Which relegation hurt more?

[Denzil]

2005 was awful, the embarrassment at Fratton and chucking away loads of points with late goals. Although at half time at the Utd game I thought we could do it.

 

2009 was just funny.

[Saint Malc]

73/74 was the worst for me :-( At half-time on the last day we were winning at Goodison and Norwich (already relegated) were winning 1-0 at Birmingham and if it stayed like that we would survive. We went on to win 3-0 but Birmingham came back to win 2-1 so we were down. As a 14 year-old I cried my eyes out all evening.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Going out of the championship. That whole season was something straight from hell. Lowe coming back. Fans at each others throats, protesting in the stands and outside the stadium (not to mention in the city centre!) players leaving and total gash coming in, the dutch muppets and going into admin. It was one giant **** up and the sad thing is we were the ones who lost out. Everyone else can just walk away but the fans are the ones who have to carry it forever.

I don't mind being relegated from the prem league, if we go back up and come back down the next season it will suck but it will never be as bad as our last season in the championship. I hope we never have to go through anything like that ever again.

 

This is a pretty good summary - 2009 as a season is the worst ever I think for all the reasons stated. However, it also has in a bizarre way also given rise to two thorougly enjoyable seasons which has seen the re-birth of our football club - a period that the club needed to be able to rid itself of all the rot that had set-in. I'm loving my football now more than I have done for many, many years.

[Badger]

73/74 was the worst for me :-( At half-time on the last day we were winning at Goodison and Norwich (already relegated) were winning 1-0 at Birmingham and if it stayed like that we would survive. We went on to win 3-0 but Birmingham came back to win 2-1 so we were down. As a 14 year-old I cried my eyes out all evening.

 

Christ, I'd forgotten the joy around the radio in our kitchen at half time.

['00']

1974...Osgoods clinical finish(his first goal) vs Everton(BBC commentator)

Had some awful beatings those years 0-8,0-7 etc.

[jjsaint]

The relegation of 2005 hurt more, 2009 was more embarrassing.

[The9]

living in a place where sturrock is a legend and seeing his "football" i predicted that it would not last long when he got appointed....

 

That what wouldn't last long ? His decent results or his job ? There was nothing wrong with his football at Saints - we were direct in that we played the ball forward as soon as possible, but it was mostly on the deck and we weren't hoofing it by any stretch of the imagination. I know this as I was not only attending matches, but having arguments about our style of play on message boards in 2004 as well, because what some people were claiming just wasn't what was happening on the pitch.

 

People looked at Crouch up front and just assumed we'd be whacking it, whereas most of the time under Sturrock we were playing the ball out wide and chasing it in behind their full backs - which worked very well up at Eastlands against Man City when we won 3-1, amongst other decent performances against Liverpool, Spurs and a 4-1 win at Wolves when Henri Camara rather bent Jason Dodd's leg IIRC. Considering the injuries we had by the end of the season and that we were playing for nothing by then we were doing reasonably well.

 

The defence and the bench for the Niemi Day game at Charlton says a lot about what Sturrock had to work with in the last month of the season :

A. Blayney, P. Telfer, F. Hall, D. Kenton, S. Crainey, F. Fernandes (L. Griffit, 85), D. Prutton , Y. Folly, A. Svensson (C. Baird, 13), B. Ormerod, J. Beattie

Subs not used: D. Blackstock, M. Cranie, M. Poke

[Turkish]

That what wouldn't last long ? His decent results or his job ? There was nothing wrong with his football at Saints - we were direct in that we played the ball forward as soon as possible, but it was mostly on the deck and we weren't hoofing it by any stretch of the imagination. I know this as I was not only attending matches, but having arguments about our style of play on message boards in 2004 as well, because what some people were claiming just wasn't what was happening on the pitch.

 

People looked at Crouch up front and just assumed we'd be whacking it, whereas most of the time under Sturrock we were playing the ball out wide and chasing it in behind their full backs - which worked very well up at Eastlands against Man City when we won 3-1, amongst other decent performances against Liverpool, Spurs and a 4-1 win at Wolves when Henri Camara rather bent Jason Dodd's leg IIRC. Considering the injuries we had by the end of the season and that we were playing for nothing by then we were doing reasonably well.

 

The defence and the bench for the Niemi Day game at Charlton says a lot about what Sturrock had to work with in the last month of the season :

A. Blayney, P. Telfer, F. Hall, D. Kenton, S. Crainey, F. Fernandes (L. Griffit, 85), D. Prutton , Y. Folly, A. Svensson (C. Baird, 13), B. Ormerod, J. Beattie

Subs not used: D. Blackstock, M. Cranie, M. Poke

 

IIRC Crouch didnt even start under Sturrrock, he was signed in the summer and Sturrock only had 2 games as his boss. I'm with you on this one, we were direct but it wasn't that much different to Stachan, we were direct under him but people didn't moan about because it was successful. The reason for our relegation was that it was a team in decline and had been since the cup final. Injuries to key players, our more experienced players coming to the end of their careers, good players being sold and not adequately replaced and Lowes transfer policy of "one for the squad" signing plenty of average players rather than good ones. I didn't agree with Sturrocks appointment but in his time here was wasn't as bad as some made out and his results were actually reasonable.

[Cabrone]

2005 by a long way.

 

We were clueless, spineless and most unforgivably had given up long before the final knockout. Total disgrace.

 

The teams at the bottom of the prem were like a load of punch drunk boxers desperately trying to cling to the ropes before the final bell.

 

Unfortunately we couldn't even do that.

 

By 2009 I was hardened to perpetual disappointment having witnessed:

Almost a decade of L**e the clueless.

Relegation from the prem.

Saints 3 - Leeds 4 (when I realised that the rot had really set in).

L**e removed.

Temporary mirage of a revival followed by a play off defeat.

Another season of disappointment.

The return of L**e.

Pearson sacked.

The final bonkers Dutch appointment.

 

Thank the lord we now have a competent owner.

[the stain]

2005 - Actually the game against Pompey was by far the worst moment, utterly embarassing and shameful. I was convinced after that match that relegation was inevitable, and it almost came as a relief when it arrived.

[The9]

IIRC Crouch didnt even start under Sturrrock, he was signed in the summer and Sturrock only had 2 games as his boss. I'm with you on this one, we were direct but it wasn't that much different to Stachan, we were direct under him but people didn't moan about because it was successful. The reason for our relegation was that it was a team in decline and had been since the cup final. Injuries to key players, our more experienced players coming to the end of their careers, good players being sold and not adequately replaced and Lowes transfer policy of "one for the squad" signing plenty of average players rather than good ones. I didn't agree with Sturrocks appointment but in his time here was wasn't as bad as some made out and his results were actually reasonable.

 

Yeah, the Crouch thing was from the pre-season match not long before he was sacked at Swindon when Van Damme took it upon himself to wang the ball 50 yards from left back at the beanpole every time he got the ball, with Sturrock widely reported as having specifically told the players NOT to do that at half time.

 

We were a bloody good attacking team in some away games under Sturrock, he did have the use of a fit Pahars up at Man City and it made a hell of a difference.

 

I still look back at that Villa away game at the very start of the relegation season and think "were we really THAT bad ?". I still can't reconcile some of the online reactions to the 2-0 defeat with what went on in front of me. Yeah we were second best, but we'd lost like that up there loads of times before, and Folly didn't even play in most of those. By the time we played Norwich away in November and Mikael Nilsson sh!1thoused a tackle right in front of me during a 2-1 defeat I knew we were in trouble.

 

The side by then, the week after beating the Skates 2-1 (which was 4 days after THAT 5-2 defeat at Watford), was

 

Southampton

K. Keller, J. Dodd (P. Crouch, 83), C. Lundekvam, D. Kenton , G. Le Saux, F. Fernandes, R. Delap, P. Telfer (M. Nilsson, 72), A. Svensson, J. Beattie, D. Blackstock (K. Phillips, 60)

Subs not used: A. Blayney, A. Jakobsson

 

Something I've only just noticed is that our last 4 opponents of the season were also fixtures in November of the same season :

 

Under Steve Wigley we did this :

Premiership Sa 13Nov 2004 Southampton 2 - 1 Portsmouth

Premiership Sa 20Nov 2004 Norwich 2 - 1 Southampton

Premiership Sa 27Nov 2004 Southampton 2 - 2 C Palace

Premiership Sa 04Dec 2004 Man Utd 3 - 0 Southampton

 

For 4 points and a victory in a hugely anticipated derby.

 

Under Redknapp we did this :

Premiership Su 24Apr 2005 Portsmouth [redacted] Southampton

Premiership Sa 30Apr 2005 Southampton 4 - 3 Norwich

Premiership Sa 07May 2005 C Palace 2 - 2 Southampton

Premiership Su 15May 2005 Southampton 1 - 2 Man Utd

 

For a humilation, a relegation and the same miserable 4 points.

[Wade Garrett]

he simply would not have..his style of football was terrible and he was a terrible manager

 

I thought we played decent stuff when he took over. We had quite a few decent results, and played noce attacking football. The pre-season came and went and a few senior players f*cked him over really, and Wigley went squealing to Lowe.

 

I would prefer Sturrock over the useless Wigley any day of the week. F*cking Rupert Lowe was a f*cking idiot.

[Thedelldays]

I thought we played decent stuff when he took over. We had quite a few decent results, and played noce attacking football. The pre-season came and went and a few senior players f*cked him over really, and Wigley went squealing to Lowe.

 

I would prefer Sturrock over the useless Wigley any day of the week. F*cking Rupert Lowe was a f*cking idiot.

agree with your last bit but no manager has jumped from division 3 to the prem and made an impact..personally, it was not his team and they were in "new manager" mode...

 

he has done nothing since and was pretty shyte in the NPC too...

[This Charming Man]

Relegation from the Premiership was the hardest as we were so pathetic that season.

 

I wasn't bothered about relegation from the Championship. I was led on a beach in Bali the day we were relegated, dreaming of Hartlepool away on a Tuesday night. In a way, I'm glad we were relegated to L1. Had a top time last season and end of this season, plus I got to tick a load more grounds off the 92.

 

I'm in no rush to return to the Premiership.

[saint1977]

2005 was a nightmare for a side which had battled and been proud in escaping relegation so many times, 2009 was potentially disastrous from pre-season - I remember posting "if you look around the room in poker and can't see the mug, it's you" in relation to the fixture list. With that in mind when we started getting thrashed by grown-ups we'd all got resigned to it long before, with 2005 we still had hope and no reason to doubt our safety.

 

One last thing, if Markus had "seen the file" 18 months before, Lowe still wouldn't have sold, we needed to go into admin to get rid of the board structure that had the potential to block takeovers, and drop the price to something attractive.

 

You are so correct on your last paragraph, Askham would have found a way to ensure that his band of leeches sucked every last drop of blood out of the body. Administration was the only way out and I'll give Lowe credit for one thing, at least he kept pace with the taxman and we had decent fixed assets (Askham takes no credit for this, he was so incapable he even ran up a £3m overdraft whilst spending nowt on players which Secure had to clear for him!).

 

2009 was painless compared with 2005 although we were effectively relegated in August in both seasons - the Dutch Duo and various future non-league players scraped out of the bottom of the academy barrel mixed with Kelvin, Lallana, Wotton, Surman and McG and the later addition of JPS and return of Saga. This time 2 years ago I just wanted the club to survive, to get Markus was a huge slice of luck. 2005 was won and lost in the autumn where we wasted home games against Brum, a v.different Man City and WBA, plus away games at Norwich etc. I'm not a Harry fan but the games left were much harder and we'd wasted millions on Van Damme, Nilsson, Jakobsson etc instead of buying real footballers.