Thetownend.com

can anyone remember the pre-season when todd was manager? My memory tells me we were quite good, possibly beat or drew with west ham, and then almost got relegated. Anyone else remeber who we played and what we did that summer?

The only reason I ask, is because I'm discussing our 1-1 draw with Cluj with our workie. He seems to think that because we drew with them, we're better than Roma (who Cluj beat last season)!

i remember the west ham game as it was the first match i took my son to.we lost 1-0 to a di canio goal.decent crowd and invincible looked quality.
downhill from then on mind

We lost to West Ham. Was it a Lampard goal? I remember Suker was playing and that we not surprisingly struggled a bit. Dissapointing after dicking the Saints:

22 JUL Bath City (Away) 3 - 2  - Simmons, Duke, Howe
27 JUL Southampton (Home)   3 - 1    Howe, O'Halloran, Duke
29 JUL Cardiff City (Away) 1 - 1    
1 AUG West Bromwich Albion (Away) 1 - 1  Invincibile
4 AUG West Ham United (Home) 0 - 1    

Hoddle was the Saints manager and when talking about the Town team after the game,
was a bit more circumspect than some fans, when asked about our chances for the season.

Alexander scored in that Cardiff game under an assumed name if memory serves me right.

I remember looking at all those results at the time and getting excited, thinking we'd be mustard...

I think the opening league game at home to Colchester, brought a lot of fans back down to earth.

Lua Lua played for them didn't he? Ran rings around everyone on the pitch.

Bar the first 10 minutes, that was a shocker, Lua Lua, looked like ronaldinho.

was it 2000/01? I think that was my first season working at the club, but memory is terrible...

Does anybody remember the 'Petrol Strike' game at Bournemouth.where we put in a
shocking performance with that Finnish Centre Half playing? He was supposedly an International.

Mark tuomelo?

Juan Cobian: played for Boca Juniuors did he?

Kim Heiselberg anyone?

That Australian winger/midfielder Mark Robertson managed to get himself taken off at halftime against someone in a league cup game I think. King might have come in by then though.

 I missed that pre season and then the beginning due to being on a lengthy hol.

 Pitched up late August to see what the fuss was about, and saw us get taken apart by Walsall....how many times has Dean Keates scored against us?....thought this side will struggle to stay up.

 I'm sure T*dd had some sort of arrangement with an agent to take terrible players.

juan cobian on a 3 year says it all.the one game i remeber him most from is away at walsall on new years day.he did his best to get himself sent off and had one of the worst games i've ever seen anyone have.he got subbed

Think Cluj drew with Chelsea last year..................i dont like pre season friendlys much,tend to stay away from them.

We should have won that game though. I think Alexander hit the bar late on.

If we had won that game with an Alexander header we might have done a bit better. As it was Alexander only scored twice in the league until late february. We just couldnt score. Invincible could be brilliant and then shit all in the space of one dribble.

Talking about getting excited about players youve never seen (from the Cuthbert thread), Juan Cobain surely has to be the worst example of a player Town fans were excited about but turned out to be complete garbage.

If Todd wasnt bent then he was conned by agents. Because no one could be as incompetant as he was that summer (apart from Maurice Malpas).

I think that was the height of the madness from lower league clubs like ourselves. The lower leagues were in a time warp, thinking that the Premiership effect was about to come trickling (no gushing) with cash our way. Unbelievably, ITV thought the same. Football league clubs had also failed to come to terms with the Bosman ruling, so players were still going for very inflated fee's. Gary Alexander, £300,000 a perfect example. It was actually quite a tough transfer market to deal in, with not so many talented British players available.

Nah we got mullered in that game. Alexander hit the bar and Graz had one disallowed in the first 7-8 minutes and we never had a sniff after. I remember it well as it was my first game after being out in NZ and OZ and i had high anticpations after seeing all the new signings and high profile manager, how wrong i was.

Cobian,Bullock,Whalley,Nallis,...going back David Peach...cost a hundred thousand...all players on big money (for us) who were absolute shite.

That pre season optimism might have been clouding my judgement, even after the game.

Anyone remember Cambridge United at home? 3400, fucking terrible. Weve been pretty low in recent years, but that was low.

Roma also beat Cluj in the return game.

We went for Micky Channon and ended up with Peach who was a fat, useless, unfit alcoholic - a bit like me but I've never masqueraded as a professional footballer. 

Why not? We beat them the last time we met didn't we?  :)

Aye. Might have been King's first game in charge after basTodd buggered off to Derby. Think we won.

Reading this has brought back some horrific memories from a truly awful season.  I remember all the new signings coming in - Duke, O'Halloran, Hewlett, Invincibile, Alexander - and thinking we were going to walk the league (memories of 95/96).  What an awful year.  If I recall, bringing in Matt Heywood shored up the defence and possibly saved our bacon - that and a couple of Michael Reddy goals.

Bad times.

Without Reddy we'd have been down no question, O'Halloran was ok really, shame about the leg.

Yeah, we got spanked 3-0, and their fans were singing 'three nil, and you can't get home'!

Was that a Tuesday night game shrouded in fog? If its the one I'm thinking of we won 2-0 (I think Graz got the opener, then we bundled one home late on when the game was all but over) but one of those games you come away feeling dejected even though you won. Absolute shit, kept praying for the fog to cover up more of it.

the 1-0 away win courtesy of reddys goal was a good un though.

I thought I went to that but I'm thinking of Colchester away. Re-arranged after a super late postponement. I managed to get in free despite not going to the postponed game.

Reddy's goal in that was a super direct effort. Only a few touches from a super long Mildenhall? kick.

Wasn't that the game where part of the Arkell's stand roof had blown away so alot of the stand was closed? Not that we needed the seats anyway. pretty much summed that season up.