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General Category => Altrincham FC First Team => Topic started by: GolfRoader on January 23, 2013, 12:55:05 PM
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Looking back at some past seasons we looked to be quite comfortable in the Conference League finishing mid-table most years with the odd push for promotion. (e.g the 1990-91 season)
So for anyone who was around watching Alty in 96-97 what happened for us to suddenly plummet from being a mid-table outfit to a relegated side 9 points off the pace?
Was it finances, the manager or did we just have a terrible year on the pitch?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_Football_Conference
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For reasons I can't recall we had a three week spell without a fixture in March which seemed to unsettle us, we only picked up one more point after that.
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I think it was as was said about 1 game in about 6 weeks, then forced to play catch up with about 3 games a week after that.
Most of the postponements were due to other teams being inlvolved in other competions.
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Nothing to do with anything such as a fixture backlog, I'm afraid, we simply had some very poor players!
After a 3-1 victory over Bromsgrove Rovers at Moss Lane on Saturday, 28th December 1996, we didn't win another GM Vauxhall Conference fixture until a 4-3 home success against Kettering Town on Saturday, 26th April 1997.
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Plus poor management and lots of off-field issues as well.
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Horrid, horrid season. There was a lot of optimism with the ground improvements and we started pretty well. Crap players, poor form, a manager in decline. I daresay there was a 'it couldn't happen to us' attitude in some quarters too.
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Culminating in a miserable last day at Rushden when we were already down and Macc winning promotion 10 miles away at Kettering.
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nothing went right for us whilst it seemed everything came off for the opposition....was that the year the hednesford equaliser on 98mns sent us down?....seem to remember a ball that went a yard over the line was ignored by the liner for Stalybridge to run down the slope and score a winner....barry butler being sent off after 5 mins for gravity?...(after jumping he landed on a player) etc etc......
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Failure to turn draws into wins, Keith Russell being a shadow of his former self, and Kingstonian's fixture congestion impacting on us are three things I recall. This is assuming i'm remembering the correct relegation.
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Some people are confusing our 96/97 relegation with the one in 99/00. The fixture backlog and Keith Russell season was 1999/2000.
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Horrid, horrid season. There was a lot of optimism with the ground improvements and we started pretty well. Crap players, poor form, dreadful disciplinary record (worst ever) a manager in decline who had completely given up. I daresay there was a 'it couldn't happen to us' attitude in some quarters too.
Corrected for you.
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nothing went right for us whilst it seemed everything came off for the opposition....was that the year the hednesford equaliser on 98mns sent us down?....seem to remember a ball that went a yard over the line was ignored by the liner for Stalybridge to run down the slope and score a winner....barry butler being sent off after 5 mins for gravity?...(after jumping he landed on a player) etc etc......
Not to mention those extraordinary goals by two Dover players at Moss Lane.
And Danny McGoona missing a sitter from three yards out at Stalybridge.
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I recall Hednesford equalising in the 96th minute, David Leworthy scoring from about 40 yards against us for Dover, Macc thrashing us 4-0 at Moss Lane. As others have said a poor team who were deservedly relegated but by god everything that could go against did on the run in. The late 90s was a real roller coaster ride for the club.
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Macc thrashing us 4-0 at Moss Lane.
That particular debacle took place during the 1995/96 season.
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Horrid, horrid season. There was a lot of optimism with the ground improvements and we started pretty well. Crap players, poor form, dreadful disciplinary record (worst ever) a manager in decline who had completely given up. I daresay there was a 'it couldn't happen to us' attitude in some quarters too.
Corrected for you.
From memory, didn't we accumulate a total of circa 11 red cards during that wretched season?
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Horrid, horrid season. There was a lot of optimism with the ground improvements and we started pretty well. Crap players, poor form, dreadful disciplinary record (worst ever) a manager in decline who had completely given up. I daresay there was a 'it couldn't happen to us' attitude in some quarters too.
Corrected for you.
From memory, didn't we accumulate a total of circa 11 red cards during that wretched season?
thee reds in one horror show of a game against colwyn bay??
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Horrid, horrid season. There was a lot of optimism with the ground improvements and we started pretty well. Crap players, poor form, dreadful disciplinary record (worst ever) a manager in decline who had completely given up. I daresay there was a 'it couldn't happen to us' attitude in some quarters too.
Corrected for you.
From memory, didn't we accumulate a total of circa 11 red cards during that wretched season?
Yes plus I think I'm right in saying a total of 42 match suspensions by Alty players, still a record, club got 15K suspended fine. At season end, the Manager demanded all players fines be repaid to them! God knows why.
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Nothing to do with anything such as a fixture backlog, I'm afraid, we simply had some very poor players!
After a 3-1 victory over Bromsgrove Rovers at Moss Lane on Saturday, 28th December 1996, we didn't win another GM Vauxhall Conference fixture until a 4-3 home success against Kettering Town on Saturday, 26th April 1997.
Being a naive 11 year old, I honestly thought after seeing that we would stay up. All I can remember from the Stevenage game was being in tears, with my dad telling me it's only a game!!
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which programmes are the most rare in our recent history.
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The three red cards were against Slough Town weren't they? Otherwise known as the Gary Shaw show........
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The three red cards were against Slough Town weren't they? Otherwise known as the Gary Shaw show........
Yes...and that game took place in January 1996.
I think that it's been discussed on this Forum on a couple of previous occasions.
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Looking back at some past seasons we looked to be quite comfortable in the Conference League finishing mid-table most years with the odd push for promotion. (e.g the 1990-91 season)
So for anyone who was around watching Alty in 96-97 what happened for us to suddenly plummet from being a mid-table outfit to a relegated side 9 points off the pace?
Was it finances, the manager or did we just have a terrible year on the pitch?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_Football_Conference
The problem was 1997 with our first win of the year being on the penultimate Saturday of the season.
1996 wasn't too bad. I think that we were top after 2 games......probably the last time we were at the Conference National summit.We beat Southport 1-0 at Moss Lane in early December on a tuesday night & went 6th I think......then beat them at their place on the Saturday before Christmas......Danny McGoona's debut......Chris Sharratt's debut for Southport & Paul Cain's one & only goal for us......pre-chip pan incident!
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nothing went right for us whilst it seemed everything came off for the opposition....was that the year the hednesford equaliser on 98mns sent us down?....seem to remember a ball that went a yard over the line was ignored by the liner for Stalybridge to run down the slope and score a winner....barry butler being sent off after 5 mins for gravity?...(after jumping he landed on a player) etc etc......
Not to mention those extraordinary goals by two Dover players at Moss Lane.
I was astounded when Dover's carthorse, and I mean absolute carthouse of a centre half, shoved his winger out of the way and took charge of a free kick 35 yards out and drilled it with the outside of his foot into the top corner!! And then a touch later their striker produced the deftest of chips that desevered adulation worldwide, as it was he had to make do with a dozen travelling fans clapping him...
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Just marvel at the quality of some of the 'legends' who played for Alty during that season:
Sammy Ayorinde;
Jason Beckford;
Steve Carroll;
Brian Croft;
Tony Daws;
Ian Horrigan;
Jamie Jardine;
David Johnson;
Marc Limbert;
Alan Morgan;
Darren Pybus;
Neil Rimmer;
Paul Williams.
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Some dreadful players listed there. I had wiped a few of them from memory until now... thanks for that.
Darren Pybus... blimey! Did he not scored the winner away at Slough around September/October? Last minute i think?
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Some dreadful players listed there. I had wiped a few of them from memory until now... thanks for that.
Darren Pybus... blimey! Did he not scored the winner away at Slough around September/October? Last minute i think?
Indeed, he did.
A 1-0 victory on 31st August 1996.
We actually opened that season with two wins and three draws in our opening five league fixtures.
Apologies for dredging up any nightmares with that list of charlatans.
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Now some of these names had good careers and came to us when they were past it but...
Just marvel at the quality of some of the 'legends' who played for Alty during that season:
Sammy Ayorinde; Looked like Adebayor in comparison to those before him. Wasn't.
Jason Beckford; Why bother?
Steve Carroll; Willing trier. Would've preferred it if he didn't.
Brian Croft; Dear God! Flynny?
Tony Daws; A disgrace to his surname
Ian Horrigan; Best performance was ON Moss Lane after the Bishop Auckland tie alledgedly. Nearly our saviour with a free kick that hit the post v Stevenage
Jamie Jardine; What?
David Johnson; Eh? Did this chap actually score 2 goals in 5 games despite being gash?
Marc Limbert; A good game at Macc...that's it
Alan Morgan; sh*thouse
Darren Pybus; Lucky to get a game for Packet never mind us
Neil Rimmer; No wonder we beat Wigan
Paul Williams. Oh my God Cult, I'd forgotten about this T**t. A poor man's Darren Royle (sorry Darren, that's harsh),
Luckily this bunch were backed up by top classes keepers to save them. The aerially dominant Jerome John and the super confident Matt Dickens....
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Rumours were at the time that there was about £40k ;which was a lot back then), available to get players in to keep us up, and it was never utilised, I'll leave wether that's true of not to those more qualified to talk on the subject.
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If true I think it shows that the manager had lost it and if not then given the following season also, you can draw the same conclusion.
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Just marvel at the quality of some of the 'legends' who played for Alty during that season:
Sammy Ayorinde;
Jason Beckford;
Steve Carroll;
Brian Croft;
Tony Daws;
Ian Horrigan;
Jamie Jardine;
David Johnson;
Marc Limbert;
Alan Morgan;
Darren Pybus;
Neil Rimmer;
Paul Williams.
This list covers a wide spectrum in my view & my individual observations would be as follows:
Sammy Ayorinde
I thought he was excellent & performances improved measurably after he signed on loan on transfer deadline day.
Jason Beckford
One of the most accomplished midfield debuts that I have seen (I believe that it was Southport in December at Moss Lane...we won 1-0).I don't think that he played again, retiring through injury.
Steve Carroll
A trier, but clearly playing above the level that he should have been playing at.
Brian Croft
I feel that we may have done better with Lara!
Tony Daws
Very poor. "What's the scores....Tony Daws"?
Ian Horrigan
A trier, but clearly playing above the level that he should have been playing at.
Jamie Jardine
I didn't see see his debut, when we lost 7-1 at Woking, but I'm guessing that it wasn't a Beckenbaueresque performance, but I thought that he did OK in his other games.
David Johnson
I'm afraid that I can't remember this chap.
Marc Limbert
Great debut at Kidderminster & for me was one of our most consistent players from then until the end of the season.....I was surprised when he was released.
Alan Morgan
Decent player in a poor team
Darren Pybus
I only saw him play a couple of times, including the Slough game, when he scored, but I suspect that he was a very good Sunday League player, but a mile off Conference standard.
Neil Rimmer
Pretty ineffective midfielder.
Paul Williams
Oh Dear!!!!!!
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Now some of these names had good careers and came to us when they were past it but...
Just marvel at the quality of some of the 'legends' who played for Alty during that season:
Sammy Ayorinde; Looked like Adebayor in comparison to those before him. Wasn't.
Jason Beckford; Why bother?
Steve Carroll; Willing trier. Would've preferred it if he didn't.
Brian Croft; Dear God! Flynny?
Tony Daws; A disgrace to his surname
Ian Horrigan; Best performance was ON Moss Lane after the Bishop Auckland tie alledgedly. Nearly our saviour with a free kick that hit the post v Stevenage
Jamie Jardine; What?
David Johnson; Eh? Did this chap actually score 2 goals in 5 games despite being gash?
Marc Limbert; A good game at Macc...that's it
Alan Morgan; sh*thouse
Darren Pybus; Lucky to get a game for Packet never mind us
Neil Rimmer; No wonder we beat Wigan
Paul Williams. Oh my God Cult, I'd forgotten about this T**t. A poor man's Darren Royle (sorry Darren, that's harsh),
Luckily this bunch were backed up by top classes keepers to save them. The aerially dominant Jerome John and the super confident Matt Dickens....
Done well to remember them mate I'm glad I forgot them
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Sammy ayorinde is one of the other full internationals to play for Alty, a very select group, hes still playing, plays for gröndals IK, in the 8th tier of Swedish football.