Was just looking back through some records. There is no point scoring intended in this post by the way it just struck me as a season where we absolutely were in the mire. Lost our top two strikers from the previous season (Gordon Owen and Ian Walsh). Replaced them with....Carl Bradshaw I think and Darren Foreman out of the youth team. Lost the first game at home to Palace 2-3 then lost the next five without scoring. First point of the season came at home in game seven when we drew 1-1 with Plymouth. Ended up surviving and sending Sunderland down on the last day with a win at Roker Park,
I think that was the year that Ian Chandler scored a hat trick away at Hull on News Year day in a 4-3 win.
It was. Willie Ferry scored his only goal a few weeks earlier. Stuart Gray saved us that year. Great player.
Roger Wylde played a big part too, scored for fun. In those days the financial playing field was much more level and we could compete well with most teams in the division. How things gave changed!
Amazing season really, and we only lost a few games during the 2nd half of the season. I think Plymouth & Sheff Ure beat us 'away' and struggling Huddersfield beat us at Oakwell. We didn't actually send Sunderland down though, we sent them into a promotion / relegation play off with Gillingham, which they lost. And remember the cup replay wins at home to Caernarfon & Aldershot ?.
I seem to recall him doing a dive to win at free kick at oakwell that even to todays footballing standards would have looked absolutely comical
Thought ref had blown up for a foul / offside so he parried it into the net to waste time for a few seconds. Was embarrassed jogging back for kick off and thought he was going to get smacked by an invading fan - turns out it was one of ours, who Futch calmly told "fck off the pitch'.
Better days, most clubs were skint, so it was dependant on the players you started the season with mainly and your manager. Not as fcking uptight about everything as today. #grumpyoldcnutalert
Yes it was Andy Duggan's only ever goal for us. And we had a great record there at Hull's horrible old Boothferry Park ground. I don't remember us losing there until they moved to the new KFC stadium.
My memory is a little foggy but isn't this the year Roger wylde scored lots of goals towards the end of the season, to keep us up
I'd not counted Hirst as he went mid season the year before didn't he? Or did he go in the summer along with Walsh and Owen? Either way it was a massive clear out of the strike force in six months.
