Brighton 1-2 LCFC - Post Match Thread

[The People's Hero]

Was hoping that might ricochet back in off Lloris. Much as I dislike Zaha.

[FantasticMrFox&Son]

Not just the shithousey wib, but NO injuries, been a while.

[Alan Frost]

5 hours ago, BoyJones said:

My first season following Leicester. Yes we were top after the 4-3 home game in April against Man Utd, but our only other win thereafter was the semi final against Liverpool.

 

We lost our last four league games in quick succession which were all away from home. Quite a tall order to get the away victories required in the run up to the final. Nobody accused them of bottling it in those days, just ran out of steam. 

I just looked at the matches , you are dead on correct sir. I think I was at the Man Utd match and looked it up to see if my memory was correct that Denis(sic) Law had scored with a header as my memory seemed to recall he often  did and as I claimed in a post on the thread " A Serious Point" Unfortunately the scorers are not recorded. What is recorded is that we went up to Manchester and drew 2-2 with them the day before.??? Fixture congestion could be quite bad in those days and I'd forgotten the 2-2 draw although I think I remember we played an evening match away at Real Madrid that evening. (we did n't play night games as well except midweek) . Even those tough sixties players could n't play 4 games in 24 hours every day. You could ask'em but they usually wanted another quid ,or a sack of spuds, if they played over 20 matches in a week. Few clubs  except ye Machestyres could afford to pay players £21 a week.

 

The early computers ,being coal or wood fired ,often  had a lot of smoke over the video and I could n't make out all the scorers ,or indeed the stadium a lot of the time. I used to have the celluloid video of the away game at Real Madrid but gave it to the club as they never officially reported the evening and night matches which were mainly played ,you'll recall for fun and side bets only. I think I won a bull (not a little white one ,a proper fighting bull )on that game but was n't allowed to bring it back on the plane unless I paid extra for first class and promised to clean up any droppings. I left it with a lady friend who is probably a granny by now.I certainly did my best for the country and assume she had at least one child with some English blood in him. I don't know if the bull is still well.

 

As you'll remember it was only well after the war when we had got our heads clear of the mud and bullets that this namby pamby one ,two or at most three matches a week nonsense started. By the way I had a mobile phone back then on which the video was even worse , like most then it was n't that smart but had an attachment you could fit to get stones out of horses hooves. Eventually  I got a puncture in the industrial sack barrow tyre I used to move it around with .If you told kids half of what went on , today there'd never bloody believe you.

 

PS I am serious about it seems to say 14th and 15th April for Man U matches 2-2 and then 4-3. What am I reading wrong ? It could be a mistake by the scribe in copying from the parchment or maybe it was a punishment for drawing and you had to stay for a night and play the next day until there was a result (two nights away for a 0=0,and the lowest rated player on each side knee-capped) . Only fair for describing matches as for entertainment .I seem to remember  United all being on a diet of sports bread and Red Bulls blood in gaol for a year for having too many o-o s. The case was brought by Copes football pools . Mind you the honourable referees guild still gave them the title. They claimed united having  been allowed day release for one player to take penalties had resulted in enough goals . How they were being awarded so many penalties when they were all in bloody gaol was never fully explained.

Edited 8 March 2021 by Alan Frost

[Foxaholic ME]

7 hours ago, Alan Frost said:

Even I can't remember that and suspect you can't, but I do remember 1963 . For the first time in my life I lived in a city with a top league club, Leicester. Finally 4th I think and maybe favorites in the cup final. Its worth reminding oneself this season isn't a season yet , technically its a part season  ( but still keeping many happy at the moment , bless them, One does hope  they realise its all temporary glory right up to reckoning day ). None the less its been wonderful so far, and looks like further improving. I'm feeling very good through Covid as a result and I think and hope its going to get even better on both fronts. I think that's unarguably a reasonable perspective and respects reality.

 

I think in 63 we were top with 5 games to go but 4th this season I would rate a much bigger achievement .

Why when the league was much harder  Man u were I believe in the bottom 6 and it was a shock result when they beat us

[David Guiza]

May have been mentioned previously, but was the line up on Saturday the most overseas players we've had in a starting 11?

 

If Vardy is rested in favour of Perez (cannot see that happening) then we'd be in line for our first ever non English/British XI?

 

[Alan Frost]

On 07/03/2021 at 10:46, WigstonWanderer said:

Didn’t they have a very thin squad and injury problems?

As I remember no one had squads and I don't remember any injuries.( NOTE just been reminded of Len Chalmer's injury .)I don't remember any bottling either , except for beer and milk. Admittedly I only went to home games (I was an apprentice and not too rich) and was just a fan and did n't know of any forums and life and death fans. Bill Shankly had yet to make his excellent imo joke. I just stood as near the half way line at Filbert St. as i could, watched the cup final on TV (all the TV football we got) and generally enjoyed the whole thing. You could say a time of innocence when most fans trusted the manager and team and if we lost just accepted the other team were better on the day. Managers and players generally were long term and did n't switch for money, which there was n't a lot of in the game except in brown envelopes which the wealthier teams were able to employ, or at least probably starting to. Relatively small transfer fees were paid and most clubs in the top division could afford most players . The playing field was almost perfectly level for all. Foreign stars were almost unheard of. LCFC never had any if you did n't count several wonderful Scots players, and probably a few Welsh (i remember Peter Rodrigues a few years later) and Irish who were just regarded as British although we just called them English.

 

The half way line seemed to be full of die hard fans , often joined by die hard fans from the other team, and the whole thing seemed to go off in good humour and a lot of laughter. The stadium was packed and you often spent some time off your feet , unaware of any danger, which there probably was.  Maybe there were dark undercurrents but if so they were flowing only among fans who would have been regarded as slightly misguided and malevolent. Trouble at any match was very rare, I never ever saw any or even heard of any.. Maybe I was an innocent in a time of innocence and still am in a sense although I am now aware of trouble,  disagreements among fans of the same team, money and corruption in the game etc etc. bur all that was largely in the future. Later I lived in Leicester again, stood on the halfway line with my wife and it was all much the same. (round about 1969-73) but there was certainly racialism in the city and the local rag , mainly just words. I was in a professional job and never came across it personally, just in the local rag. Never came across it in the factory guys I worked with either. Maybe I was lucky.

Later still I lived in London, I still went with my wife to see Leicester when they played in London but from trips to see Arsenal , but mostly Chelsea I became aware of and a witness to foul language and violence, racialism, read of odd murders, and all the things wrong with the game today, including the influence of too much money in the game. Finally it became unwise for my wife to attend.

 

Then in a final act ,many years later, during a pandemic lockdown I became a more serious fan and joined a football forum and became for the first time aware of a real nastiness in the game even among supporters of the same team. I like to imagine its less among LCFC fans than in other clubs but I am a bit puzzled that guest fans often seem more civilised in general than some FT members. Maybe they are older guys and better humoured. Maybe the moderators filter out the worst abuse from guest fans but again it appears in some cases thay are quite happy to join in, albeit a lttle more subtly, especially if the received opinions are not followed. It seems to me a not 100% open forum although maybe that's partly because the censors have what they perceive as the club's interests in mind. I don't know, but what I do know and am very sure of is it's misguided except when it is necessary to preserve the law, and decency, and maybe protect the vulnerable. 

 

 I regret it, but don't mind terribly , I was brought up in a rough area for problem families, but I find it all  very sad, that we've become so much more advanced these days.

 

Presumably

Edited 8 March 2021 by Alan Frost

[HereBeFoxes]

Rewatching the goals again I was struck by how little the players celebreated Kelechi's goal - either with him or indeed at all.  Feels a little off... Anyone else feel uneasy about that?

Edited 8 March 2021 by HereBeFoxes

[brucey]

22 minutes ago, HereBeFoxes said:

Rewatching the goals again I was struck by how little the players celebreated Kelechi's goal - either with him or indeed at all.  Feels a little off... Anyone else feel uneasy about that?

Glad they didn't. Late-ish equaliser in the game, pushing for a winner, we wanted to restart quickly. 

 

Maddison in particular was gushing over the goal on social media (from his sofa ). 

[BoyJones]

17 hours ago, Alan Frost said:

I just looked at the matches , you are dead on correct sir. I think I was at the Man Utd match and looked it up to see if my memory was correct that Denis(sic) Law had scored with a header as my memory seemed to recall he often  did and as I claimed in a post on the thread " A Serious Point" Unfortunately the scorers are not recorded. What is recorded is that we went up to Manchester and drew 2-2 with them the day before.??? Fixture congestion could be quite bad in those days and I'd forgotten the 2-2 draw although I think I remember we played an evening match away at Real Madrid that evening. (we did n't play night games as well except midweek) . Even those tough sixties players could n't play 4 games in 24 hours every day. You could ask'em but they usually wanted another quid ,or a sack of spuds, if they played over 20 matches in a week. Few clubs  except ye Machestyres could afford to pay players £21 a week.

 

The early computers ,being coal or wood fired ,often  had a lot of smoke over the video and I could n't make out all the scorers ,or indeed the stadium a lot of the time. I used to have the celluloid video of the away game at Real Madrid but gave it to the club as they never officially reported the evening and night matches which were mainly played ,you'll recall for fun and side bets only. I think I won a bull (not a little white one ,a proper fighting bull )on that game but was n't allowed to bring it back on the plane unless I paid extra for first class and promised to clean up any droppings. I left it with a lady friend who is probably a granny by now.I certainly did my best for the country and assume she had at least one child with some English blood in him. I don't know if the bull is still well.

 

As you'll remember it was only well after the war when we had got our heads clear of the mud and bullets that this namby pamby one ,two or at most three matches a week nonsense started. By the way I had a mobile phone back then on which the video was even worse , like most then it was n't that smart but had an attachment you could fit to get stones out of horses hooves. Eventually  I got a puncture in the industrial sack barrow tyre I used to move it around with .If you told kids half of what went on , today there'd never bloody believe you.

 

PS I am serious about it seems to say 14th and 15th April for Man U matches 2-2 and then 4-3. What am I reading wrong ? It could be a mistake by the scribe in copying from the parchment or maybe it was a punishment for drawing and you had to stay for a night and play the next day until there was a result (two nights away for a 0=0,and the lowest rated player on each side knee-capped) . Only fair for describing matches as for entertainment .I seem to remember  United all being on a diet of sports bread and Red Bulls blood in gaol for a year for having too many o-o s. The case was brought by Copes football pools . Mind you the honourable referees guild still gave them the title. They claimed united having  been allowed day release for one player to take penalties had resulted in enough goals . How they were being awarded so many penalties when they were all in bloody gaol was never fully explained.

The away match at Old Trafford was played Easter Monday and the return Easter Tuesday. I didn’t make the home game, but have memories of still being up playing street football when lads who had been told us the result and report on the game. Law and Keyworth scored hat tricks.

 

Also Leicester had played on the Easter Saturday, West Ham, three crucial games in four days!!!

[Alan Frost]

40 minutes ago, BoyJones said:

The away match at Old Trafford was played Easter Monday and the return Easter Tuesday. I didn’t make the home game, but have memories of still being up playing street football when lads who had been told us the result and report on the game. Law and Keyworth scored hat tricks.

 

Also Leicester had played on the Easter Saturday, West Ham, three crucial games in four days!!!

My word !! Many thanks to you. Maybe my dislike of resting players is sounder than I thought although humane possibly ,and efficient no doubt occasionally.

In return I can confirm the evening away match on the evening of Easter Tuesday with Real Madrid was a product of my imagination , as you probably suspected but maybe nearer the truth ,in a way, than even I suspected. i might also say along with other details. I've checked by phone and the bull is still doing well , but probably quite tough eating  by now, however and  the child mentioned turned out to be a grandson. Have I mentioned I sometimes lie like an Aden watch ? Usually in the interests of truth.

 

A pleasure to have made your acquaintance through the forum. Some "bottlers" ,eh ,to use a foul modern term although funnily enough its often appropriate to those who use it. My comment about kids today not believing what went on then seems only too true. I can hardly believe it myself , I honestly thought it was me being stupid or an error. Even supporters attending both matches, probably by train ,or maybe even coach, is incredible. You don't know if Law  (I think he was a Denis ,not a Dennis) scored from a header do you ? I can only remember ,I think one of his goals which I think was from a sort of pinball ,bundle, situation with his head at the large two layer stand end .It was 57 years ago and I'm not even sure I 'm remembering the right match. On the halfway line in the shed like stand there was usually a surge at corners and it was diificult to get a clear mental image to retain. I'm sure there 's a match report available somewhere on the internet but I'm too much of a football ignoramus to know where. I'm still bloody pinching myself.

Edited 8 March 2021 by Alan Frost

[Alan Frost]

On 07/03/2021 at 14:21, SouthStandUpperTier said:

 

 

Davie Gibson , there was a player of culture . I had no idea I was watching him in his first full season playing but the skill was so obvious. Such was Scotlands wealth of players then he got few caps. to my absolute amazement.  Standing in the shed stand on the halfway line I first became aware of the sheer physical effort necessary for Stringfellow to advance down the line against defenders. I'd often worked in holiday jobs as a builder's labourer. I went at it and usually ended up selected to work for the top bonus gang even on huge sites ,  but never had seen a human being close up extend that much effort. For most of 90 minutes. I was also surprised at first when the skinny lanky Stringfellow I'd watched in the first half across the pitch came close to me seconnd half and I realised how massive he was particularly his calves and legs.

[Stonegold]

And there we have the typical Brighton and Hove Albion performance,  take the lead drop off and head for the cliff face , from a now fading memory the only poor performance of the season i can remember was v Leicester away , the rest we've either been in the game and lost to a sucker punch or been completely on top and drawn the game .

 

Overall we were the better team in the first half but failed to score that elusive 2nd which has been the story of our season then when you switched from a 3 to a 4 at the back we failed to counteract and it cost us yet again .

 

Not going to slag off the Sanchez flap because he's a kid and still learning , poor lad was devastated afterwards but he's in the big show now and needs to learn from that .

 

In total honesty this game was actually nowhere near how unlucky we have been but our lack of finishing the chances looks like it may well cost us dearly if we can't stop this incredible run of good performances with no points .

 

Good luck chasing the top 4 spot , and hopefully I'll be around next season to post how it all went right for once

 

 

[Finnegan]

20 minutes ago, Stonegold said:

And there we have the typical Brighton and Hove Albion performance,  take the lead drop off and head for the cliff face , from a now fading memory the only poor performance of the season i can remember was v Leicester away , the rest we've either been in the game and lost to a sucker punch or been completely on top and drawn the game .

 

Overall we were the better team in the first half but failed to score that elusive 2nd which has been the story of our season then when you switched from a 3 to a 4 at the back we failed to counteract and it cost us yet again .

 

Not going to slag off the Sanchez flap because he's a kid and still learning , poor lad was devastated afterwards but he's in the big show now and needs to learn from that .

 

In total honesty this game was actually nowhere near how unlucky we have been but our lack of finishing the chances looks like it may well cost us dearly if we can't stop this incredible run of good performances with no points .

 

Good luck chasing the top 4 spot , and hopefully I'll be around next season to post how it all went right for once

 

 

 

FWIW that sounds a lot like our 14/15 season. Always in games, usually playing alright, just always managing to come up with some way of losing. 

 

Difference being back then we had your mate Ulloa, plus Nugent and Vardy all in the squad so there was always potential goals. 

 

Often don't really know who's going to score when your lot play atm. Feels like you're a really solid striker away from being an alright side. 

 

 

[Alan Frost]

18 hours ago, Foxaholic ME said:

Why when the league was much harder  Man u were I believe in the bottom 6 and it was a shock result when they beat us

 I think the players were much harder and probably had been ,most of them , born or brought up during the war Their grandparents and maybe parents occasionally had been probably through 2 WWs. I don't mean necessarily harder in any bad ways just stronger in most ways and better people in general and imo. I think Munich had happened to Man U and in !963 they were again no longer anything special. Before that they were pretty special for a while and probably much more admirable. I 'd have to look it up but I think we were certainly favorites for what was probably our fourth cup final. I doubt we bottled any of them ,whatever that means. From memory they only became great again under Alex Ferguson who had proved himself a great manager at Aberdeen. I think he came close to being sacked early on at Man U I presume because it took him time to learn to manage something that big. I'm not a great admirer of his from then on but i'd have to know a lot more to be sure I'm right. In fact I'd say the odds are I'm not.

Edited 8 March 2021 by Alan Frost

[thankyouleicester]

17 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

FWIW that sounds a lot like our 14/15 season. Always in games, usually playing alright, just always managing to come up with some way of losing. 

 

Difference being back then we had your mate Ulloa, plus Nugent and Vardy all in the squad so there was always potential goals. 

 

Often don't really know who's going to score when your lot play atm. Feels like you're a really solid striker away from being an alright side. 

 

 

I agree.. Graham Potter has them playing some of the best football in the league, just missing that Vardy like striker. 

 

[The Blur]

21 hours ago, Stonegold said:

And there we have the typical Brighton and Hove Albion performance,  take the lead drop off and head for the cliff face , from a now fading memory the only poor performance of the season i can remember was v Leicester away , the rest we've either been in the game and lost to a sucker punch or been completely on top and drawn the game .

 

Overall we were the better team in the first half but failed to score that elusive 2nd which has been the story of our season then when you switched from a 3 to a 4 at the back we failed to counteract and it cost us yet again .

 

Not going to slag off the Sanchez flap because he's a kid and still learning , poor lad was devastated afterwards but he's in the big show now and needs to learn from that .

 

In total honesty this game was actually nowhere near how unlucky we have been but our lack of finishing the chances looks like it may well cost us dearly if we can't stop this incredible run of good performances with no points .

 

Good luck chasing the top 4 spot , and hopefully I'll be around next season to post how it all went right for once

 

 

What happened to Mat Ryan?  I know he has went to Arsenal now but Sanchez was picked ahead of him in December before the transfer.  

[Foxaholic ME]

On 08/03/2021 at 16:36, BoyJones said:

The away match at Old Trafford was played Easter Monday and the return Easter Tuesday. I didn’t make the home game, but have memories of still being up playing street football when lads who had been told us the result and report on the game. Law and Keyworth scored hat tricks.

 

Also Leicester had played on the Easter Saturday, West Ham, three crucial games in four days!!!

On much worse pitches harder tackling no resting of players   much worse medical facilities they would die nowadays  .It is incredible that memories dont go back  prior  Premier league and although I love him to bits  and saying this will get me shot to say Vardy is the clubs greatest player is rubbish . 

[HighPeakFox]

3 hours ago, Foxaholic ME said:

On much worse pitches harder tackling no resting of players   much worse medical facilities they would die nowadays  .It is incredible that memories dont go back  prior  Premier league and although I love him to bits  and saying this will get me shot to say Vardy is the clubs greatest player is rubbish . 

Who do you feel achieved more, and why/how? You're entirely at liberty to disagree about Vardy, but rubbishing the point of view seems a bit much.

[volpeazzurro]

On 08/03/2021 at 12:29, Alan Frost said:

As I remember no one had squads and I don't remember any injuries.( NOTE just been reminded of Len Chalmer's injury .)I don't remember any bottling either , except for beer and milk. Admittedly I only went to home games (I was an apprentice and not too rich) and was just a fan and did n't know of any forums and life and death fans. Bill Shankly had yet to make his excellent imo joke. I just stood as near the half way line at Filbert St. as i could, watched the cup final on TV (all the TV football we got) and generally enjoyed the whole thing. You could say a time of innocence when most fans trusted the manager and team and if we lost just accepted the other team were better on the day. Managers and players generally were long term and did n't switch for money, which there was n't a lot of in the game except in brown envelopes which the wealthier teams were able to employ, or at least probably starting to. Relatively small transfer fees were paid and most clubs in the top division could afford most players . The playing field was almost perfectly level for all. Foreign stars were almost unheard of. LCFC never had any if you did n't count several wonderful Scots players, and probably a few Welsh (i remember Peter Rodrigues a few years later) and Irish who were just regarded as British although we just called them English.

 

The half way line seemed to be full of die hard fans , often joined by die hard fans from the other team, and the whole thing seemed to go off in good humour and a lot of laughter. The stadium was packed and you often spent some time off your feet , unaware of any danger, which there probably was.  Maybe there were dark undercurrents but if so they were flowing only among fans who would have been regarded as slightly misguided and malevolent. Trouble at any match was very rare, I never ever saw any or even heard of any.. Maybe I was an innocent in a time of innocence and still am in a sense although I am now aware of trouble,  disagreements among fans of the same team, money and corruption in the game etc etc. bur all that was largely in the future. Later I lived in Leicester again, stood on the halfway line with my wife and it was all much the same. (round about 1969-73) but there was certainly racialism in the city and the local rag , mainly just words. I was in a professional job and never came across it personally, just in the local rag. Never came across it in the factory guys I worked with either. Maybe I was lucky.

Later still I lived in London, I still went with my wife to see Leicester when they played in London but from trips to see Arsenal , but mostly Chelsea I became aware of and a witness to foul language and violence, racialism, read of odd murders, and all the things wrong with the game today, including the influence of too much money in the game. Finally it became unwise for my wife to attend.

 

Then in a final act ,many years later, during a pandemic lockdown I became a more serious fan and joined a football forum and became for the first time aware of a real nastiness in the game even among supporters of the same team. I like to imagine its less among LCFC fans than in other clubs but I am a bit puzzled that guest fans often seem more civilised in general than some FT members. Maybe they are older guys and better humoured. Maybe the moderators filter out the worst abuse from guest fans but again it appears in some cases thay are quite happy to join in, albeit a lttle more subtly, especially if the received opinions are not followed. It seems to me a not 100% open forum although maybe that's partly because the censors have what they perceive as the club's interests in mind. I don't know, but what I do know and am very sure of is it's misguided except when it is necessary to preserve the law, and decency, and maybe protect the vulnerable. 

 

 I regret it, but don't mind terribly , I was brought up in a rough area for problem families, but I find it all  very sad, that we've become so much more advanced these days.

 

Presumably

A very interesting read and some perspective. Thanks Alan.

[Alan Frost]

2 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

A very interesting read and some perspective. Thanks Alan.

Appreciated , nice to meet someone who is capable of reading more than a couple of sentences at a time. I'm pretty old and won't be around fortunately when novels are two paragraphs ,literature has vanished and every opinion has to be expressable in a twitter line.  I once heard Donald Trump had never read a book .I suspect he was boasting.  I think it showed even though I doubt it was true.

 

And yet probably not. Sometime ,someone will remember and wonder  Hey , did n't we used to be civilised once. Mind you I'm noticing already the modern novel has typically 50 plus chapters , each of about 2 pages , and has a stack of glowing Amazon reviews supposedly by readers. If one's selection technique falters one buys it and finds it should be even more glowing, if one can find  a match. When anyone can write or do anything, no one ends up able to do anything well . Not that I'd claim to write, I was a simple injuneer and was n't encouraged at  culcha.

[Nicolo Barella]

On 08/03/2021 at 22:29, Alan Frost said:

Then in a final act ,many years later, during a pandemic lockdown I became a more serious fan and joined a football forum and became for the first time aware of a real nastiness in the game even among supporters of the same team. I like to imagine its less among LCFC fans than in other clubs but I am a bit puzzled that guest fans often seem more civilised in general than some FT members. Maybe they are older guys and better humoured. Maybe the moderators filter out the worst abuse from guest fans but again it appears in some cases thay are quite happy to join in, albeit a lttle more subtly, especially if the received opinions are not followed. It seems to me a not 100% open forum although maybe that's partly because the censors have what they perceive as the club's interests in mind. I don't know, but what I do know and am very sure of is it's misguided except when it is necessary to preserve the law, and decency, and maybe protect the vulnerable. 

I can assuage your doubts here if you have any. The internet in general is extremely toxic and nasty. Because there are no consequences for poor behaviour, unlike the balancing effect that socialisation has in real life, people are much more likely to let loose with "a real nastiness" as you put it. The internet has been genuinely terrible for society in general; destroying irl (in real life) human social networks in favour of the false dopamine addiction of social media, dividing and pitting society against itself instead of pointing in the direction of the actual problems that we face, I could go on and on and on. If I could make it so the internet was never invented, I absolutely would. The technological advancements it has provided are many, but humans happily lived without them - in reality, they have served two purposes mostly; convenience, and increased productivity (which, by the way, has all gone straight to the pigs in charge, with wages not catching up to this increased production at all). I would much rather have spent my childhood cycling to my friends' houses and poking things with sticks instead of being stuck at home playing Clash of Clans.

 

Anyway, all that to say that FT is actually surprisingly civil as far as the internet goes, considering it is a football fan forum, which usually attracts the absolute worst kind of trolls and small minds. You'll find that most Leicester fans you meet in real life would still be quite pleasant and sociable - you sort of have to separate internet fans from actual fans. Often, the overlap is less than you'd expect.

[deep blue]

I remember us losing our last 4 games in 63 but had forgotten how close together they were. No wonder we went down the pan.  Man U were certainly poor that season and in real danger of relegation but just pulled away at the end.  Unfortunate that our form dropped off at the end just as theirs improved.  On league position we should have been definite favourites in the final.

[Foxaholic ME]

On 09/03/2021 at 21:54, volpeazzurro said:

A very interesting read and some perspective. Thanks Alan.

The maximum wage helped  and meant a level playing field for some years after   resulting from memory in Ipswich Forest  Burnley Wolves winning it and just after WW2 I believe Portsmouth  also  won it twice  .  So called big six apart from Arsenal have all been in the second tier