The last time

[wivelgull]

Mark Robinson now plays for Whitby Town.

[Modgull]

Forget about the relative merits of the two squads. There is a common denominator which accounts for the two dreadful seasons - off-pitch disasters with management.

Last time we had a combination of ownership problems and a manager who had never managed in this country before.

This time we had a manager who blew up under the pressure of the job and a Board who couldn't make up their mind how to deal with it until too late.

In most seasons it is Clubs with behind-the-scene problems who go down. Often they are financial in nature. But rarely is it just because their squads are inadequate.

[hector]

they were awful. the worst ever. no comparison. there were a few players that had been ok but were past it, also some went on to have a couple of good seasons.

most of the seriously bad ones i cant remember, there were many players who came and went via loans, trials and short contracts.there were quite a few inexperienced young lads mixed with a few has beens, if i am remembering rightly.
i shall have to dig out a few old programmes and get the full list.

here is a list of some of the more memorable players, not necessarily the worst-

ashley bayes, tom kelly, chris curran, lee barrow, ian hathaway, richard hancox, tony bedeau, wayne thomas, alex watson, jamie ndah, scott partridge, ellis laight, gary nelson, simon travis, paul baker, paul buckle, russell coughlin,

we had a few managers as well - don o'riordon, paul compton + kevin hodges (caretakers), mick buxton (caretaker), eddie may.

guess how many league games we won that season - out of 46 games - go on guess - drum roll please - wait for it - brace yourselves -

5..... yes thats right 5.

if you want to see how bad we were check this out, mainly from about 2 minutes in. bateson is quite funny in this near the end.



are we really that bad now?

Without wishing to be pedantic, Garry Nelson wasn't part of that squad. Bateson's arrogance is quite breathtaking in that clip.

[hector]

Forget about the relative merits of the two squads. There is a common denominator which accounts for the two dreadful seasons - off-pitch disasters with management.

Last time we had a combination of ownership problems and a manager who had never managed in this country before.

This time we had a manager who blew up under the pressure of the job and a Board who couldn't make up their mind how to deal with it until too late.

In most seasons it is Clubs with behind-the-scene problems who go down. Often they are financial in nature. But rarely is it just because their squads are inadequate.

Very good points. It puzzles me that what seemed like a progressive board of directors, appear to have just stood by and watched this disaster develop, knowing surely, as we all do, that a return to the Conference is likely to be a permanent one.

[chunkygull]

Without wishing to be pedantic, Garry Nelson wasn't part of that squad. Bateson's arrogance is quite breathtaking in that clip.

absolutely right. he wasnt. i shall re-edit.i remember him in that kit but it must have been the following season. he wrote a book about that season with torquay called left foot in the grave. that season 96-97 was bad enough, 4th from bottom.kevin hodges' first in charge. hard to believe it was the next one 97-98 that produced such a good near promotion team using quite a few players left over from 95-96.

there are quite a few players from the 95-96 season who came and went, i cant remember all but i think 1 short termer was a well past it simon garner who had been quite decent at blackburn

i said bateson was funny in the clip.... what a deluded arrogant pr!ck.