Opening game away again...........

[Dessie]

There's one thing now we're in Division Three, there won't be many fixtures shifted for telly!

No international break either

 

[Toronto Blade]

Great away first and last putting the team at a disadvantage in front of bumper away crowds.
A chance to start off the season with a big home crowd and finish in front of a big crowd at The Lane.
If we are close to promotion or relegation going into that last match away.
Possibly against a club that might also need the points for promotion or relegation will our club stand up and put a stop to this pattern of being away first and last game that is robbing the club of bumper crowds,money and points.

 

[Trafford]

There's one thing now we're in Division Three, there won't be many fixtures shifted for telly!

Aren't any games being covered this season? I seem to recall watching Huddersfield beat Wednesday on the box last year?

 

[TAMUS]

Pigs two biggest attendances last year , were the first and last matches of the season , which were Exeter 21k and Daggers 23k , probably a extra 5k on each gate , Ok it is just our bad luck .

 

[BarcaBlade]

Got very depressed when I saw the teams we are playing this season, relegation has just hit home to me.

I'm exactly the opposite. For the past two seasons I didn't even bother to write out the fixtures in my diary, but I've just put all the fixtures in for this season and starting to think about when to plan a trip to blighty. Anyone able to guide me as to which grounds might have terracing for away fans?

 

[davidpinder]

No international break either

I thought that i am guessing the gap in Nov and early Dec are for FA cup 1st and 2nd round. We also have a game on FA 3rd round day as well. Down to earth with a bang.

 

[Balham]

I'm exactly the opposite. For the past two seasons I didn't even bother to write out the fixtures in my diary, but I've just put all the fixtures in for this season and starting to think about when to plan a trip to blighty. Anyone able to guide me as to which grounds might have terracing for away fans?

I've no direct experience of any of them but this site is usually bang on: Football Ground Guide

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Good game to start off with. Not too far so we should take a few. Remember watching the Blades notch up a fabulous 5-1 victory at Boundary Park after going a goal down. Can't remember if it they had the plastic pitch at the time or not. Some time in the late Eighties I think?

Yep, 1985, Roger Palmer scored in the 1st minute if memory serves.

My joint best away victory alongside Halifax when strangely, we were also 1 down to an early goal !

 

[shorehamview]

I reckon our last away match will be somewhere very south and very west.........

Oh well, one out of three. At least it's a trip to the seaside, even if it is a bloody long one. 242 miles. Any good hotels in Exeter for a weekend jaunt?

 

[Kenilworth]

Oh well, one out of three. At least it's a trip to the seaside, even if it is a bloody long one. 242 miles. Any good hotels in Exeter for a weekend jaunt?

Ok Exeter away last game season.
Plymouth will be the year after

Spooky hey? Did anyone else get one right?
If not do I win a prize.

 

[BladeFisher]

I remember losing 2-0 there one season and having a man sent-off, and then drawing 2-2 I think the following season after having 2 players sent-off, my memory might be a bit hazy but I think Steve Foley got both goals and the last 10 minutes was like the alamo. Darren??

Yes I remember that. The police were unreal that day. Alamo in more ways than one!

 

[chesterblade]

Pigs two biggest attendances last year , were the first and last matches of the season , which were Exeter 21k and Daggers 23k , probably a extra 5k on each gate , Ok it is just our bad luck .

Didnt someone post last year after emailing the FA that the reason we're always away on first game of the season is something to do with the club requesting to be away on St Ledger day and the fixtures go in 6 or 8 game groups. Sure thats the official reason we're always away first up.

 

[breeny]

Oldham away is going to be strange! 10 minute journey to the ground and for the missus her first time in the away end at Boundary Park after spending her Youth as a Season Ticket Holder at Latics. One of her greatest memories was Oldham winning the Old 2nd Division title beating Wednesday with an injury time penalty scored by Neil Redfern.

10 mins walk for me, plenty of boozers and free parking on my street for blades!!

 

[Tuns]

Didnt someone post last year after emailing the FA that the reason we're always away on first game of the season is something to do with the club requesting to be away on St Ledger day and the fixtures go in 6 or 8 game groups. Sure thats the official reason we're always away first up.

10,000 at say £20 a go is £200,000 lost or about 700 STs. Seems worth fighting for in our position.

One of the directors said it was so we could be off for the St Leger at an AGM couple years ago. Not sure if he was joking re the St Leger or serious or whether it's the fact we request to partner with Donny and they want to be away on St leger for more obvious reasons.

Either way I hope the club reviewed their position on this in recent months and put the appropriate pressure on the football authorites to be at home on first or last day at least. And that they will explain to the fans why this pattern has emerged over recent years when for many years before that it used to swap around between us and pigs. But I doubt it.

 

[bladesadviser]

Decent start for Danny to make an impression. If we are going to do well in League 1 we have to be beating the type of clubs that we play in our first 5 matches.

 

[bricktop]

I think the opening run of fixtures couldn't have turned out better for Danny Wilson to be honest. I would be looking for a mimimum haul of at least 10 points from the first 5 games if we are to do anything.

One word of caution is that we will be playing a lot of teams who will be regard us a big scalp, and will set out their stall accordingly

 

[dkc Blade]

Wycombe away four days after my birthday. Was up there for work the other week, not a bad place for a session.

I quite fancy Wycombe too. Maybe go out in W London beforehand and take a train. Without checking I think they have terracing Barca

 

[TAMUS]

Wycombes away end is all seats , Grounds on end of industrial estate .

 

[blade too long]

wednesday away is our 34th game of the season , so we could get to 100 points on the day we beat them


a tad optimistic , perhaps


Oldham away remember winning a crucial midweek game there 2-0 in our promotion year , turned us round , and for some reason it wasnt on the promotion video

 

[MunXy]

in respect of away game as last match of season again, i was told by a club insider the blades will never again be allowed a last game at home due to the attack on walsall players the season we dropped to old div 4 and to my knowledge i can't remember since then we have played at home in the last game of any season, but i am open to be corrected.this doesn't include rearraged fixtures.

MunXy

 

[Zlatan]

in respect of away game as last match of season again, i was told by a club insider the blades will never again be allowed a last game at home due to the attack on walsall players the season we dropped to old div 4 and to my knowledge i can't remember since then we have played at home in the last game of any season, but i am open to be corrected.this doesn't include rearraged fixtures.

MunXy

Palace - 2005/06
Wigan - 2006/07

Better not let Wednesday have a final game at home after they attacked the Palace players then.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Palace - 2005/06
Wigan - 2006/07

Better not let Wednesday have a final game at home after they attacked the Palace players then.

83/84 Newport
90/91 Norwich
92/93 Chelsea
94/95 Grimsby
95/96 Port Vale
99/00 Swindon
05/06 Palace
06/07 Wigan

So absolute bollocks

 

[Darren]

I remember losing 2-0 there one season and having a man sent-off, and then drawing 2-2 I think the following season after having 2 players sent-off, my memory might be a bit hazy but I think Steve Foley got both goals and the last 10 minutes was like the alamo. Darren??

The 2-2 game was on 8/9/84 when Joe Bolton and Glenn Cockerill got sent off. Arnott and Phillislirk scored for us after we had been 2-0 down.

We haven't lost 2-0 there in living memory, though we did lose 2-1 there on 26/9/95 with Gayle being sent off and 3-0 there on 17/12/77 with (I think) Flynn being sent off, so you might be remembering one of those.

 

[oldblade]

in respect of away game as last match of season again, i was told by a club insider the blades will never again be allowed a last game at home due to the attack on walsall players the season we dropped to old div 4 and to my knowledge i can't remember since then we have played at home in the last game of any season, but i am open to be corrected.this doesn't include rearraged fixtures.

MunXy

Just 3 seasons after the Walsall game our last home game was at home to Newport (1983-2 season). A must win game that we actually won.

We have been away quite a lot on the last day, but to say we have never finished a season with a home match since then is very, very inaccurate.

In the 4 premier league seasons that we had under Bassett we finished our league programme at home twice. 1991 v Norwich, and 1993 v Chelsea. In our first season back in division 2 in 1994-5 we finished at home to Grimsby and in the season Kendall became manager we finished at home to Port Vale.

Edit - Should have read L26blade's post before writing this!

 

[Darren]

Just 3 seasons after the Walsall game our last home game was at home to Newport (1983-2 season). A must win game that we actually won.

We have been away quite a lot on the last day, but to say we have never finished a season with a home match since then is very, very inaccurate.

In the 4 premier league seasons that we had under Bassett we finished our league programme at home twice. 1991 v Norwich, and 1993 v Chelsea. In our first season back in division 2 in 1994-5 we finished at home to Grimsby and in the season Kendall became manager we finished at home to Port Vale.

Edit - Should have read L26blade's posdt before writing this!

Since 1981 our last scheduled game has been as follows. There is an imbalance - 8 home v 22 away.

15/5/82 A Darlington W2-0 (Hatton, Edwards)
14/5/83 A Orient L1-4 (Houston)
12/5/84 H Newport W2-0 (Edwards, Arnott)
11/5/85 A Brighton L0-1
3/5/86 A Palace D1-1 (Edwards)
9/5/87 A Portsmouth W2-1 (Dempsey, Withe)
7/5/88 A Huddersfield W2-0 (Cadette, Philliskirk)
13/5/89 A Bristol City L0-2
5/5/90 A Leicester W5-2 (Wood, Deane, Agana 2, Rostron)
11/5/91 H Norwich W2-1 (Agana 2)
2/5/92 A Wimbledon L0-3
8/5/93 H Chelsea W4-2 (Scott, Rogers, Whitehouse 2)
7/5/94 A Chelsea L2-3 (Flo, Hodges)
6/5/95 H Grimsby W3-1 (Black, Whitehouse, Flo)
4/5/96 H Port Vale D1-1 (Walker)
4/5/97 A Charlton D0-0
3/5/98 A Stockport L0-1
9/5/99 A Ipswich L1-4 (Donis)
7/5/00 H Swindon D2-2 (Quinn, Burley)
6/5/01 A Bolton D1-1 (Asaba)
21/4/02 A Birmingham L0-2
4/4/03 A Watford L0-2
9/5/04 A Preston D3-3 (Jagielka, Gray 2)
8/5/05 A Wolves L2-4 (Quinn, Gray)
30/4/06 H Palace W1-0 (Morgan)
13/5/07 H Wigan L1-2 (Stead)
4/5/08 A Southampton L2-3 (Quinn, Stead)
3/5/09 A Palace D0-0
2/5/10 A Ipswich W3-0 (Yeates, Evans, Cresswell)
8/5/11 A Swansea L0-4

 

[oldblade]

The post I was replying to indicated that a 'club insider' had stated we would never again play a final match at home because of the attacks by our supporters on Walsall players at the end of 1980-1 season.

8 final games at home since then (the first being just 3 years later) would tend to show that the club insider had got it just a tad wrong.

 

[Darren]

The post I was replying to indicated that a 'club insider' had stated we would never again play a final match at home because of the attacks by our supporters on Walsall players at the end of 1980-1 season.

8 final games at home since then (the first being just 3 years later) would tend to show that the club insider had got it just a tad wrong.

Yes, I know. What the chap you were replying to said was a load of rubbish, but getting less than a third of the last games at home over the last 30 years is a bit strange.

 

[oldblade]

It is definitely a large imbalance. I wonder how it compares with the first match of the season. How many of those have we had at home in recent years. If there's a similar disparity the conspiracy theorists will have lots of bullets for their guns!

---------- Post added at 02:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:11 PM ----------

Just looked at the 30 years before 1980-1 re last matches of the season. The split is much more even. 16 home games, 14 away games. Which makes the imbalance since 1981 all the more mystefying.

 

[Darren]

It is definitely a large imbalance. I wonder how it compares with the first match of the season. How many of those have we had at home in recent years. If there's a similar disparity the conspiracy theorists will have lots of bullets for their guns!

---------- Post added at 02:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:11 PM ----------

Just looked at the 30 years before 1980-1 re last matches of the season. The split is much more even. 16 home games, 14 away games. Which makes the imbalance since 1981 all the more mystefying.

First games are far more equal 15 home, 15 away:

29/8/81 H Hereford D2-2 (Neville, Matthews)
28/8/82 A Portsmouth L1-4 (Edwards)
27/8/83 H Gillingham W4-0 (Edwards 4)
25/8/84 A Wolves D2-2 (Edwards, Arnott)
17/8/85 A Stoke W3-1 (Cockerill, Morris 2)
23/8/86 H Shrewsbury D1-1 (Stancliffe)
15/8/87 H Bournemouth L0-1
27/8/88 A Reading W3-1 (Stancliffe, Joseph, Deane)
19/8/89 A WBA W3-0 (Agana 2, Deane)
25/8/90 H Liverpool L1-3 (Deane)
17/8/91 A Norwich D2-2 (Deane, Hill)
15/8/92 H Man Utd W2-1 (Deane 2)
14/8/93 H Swindon W3-1 (Falconer, Bradshaw, Rogers)
13/8/94 H Watford W3-0 (Flo, Ward 2)
12/8/95 A Watford L1-2 (Blake)
17/8/96 A Reading L0-1
10/8/97 H Sunderland W2-0 (Fjortoft, Borbokis)
8/8/98 H Swindon W2-1 (Stuart, Borbokis)
7/8/99 A Portsmouth L0-2
12/8/00 H Portsmouth W2-0 (Devlin, Primus og)
11/8/01 A Forest D1-1 (Devlin)
10/8/02 A Coventry L1-2 (Asaba)
9/8/03 H Gillingham D0-0
7/8/04 A Burnley D1-1 (Gray)
6/8/05 H Leicester W4-1 (Gray, Kabba, Ifill, Bromby)
19/8/06 H Liverpool D1-1 (Hulse)
11/8/07 H Colchester D2-2 (Beattie, Tonge)
9/8/08 A Birmingham L0-1
7/8/09 A Middlesbrough D0-0
8/8/10 A Cardiff D1-1 (Evans)