One for the Old Timers....

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Melton Blade

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Messages
168
Reaction score
408
Do you know the parallels with our current fall from grace of nearly making Europe.... to the season 1974/5 to abject failure and early relegation in 1975/6 are absolutely scary.

With Furphy at the helm I remember us thrashing Spurs 3-1 at White Hart Lane on Match of the Day, followed by the unforgettable TC "quality goal from a quality player" in the 3-2 home win against West Ham. We were unbeaten in the last 6 games and I seem to remember a win in our last game at Birmingham rather than a nil all draw would have claimed a spot in Europe?

Lots of optimism then In the close season as we made a record signing of a new centre forward Chris Guthrie who scored on his debut in an entertaining 1-1 home draw against Derby the champions on Match Day 1.

Unbelievably we didn't register our first win till the 9th game at home to Burnley and the second win wasn't till GAME 29 by which time we were managed by Jimmy Sirrell. We finished with 4 wins all season. It was desperate (even with TC & Woody).
What a collapse.

Let's hope the world isn't really on repeat and we have an unintelligible Scotsman with bad teeth taking over from CW!! Haha.

UTB
 

Do you know the parallels with our current fall from grace of nearly making Europe.... to the season 1974/5 to abject failure and early relegation in 1975/6 are absolutely scary.

With Furphy at the helm I remember us thrashing Spurs 3-1 at White Hart Lane on Match of the Day, followed by the unforgettable TC "quality goal from a quality player" in the 3-2 home win against West Ham. We were unbeaten in the last 6 games and I seem to remember a win in our last game at Birmingham rather than a nil all draw would have claimed a spot in Europe?

Lots of optimism then In the close season as we made a record signing of a new centre forward Chris Guthrie who scored on his debut in an entertaining 1-1 home draw against Derby the champions on Match Day 1.

Unbelievably we didn't register our first win till the 9th game at home to Burnley and the second win wasn't till GAME 29 by which time we were managed by Jimmy Sirrell. We finished with 4 wins all season. It was desperate (even with TC & Woody).
What a collapse.

Let's hope the world isn't really on repeat and we have an unintelligible Scotsman with bad teeth taking over from CW!! Haha.

UTB
also the opening of the new south stand which some think was cursed due to ending cricket at the lane . which meant only seven seasons in top flight since over 45 seasons. after never finishing below 11th in second tier over 86 seasons
 
Do you know the parallels with our current fall from grace of nearly making Europe.... to the season 1974/5 to abject failure and early relegation in 1975/6 are absolutely scary.

With Furphy at the helm I remember us thrashing Spurs 3-1 at White Hart Lane on Match of the Day, followed by the unforgettable TC "quality goal from a quality player" in the 3-2 home win against West Ham. We were unbeaten in the last 6 games and I seem to remember a win in our last game at Birmingham rather than a nil all draw would have claimed a spot in Europe?

Lots of optimism then In the close season as we made a record signing of a new centre forward Chris Guthrie who scored on his debut in an entertaining 1-1 home draw against Derby the champions on Match Day 1.

Unbelievably we didn't register our first win till the 9th game at home to Burnley and the second win wasn't till GAME 29 by which time we were managed by Jimmy Sirrell. We finished with 4 wins all season. It was desperate (even with TC & Woody).
What a collapse.

Let's hope the world isn't really on repeat and we have an unintelligible Scotsman with bad teeth taking over from CW!! Haha.

UTB
Remember it well! One thing though it didn't go down to the last day relegations like they usually do☹️
 
Which way will this season go?

Will it be similar to the 1990/91 season where we didn't win our first top flight match until December and then went on a run of positive results that saw us pull well clear of the relegation battle? This followed two seasons of promotion starting from the third tier.

Or will it be similar to 1975/76 where we followed up five amazing seasons that saw promotion and pundits raving about our style of football? Just missing out on Europe in the previous year we gave ourselves too much to do and relegation was our fate.

Which is it to be?
 
Guthrie scored with a diving header against Burnley but that's about all he could do. I remember seeing him come off the coach at Carlisle.. He was unshaven, in the days when it wasn't fashionable and looked well out of his comfort zone. I think it was a 3rd round game. We'd been tempted by his 30 odd goals for Southend the previous season.
 
also the opening of the new south stand which some think was cursed due to ending cricket at the lane . which meant only seven seasons in top flight since over 45 seasons. after never finishing below 11th in second tier over 86 seasons
United are still capable of getting out of this and doing well. Until it is mathematically certain that we're down, I will remain (fairly) optimistic!
However, the footballing gods have never been on our side and we will never get the rub of the green until we get some serious big nobs from the Church down to BDTBL flinging a lot of holy water around and cleanse God's green acre of whatever crap is hanging over the Lane - which has, probably, been there since we got rid of Yorkshire CC and upset the gods with the help of some cricket aficionados rubbing their ju-ju sticks together and wiping gris-gris on our doorstep.
As a starter, it might help if we could have United run out to Dr John's "I Walk on Gilded Splinters".

 
6 wins

Burnley
Villa
Norwich
West Ham
L**ds
Newcastle

Went to the 4-0 Leicester game in 74-75 but 75-76 was what I'd class as my first season. Did seven games Villa, West Ham, Leeds (my first away game), and Newcastle. Did Brum last game of the season (draw), Blackburn in the ASC at the start of the season (think that was another draw) and the only defeat I saw was 1-4 at home to Wolves. I have a feeling Jimmy Johnstone scored our consolation?? Four wins, two draws and one defeat as my only games in that season was some effort!
 

Get rid of that terrible pink away kit might help for a start. Why is Billy not getting a chance? he would have scored at least two of Mcburnmiss missed.
 
Blackburn in the ASC at the start of the season (think that was another draw) and the only defeat I saw was 1-4 at home to Wolves. I have a feeling Jimmy Johnstone scored our consolation??
Beat Blackburn 3-1. Yes, Johnstone scored for us with a header when, I think, we were 2-0 down at the time
 
mentioned same on another post so many similarities to 75 - 76 had a season ticket in new south stand and no sign of what was to come with a good performance against the champions derby only pegged back by charlie georges penalty but just disaster after disaster after that
 
mentioned same on another post so many similarities to 75 - 76 had a season ticket in new south stand and no sign of what was to come with a good performance against the champions derby only pegged back by charlie georges penalty but just disaster after disaster after that
Our goal was a penalty by Keith Eddy. Charlie George's late equaliser wasnt a penalty, it was a stunning shot to the roof of the net from outside the box
 
Do you know the parallels with our current fall from grace of nearly making Europe.... to the season 1974/5 to abject failure and early relegation in 1975/6 are absolutely scary.

With Furphy at the helm I remember us thrashing Spurs 3-1 at White Hart Lane on Match of the Day, followed by the unforgettable TC "quality goal from a quality player" in the 3-2 home win against West Ham. We were unbeaten in the last 6 games and I seem to remember a win in our last game at Birmingham rather than a nil all draw would have claimed a spot in Europe?

Lots of optimism then In the close season as we made a record signing of a new centre forward Chris Guthrie who scored on his debut in an entertaining 1-1 home draw against Derby the champions on Match Day 1.

Unbelievably we didn't register our first win till the 9th game at home to Burnley and the second win wasn't till GAME 29 by which time we were managed by Jimmy Sirrell. We finished with 4 wins all season. It was desperate (even with TC & Woody).
What a collapse.

Let's hope the world isn't really on repeat and we have an unintelligible Scotsman with bad teeth taking over from CW!! Haha.

UTB
That is a scary comparison but true.
Let's hope it hasnt the same outcome.
 
If ever there was a reason to hold off making a knee jerk decision in getting rid of the Manager its the Furphy/Sirrell experience. Ken Furphy had a bad start to the season but like CW his team had come so close to European football the season before. He only lasted 11 games the next season yet went on to be successful in the USA coaching the New York Cosmos and Pele.

Jimmy Sirrell was a lower division manager who'd had some success with Notts County. He was hopelessly out of his depth and the team went from bad to worse under his stewardship. He was a devout catholic and strict disciplinarian which led to a number of altercations with players. One such instance was with a lad I played football with years later. He was in the junior set up and was predicted to have a bright future. At 15 he'd captained England schoolboys at Wembley against Scotland and was a cultured centre back. At the age of 17 he got his girlfriend pregnant. Sirrell went ballistic and told him the Club didn't need his sort and promptly got rid of him, this despite the lad saying he was going to do right by the girl and marry her when he was 18. Sirrell would have none of it and a talent was lost to the Club. Totally disillusioned by this the lad gave up football and went on to have a successful career outside of the game. Last time I heard he was still married to the girl.

How the world has changed now with no one batting an eye lid over the indiscretions players get up to off the field.
 
I really hope we don't sack CW and I guess if it turns into a normal relegation battle were we end up in the Championship then he'll still be here. However, if it turns into a 75/76 nightmare where we're marooned at the bottom of the table and getting beat every week, then that saps the confidence out of everyone at the club, the fans, the players and the manager himself. In that situation is that doing anyone any good in the long run?

We need a win soon and CW might have to think out of the box to conjure that up. A phone call to be DB for any ideas from the 90/91 season might help (and yes I know that brings up connotations of Micky Adams time at United), although as CW was a player at the club at the time he might be able to draw something from that time himself. He could do a lot worse than f***ing Lundstrum off out of the first team picture now, then getting them all shit-faced before the next game. His hands are tied at the minute on that front with the boozers being shut but surely they could organise something at one of the bars in the ground or at Shirecliffe. Get some dippers in to put on a show, owt to take the players mind off being rock bottom.
 

I really hope we don't sack CW and I guess if it turns into a normal relegation battle were we end up in the Championship then he'll still be here. However, if it turns into a 75/76 nightmare where we're marooned at the bottom of the table and getting beat every week, then that saps the confidence out of everyone at the club, the fans, the players and the manager himself. In that situation is that doing anyone any good in the long run?

We need a win soon and CW might have to think out of the box to conjure that up. A phone call to be DB for any ideas from the 90/91 season might help (and yes I know that brings up connotations of Micky Adams time at United), although as CW was a player at the club at the time he might be able to draw something from that time himself. He could do a lot worse than f***ing Lundstrum off out of the first team picture now, then getting them all shit-faced before the next game. His hands are tied at the minute on that front with the boozers being shut but surely they could organise something at one of the bars in the ground or at Shirecliffe. Get some dippers in to put on a show, owt to take the players mind off being rock bottom.

Well some might say leaving your goalscorers on the bench was a tad short sighted.
 

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom