+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
Mine would be February 1991: Cardiff City 1 Aldershot 3. Attendance at Ninian Park - 1,629.
Players' wages unpaid, under a transfer embargo, being sued by the council over unpaid bills, a winding-up order in the High Court over a variety of debts, a black and white programme consisting of four pages because the club couldn't afford to pay the printers for a proper one and a comedy pitch. About a third of it had been completely cleared of snow, but the rest just had the lines cut out as the club didn't have enough ground staff to clear the whole pitch.
Earlier in the season, the team had been knocked out of the FA Cup by Hayes and the Welsh Cup by Merthyr. I left Ninian Park after that woeful Aldershot defeat believing the club was dead. The situation seemed utterly hopeless. It felt like it was certain to be the Bluebirds' final game.
However, in true Cardiff City fashion, the club somehow scraped up enough money to stay alive, while the team won five and drew four of its next nine games. By the time April came around, City were play-off contenders and were beating Northampton in front of the biggest crowd of the season - a bumper 4,805.
Those were the days.
What about the time the club persuaded the fans to fund the purchase of a player - one Kurt Nogan - via the sale of club shares? I think it was during the 2000-01 season? Nogan went on to score just once in eighteen league games, though he did slightly better in the Welsh Cup, or whatever it was called in those days. Still, City went up at the end of the season, so you could argue that it worked.
Northampton away was a mad day around 88,I think we lost 4-1 , the stadium was falling to bits
1986. The County Ground was one of the most bizarre in the league, with the cricket pitch on one side. I can remember us singing:
You've got a cowshed over there,
You've got a Subbuteo grandstand over there,
You've got **** all over there,
You've got the worst ground in the land.
Not quite, Christmas holidays, December 28th. I remember going over there in Dafydd's car (or it may have been Phil's) and parking in an area that was a nightmare to get back to after the game. The crowd was 11,000+, which was about as much as that place held. We were on that open concrete embankment behind the goal.
You're right, Northampton won the league doing cartwheels. That was the City's first season in the old Division Four. Last game of the season, a 4-0 victory over Hartlepool, saw the lowest-ever league crowd - 1,334. The Ninian Park glory days everyone talks about.
I remember that game. A freezing Friday night with Nathan Blake at centre-half? Ian Stewart ran the show for them. Barclays sponsored the league at the time and apparently each branch were given two season tickets. I knew someone who worked in the town branch and he said no-one ever took (dis)advantage so me and a mate nabbed them for the night. The folly of youth.
I’m certain it was a Friday night and it was indeed freezing. It was the most miserable walk back to central station I can remember, and there have been a few grim ones. I think the next couple of games were postponed due to the freezing conditions and then City went on an unbeaten run when things resumed.
I remember that - they would have been better off having no fireworks at all rather than that pathetic couple of bangers and a rocket.
The Newcastle choir was cringey beyond belief. Having stewards sit down at the front with their backs to the game - just watching fans is also a bit creepy.