What happened the last time we went down - a quick look at that season

Like many of us are doing now, the thoughts of a fairly successful season to follow the disastrous Shea/Dawson/Proschwitz show came easily to mind. We had been found wanting at second division level (like we just have been) but things would be much easier at the lower level. A chance to get back to regular winning ways certainly inspired a decent turn out for the first match against the mighty Crawley Town. There were over ten thousand of us basking in the August sunshine, looking forward to seeing new stars like Sam Winnall and Conor Hourihane. What a let down. A late headed goal went in and the visitors stole away with a 1-0 win.

It would be five games before Super Sam hit his first goal but, before that, was an entertaining show at Sixfields where we held Coventry to a 2-2 draw. A terrific, typical long range effort from CH followed by an equaliser from Leroy Lita earned us a point. Early season optimism was starting to evaporate in September though with inexplicable thrashings at home by MK Dons (3-5) and a Nathan Byrne inspired Swindon (0-3). We were 21st at the end of that month and suddenly things did not look so easy after all.

The next couple of months though had a few highlights; a 1-0 win at Bramall Lane and a 5-0 demolition of Burton in the cup (Winnall hat trick), but we were still in lower mid table as the year came to a close. It was a struggle to get past Chester as well in the FA Cup second round. A chastening visit to Crawley in mid-February resulted in a 1-5 defeat and we were 19th. But then the season took a bizarre turn with SIX successive victories propelling us up to 6th. The last of those was a 3-1 at Oldham in the middle of March and we were dreaming of a quick return to the league above after all. But then it all went wrong again.

We managed to draw six of the last ten games, losing three. The solitary victory was that practice match at the end, a 5-0 beating of Rochdale. We finished 11th with 62 points but had unearthed a couple of stars in Hourihane (14 goals) and Winnall (13). It was a poor return from Sam in the end but he did miss a few games, if I remember rightly, mid season. But add to this the fact that we had a handful of goals from the likes of Leroy Lita, Jabo Ibhere, Keith Treacey, Milan Lalkovic and Marcello Trotta and you can see that we were never going to build a promotion winning team that season with those kind of players.

I expect we will go into the next campaign with the same high hopes but this time, SURELY, we will have the resources to set the recruiting bar a lot higher. It's easy to say that we have a decent league one side now but we really need to make a couple of good additions in the summer. Maybe four or five. If we get that, and the manager appointment right, then there is every chance we can do what Wigan and Blackburn have just done.

 

Urgh, I had half forgotten how poor that team was.

Remember watching the 2-2 with Coventry. We had devante Cole at the time as well didn’t we? Seem to remember LL scoring and thinking he was going to score a few. How wrong I was.

The fact that team finished 11th only gives me more confidence that if we sign 3 or 4 top L1 players to add to our squad, perhaps an older head as well, and a couple of quality premiership youngsters on loan (more Barnes, less Ugbo) then we have a good season ahead. Provided we get the right man in charge!

 

M’voto, Dudgeon, Treacy, Nyatanga, Bailey, Hemmings some other names that spring out.

We won’t start next season as bad.... surely.....!

 

Big difference between that team and this one is they were effectively put together from scratch in July and August. This team, for all they've struggled this year, have had time together, are young and should improve.

 

I can see a few starting next season that played last season.

New goalkeeper / s
Defence will more or less stay the same with probably a replacement for Yiadom.
But it’s midfield that will see the biggest changes.
I would imagine Potts and Isgrove will be retained and maybe Hammill.
But there could be wholesale changes here.
Probably defensive midfielders will have to be brought in.
And I expect different attacking midfielders winger types.
In attack I think Moore could retain his place - but expect a couple of more strikers.

In other words - I think some from this season will be still there - but not many.

But the biggest difference to the last time that we were relegated is that there is a totally different animal in control of the club.
We knew what to expect with Patrick.
We haven’t a clue what rabbits these new guys are likely to pull out of the hat.

 

But that squad was better than our current squad of no marques

 

Bow locks

 

I had to leave that game early and get a 200 quid taxi back from Northampton to Stockport as my missus went into labour. Bloody hope that doesn’t happen again...

 

Winnall missed a large chunk of the season, was out from about November - March. Pretty good return really