2003-04

[eardun]

On 08/09/2022 at 14:24, 22A said:

Found this by chance on Youtube. A few more City clips on the side.

I remember one Tuesday night City had won 2-1 at Grimsby, hearing Plymouth had lost 3-0 at Tranmere and we all thought We are going up!

That season is summed up by one of the accompanying comments to this clip;

"Eleven in a row and still didnt go up.....that was the most heartbreaking season ever".

 

Must admit I’d forgotten we won so many in a row that season. I had also forgotten that Denis Smith was managing Wrexham then. Basically I’ve tried to forget everything about that season after that horrendous Play-off final! Still the lowest I’ve felt after a City defeat. 

[Elruliri]

The worst final I've every seen us play in to be honest. Danny Wilson had all the backing in the world in a league where we were a big fish. He deserved the sack and it goes to show that he wasn't upto it if you look at his managerial appointments after he left us. That final was utterly pathetic.

[2015]

I'm sure Aaron Brown picked up a horrible injury in a 2-0 defeat to Oldham at AG infront of the EE. We were woeful that day after that

[Logical-City]

On 08/09/2022 at 23:04, Robbored said:

That miss cost City automatic promotion and we’d have had no need for the pray-offs.

QPR and Plymouth had terrible squads in comparison to us we had all the resources and the miss against Swindon not starting to win games until October drawing at home to Chesterfield and other shocking teams beating us away is what cost us

[Logical-City]

Luckily Garry came along and showed us what being a ruthless winning team was about and against a much harder competition in big spending Nottingham Forest 

[Wanderingred]

That season’s results:

Notts County H Won 5-0

Chesterfield A Drew 1-1

Hartlepool H Drew 1-1

Colchester A Lost 1-2

Grimsby H Won 1-0

Bournemouth A Drew 0-0

Oldham A Drew 1-1

Tranmere H Won 2-0

Port Vale H Lost 0-1

QPR A Drew 1-1

Plymouth A Won 1-0

Swindon H Won 2-1

Peterborough H Drew 1-1

Wrexham A Drew 0-0

Wycombe A Lost 0-3

Sheff Wed H Drew 1-1

Luton H Drew 1-1

Brighton A Won 4-1

Barnsley H Won 2-1

Blackpool A Lost 0-1

Rushden A Drew 1-1

Stockport H Won 1-0

Brentford A Won 2-1

Bournemouth H Won 2-0

Notts County A Won 2-1

Chesterfield H Won 4-0

Hartlepool A Won 2-1

Colchester H Won 1-0

Brentford H Won 3-1

Peterborough A Won 1-0

Grimsby A Won 2-1

Wrexham H Won 1-0

Sheff Wed A Lost 0-1

Wycombe H Drew 1-1

Stockport A Lost 0-2

Rushden H Won 1-0

Oldham H Lost 0-2

Tranmere A Lost 0-1

Port Vale A Lost 1-2

QPR H Won 1-0

Swindon A Drew 1-1

Plymouth H Won 1-0

Luton A Lost 2-3

Brighton H Drew 0-0

Barnsley A Won 1-0

Blackpool H Won 2-1

Playoffs

Hartlepool A Drew 1-1

Hartlepool H Won 2-1

Brighton Lost 0-1

[2015]

1 hour ago, Logical-City said:

QPR and Plymouth had terrible squads in comparison to us we had all the resources and the miss against Swindon not starting to win games until October drawing at home to Chesterfield and other shocking teams beating us away is what cost us

QPR had a good squad for that level. Kevin Gallen, Gareth Ainsworth, Paul Furlong, Marc Bircham, Martin Rowlands, Danny Shittu and Jamie Cureton were players who were playing beneath their level at that time. 

The only thing I'd say about that City side is which player really kicked on at the higher level to do well? Carey? Hill? 

[Robbored]

1 hour ago, Logical-City said:

QPR and Plymouth had terrible squads in comparison to us we had all the resources and the miss against Swindon not starting to win games until October drawing at home to Chesterfield and other shocking teams beating us away is what cost us

My point was that had Miller scored City would have won the match and been automatically promoted. Those lost two points led ultimately to the pray offs and we all know what happened there…………….

Edited September 12, 2022 by Robbored

[archie andrews]

Losing to luton away was far more damaging than millers miss.... 

[archie andrews]

On 11/09/2022 at 11:36, phantom said:

I honestly can't remember him breaking his leg with us. 

I can remember him and Clayton Fortune were in that car accident in March 2002 and that seemed to change his game 

The only time I can remember him breaking a leg was with QPR when he was out for over a year 

Wasnt it the 98/99 season west brom away? Game...? 

[Logical-City]

3 hours ago, 2015 said:

QPR had a good squad for that level. Kevin Gallen, Gareth Ainsworth, Paul Furlong, Marc Bircham, Martin Rowlands, Danny Shittu and Jamie Cureton were players who were playing beneath their level at that time. 

The only thing I'd say about that City side is which player really kicked on at the higher level to do well? Carey? Hill? 

Players in their prime is what we had:

Doherty, Tinnion, Bell, Coles, Carey, Peacock, Hill , A.Brown I would argue better than what QPR had I rated Roberts’s also as someone who could have done some damage in Division 1, we also resigned Murray for £650,000 the squad was there 

[2015]

5 minutes ago, Logical-City said:

Players in their prime is what we had:

Doherty, Tinnion, Bell, Coles, Carey, Peacock, Hill , A.Brown I would argue better than what QPR had I rated Roberts’s also as someone who could have done some damage in Division 1, we also resigned Murray for £650,000 the squad was there 

Each to their own, we were pretty even with QPR i'd have said. We both finished on 83 points in 02/03 then in 03/04 1 point between us. It was a hard league back then, even though we had a good side and I think we should have been promoted as we were certainly better than Brighton.

[Boston Red]

The maddening thing about the Swindon away game was that Christian Roberts was playing the game of his life and ripping Swindon to shreds. They equalised and immediately Wilson took off Roberts and brought on Lee Miller. When the chance came to Miller he hadn't been running around, in the flow of the game, with his head and his legs connected, and he missed. Roberts would have buried it but Wilson had taken him off. 

Another maddening thing about that season is that all we had to do was beat Brighton once in two games, one at home, and one at a neutral venue. One defeat and one win would have done it. But we couldn't.

Another maddening thing is how easy it would have been to go up that season if we had not sold Scott Murray. The season before he had scored 26 goals from the right wing. We had scored 106 goals in total, league and cup in 2002/3. All we had to do was tighten the defence, which we did by playing centre-backs at fullback. Carey played right back and Hill played left back. We only conceded 37 goals in 46 league games in 2003/4. With last season's attack did we then cruise to promotion? No. Because Steve Lansdown has two heads, a football fan's head and an accountant's head. Scott Murray was in the last year of his contract, so Lansdown the accountant took £600 000 from Reading for Murray. If that money was really necessary for the club to survive then you accept that, but the next day Lansdown put his football fan's head back on and spent that money on Lee Miller and Luke Wilshire, who were both useless. It would have been better to keep Murray, even if you lose him for nothing a year later, because his extra goals would easily have got us the extra points for promotion. At which point he would probably have signed a new contract anyway. Oh and by the way, we re-signed Murray anyway along with Tony Rougier and Darren Caskey ten months later, waiving some of his fee from Reading, so a 'financial' decision made us no money at all, and cost us our best player and promotion. But this sort of thing happens often with Steve "accountant-head football fan-heart" Lansdown. The decisions sort of cancel themselves out and you get the worst of both worlds. 

I am horribly biased, but I still think to this day if Mickey Bell and Brian Tinnion had been playing in the top division, they would have been picked for England. Both could cross perfectly left-footed, with Beckham-esque curl on the cross, and could put free kicks and penalties in the top corner at will. England needed left sided players in that era too. I remember sitting away at Leicester amongst the home fans, and they were amazed when Tinnion hit the bar twice from two 30 yard free kicks. 

Something died in me that day at the Millenium stadium. I've hardly been back since.