Following on from jlwbl's thread what the best and worst opening days you have witnessed home and away included. Best- beating west brom away on the opening day in the promotion season. Beating Oxford 4 nil in the sun under stendel was good aswell could tell we would be a force that season. Worst- so many to chose from, losing to Crawley Town at home and struggling to pass the ball to a red shirt or Wigan pumping us 4 nil under flicker could tell it was going to be a long season.
A first ever second tier match for me and, I'm sure, many others after 22 tortuous seasons of lower league dross. And we were left wondering what all the fuss was about!
You've just about nailed it already mate.... Best, by a country mile the opening day victory at WBA in 1996 2nd, beating Shrewsbury 4-0 in 1981 3rd, Beating Oxford 4-0 in 2018 Worst, as you say so many to choose from, but the 4-0 defeat at home to Wigan coming so close to the great escape was a bitter pill to swallow
Yeah I picked the 2 defeats the one to Wigan and the one to Crawley just because of the optimism prior to the games from supporters on both occasions only to be brought down to earth with a bang. Think the opening day away game against Chesterfield under Lee Jay was bad aswell went one up early on people singing were top of the league etc ended up getting beat 3-1.
Yep, that defeat at Chesterfield was particularly bad plus they almost derailed our playoff push at the back end of the season as well
Yes very true, abit of a bogey team for us the last time we were in league one been to there new ground twice and on both occasions we were well beaten by the better team.
Getting tonked 4-0 at Bradford in 2001 was pretty horrendous. We were an absolute shambles. Ashley Ward scoring twice and generally running the show. Realising that our team consisted of mostly very bad players. At least the curry before the match was top notch.
Definitely the Wigan 4-0 for worst. Everyone was optimistic after the great escape & there was lots of talk of ‘if we can keep that form up we’ll be top half this season’ & we got an absolute drubbing.
Worst for me has to be 79/80 and that 3-0 home defeat to Wednesday! I was totally gutted that day and it was one of those rare occasions I left the ground early. Regarding that game can anyone remember the constant appeals on the PA for "programme seller Hall to come to reception please" ?
We love an opening day 4-0. Usually a defeat. I recall one away to Bradford I think? Early 2000's. I've regularly managed to miss the first game of the season, and can't actually remember seeing us lose on the opening day apart from West Ham in the Premier league. No doubt there's something I've erased from memory.
The 1-0 win against Fulham a couple of years back was pretty good, widely tipped to get a tonking from the promotion favourites but were well worth the win, shame we then went on an awful run after it though.
The 3-0 home defeat to Wednesday in 1979/80 & 4-0 at Bradford City under Spackman, 2001/02 were the worst for me. The best were the 4-0 wins over Shrewsbury Town, 1981/82, and Oxford United, 2018/19.