Stoketastrophe: which is worse?

[ohjimmyjimmy]

The Watford one was horrendous.

[CrazyHorse]

The relegation thing for me isn't too bad. It'll mean we win more games next season.

D'you think? We'll still have clueless in charge and the squad re-build on a shoestring budget he needs to make in the summer will have us sniffing around the Chesterfield and Oldham players.

[norm the jedi]

Cup for me, we never won owt in my lifetime. To be so close and roll over in such an abject fashion! Out of the blue.
Relegation, been there come back better. The idea that it precedes 20 years in the wilderness ?
Not necessarily so, could be a clearing of deadwood and expensive dross and an opportunity to build something better.. If we get the squad fit and can keep hold of the ones we've missed so much this term
a championship campaign may be better than the end of Wanderers civilisation as we know it..
May even raise a smile which has not been happening enough fornthenlast couple of seasons.

[TANGODANCER]

Teams much bigger than us suffer shock cup defeats.The Stoke shame should have been put to bed when we gave them five-nil back. As for the rest, it's all about money and us not having it. Has to be. There are twenty teams in The Premiership and the top clubs are always those with most money to buy the best players and managers. No different in any business anywhere on the world.

This year we had a terrible fixture start (which we never recovered from) against the elite.
We've had Holden and Lee out all season and a catalogue of other injuries. Sean Davis is almost a forgotten man. Mears was signed and immediately nullified. At a time when we really needed him Muamba almost died and may or may not return to the game. Steinsson is prone to not being available, Alonso not consistent enough, Boyata never being in there for long enough hasn't settled as a firm replacement. KD's had an on-off season and N'gog hasn't proven the striker we hoped for. Klasnic isn't a ninety-minute man and our new £3 mil plus striker mustn't have impressed enough in training to even figure in selection? Our midfeld is paper thin and not of the best, to say the least.

Being truthful, we have little, or no, pace in the side and survival rather than fame and glory has been the watchword almost from day one. If we do survive and come back next season, as a side to be reckoned with, then this season will soon be as forgotten as the Megson ones.
Right now we're in a two-game season, starting Sunday, and even that is reliant on lady luck smiling and the fat bird with the tin hat being refused entry.

COME ON YOU WHITES.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Especially when done so poorly (Watford).

In fact, that performance was as toothless as Stoke!

Personally, a worse weekend. Some old friends came down and behaved horrendously. Felt like the end of an era.

[Bruce Rioja]

The Watford one was horrendous.

Still think the Tranmere one was much worse.

[ohjimmyjimmy]

The Watford one was horrendous.

Still think the Tranmere one was much worse.

I've managed to blot that out a bit, although it didnt seem right at the time that a club who had taken so few fans to wembley were allowed to beat us Plus the fact that it were tranmere and that lanky Malkin scored.

[Jakerbeef]

Difficult question to answer. The thing about the FA Cup is "there's always next year." We made the quarter-finals this year and the semis before that. If Coyle has anything going for him it's that he seems to get teams going for the cup and coupled with his Burnley record we could become quite good at that competition.

The pain of relegation will be conditional. If we get off to a flying start in the championship and look like a team who are a level above the competition like say Newcastle for instance- then the agony of it will quickly recede.

Taking a look at the championship table now- the teams around the playoffs like Middlesbrough, Hull, Blackpool, Birmingham imply we would at least be in the argument for going up next season. I'm very doubtful we'd end up doing a Pompey, as long as we are clever about who we keep and sell.

Luxury players (without perhaps the stomach for the championship) like Petrov and Klasnic could be offloaded to free up wages for experienced and proven players at that level who are looking for a quick ticket into the prem. It's vital we keep the like of NRC, Stu, Lee and upgrade our fullbacks.

Still a lot of ifs. Would be lovely to have a great summer, get rid of some driftwood, buy some young, class acts and start honking teams 3 or 4-0. Sheep in wolves clothing.



Havins said all that I'd much rather we stayed up.

[boltonboris]

The Watford one was horrendous.

Still think the Tranmere one was much worse.

I've managed to blot that out a bit, although it didnt seem right at the time that a club who had taken so few fans to wembley were allowed to beat us Plus the fact that it were tranmere and that lanky Malkin scored.

IT WAS HANDBALL!!

[Bruce Rioja]

The Watford one was horrendous.

Still think the Tranmere one was much worse.

I've managed to blot that out a bit, although it didnt seem right at the time that a club who had taken so few fans to wembley were allowed to beat us Plus the fact that it were tranmere and that lanky Malkin scored.

IT WAS HANDBALL!!

And Comstive's miss!

[ohjimmyjimmy]

Only bettered by Deano's miss against Villa..

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

The Watford one was horrendous.

Still think the Tranmere one was much worse.

I've managed to blot that out a bit, although it didnt seem right at the time that a club who had taken so few fans to wembley were allowed to beat us Plus the fact that it were tranmere and that lanky Malkin scored.

IT WAS HANDBALL!!

? It was offside, but I don't recall handball...

As for the woeful attendance, it's hardly like we did our part to fulfil Elton Welsby's confident prediction of a 70,000 gate...

[Jez]

The relegation thing for me isn't too bad. It'll mean we win more games next season.

D'you think? We'll still have clueless in charge and the squad re-build on a shoestring budget he needs to make in the summer will have us sniffing around the Chesterfield and Oldham players.

The one thing you can say about all the players hes brought in is that they are mostly proven at championship level. Players like eagles and pratley may have struggled a bit this season but they have both performed well in the championship. If we can keep holden and chungy while letting go of some of the deadweight then I personally think we could atleast make a play off place

[boltonboris]

It was offside, but I don't recall handball...

There was a handball in their box by a Tranmere player. IIRC they went up the other end and scored

[officer_dibble]

Especially when done so poorly (Watford).

In fact, that performance was as toothless as Stoke!

Personally, a worse weekend. Some old friends came down and behaved horrendously. Felt like the end of an era.

DSB above - eh? eidur etc or do you mean proper mates?

cup semi.for me...personally i have always known and accepted that we will never amount to much in thr top flight...that cup run was supposed to end well in the year lofty passed..and we did a massive disservice to him with that shambles of a performance.

I'll take relegation on the chin. Far bigger clubs tgan us down there..We'll be back and it will be an intresting.ride. The cup though, we'll need a bloody miracle to get there again.

[officer_dibble]

ps
the thought of being a league nearer the prenton pricks...ugh

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

DSB above - eh? eidur etc or do you mean proper mates?

Proper mates, some of my oldest, behaving in a way that shamed us all. Won't go into details.

[LiOC]

Relegation in general will be worse.
But I voted for the semi because if we go down I won't be dwelling on that one stoke game, I'll be thinking about losing to wigan, rolling over to everyone top half etc etc so the actual match memories won't be as bad whereas the semi was horrifying

[lovethesmellofnapalm]

that day - or rather that 90 mins- will be etched on my psyche forever. worse by far and am shocked by the poll so far.
only Watford comes close

[Worthy4England]

The memory of a bad day at the office have dwindled. All too real at the time, and the train journey back on a train full of Stoke fans, wasn't great, but I remember all through the 80's and 90's, 20 years of my life nearly, spiralling ever downwards, and then back upwards again.

I know which journey I'd want to take again given a choice, and it doesn't involve trips to Bury any time soon.

Losing our Prem place would be a complete disaster for me, not necessarily because the football I witness is any more entertaining than maybe us winning a few more in the Fizzy Pop, which could be more entertaining, it would be the waste of 20 years of striving to get there in the first place that would really annoy me. I would not be attending the first match next season, trying to encourage and back Coyle to do his best. I would be turning up with blankets - correctly spelled - pitchforks, flaming torches and any rent-a-mob I could secure on the way.