6 years ago | Vital Football

6 years ago

jeffs right

Vital Football Hero
6 years ago we won the FA Cup in one of the biggest final upsets in history.
Meanwhile Salford City had just completed a season with an average crowd of 117.
Unbelievable rise from nothing to football league status. How many of those 117 have seen it through to the football League?
Meanwhile Fylde who were the losing finalists yesterday averaged 345 that same season.
 
Jesus Jeff is your timekeeping normally this bad?

Fylde will sink like a stone now Blackpool are back in business. Salford have a better chance with Lim’s billions behind them. But FFP will prevent them from buying success in the Football League once they get to our level.
 
And we get criticism for our so called ‘buying’ our way up the leagues with Whelans money. We were already a league club with a decent fan base in our division. We were fucking massive in non league too!

Fleetwood, Fylde and Salford have come from nowhere due to financial backing. fair play to them if you ask me. They’re hardly Man City, just being well run with some investment, unlike our neighbours who’ve pissed their own money plus everyone else’s up the wall. They’re all local clubs, if we go down we’ll be playing them. Chorley promoted to the National league too.
 
6 years ago we won the FA Cup in one of the biggest final upsets in history.
Meanwhile Salford City had just completed a season with an average crowd of 117.
Unbelievable rise from nothing to football league status. How many of those 117 have seen it through to the football League?
Meanwhile Fylde who were the losing finalists yesterday averaged 345 that same season.

And how many of those 25,000 "fans" at Wembley have been to a game since?
 
And we get criticism for our so called ‘buying’ our way up the leagues with Whelans money. We were already a league club with a decent fan base in our division. We were fucking massive in non league too!

Fleetwood, Fylde and Salford have come from nowhere due to financial backing. fair play to them if you ask me. They’re hardly Man City, just being well run with some investment, unlike our neighbours who’ve pissed their own money plus everyone else’s up the wall. They’re all local clubs, if we go down we’ll be playing them. Chorley promoted to the National league too.

Our average home attendance in 1994/95 was 1,748 (highest gate was 3618 against Preston) hardly decent.
 
Our average home attendance in 1994/95 was 1,748 (highest gate was 3618 against Preston) hardly decent.

Football was a different kettle of fish back then, even Man Utd were only averaging 40 odd thousand in the mid 90's and Chelsea struggled to get 20K on.
Liverpool and Arsenal were only getting 30 odd thousand on.
 
Salford have come from nowhere due to financial backing. fair play to them if you ask me. They’re hardly Man City, just being well run with some investment

Some investment??? There are some players at Salford on over £4k a week - Adam Rooney left Aberdeen to join them for that salary (double what he was on at Aberdeen).
In non-league terms Man City is exactly what they've been - I ran the line there a few times before the Class of 92 got involved (one time I think Darren Sheridan was their manager & they got wallopped by Mossley) when they were getting 100 on, the ground was ramshackle, they played in orange & the changing rooms were stuck round the back of a crumbling concrete stand with the only heat source some knackered old calor gas heater that I'm not sure had seen a carbon monoxide detector in its life
Then Neville & co turned up & suddenly they're playing in red & white, new changing rooms went up & Danny Webber appears allegedly on £2k a week (plus Jason jarrett) - Fair play to G Neville, Scholes & Butt though they've put their money where their mouths are and regardless of the day of the week or the venue (Northwich Victoria who were playing in Flixton at the time springs to mind) they were always there

But yes Man City is exactly what they are as a comparison. Similarly Fylde (who were playing in tiny ground behind a pub when I went) & Fleetwood have got where they are today by throwing far, far more money than their rivals at their teams & grounds
 
Might have had something to do with the stadium capacities at Old Trafford, Anfield and Highbury.

It will have had something to do with it, but attendances were not as good in those days.
In 1996 Utd were PL Champions and their average gate was 41683. Their highest gate that season was 53925. I am not sure of the capacity, but it must have been around 54000.
 
It will have had something to do with it, but attendances were not as good in those days.
In 1996 Utd were PL Champions and their average gate was 41683. Their highest gate that season was 53925. I am not sure of the capacity, but it must have been around 54000.

Major rebuilding work went on in 96 and was opened for the last few home games of the season thus leading to a plus 53,000 crowd. So although the average was low they sold out every game.
 
Major rebuilding work went on in 96 and was opened for the last few home games of the season thus leading to a plus 53,000 crowd. So although the average was low they sold out every game.
You might be correct with that particular season, but the previous 20 odd years back to the 1970's proves my point that it was different back then, as their average attendance was nowhere near their capacity except for two seasons. Granted, they weren't quite as successful back then, but they were still the biggest and best supported club in the country.
 
Think we should not be calling kettles here. We were v.fortunate that DW took an interest in our club back then and to be fair we rode the wave to the prem to the fa cup win to europe.
Most supporters never have the privilege of any of that. Truly grateful to have experienced the journey, wouldn't swap it for anything.
Now our reality seems different but better to have loved and lost than never loved at all
PS Cook out ?
 
You might be correct with that particular season, but the previous 20 odd years back to the 1970's proves my point that it was different back then, as their average attendance was nowhere near their capacity except for two seasons. Granted, they weren't quite as successful back then, but they were still the biggest and best supported club in the country.

When I had a ST there as a young kid through most of the 80’s I remember the average being around 36-40k every season (they still had the biggest average attendance in that period other than 1 yr when Liverpool has it)
I also remember being at a European Cup Winners game in 1984 v Barcelona that they won 3-0 (complete with Maradona) & there was 58,000 on.
All of which shows attendances were far lower & way off capacity pretty much everywhere back then
 
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6 years ago we won the FA Cup in one of the biggest final upsets in history.
Meanwhile Salford City had just completed a season with an average crowd of 117.
Unbelievable rise from nothing to football league status. How many of those 117 have seen it through to the football League?
Meanwhile Fylde who were the losing finalists yesterday averaged 345 that same season.
The Salford City that got promoted this season is not the same Salford City that was playing 6 years ago. The class of 92 took a club that meant a lot to a small number of people and destroyed it to replace it with Man United Lite.

I know Salford fans who haven't been back since the kit and crest was changed - it is no longer their club. They go watching Trafford or Irlam now but it never quite feels the same. Unlike Cardiff who were able to use fan power to fight back on Tan's apropriation of club history the small number of Salford fans were lost in the rush of United fans who came along to watch their former idols new play thing.

The club as it is now has done very well - with the biggest budget in the league by some distance they really upset the applecart and finished 3rd behind a team with one of the smallest budgets in the league - but lets not get too worked up on comparisons, this is not a club that can be compared to what went before.
 
The Salford City that got promoted this season is not the same Salford City that was playing 6 years ago. The class of 92 took a club that meant a lot to a small number of people and destroyed it to replace it with Man United Lite.

I know Salford fans who haven't been back since the kit and crest was changed - it is no longer their club. They go watching Trafford or Irlam now but it never quite feels the same. Unlike Cardiff who were able to use fan power to fight back on Tan's apropriation of club history the small number of Salford fans were lost in the rush of United fans who came along to watch their former idols new play thing.

The club as it is now has done very well - with the biggest budget in the league by some distance they really upset the applecart and finished 3rd behind a team with one of the smallest budgets in the league - but lets not get too worked up on comparisons, this is not a club that can be compared to what went before.

I never understood the need to change the kit and badge - those extra people who've turned up would have come regardless of whether they were playing in red or orange or had the traditional lion or that new badge.
To me it was just a blatant move to wipe out everything that had gone before and you even saw some of the old hand committee struggling with some of what they wanted to do

I'd also like to say that those 2 managers they brought in not long after joining were the 2 biggest a'holes I ever came across during my time as a ref. Have to say it felt like karma when they were discarded as soon as they'd outlived their usefulness to Neville & co
 
When I had a ST there as a young kid through most of the 80’s I remember the average being around 36-40k every season (they still had the biggest average attendance in that period other than 1 yr when Liverpool has it)
I also remember being at a European Cup Winners game in 1984 v Barcelona that they won 3-0 (complete with Maradona) & there was 58,000 on.
All of which shows attendances were far lower & way off capacity pretty much everywhere back then

Worked off Rochdale Road at the time and me and a workmate (City fan) both went to that game, purely to get to see Maradona in the flesh.
Well he was on the pitch but didn’t do anything , think Frank Stapleton scored a couple?
A sign of the times was that with a phone call and a couple of quid apiece (or summat like that) we got tickets pretty easily.

35/36 years ago ? .....Jeeezus where did that go ?
 
Thing is that even though the grounds of the big teams are rammed full they include 1000s of tourists or prawn sandwich brigade as Roy Keane observed. In the 70s grounds weren't always rammed full but the atmosphere was 10 times what it is now.

Also they cant bring standing back quick enough for me.
 
Worked off Rochdale Road at the time and me and a workmate (City fan) both went to that game, purely to get to see Maradona in the flesh.
Well he was on the pitch but didn’t do anything , think Frank Stapleton scored a couple?
A sign of the times was that with a phone call and a couple of quid apiece (or summat like that) we got tickets pretty easily.

35/36 years ago ? .....Jeeezus where did that go ?

To this day, and after 32 years of following Latics, that is still probably in my top 5 games that I've ever seen in the flesh - As an 8 yr old at the time I'd never witnessed an atmosphere or a crowd size like it & after hearing so much about all their star players, United pummelled them

And you're right Maradona did absolutely nothing, although it was Bryan Robson who scored 2 & not Frank Stapleton - but he did score the winning 3rd goal (I only know that coz I watched the highlights on youtube the other week)