The dark days - who else was at this one?

[Utah Owl]

Leading scorer that season was Eric McMordie on 6 and they all came in a two month loan spell!

[Bluesteel]

That squad was easily the worst in my my life time. People should remember how bad it was when they say current players are the worst they've ever seen.

Only reason we stayed up was due to the start of the season when we had some good players we couldn't afford

[airborne_rat_of_s6]

Jeez that's teams makes me feel physically sick

This^^^

[Mike Hunt]

Went to nearly all the games mentioned. 

 

The Plymouth match was the stand out one for me, they were light years ahead of us at the time, but looking at their team i hardly recognise any of the players apart from Cocky . 

 

We have come a long way, the younger element that post some drive on here need to understand what a basket case we were and its not that long ago.

[Arthur Bach]

I was at Chessie. Remember clapping Nsungu-Ndumbu as he warmed up cos we thought he was our saviour.

Looking at the Plymouth game it looks like we signed half their squad.

[sheriwozgod]

One game that sticks in my mind was sometime in the mid seventies stood on the open kop at Hillsborough.............siling down rain..............about 9,000 attendance.........and losing 0 - 3 to Port Vale!

 

I,m guessing Lanzarote , Daveyboy , Brian Joicey etc were there with me , but strangely , as bad as it was those godawful times under Turner seemed 10 times worse.

 

Maybe it was just youthful optimisim , but it always felt like the good times were just around the corner , whereas under Turner the wonder side of the 90,s was still fresh in the memory which made things unbearable.................. , and Christ that team sheet from Saltergate makes my eyes bleed!

[mozzy85]

Jesus looking at both those line ups against chesterfield and plymouth makes you realise how far we've come. Those teams are god awful! Hope we never return to that sort of level again. 

[Kopparberg]

Peter Gilbert... Steve Adams... and they were in a team that beat us.

Christ on a bike.

[Mole]

I was there. I recall at the end there was actually a small chorus of 'Ola Tidman is a w*nker'. It wasn't a laughing matter at the time. Open terrace, pretty sure it was raining too just to add to the misery. 

[MartinOwlMan]

Tidman was a terrible goalkeeper, but I think that performance against Chesterfield was his worst. Looked like he was scared to go near the ball. 

 

I was also at all the games that have been mentioned from that season, and some from the mid-70s. 

 

The worst of the games from 2003/4 for me was Luton away. It felt like we should be able to beat them, but some of the players looked like they couldn't be bothered. 

 

The LDV vans cup run was some light relief until we met Blackpool. Carlisle away on a Tuesday night was the coldest I have ever been at a football match.

[Wednesday_Jack]

Barry Murphy and beswetherick in the same side is enough to make any man cry!!!

[Guest mkowl]

These threads are a good idea becasue when folk start moaning about us not being successful in a £10m bid for a forward those teams posted above make you weep and add a bit of perspective.

 

My personal lowlight (of many) was Turner's last game in charge, an awful 1-0 home defeat against Bournemouth, where I got back to my Mum's and said that was it, I could take it no more. My mother got upset because she thought I would never darken the north again.

 

I think she cheered louder than me when he got the bullet

[Guest trusty_left_peg]

That 0-0 draw against Grimsby that year when Beswetherick got subbed off after 15 minutes.

He looked absolutely broken when he got taken off. That was also the game where our goalkeeping coach (Nixon, the ex-Tranmere goalkeeper) came on for an injured Pressman and looked even more rotund than our regular number one.

[fredmciverslovechild]

Tuesday, 13 April 1976. Shrewsbury Town (A) D 0-0. Attendance 2968.

 

Wednesday team: Peter Fox, Gary Hull, Bernard Shaw, Jimmy Mullen, Dave Cusack, Allan Thompson, Rodger Wylde, Fred McIver, Mick Prendergast, Ian Nimmo, Eric Potts. Unused sub Dave Herbert.

 

This was an absolutely desperate season. Our first ever in Division Three and we spent virtually the whole of it in the bottom four battling to avoid the trapdoor. There were some awful, awful performances.....being outplayed at home by the likes of Hereford United and Chessie. Who could forget the dreadful performance of Barry Watling in goal for his one game for us? And relying on the loan signing of Derek Bell from Halifax Town to try and get us a few goals?

 

I was living and working in London by this time and just decided, that morning, that I had to go up to Shrewsbury....it was a 7.30 kick off. I got the train to Wolverhampton and changed, got to Shrewsbury about 6.30. By this time it was absolutely peeing it down but fortunately I was under cover. I'd be surprised if there were more than 30 Wednesday fans there altogether.

 

The match was dreadful. We went for a point and amazingly got one but nonetheless we were still in 22nd place. Discovered I'd missed the last direct train back to London so had to spend half the night laid on a bench at Crewe Station. Got home about 6am and off to work.

 

There were probably worse Wednesday teams....losing at Wigan (then in the Northern Premier) in the Cup a couple of years later followed by losing at Tranmere a week later (when Tommy Tynan's cousin got a hat trick) leaving us about five points adrift at the foot of Division Three....I went to most games that season including those two. But in the late 70's, as someone else said, there was a fantastic camaraderie particularly at away games. Despite these awful defeats, despite the dreadful team we had we were convinced to a man that great days lay just around the corner. As they did!

 

But back in 1976 it seemed that nothing could stop us sliding into oblivion.

[taylor]

This was my favourite worst game. Tony Crane going mad in front of us when he scored, breaking down on the way home and it weeing it down really made the day extra special. Fond memories.

[Guest owl from retford]

Wow some awful players in those sides was'nt fun getting beat most weeks

[mcmigo]

Some shockers on here.

Up there for poverty of performance and a sign of how bad we were at the time was away at palace under, I think, shreeves. Palace were nothing special but had Morrison and freedman up front. The first fifteen minutes of that game was like Barcelona vs Worksop. They absolutely destroyed us for that period, I remember big Carlton, back on loan, looking around at the team that was being ripped apart and you see by his face that he knew we could do nothing about it. We were so, so poor.

Shreeves to his credit saw we were going to lose by some kind of a record score (we were either 2 or 3 down in 10 mins) so hauled off bonvin after 15 mins or so and sent on a defender, parked the bus to try and keep it respectable. I think we lost 4 1 in the end.

[Londoner]

Awful memories! I remember the Rushden game clear as day, two dreadful teams who didn't ever look like scoring.

[matthefish2002]

Yes we have had some shockers over the years but still put Reading at home the other week up there with the worst of them.

[g-owls]

I'll never forget the Rushden game.

The night before I met up with a bird, she was about 31, I'd have been about 24 at the time. Anyway I already had a girlfriend at the time but was getting itchy feet and had met up with this older lass a few times, she wasn't the slimmest but had a pretty face and fantastic knockers.

We had a bit of the old how's your father on the back seat of my car and when I got home later that night I realised that I'd lost my wallet along with all my cards and about £100 in cash.

I drove back to where we had gone to see if it had fallen out, it was pitch black and I had no success and by this time it was getting late and I was at work at 5 the next morning.

I'd never lost any bank cards before and along with the cash gone as well I was well mad with myself, I hardly slept all night, went to work in the morning then drove the hour to Hillsborough in the afternoon feeling totally knackered.

The game topped it off, and to make things worse I never heard from that bird again, so chances are she probably knicked it!