Adver News: QPR takeover set to speed up Clarke move

[Ardiles]

It feels like it. 40 years ago we were a decent Div 2 team.

I know what you mean.  I think we all think that the side we knew when we started following was basically where it should be.  As a result, without really wanting to, every team sheet I've seen since 1990 gets compared to Digby, Kerslake, Shearer, Calderwood & Simpson.  (They don't usually measure up.)

And I still think of sides like Stoke and Burnley as being beneath us...on the basis that they actually were in 1990.  I know it's all wrong, but I can't help it.  I keep thinking that our natural place in the pecking order is somewhere between the Championship and League 1 - and then I look at the attendance figures in last Sunday's paper and it, unhelpfully, backs up that view.  (Did you know that there was only one game in League 1 last Saturday that beat our crowd against Crewe?  True story.)

I'm rambling.

[nochee]

How on earth do you lot remember games from 40 years ago? I struggle to remember the games i went to last year (easy to forget, i know) let alone my first game.

What i do remember is that it was before the scoreboard was put up as my old man kept asking me the score to see if i was paying attention. And, the Town End looked great fun.

[Gnasher]

I know what you mean.  I think we all think that the side we knew when we started following was basically where it should be.  As a result, without really wanting to, every team sheet I've seen since 1990 gets compared to Digby, Kerslake, Shearer, Calderwood & Simpson.  (They don't usually measure up.)

And I still think of sides like Stoke and Burnley as being beneath us...on the basis that they actually were in 1990.  I know it's all wrong, but I can't help it.  I keep thinking that our natural place in the pecking order is somewhere between the Championship and League 1 - and then I look at the attendance figures in last Sunday's paper and it, unhelpfully, backs up that view.  (Did you know that there was only one game in League 1 last Saturday that beat our crowd against Crewe?  True story.)

I'm rambling.

Same here Ardiles (not sure about Simpson though!). I remember going to the likes of West Brom and Birmingham EXPECTING to win!

[Ardiles]

One day....one day we'll be there again.  Honestly, I do believe that.  Otherwise, what's the point?

[SirWinston]

One day....one day we'll be there again.  Honestly, I do believe that.  Otherwise, what's the point?

I like your optimism Ossie, but it seems like an absolute pipe dream to me now.  We used to start the season in Div 2 against the likes of Leicester, Pompey, Wolves, Sunderland, West Ham, Birminham etc and seriously think that we could win the whole bloody thing!!!  The minimum attendance in that division seems to be about 15,000 now which is a full ground for us.

When I started going in the late 70's, we were generally a third division side and more and more, the second division phase (and prem) through the late 80's and to the mid-90's is now seeming like the over-achieving period rather than us currently being in an under-achieving period.  League 1 (Div. 3) seems about right for a while until something massively changes.
Keep believing and we might all join you in time.

[Ardiles]

Yep...take that.  But look a little more closely.  Millwall's attendances, for example, are stuck at around 12,000...and they're two leagues above us.  We're guaranteed to get that on Sunday.  I honestly don't think we're that far off.  At the present time, we are definitely punching below our weight in terms of attendances/potential.  Sorry if that sounds a bit South Yorkshire (you know who I mean) but that's the way I see it.  Even in League 1, we would still be one of the better supported clubs.  That's why Paolo getting us out of this league at the very earliest opportunity is imperative.  We can then work from there.

To temper what I've already said, I do accept that there's a limit to our aspirations.  I was lucky enough to start following the Club in 1990, which meant I got in there just in time for 1993/94.  I do accept that is unlikely that we will ever make the Prem again during my lifetime.  However, I do think that sustained periods in Division Two should not be beyond us.  Blackpool and Doncaster are there right now, and I'm certain that we have better long term potential than both of those clubs.

[reeves4england]

Yep...take that.  But look a little more closely.  Millwall's attendances, for example, are stuck at around 12,000...and they're two leagues above us.  We're guaranteed to get that on Sunday.  I honestly don't think we're that far off.  At the present time, we are definitely punching below our weight in terms of attendances/potential.  Sorry if that sounds a bit South Yorkshire (you know who I mean) but that's the way I see it.  Even in League 1, we would still be one of the better supported clubs.  That's why Paolo getting us out of this league at the very earliest opportunity is imperative.  We can then work from there.

To temper what I've already said, I do accept that there's a limit to our aspirations.  I was lucky enough to start following the Club in 1990, which meant I got in there just in time for 1993/94.  I do accept that is unlikely that we will ever make the Prem again during my lifetime.  However, I do think that sustained periods in Division Two should not be beyond us.  Blackpool and Doncaster are there right now, and I'm certain that we have better long term potential than both of those clubs.

South Yorkshire?! Try again...

[dannywilliamsisgod]

I like your optimism Ossie, but it seems like an absolute pipe dream to me now.  We used to start the season in Div 2 against the likes of Leicester, Pompey, Wolves, Sunderland, West Ham, Birminham etc and seriously think that we could win the whole bloody thing!!!  The minimum attendance in that division seems to be about 15,000 now which is a full ground for us.

When I started going in the late 70's, we were generally a third division side and more and more, the second division phase (and prem) through the late 80's and to the mid-90's is now seeming like the over-achieving period rather than us currently being in an under-achieving period.  League 1 (Div. 3) seems about right for a while until something massively changes.
Keep believing and we might all join you in time.

Already with Ossie Winston.No reason in principle why we shouldn't be a decent championship outfit.We have pretty wealthy backing investors.First we need to get a decent manager(not sure about Di Canio yet), and importantly keep him for a decent period of time.Given the incredible financial instability at the club before the current board took over, it's not surprising we have struggled.We were a third division side when I first went to the cg in 66/67 season just as Danny Williams was putting the final touches to the 69 cup winning side.We had been relegated, sold our star players,and no one could have foreseen the success that was to follow.No reason now why we can't have a good side again.

[Ardiles]

South Yorkshire?! Try again...

I was thinking of Wednesday!!  (But I know who you were thinking of.   )  OK...let widen it to 'Yorkshire'.

[Arch Stanton]

My first game was home against Hull City in '79. It ended 0-0.

So I feel I have seen the bad, then the good, then the bad, then a little bit of good, then mostly bad....

I agree with Ardiles wholeheartedly, we simply have to believe that we can get back to the Championship, it has to be a (realistic) target. But first we need upward momentum, it seems we've been without it for so blimin' long!

I also think that we need to get the ground sorted, one thing that all the "traditionally smaller teams" that have risen through the leagues have in common is modern improved/new grounds - its as if they're cataysts for success. Doncaster, Reading, Blackpool etc.

[PocketScience]

Whilst reading about your first games I had to look mine up as I thought it was a similar date

21 NOV 1989   3R    Bolton Wanderers (Home)    2 - 1 AET    White, MacLaren

and thus the love/hate relationship began.

Wow, coincidence! I am 99% sure that was my first ever game aswell!! It was definitely a cup game v Bolton in 1989 that was my first game anyway (not sure if we played them at home in the original tie?)

It says it was the Littlewoods cup on a site I just found, it was the 'Zenith Data Systems cup' in my memory though?

[Benzel]

My first game was in 89. I was 3! I have no idea who it was against.

[@MacPhlea]

can't remember my first home game as I was too busy trying to work out in the first half why there were 15 numbers on the townend advertising hoarding and then got even more confused when the man was putting random numbers underneath them - took me 3 more games to work out why he was doing it... I think I must have looked like a retard spending more time looking at numbers than the game

[Batch]

Wow, coincidence! I am 99% sure that was my first ever game aswell!! It was definitely a cup game v Bolton in 1989 that was my first game anyway (not sure if we played them at home in the original tie?)

It says it was the Littlewoods cup on a site I just found, it was the 'Zenith Data Systems cup' in my memory though?

Yeah we played them at home in the 3-3 first tie:
http://swindon-town-fc.co.uk/Results.asp?Season=1989-1990

Doesn't memory play tricks. For years I thought it was Port Vale. The only things I remember about the game (my first live game) were sitting in the yellow seats,  how mental it looked in the Old Shrivvy Road, the chanting between the Shrivvy and the Town End (we should be embarrassed these days), and Ross Mclarens winner into the Stratton Bank goal.

Dave Keats has a lot to answer for (his dad took us to the game - I think the other lad Neil still supports Town too judging from his facebook posts).

Two games with over 16K at the CG that season. Terracing gone but not forgotten...

[Saxondale]

http://swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=19900402

My first game.  What a glory hunter.  Stood in the townend with the ripped up newspaper all over the place, I was hooked.