***Official English Football Season 2021/22***

[wpdavid]

Palace being relegated has happened often enough not to usually be traumatic, especially as we've generally been as good as down by Easter in those seasons. The exception was 1992/93 when we thought we'd done enough after beating Middlesbrough at home and the players did a lap of honour. Unfortunately Oldham had games in hand and duly won enough of them to send us down on the last weekend of the season. A hat-trick from Le Tissier wasn't enough to stop Oldham beating Southampton 4-3 and we went down with a whimper at Highbury to seal our fate. I think our total of 49 points is a record for a relegated side, albeit there were 22 teams in the top flight in those days.

Not holding onto our extra time lead against Man Utd in the 1990 FA Cup final has become more frustrating over time actually. At the time I coped reasonably well, but now it's even more obvious that it was our opportunity missed as, for the most part, the bigger teams take turns to win the trophy.

But the most traumatic game remains an England match, namely the 3-2 loss to West Germany in the 1970 quarter final after we had led 2-0. Even worse than the penalty shoot-outs, and, oddly, even worse than being knocked out in 1973 by Poland.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I know the most recent often feels the worst because of recency, but the Euro Final is by far the worst for me in England terms. To turn up for a Final, have a dream start and then sink into the sewer was awful. Made worse by the fact that we probably won’t get a better chance.

 

[sledger]

Apart from Euro 96 and WC 98 I don't remember ever being really gutted about England's failings. WC 2002 was annoying and frustrating, and everything after that was generally either funny, predictable, or not worth caring about. Apart from that Saka penalty actually. That was dire.

By and large the England games I've cared most about (which aren't very many come to think about it) they've won. Beating Argentina 1-0 in 2002 being the main example of that. And the games against Turkey in the Euro 2004 qualifiers were also highly charged affairs if I recall.

 

[sledger]

Getting thrashed by Germany in 2010 is probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

 

[Pothas]

don't get me started

Haha. Most conversations we ever have somehow result in a moan about Clichy

 

[sledger]

Haha. Most conversations we ever have somehow result in a moan about Clichy

Haha he was just so bad and I can't let it go for some reason

 

[Pothas]

Obviously the Trotta penalty was our worst moment but found our last two games of 19/20 worse. @Uppercut was entirely to blame of course.

 

[duffer]

Then there was Manuel Almunia

 

[flibbertyjibber]

I’d forgotten Shrewsbury had a non league season. We had two last ditch escapes a decade ago after almost becoming extinct.
Plenty of disappointments of course, but I’m not prone to suffering years later. My worst experience at a match was the 2016 League 2 Play-Off Final. We barely got out of our own half and literally had no attempts on goal at all.

Got out at first attempt with the worst season of football I can remember. Finished 3rd and were 17 points behind Hereford in 2nd with Chester winning the league by a point, went up by winning 2 penalty shootouts and playing crap in the playoffs and Hereford lost their semi final when they had a player sent off in very controversial circumstances so we met Aldershot at Stoke in the final.

As for worst experiences, obviously relegation out of the league beats anything else but all trips to Wembley (The pit of misery) have ended in defeat but the worst one was Gillingham in 09 who scored from a corner in stoppage time which was a blatant goal kick and there was no time to do anything back.

Just remembered a couple of classics that we still fume over, Paul Evans scored a screamer against Brentford at Gay Meadow in the last minute and the ref blew for full time after he shot but before it went in and the other was Wycombe being given a ghost goal against us which was about a yard from the line saved by the keeper but given by the linesman who was level with the edge of the box, it meant Wycombe went up and we didn't, you don't get crap like that higher up (oh you do Villa the other year) and means we have more reason to hate Ainsworth as he scored the goal that never was and is now a horrible manager.

 

[Uppercut]

Then there was Manuel Almunia

Haha I forgot about him. With hindsight it's surreal that Arsenal had a keeper costing them 10 points a season at a time when they were regularly finishing within 10 points of the title. I can't remember anyone quite that bad starting every game for a team that was otherwise so good.

 

[duffer]

Haha I forgot about him. With hindsight it's surreal that Arsenal had a keeper costing them 10 points a season at a time when they were regularly finishing within 10 points of the title. I can't remember anyone quite that bad starting every game for a team that was otherwise so good.

He was a likeable guy who was around Premiership standard ability wise. Still a big liability for a team who were perennially in the Champions League but loyalty to players he liked was a Wenger blindspot

 

[sledger]

Wenger refusing to pay a few extra million for Schwarzer/Lloris or basically anyone vaguely competent was one of his most significant (but also less publicised) failings

Fabianski becoming a really solid Prem keeper also another curiosity, given how when he played for Arsenal he was mostly even worse than Almunia

 

[Uppercut]

Long time ago but I thought he was dreadful. Average Prem keepers back then were guys like Friedel and Jaaskelainen, you'd have won a couple of titles if they were in nets.

EDIT: or Schwarzer, as sledger says. There were stacks of competent keepers about.

 

[sledger]

And then there was Vito Mannone, who was also appalling

 

[sledger]

Long time ago but I thought he was dreadful. Average Prem keepers back then were guys like Friedel and Jaaskelainen, you'd have won a couple of titles if they were in nets.

Yeah he was shocking imo - was obvious he was not up to task from the very beginning when he was just the Carling Cup keeper/understudy to Lehmann

 

[duffer]

And then there was Vito Mannone, who was also appalling

I loved Don Vito tbh

 

[sledger]

Keepers one area where Wenger's signings (apart from Lehmann) were almost all universally poor actually. Got lucky with Chesney coming through the youth system, but Richard Wright, Shaaban, Ospina all terrible

 

[sledger]

I loved Don Vito tbh

I liked the way he looked like he could easily play the part of a concetration camp guard in some WW2 drama, but he was an awful keeper imo haha

 

[GIMH]

Keepers one area where Wenger's signings (apart from Lehmann) were almost all universally poor actually. Got lucky with Chesney coming through the youth system, but Richard Wright, Shaaban, Ospina all terrible

Alex Manninger though

 

[duffer]

I liked the way he looked like he could easily play the part of a concetration camp guard in some WW2 drama, but he was an awful keeper imo haha

Uninspiring career trajectory but could've been worse.