Which season were you the most excited about?

[King Kev]

A fan posted this on a forum on my fbook fan page so I have pasted below

Which season during your time following your club have you been most excited about? Why were you excited? Was it down to your club having a good season the previous year, a new division to look forward to, a takeover, lots of exciting kids coming through the ranks, some exciting signings, was it just down to a long boring summer without football which made you crave a return to the terraces?

Second question is.......After all the excitement, was it worth it in the short term come August or did your world collapse instantly after all the excitement come the opening day? More importantly, in the long run did your club go on to have a good season?

Answers please, it has had me wondering now that my medicine of England in the Euros has quickly expired :-(.

 

[Agombar stool]

For me it was 1993/1994 and our only Premiership year. The amazing season before where we got to the playoff final and beat Leicester 4-3 in one of the classic playoff games helped build up the excitement.

I was 14/15 and at school up in Scotland. Of course everyone supported Rangers or Celtic, with some supporting Hearts and Hibs. There was some interested in the Premiership and people started to pay attention to my Swindon shirts in PE at school. We didn't have sky and there was no Twitter and Facebook etc so Saturday's was spent either listening to a terrible reception of Radio 5 or watching the scores being updated on Teletext (this was a while before Jeff and the boys came along).

The anticipation of playing Man U, Liverpool etc was palpable but it was quite apparent that we were a long way out of our depth with a number of thrashings (I remember being at my gran and granddad's house in Swindon watching the 7-1 defeat at Newcastle on teletext). I only actually went to one match that season, a home defeat to Chelsea, pretty sure Dennis Wise scored in a 3-1 home defeat. Glenn Hoddle was manager that day and didn't get a very warm welcome after leaving us to manage them.

My last memory of that season was at school days before the last day of the season. Swindon's campaign had captured the imagination in East Lothian and our defence was taking a bashing. We had just done the double over QPR at Loftus Road and I claimed that 'at least we aren't going to concede 100 goals' as on the last game of the season we faced Leeds United at home having conceded 95. Of course we were 4-0 down and I think it was defender Chris Fairclough that fired in the 5th in Injury time to bring the ton up.

Of course it was a miserable season but I have great memories of playing football at school in my Town Shirt, spending Saturday's glued to teletext. Its not really the same anymore now I can go to the matches!!

 

[T.A]

I miss teletext. I was gutted when it stopped.

 

[King Kev]

That Swindon team would have still probably won the SPL.

 

[UTS]

Probably the one just gone. In hindsight it was a miserable season but had so much promise. Next season V Bolton should be good but that's about it.

 

[King Kev]

A few nominations picked out from the Bury fans posting on my fan page

Summer of 1995 - Second full season supporting Bury behind me and I had fallen in love. We had finished fourth, reached the cup third round, beaten PNE over a 2 leg playoff semi final and lost at Wembley. I had been disappointed but in my flawed view of the world I concluded that the following season would be a stroll in the park. The three teams that finished above Bury had gone up, thus Bury were the next best team and would certainly go up as champions.
I was chomping at the bit for weeks and weeks, and aside from a few late night highlights of England friendlies there was nothing to replace the buzz of being at Gigg Lane. Even playing football would not cut it.
Alas Fully Booked replaced Live and Kicking for the summer, Grandstand had no football focus feature and there was barely anything on teletext about football. I was reduced to watching Cowboy films or Horse Racing on a Saturday afternoons, it was terrible. With each passing week though I began to picture all the different scenarios featuring Bury strolling to the league title, it was going to happen it would be glorious I was convinced of it.
Fixtures came out and my Grandad cut our fixture list out of the paper and we pinned it up in the bedroom....Northampton away, now that would be one hell of a place to start our title charge, we had beaten them 5-0 home and away the previous season and they had endured three seasons of struggle. It would be easy, my Grandad merely inflated the fantasy by telling me he didn't fancy us to lose once. And he rarely got his score predictions wrong!
Opening day was the same day that we came home from holiday, I was so excited. Tuned into BBC for half time scores and I scanned down looking for Bury, we would be winning I was certain then I saw it....Northampton 1-1 Bury. Stant had equalised for us after we fell behind early on. Okay not what I was expecting but we would surely come out in the second half and put them to the sword.
I tuned into the vidiprinter at 16:45 excited as ever and there the score flashed before my eyes.....Northampton 4......Bury 1....I blinked in disbelief, we had been battered, mauled, 'put to the sword' as it were, three months of excitement, frustration and anticipation smashed in the blink of one's eye (or arguably 45 minutes of Sheer Neil Grayson masterclass.)
Alas I faced an evening of feeling disappointed. That feeling did not go away until well into October when Bury were still 21st with just three league wins to their name. Stan the Man had taken over by this point and his methods finally kicked in as we only lost a handful of games and ended up promoted in May.
It was some turnaround...some season.
I still remember the feeling of crushing disappointment like it was yesterday though, at least these days I have the pub to drown my sorrows.

 

[Etienne Vermeer]

1988/89, that's really about it.

 

[Wombling Kiwi]

2011-12 first year back in the FL.

 

[Indian Dan]

1932 it was. I was just 12 and had only been 'working the chimneys' for 8 years. We were living in a box in the middle of the road - cardboard it was - and with the shiny penny I earned from licking the road clean I took myself off to the County Ground for the opening fixture against Beddlington Terriers.

Our chairman at the time was a delightful little German fella with a funny small moustache. He left soon after the season started muttering something about doing some scouting in Poland. He never came back.

On the pitch we lurched from one disastrous performance after another with our leading scorer being OG. We shipped over 230 that season.

My, those were the days when men were men and women were also men.

 

[GEORGE]

1961/62 My first watching league football
1973/74 Went everywhere with.the team -- Also a lot of fun on the way. ( both on & off the pitch )

 

[King Kev]

Another post from my fan page

Summer of 2002, we had left administration and were just thankful to have a football club. We had a poor start and I remember the Tuesday night game against Cambridge in the August, awful crowd, shite atmosphere, lost 1-0 but it was just great knowing that we were still there.
We ended up doing okay and making the playoffs despite the turgid football.

 

[King Kev]

For me (as in Kevin Blackwell) it had to be the May of 2013 when the news broke through that I had saved Bury FC from going bust.

 

[PuB]

1893-94

The good old days

 

[Meadow]

2004-2005 - first season out of the Combined Counties.

2005-2006 - first season in the Ryman Premier.

2008-2009 - only season in the Conference South.

2009-2010 - first season in the Conference National.

2011-2012 - first season in L2.

2016-2017 - first season in L1.

Each season confirms that restarting was the right thing to do. Which other club can claim 6 promotions in 12 years?

 

[Camborne Gills]

Probably the season when Mr Scally became chairman, having endured a number of bottom 6 finishes prior to him taking over. It could scarcely have got much worse.

 

[T.A]

98/99 - football was becoming my life with my Dad.

Mostly downhill since then though.

 

[King Kev]

Probably the season when Mr Scally became chairman, having endured a number of bottom 6 finishes prior to him taking over. It could scarcely have got much worse.

1995 I believe. Like with the Northampton result on the opening day of the season as mentioned, I just could not fathom why you had gone from perennial strugglers to league leaders all of a sudden. I remember we met at the Priestfield in the October and we had managed a couple of decent results under Stan. You stopped us in our tracks though and we were put to the sword with three second half goals. I know Fortune-West was on the scoresheet that day and some bloke made all three of the goals. At that point I just wondered if we would ever find our form again.
When we met again the week before Christmas we had turned the corner and we beat you 1-0 to move up to 9th in the table .
That 3-0 was probably your biggest victory of the season though, as I recall you only scored 42 goals that season and let in a miserly 20 goals.

 

[Camborne Gills]

It was certainly 20 conceded, which I think is an all time record for the 4th tier. I think we managed 48 or 49 goals in that season.

We only let in more than one goal on 3 occasions, and BFJ kept 29 clean sheets.

Yet despite all this Nobbers won the title

 

[joethegill]

1995 I believe. Like with the Northampton result on the opening day of the season as mentioned, I just could not fathom why you had gone from perennial strugglers to league leaders all of a sudden. I remember we met at the Priestfield in the October and we had managed a couple of decent results under Stan. You stopped us in our tracks though and we were put to the sword with three second half goals. I know Fortune-West was on the scoresheet that day and some bloke made all three of the goals. At that point I just wondered if we would ever find our form again.
When we met again we had turned the corner the week before Christmas as we beat you 1-0 to move up to 9th in the table .
That 3-0 was probably your biggest victory of the season though, as I recall you only scored 42 goals that season and let in a miserly 20 goals.

The chap who set up all 3 against you was Mark O'Connor, who was a wonderful player to watch until he nearly had his leg snapped off by a Fulham thug in a very ugly game at Priestfield that year. We beat Donny 4-0, but other than that then yes it was our biggest. We were probably incredibly dull to watch under modern standards, but I was 6 and loving my first season watching.

I didn't really understand the whole implications of the Scally arrival, or the fact that table-topping wasn't really something I did - I just loved it. In fact, the first time in my supporting life that we failed to finish higher than the previous season wasn't until the 2003/04 season, so that's quite something! 2000/01 season was exciting for me, first season in (then) Division One, playing teams my friends had heard of and cared about, and my first season ticket season.

 

[Shrimpurh]

The Championship season...

 

[King Kev]

It was certainly 20 conceded, which I think is an all time record for the 4th tier. I think we managed 48 or 49 goals in that season.

We only let in more than one goal on 3 occasions, and BFJ kept 29 clean sheets.

Yet despite all this Nobbers won the title

BFJ, is that code for Jim Stannard?
49 you are correct. After our epic last gasp promotion my Grandad bought me a cup to commemorate the promotion and it had a picture of the final league table. Sadly the cup broke :-( however I can still picture that table and for some reason had it in my head that it said 42 goals for the Gills. Obviously I was wrong.
You were both neck and neck as I recall, 3rd was generally between us and Darlo from March onwards with Plymouth having an outside chance of nipping in there.

 

[King Kev]

The chap who set up all 3 against you was Mark O'Connor, who was a wonderful player to watch until he nearly had his leg snapped off by a Fulham thug in a very ugly game at Priestfield that year. We beat Donny 4-0, but other than that then yes it was our biggest. We were probably incredibly dull to watch under modern standards, but I was 6 and loving my first season watching.

I didn't really understand the whole implications of the Scally arrival, or the fact that table-topping wasn't really something I did - I just loved it. In fact, the first time in my supporting life that we failed to finish higher than the previous season wasn't until the 2003/04 season, so that's quite something! 2000/01 season was exciting for me, first season in (then) Division One, playing teams my friends had heard of and cared about, and my first season ticket season.

To be fair, if it is effective and it works then use it, I would not complain. I don't buy this whole play it the proper way rubbish.
Playing direct football has certainly benefited Bury down the years .

 

[joethegill]

BFJ, is that code for Jim Stannard?
49 you are correct. After our epic last gasp promotion my Grandad bought me a cup to commemorate the promotion and it had a picture of the final league table. Sadly the cup broke :-( however I can still picture that table and for some reason had it in my head that it said 42 goals for the Gills. Obviously I was wrong.
You were both neck and neck as I recall, 3rd was generally between us and Darlo from March onwards with Plymouth having an outside chance of nipping in there.

BFJ = Big Fat Jim.

 

[GFCSludge]

95/96 was class, got my first season ticket the season after and we beat Premiership opposition in the cup for the first time since Jesus was a lad (ok it was only Coventry, but still).

Actually, every season from 95/96 until 00/01 when I moved away were a massive buzz, playing solid if not exactly spectacular football and simply steam-rollering sides who began to genuinely despise us (hello Bournemouth!). Started going away, went to everything at home and of course our two trips to the old Wembley.

Strangely our first title since the 60's a couple of years back never really ignited my soul.

 

[joethegill]

95/96 was class, got my first season ticket the season after and we beat Premiership opposition in the cup for the first time since Jesus was a lad (ok it was only Coventry, but still).

Actually, every season from 95/96 until 00/01 when I moved away were a massive buzz, playing solid if not exactly spectacular football and simply steam-rollering sides who began to genuinely despise us (hello Bournemouth!). Started going away, went to everything at home and of course our two trips to the old Wembley.

Strangely our first title since the 60's a couple of years back never really ignited my soul.

In a way I'm a bit gutted it was my first season, didn't really get a chance to enjoy it properly unlike the late 90s which were genuinely great! Bournemouth did indeed hate us (they still use the nickname Gillyhoof) which is fairly entertaining. Remember stonking wins over Wrexham, Bristol City and Stoke - we were class back then.