Orient home late 1977 78 season

[olderblue]

Orient won 1-0, and Blackpool got relegated instead of the O's

From memory I don't think the City had a meaningful shot on target all game.

Their was a suggestion that once safe, the City players had nothing to play for and almost conspired for an Orient win?

Watching that woeful performance yesterday reminded me of that game

Has there been a game this season where we have had so few clear cut chances on goal?

[sidhooper7]

Yes a number of City fans wrote to the Blackpool evening newspaper to apologise on behalf of Cardiff City , most fans there thought the players had thrown the game. Phil Dwyer actually responded years later saying if there was money being paid to throw the game he didn,t see any. Peter Kitchen scored and the 500 or so Orient fans went wild.....well sort of.
if Millwall had won 1:0 if would have been a similar question, except City of today is a gutless shadow of the side of 1978 that lacked quality but did battle to save the club from relegation that year.

[kneesupbrianclark]

Remember that game, it was a disgrace. I will never forget Ray Bishop hit one over the bar from about a yard out when it was easier to score than miss.Oh hang on, had another flashback, that was normal for him it was the fault of all the others that night.

[olderblue]

Only games I can remember him scoring were both away the following season at West Ham and then away at Sunderland

It was lively after both goals as I remember

[Baloo]

My mate who is a Blackpool fan mentioned this game to me before the play-off final and said their fans had been brooding about the 'fix' ever since. Your post reminded me about it and I Googled and found this: http://dicmortimer.com/2010/05/27/blackpool-3-cardiff-city-2 /

[insider]

We never Threw yesterday we are actually that shit under Slade.

[NECS]

It was in the days when the final games didn't have to be played at the same time and Blackpool were in America. They had to have about six results go the wrong way for them to go down and they all did. As someone said the City game was 1-1 not 1-0 with Peter Kitchen scoring and it was a complete and utter fix.

[Charlie]

That was my first ever City game, what a way to begin...
Sure it was on a Thursday night as well for some reason.

[cardiff55]

My mate who is a Blackpool fan mentioned this game to me before the play-off final and said their fans had been brooding about the 'fix' ever since. Your post reminded me about it and I Googled and found this: http://dicmortimer.com/2010/05/27/blackpool-3-cardiff-city-2 /

After that blog report it's nice to see Blackpool going back to where they belong.

[Packerman]

My mate who is a Blackpool fan mentioned this game to me before the play-off final and said their fans had been brooding about the 'fix' ever since. Your post reminded me about it and I Googled and found this: http://dicmortimer.com/2010/05/27/blackpool-3-cardiff-city-2 /

After that blog report it's nice to see Blackpool going back to where they belong.

the last sentence seems on the money, the guy had it spot on

[Sloop_Jon_Bee]

It was in the days when the final games didn't have to be played at the same time and Blackpool were in America. They had to have about six results go the wrong way for them to go down and they all did. As someone said the City game was 1-1 not 1-0 with Peter Kitchen scoring and it was a complete and utter fix.

Spedger

[Nemo]

It didn't help matters that both our manager and first team coach for that infamous game were former Orient players. If I recall right ,in the aftermath our manager threatened to sue anyone who suggested it had been fixed. The truth may well be that out team then were just as crap as the one we are watching now and nothing untoward happened.. But watching it at the time I was struck by a marked lack of effort by our guys to get anywhere near the Orient goal.


Walking down Wembley Way to the play off final I told my son about the match and said that if there was such a thing as Karma we should expect Blackpool to beat us. And so it came to pass...

[jonah blue]

I am sure I went to this game with my dad,I was in the Bob Bank and there was hardly anybody there, also think it was a bit windy and all the crisp packets were blowing around it was awful and pretty sure there was only around 6,000 fans attended.
Defo midweek was it Wednesday?

[Dave Blue]

Remember we were so bad that day that I was hoping we wouldn't score near the end as we didn't deserve to send Orient down. I remember thinking that if I was Blackpool I would have pressed for an enquiry.

[NECS]

It was in the days when the final games didn't have to be played at the same time and Blackpool were in America. They had to have about six results go the wrong way for them to go down and they all did. As someone said the City game was 1-1 not 1-0 with Peter Kitchen scoring and it was a complete and utter fix.

The re was 1-0 to orient not 1-1. Played on May 9th 1978.

[LoudounSquareLurker]

I was at that game. The fans who say that recent performances are the worst ever, obviously never witnessed that game! It made Saturdays game look positively exciting.

[Sky High Bluebird]

My first season , it was a midweek game And remember orient fans in a transit van having bricks thrown at them outside the the ninian park pub.

I was 8 years old and scared shitless !

[splott parker]

My first season , it was a midweek game And remember orient fans in a transit van having bricks thrown at them outside the the ninian park pub.

Shouldn't throw bricks then

[sidhooper7]

I am sure Blackpool had been chasing promotion for the first half of the season then collapsed and fell into the relegation mire.
If I wasnt so lazy I would go up in the attic and get the match programme and confirm but a quick look at Wikipedia and I can confirm Blackpool were 8th in early April but still got relegated........

[the other bob wilson]

You are right about Blackpool being promotion candidates at one time. From memory we beat them 2-1 at Ninian Park with a couple of months of the season left (think David Tong scored for them) and there was a feeling at the time that we had beaten one of the better sides in the division.

As for the Orient match, I can understand why there have been allegations of a fix because we just went through the motions that night, but in the ten years before that match, I'd seen a handful of games that were played after the failure of a promotion bid or relegation had been avoided and the common factor in all of them was that we didn't score while giving an awful performance.

I'm talking about home games only, but we were beaten 3-0 at Luton in a match that could have seen us going for promotion under different circumstances in 1971 and there was that 9-0 thumping at Preston three or four days after the "Farrell match" in 1966 - on balance, I don't think the Orient game was fixed, we were just a poor side that played even worse because we had nothing riding on the match.