Reply With QuoteLeeds maybe
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Oxford away on Boxing day we left at 3 nil down and I said in the car I think this is our year to go down.
Leeds maybe
The same for me. Oxford away showed we weren't too good to go down and didn't have any fight in the squad. Leeds away revealed us to be a rudderless shambles and, while I was hoping for a miracle, relegation seemed odds on for me at that point.
Replying to TOBWs postOriginally Posted by the other bob wilson
The home game with Luton for me.
I had accepted that we were a team with no leaders, and that the defence was brittle and full of errors, but I thought we had a chance of scoring enough to survive with Salech and the hope of Robinson and Davies fit for the run in.
We had become so streaky. Runs of losses and draws followed by runs unbeaten with a few wins thrown in. After winning at Blackburn I expected another upturn and enough points to put us relatively safe.
The Luton performance (maybe more than the result) punctured that qualified optimism. I didnt expect all the other bottom teams to become world beaters the way they did, but I resigned myself to a grim and frustrating battle where relegation was more probable than possible.
Oxford home.
I had this belief that City would scab staying up due to beating Oxford and them free falling due to their tough fixtures.
As soon as Brannigan scored I felt that was it.
I'm fuucking clueless.
Stoke home for me, I was hopelessly optimistic of staying up, I had all of my 'relegation emotions' that day, first game I think I had ever left actively 'very angry'. The games against Oxford and WBA I was like "meh, we're down anyway, nevermind! :D"
After the Luton and QPR results, Stoke was a MUST win. I knew for sure in my heart that it was over after that game.
Pompey away. All downhill, even more, after that. Luton at home just confirmed the "we are getting relegated" feeling. Going back to when the fixtures came out, I thought West Brom at home would be the nail in the coffin.
Reading all these posts, HTF didn’t we stay up ?
We must have been crapper than I thought
Stoke was the most pivotal six-pointer, but we lost it with QPR, Preston, and Oxford too; we had so many winnable games get out of jail in the run-in to the season.
Tan's own fault. Why stick with Riza, 10 games to go, even 20? It was obvious to anyone, but Tan and one other he was totally out of his depth.
No single game indicated relegation for me. Most teams have some very poor games in a season and where they are dominated, outfought, outplayed and generally run rings around.
In City's case it was the norm rather than the exception - and creativity was an abstract concept most of the time.
I honestly didn't believe it would happen until the Oxford game. I really thought we would win that, and coupled with the extraordinary set of other results for me that's when I realised we are very likely down.
We should have gained 2-3 points on our rivals that day. Instead we lost 2 to several or them
I think all teams in the bottom 6 won the night we lost to Luton and the draw v Oxford?
Our most damaging results and absolutely everything else going wrong.
Yeah it happened a couple of times I think, but the Oxford day was ridiculous. Didn't everyone win bar Oxford and us? Something like that. Maybe another team dropped points but for me it was that day.
I still can't quite believe it tbf. And I have to say that inside me I am looking forward to next season, but it will feel very strange being that low down and am pretty nervous about the atmosphere if we don't start well
Rotherham last game of last season.
At least you must have made a few quid. Decent odds back then.
Home to Preston.
This was the game after Riza was appointed permanent manager. From that point we were doomed.
I think there were many moments throughout the season. I think the killer game was WPR away and then Preston away, we were awful, but managed to get a point in both, I think a new manager coming in then gave us a fighting chance. Stoke home followed and I dont think Ive seen a worse game of football for some time, both teams woefully poor.
The teams still fighting to stay up are awful this year and we are the worst of the lot.
just starting the season 24/25.
most clowns on here were lik e'give him a contract, give him a contract' after 2 bloody games!!!! say's it all about the fans
This^^^
No problem with every one else winning bar us if we made up for it by getting the wins elsewhere - we never did that, too many draws (we’re going to lose less games than we did last season).
The Hull City game at home, that was the one that set alarm bells ringing for me, despite keeping a clean sheet and getting all 3 points.
Cardiff relied on gritty, backs-to-the-wall defending, with the likes of Ng throwing their bodies on the line to prevent a terrible Hull team from having any chance at goal. Better sides would have made easy work of the Cardiff performance that day, where we struggled to get any real foothold in the game, and true to form under Riza, the handbrake went on the moment Cardiff nicked the lead. It made me seriously question whether Cardiff had enough about them to string enough wins together for the rest of the season. And so it proved, with just one win in the next eleven.
I held onto optimism as Cardiff still had a chance, others below had to rally and Cardiff just needed to get a few results. But as the match days ticked over, with rivals picking up much needed wins, while Cardiff languished - relegation just seemed inevitable. There have been a few games where I was convinced it was done, Sheff Wed, Stoke - but after getting over my sheer frustration over performance and result there was always still a chance. But that Brannagan free kick was the deathnail for me. Once that shot hit the back of the net, my head sank and that's when I finally accepted it was over.
I disagree about the hull home game, that's one of the few games that I think the management team got the tactics spot on.
Hull are a counterattacking side - they have a good away record and a terrible home record - if we had tried to dominate possession and taken the game to them it would have played straight into their hands, and they'd probably have picked us off on the break.
In that game we were notably not making any pressures on the ball until they reached our half and then closing them down, to draw them up field. We made them play like the home team and we know they aren't good at that.
I think in general the management team were trying to be too clever too often - coming up with a different tactic for each team, which in theory is good but in practice it just made the players not know what they were supposed to be doing - we should have kept is simple and went back to basics. However Hull at home is one of the occasions it worked for us.
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