Worst team since Haslam era?

[LSF]

Someone remarked to me at half time last night that this is the worst team we've had since Happy Harry foisted us with Dougie Brown, John Flood, Mike Guy et al!
Apart from one or two Basset teams towards the end of his time (Ross Davidson, Mark Beard, Mark Foran etc) and maybe late Billy Mac era, I reckon that's about right (and those teams were playing in Div. 2 as it was)

 

[Racy]

From a football point of view this team is bad as Haslams crew but the football was only a part of it in them days it didnt hurt as much.

Mind the Cambridge and Walsall fiascos were pretty shit

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

The days of Dougie Brown, Tony Moore et al are probably the lowest football-wise. The Adrian Heath days were pretty awful, as was some of the McEwan era, but this is developing to be second to the Martin Peters days for banal football and fan unrest!

Scary thing is that things could get worse!

 

[mattbianco1]

The game vs. Port Vale on 23 November 1999 is the worst game I can remember.

Not sure the squad was that bad but the performances up to Heath's sacking were abysmal.

Similar situation here and now. We have a decent foundation to build on, a better manager may get them ticking

 

[Darren]

In terms of league position, the 80-81 relegation squad has to be the worse one ever (I know technically the 81-82 4th division team finished lower, but I don't think anyone dispute they were a better team).

Strangely though, there were some fairly decent players amongst that lot - Kenworthy. MacPhail, Hatton, Trusson, Charles and Conroy were all decent enough players at that level. Unfortunately, we also had the likes of Richardson, Moore, Houston and Butlin....

 

[Grecian2000]

It might be an age thing (i.e. I'm getting less tolerant towards a lot of things) but this has certainly seemed as bad a team as I can remember.

As Dazzler points out, teams have finished lower, but I can't remeber being as annoyed with them as I am now (other than the day at the Abbey Stadium when we slipped out of the top 2 divisions for the first time ever and I was beyond livid).

Might not be "the worst team" but I would certainly go with "biggest underacheivers" which might actually add up to the same thing.

 

[SwissBlade]

Adrian Heaths days were awful. I'd say Robsons was on the verge of being the biggest ever disaster had McCabe acted on the shoe protest.

But this seems to top all from my era

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

I believe this season will be our lowest finish since 1983?

 

[Darren]

It might be an age thing (i.e. I'm getting less tolerant towards a lot of things) but this has certainly seemed as bad a team as I can remember.

As Dazzler points out, teams have finished lower, but I can't remeber being as annoyed with them as I am now (other than the day at the Abbey Stadium when we slipped out of the top 2 divisions for the first time ever and I was beyond livid).

Might not be "the worst team" but I would certainly go with "biggest underacheivers" which might actually add up to the same thing.

I think thats right. The disparity in resources was nowhere near what it is now. Our crowds were not as high and the "lesser" teams crowds not as low in 1980-81. Our average crowd that season was about 12,000 and I doubt more than one or two of the others had crowds less than 6000. Barnsley, Portsmouth and Huddersfield all got roughly similar crowds

This season, our average is at least 3 times that of 16 of the 24 teams in the division, at least double that of all other teams except Coventry and Portsmouth and the second highest - Portsmouth - only gets 2/3 of our crowd.

It's been said before, but this is the shittiest 3rd division for a long time. In any reasonable world, we would be walking it...

 

[1973Blade]

Harry Haslam, the manager when I started watching United was born 100 years ago today, which makes me feel old!

Harry Haslam (footballer, born 1921) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[1973Blade]

There is little about Haslam on the Internet, but this is an interesting article.

Remembering Harry Haslam

Keith Burkinshaw, the manager of Tottenham Hotspur, was sitting in his office at White Hart Lane a few days after the 1978 World Cup Final. He had less than two months to prepare for the start of t…

forzabarry-wordpress-com.cdn.ampproject.org

 

[Fulwood Blade]

I can remember an article from the Star where it was Haslam that predicted a breakaway top division in English football.

Anyone else remember this?

UTB

 

[bertieblade]

I remember him signing the free transfer len de goey for £100k

 

[Bill puntin]

I remember Harry laughing us all the way to div 4

 

[ancientblade]

I remember him signing the free transfer len de goey for £100k

i remember his tache

 

[Weasel]

Happy Harry didn't half sign some shit for us. Tbh, he wasn't a very good manager at all. Nor was his protégé who took over for a few months.

Bad side, bad management, and basically bad days at the Lane. Still, you have to have the rain to appreciate the sunshine and the 4th division under Porterfield was the start of the sun reappearing again.

 

[Klaatu Barada Nikto]

I saw this come up and was all ready to type, “Fucks sake, we haven’t even played a league match under Slav yet, get a fucking grip”, then I saw the date.