With Charlton Athletic due to visit Brentford on Saturday in our Championship opener I made a somewhat outlandish claim in yesterday’s column as to where I think we’d finish the season. I stand by that and I’d hope history repeats to help this happen – the last time The Bees entertained Charlton at this level saw a 2-0 win for us back on Nov 7th 1992.
That said, I hope there aren’t too many more similarities between the forthcoming campaign and that one, given 1992/93 saw us return to League One (as is) after a solitary season. At times the season was exciting; at others, it offered nothing but the bitterest frustration.
Regular correspondent Bernard Quackenbush asked for ‘my memories’ of this and, whilst somewhat hazy, it did get me thinking. So here are the top five highs and lows from the last time we tried try our luck in English football’s second tier.
The lows:
5: Dean Holdsworth. If Wigan Athletic fans are wondering why Brentford supporters are so upset about the Adam Forshaw talk, this is why.
To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.
Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further along.
Excellent choices and almost forgot 1 or 2, particularly that Swindon game with Hoddle and Hazard.
My lows were…
Bristol City (A). Such an appalling performance on the day we needed the team to at least try.
Losing Big Tel on that first game.
Detzi. After being outstanding in the run in to the Championship, he barely featured in Division 1.
Mr Bigger of course. Plus the shocking decision by the ref at Watford.
Signing seasoned pros who just went through the motions. Dickens infuriated me. Sansom was summed up by his non appearance for the 2nd half at Oxford because of allegedly a certain famous horse race had a hiccup!
The highs…
Winning at Birmingham, Wolves and Sunderland. It can be done against the big boys class of 2014.
Our Channel Islanders, Chalmers and Luscombe. Luscombe’s brace against Charlton was a delight.
Bliss. At times it felt like he was having to single handedly keep us up.
The thrashing of Andy Cole’s Bristol City. Complete with their purple and lime strip.
The Anglo-Italian Cup. Particularly the game against Lucchese(or was it Bari) with the middle aged Italian about the only visiting supporter, who would constantly gesticulate like a stereotyped Italian.
(Was it that season as well where the big lad steward (sadly no longer with us) would walk along the New Road and be applauded every time he passed?)
Luscombe was an unexpected bonus and ,of course, terribly poor of me not to mention the win at Roker Park.
As for Bliss, his heroics deserve a column almost of their own (note to self…)
I also often wonder did Sansom’s delayed 2nd half appearance at the Manor Ground because of the Grand National really happen or have i remembered wrongly
Funnily enough, I’ve read the same thing elsewhere this evening…..
Looked up the dates and they match!
Good stuff. Surprised Hummel don’t get much of a mention!
Just not enough room. And,besides, I wasn’t sure whether to put the away kit under ‘high’ or ‘low’