Ten years ago today
Today marks exactly a decade since the worst day supporting Wycombe in my 45 years watching the Blues.
How far we've come since.
And a week today we can celebrate a decade on from That Day At Plainmoor.
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Today marks exactly a decade since the worst day supporting Wycombe in my 45 years watching the Blues.
How far we've come since.
And a week today we can celebrate a decade on from That Day At Plainmoor.
Comments
Most nerve wracking but what could have been the worst turned into a joyous celebration….Believe!
I travelled down there with two of my sons and we went knowing that this could be our very last game in the EFL, or maybe ever. The journey back home was fantastic as we were buzzing.
That goal went in and the gravity of the situation sank in as soon as the barriers to the pitch were kicked over and a load of blokes in anoraks stormed the pitch. Haunting. And then hilarious in hindsight the following week.
I remember the walk down Hillbottom after, trying to pretend that trips away to the likes of Braintree might be interesting.
And weighing up whether going to Torquay was just inviting more pain... but it quickly being obvious it was essential to go either way.
It was a week of monumental bedwetting
Some of us kept the faith mind
Absolutely toxic on the terrace at the end of that last home game and funerial in the vere after.
Various press suggesting we were done on the morning of Torquay but sometimes you just get a bit of a feeling that there's something left and it's not all over.
Really does help if the opposition are awful and you get that dollop of good luck.
My experience of the day was unusual, following it all through BBC updates from Toluca. I have flown in the day before for my father-in-law’s funeral. An emotional day in two respects therefore but it did cut though the sorrow, almost too much in fact; it was a heck of a job to keep myself in check given the context.
Fair play for negotiating that tightrope and coming out the other side of it still a part of that family
I stood in stunned silence on the terrace long after the final whistle. I remember a lot of angry shouting but not much of what was said. I remember being almost inconsolable when I got home.
But I knew I had to get tickets to Torquay and took my now-wife on the promise of a weekend away. We sat on the harbour in the evening and I was still in stunned silence but for very different reasons!
Torquay were absolutely rank (thankfully) that day and I struggle to recall a more wretched, deflated opposition that we’ve faced in the EFL. One thing that possibly gets forgotten is the fact Matt McClure scored two worldies in successive games!
When news filtered through that Rovers had lost, the ensuing pandemonium was incredible. I was stood near Tony Hector and I think we just shouted in each other’s faces for about three minutes! I’ve never properly met Tony and he may not remember this, everything was a haze, but I still have that vivid image. I’m not sure the pure elation of that moment and its seismic implications will be topped.
To be fair, that was the greatest party ever to celebrate getting relegated out of the Football League.
And only the start of their problems unfortunately, I'm sure many of our fans, wether they were there that day or not would love the opportunity to visit at some point.
We've done this before but...
I ran down to the coast singing after the game then gave a 20 pound tip to the bar lady in my delirium (not a boast..I really shouldn't have done)
It wasn't a miracle it was 25pc chance we stayed up (sorry)
Football eh?
I didn’t give up on the manager, but I remember thinking all week we were done for. It was only when we were 1 up and then Rovers were 1 down that I thought ‘maybe’, and the hope grew from there...
I'm guessing you're referring to Torquay there? I was referring to the gutrot-swilling horse-punchers celebrating like they'd won the Champions League only to be relegated the following week.
Oh yeah, crossed wires, nobody ever woke up with a dream to go to Bristol.
Blooms mentioned it this week, and others have previously, but the mood during the player sponsors dinner during that week was resolute. We weren't relegated yet and no one had given up all hope.
While everyone realised it was possible/probable, no one was talking about being relegated at Torquay. It was one of the memorable aspects of the week, alongside watching the "BELIEVE" banner be held aloft before the game and the roar from the terrace which greeted it.
I truly do believe that it was the togetherness of fans, players and the management team in clinging on to the hope/belief we could avoid relegation that got the job done.
Obvious I know, but I'm sure there have been other games - Sunderland at Wembley - where we were beaten before the players even had their kit on.
COYB!
I'll never forget the shock of hearing a girl who looked about 12 (probably older) standing up furiously screaming repeated swears at Ainsworth in almost an Exorcist possession scene from the Frank Adams after that Rovers home defeat.
The mix of it being from a generally quiet/polite stand, her age and being sat with her dad who didn't seem to even register her behaviour was a really surreal moment.
Yes @Twizz hope triumphed over expectation - an amazing day. I even chanted that ‘Wycombe fc the team for me’ song ad nauseam which I had up till then boycotted because “that’s not the f*€kin’ name of my club”. Happy days.
The togetherness helped us beat Torquay, but the job was surely done more by Mansfield than ourselves that day! That result was more miraculous
I attended the Bristol Rovers game, one of the few I was able to attend that season. For various reasons I had two or three seasons around that time when I couldn’t get to many matches.
Being slightly out of the loop how close were we to going out of business if we went down ?
what was the reason for this ? less sponsorship money available in the National League?
obviously, a sliding doors moment with what’s happened since
At the time we were trust owned and operating on very small budgets (and still not breaking even) less TV money would have been a thing, presumably with less crowds, sponsorship and matchday revenue and less coverage.
Nobody really knows how close these things get, presumably it would have depended on how willing people were to chip in or ultimately take over and if we were doing well the following season, easy to see how these things slide from people like Yeovil and Torquay.
Thank you.
lets all be grateful we never had to find out
Wonder where we will be 10 years from now, given the news that's just be posted?
"Never too high, never too low" seems appropriate.