Swindon Town 1990 events

[janaage]

Sorry to start a new thread as I suppose this is related to the Lu'on one, but here goes anyway.

Can some of the "old timers" (meant in a respectful way) recall how many clubs came out in support of us in our moment of need.  These Lu'on and Leeds fans do my head in going on about how we should support them in their appeals etc.  From my 13 year old memory (as in I was 13 at the time) I can't really recall any other clubs saying our demotion should be over turned, but I could be wrong.

I suppose my point is I fully support Lu'on in their plight, but I can't help but think where were they when we could have done with people/fans/clubs behind us?

In conclusion it seems football's a selfish game.

[Peter Venkman]

From my memory....which like nostalgia...is not what it used to be!....

Eveyr club pretty much came out in support of us and our plight with the single exception....Poxford United, who refused the petitioners any access to the club and the surroundings of the club.

Even Shitty and the the Bristol Dogs signed our petition at the time.

Several members of the media came out against us though, Jimmy Hill being the most famous one who spoke out against the club stating that he agreed with the penalties imposed.

[janaage]

Really, I never knew that, I'm surprised about that, even Sunderland were happy to support us even though it'd have meant that they didn't go up?

[Peter Venkman]

Yeah Sunderland were totally behind us, partly because at the time Sheffield Wednesday...the club relegated from the top division could have been re-instated rather than Sunderland being promoted.

The decision to replace us in the top flight was only made after our relegation was confirmed, if I remember rightly.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Hi, I'm OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR..You may remember me from such threads as "Ooooh, STFC bart, you're such a silly monkey"..."When oh when is some one going to paint those grey seats white in the Don Rogers stand" and "I'm starting to think we may never sign Steve Lomas. I'm so depressed I may just end it all"...and so on and so forth.

I am an 'old timer' and I don't recall too much of an outpouring of support from fellow fans. But there was far less coverage of football back then and t'internet as we know it today was a long way off. Fanzines used to be carved out of stone tablets, the Wright Brothers had just made their first ever flight and Edison (or was it Marconi) had only just made their first ever telephone call (or was it a radio broadcast? I get confused some times) Anyway, back to the point. That's why today, bananas are called yellow fatty beans. I hope this is of use.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Can I have my 'Andy King slapping his head' avatar back please??

[Arriba]

i remember other fans slating us the following season.chanting swindle town,the tax man,etc,etc at us.
from my memory, many people saw us as cheats,and didn't give a fuck what happend to us

[Peter Venkman]

The support for the club was not reported much in the media as OST rightly states but there was a small band of around 10 Town fans that went round every club with the petition, a close mate of mine was part of the band, also if I remember the famous Stuart Mac was also one of them, he can indeed confirm this story. (if you can find him in sunny Spain or wherever it is that he is now!)

As for fans actually supporting us during games....no they did not, thats very true, but taking the piss out of the opposition has always and will always be part and parcel of the game no matter who the opponents are......having a common piss take when facing a team is part of the "banter" whether or not you agree or not with the comments made by or against them.

In the same situation there are not many fans that could hand on heart say.....if we played Luton that they would not sing about them being cheats and singing songs about their points deduction, despite many of these fans actually being totally against the points deduction themselves...part of the mob mentality of following the crowd I guess.

Anyway enough of that.....back to listening on my wind-up gramaphone to the latest new Jazz tunes, while feeding a bottle of whiskey to the suckling kids and sending them to work now they have hit the working age of 6 down 'T' mine!

[Batch]

So there were a lot of sympathetic fans signing the petition. Did the other clubs officials make any statements on the matter?

[ronnie21]

I seem to remember Deadly Doug from Villa stating he thought it was excellent - as he fancied getting our manager!

[Peter Venkman]

I think the vast majority of club official that were asked to sign the petition did so, TBH every club was doing the same stuff at the time but we were unlucky enough to get caught.

That is except Ken Bates, Deadly Doug Ellis and Chinny Hill!

[leefer]

The way i see it is no one gave a toss,i expect Luton,and Rotherham feel the same....my feeling is that i want us to get to the championship,get our crowds up and really get some momentum going and head for the Prem....yeah its a dream,but Hull fans arnt having nightmares are they!

[yeo]

As I remember it no one really gave a shit.Stuart Mac did indeed go around the grounds and collect signatures,I sort of knew him from when he used to DJ at level 3 he was my mortal enemy because he wouldnt play enough Stone Roses   I always thought his collecting signatures was more about him getting on telly than helping the club but ive always been a bit cynical.

[alanmayes]

In one of my postings on the 'New Lou Macari book' thread, i've named and shamed a few from
the media who either supported us,or came out vehemently against us.

You have to remember, that when the hearing and decision was made,the whole focus of the country
and media was on Italia 90.I don't specifically remember clubs coming out in support,but i do remember
that because of Ossie,we got sympathy and a good hearing.Ossie flew back from Argentina for the
campaign and ITV wanted him on the tv,so he could speak about STFC and the World Cup games.

When our relegation was confirmed, we had the unedifying sight of Dennis Smith (Sunderland manager)
claiming our place,as they had lost the play off final.He claimed to sympathise (sic) with Ossie for
the demotion,but wanted our place asap.Then we had a certain Mr Kevin Keegan, who wasn't even
involved in football, claiming that Newcastle Utd should have our place,because Newcastle finished
in 3rd place.

I had the feeling at the time,that a lot of clubs wanted to keep their heads down,as we were the
fall guys, for what was endemic within football at that time.

Btw, who was on the disciplinary panel? Sir John Smith (Liverpool) but it also included Ken Bates
and Doug Ellis and was held at Villa Park.

[suttonred]

I sort of blanked it, but as above with the swindle chants etc, I remember going to Darlington for that 0-3 and they had a huge banner with "Darlo vagabonds welcome swindle town" . And certainly round Newbury there was a general apathy from supporters of other teams(almost all london teams), mainly from the perspective it hadn't happened to them they were too big etc etc. Also there was no Internet then so support from other teams even if only lip service was hard to obtain or quantify.