were all feeling positive when the Pearce era started.

We finished his first season in 8th place, we had the best defensive record in the league outside the Sky Four, we were unbeaten in our last eight games of the season and were a penalty kick away from qualifying for the UEFA Cup outright (no Fair Play whatsanameit). Plus Shauny Wright was arguably in the top three players in the league that season.



Remember the atmosphere at Spurs away when they refused to sell alcohol to us in the away stand so we all went back to the seats and sang ‘when the Blues go marching in’ for the entirety of half time and carried on singing all second half despite losing. Remember the atmosphere at Villa away where we had the usual away end we get now plus the entire bottom tier adjacent to the away end (we must have had 5,000 there for a league game) when Shauny Wright (wonder goal!) and Kiki Musampa won the game for us?

It definitely wasn’t toxic then.

Even the next two seasons were more boring than they were toxic.

Blackburn away in the FA Cup was a toxic atmosphere, although more of a one-off… and saying that, Pearce did better in the FA Cup with two quarter final appearances than any manager for decades. But on the whole, rather than trying to break into the stadium to storm the boardroom or throwing things at the board members when they were leaving the stadium like we did a decade earlier, people just stopped turning up. We only had a 39,997 average attendance in his final season, compared to over 42,000 in every season around that for five years (although even 39,997 puts a lot of so called big clubs and great sets of fans to shame even today when you consider we didn’t score a goal for five months!).

We knew the situation was due to lack of funds so we were more forgiving to Wardle.

Even so, the Emile Mpenza winner at Newcastle and the ‘limbs’ in the away end is still one of the best goal celebrations I’ve ever been part of. We were safe from relegation and could look forward to the next season.

Sorry Stuart, it wasn’t personal.

You did your best, that’s all we can ask.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

RE: Pearce. We didn’t score at home in the league that season after 1st January. The football was diabolical.

Barton imploded for the last time and we nearly went in to the next season with no manager and owners wanting to sell.

It was horrendous.

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

RE: Pearce. We didn’t score at home in the league that season after 1st January. The football was diabolical.

Barton imploded for the last time and we nearly went in to the next season with no manager and owners wanting to sell.

It was horrendous.

Yeah yeah yeah but don’t you remember spurs away when the bar closed and we had a sing song? That more than makes up for the shite football, meltdown of the club and almost relegation don’t ya know

 

[MCFC Wirral]

Yeah yeah yeah but don’t you remember spurs away when the bar closed and we had a sing song? That more than makes up for the shite football, meltdown of the club and almost relegation don’t ya know

I generally did Spurs away when I was down there but don’t recall whether I was at that one or not. I think there was a defeat on the last day? The Sheffield United / West Ham / Tevez season.

At least Pearce did keep us up. I’m sure Thaksin Shinawatra wouldn’t have bought us as a Championship side and things now would be very different!

 

[Mifred]

Yes. The police weren't happy seeing City fans starving on the concourse and forced them back to watch the match.
Can't remember the result but I doubt we won.

Edit: Pretty sure it was a 2-1 defeat in March 2000 in whatever the real second division was called in those days.

I got a taxi to my car as it was kicking off outside

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

I generally did Spurs away when I was down there but don’t recall whether I was at that one or not. I think there was a defeat on the last day? The Sheffield United / West Ham / Tevez season.

At least Pearce did keep us up. I’m sure Thaksin Shinawatra wouldn’t have bought us as a Championship side and things now would be very different!

I’ve no idea mate it was a little jibe at the Pearce apologist above haha

 

[Damocles]

I was young, too naïve to really have wits about me on this sort of thing but going to the match with the old man in the Swales era felt pretty toxic. All I remember thinking is that everybody seemed very angry all the time; in the boozer beforehand, at the match outside, in the stands, after the game, etc.

 

[.db.]

Yeah yeah yeah but don’t you remember spurs away when the bar closed and we had a sing song? That more than makes up for the shite football, meltdown of the club and almost relegation don’t ya know

That’s part of the point about it not being a toxic time though.

There were no demonstrations from fans, no trying the storm the stadium, no fighting with Police, no attacking the board members as they left the stadium, no sit-ins, nobody slinging their season ticket on the pitch, nobody invading the pitch and sitting on it refusing to move, nobody singing ‘we’re shit and we’re sick of it’, no players scoring and angrily running after the manager pointing at his name in his back and looking like he was going to rip his head off…

If anyone thinks the Pearce era was toxic, they weren’t around in the previous decade.

Wardle was treated nicely and respectfully at that time. We all knew the situation and just got on with it.

Plus the nearest we got to relegation was only 15th in the league.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Yeah yeah yeah but don’t you remember spurs away when the bar closed and we had a sing song? That more than makes up for the shite football, meltdown of the club and almost relegation don’t ya know

It wasn’t toxic and we did have moments of enjoyment. Especially in the first season.