04-01-2019, 20:04
Just been doing the pre-match email I send to my nephew down in the wrong hemisphere and Town converts over the pond. Last and only time we played Brizzle in t'Cup was January 6th 2001 - yes THAT season. The Big Sulk (yes THAT Steve Bruce) had gone and been replaced by Lou Macari and we were heading for the trap door. Brizzle were a division below us, bumbling around in mid-table obscurity, just like they are now. Some of the great football clubs that were in (what is now the Chumpionship) with us back then were
Stockport County
Bolton Wanderers
Wimbledon (pick between AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons)
Barnsley
Grimsby Town
Sheffield United (I still see that penalty by their keeper at Wembley heading for the moon)
Preston Both Ends
Crewe
Portsmouth
Tranmere Rovers
Gillingham
Blackburn Rovers
Given that the players had little motivation, thanks to Mr. Rubery and Mr. Bruce having a minor???? spat about spending his annual budget every month, and something to do with selling his wife's boyfriend (allegedly) to Ipswich the season before (though we did actually win some games in December that season) and it was the following season before we stopped paying them at all - we must have been bad to finish below most of that lot. Thank fook I was still in Canada. I left for there in the mid 90's with us in the second tier, dreaming of promotion to the promised land. I came back for the 2002/3 season, returned to being a season ticket holder and watching the direst of dire football I've ever seen us play under Mick Wadsworth, including the Division 4 years before Mick Buxton rescued us. I wondered why I'd come home with what was to follow. You know the rest.
Mick Wadsworth eh? We sacked him but as we couldn't afford to pay him off we re-instated him.
Don't think he actually got paid like the rest of the players anyway until we were pulled out of the mire by Ken Davy and we had to pay off our "football debts".
You know looking at all that - and as much as things are pretty ropy right now, they are no'but positively rosy compared to the turn of the century.
Stockport County
Bolton Wanderers
Wimbledon (pick between AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons)
Barnsley
Grimsby Town
Sheffield United (I still see that penalty by their keeper at Wembley heading for the moon)
Preston Both Ends
Crewe
Portsmouth
Tranmere Rovers
Gillingham
Blackburn Rovers
Given that the players had little motivation, thanks to Mr. Rubery and Mr. Bruce having a minor???? spat about spending his annual budget every month, and something to do with selling his wife's boyfriend (allegedly) to Ipswich the season before (though we did actually win some games in December that season) and it was the following season before we stopped paying them at all - we must have been bad to finish below most of that lot. Thank fook I was still in Canada. I left for there in the mid 90's with us in the second tier, dreaming of promotion to the promised land. I came back for the 2002/3 season, returned to being a season ticket holder and watching the direst of dire football I've ever seen us play under Mick Wadsworth, including the Division 4 years before Mick Buxton rescued us. I wondered why I'd come home with what was to follow. You know the rest.
Mick Wadsworth eh? We sacked him but as we couldn't afford to pay him off we re-instated him.
Don't think he actually got paid like the rest of the players anyway until we were pulled out of the mire by Ken Davy and we had to pay off our "football debts".
You know looking at all that - and as much as things are pretty ropy right now, they are no'but positively rosy compared to the turn of the century.
A guide to cask ale.
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“In the best pubs, you can spend entire afternoons deep in refreshment without a care in the world.”
“In the best pubs, you can spend entire afternoons deep in refreshment without a care in the world.”