FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.1: TWENTY FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING

A quarter of a century is a significant chunk of anyone’s life. It is twenty five years and counting since our football club kicked a ball in the second tier of English football. That day was Sunday 9 May 1999 when we hammered Stockport at the Manor 5-0. To no avail. Three points from safety having picked up only three points from the previous six games.

A significant proportion of our fan base, that’s likely anyone in their early 30s or younger, will never have seen us play at that level. Competing in the top flight for three years in the ‘80s must be something they can scarcely believe happened. And given how far we plummeted there were times when I too wondered if it was just something I dreamt.

Best to focus more on promotions than relegations. It’s healthier.

Our first incursion into tier 2, Division 2 as was, was in the 1968/69 season (back then who would have thought it would ever have been anything other than Division 1, 2, 3 and 4). The opening game of the season was a 1-1 home draw against Bolton Wanderers. I was not present.

The next time we got back to that level was a whole new ball game. We’d stormed division three. By far the best team on the premises and on 25^th August 1984 went to Huddersfield to kick off the 84/85 campaign. I was present. The day sticks in my mind if not the detail. In those times there were many away days when the numbers we took were very much on the low side. I travelled on a LRC coach run by Mick Brown. Just the one bus and there were no hordes who had made their own way by car, train or plane. We got there well before kick-off and the driver dropped us not far from the away turnstiles at Leeds Road, the Terriers home from 1908 to 1994. On alighting we could look down on the ground which appeared to be in some kind of bowl. It was not only that which we noticed but also a gang of Huddersfield lads lead by two quite sizeable skinheads. Some day this is going to be I thought and although nothing materialised on that front the first half of the game itself had me thinking this is a different level altogether. I wondered if we belonged but the boys in the Oxford shirts managed to make it through to half time without conceding. In the second half Trevor Hebberd took control and we pissed it. A 3-0 win and the rest of that campaign is, as we know, history.

After that one season we were at the very summit of English football on merit. We managed three years there but following relegation in 1987/88 found ourselves returned to Division Two. Our first game back down saw us draw at Leeds. We went unbeaten in five including getting a point at Chelsea and another at home to Leicester. I wasn’t at Elland Road having opted to start playing local football again.

The last time we entered tier 2 was obviously from below having won promotion in 1995/96 with Paul Moody banging the goals in. I drove to the opening game of the 1996/97 campaign, a 2-1 away defeat at Loftus Road. The QPR side contained Mark Hateley and Butch Wilkins. I can’t remember anything about the game.

At 12:30 next Saturday we have to start proving we have what it takes to establish ourselves as a Championship club. The stated aim of our owners is to be one of the top 30 clubs in England, i.e. not finishing below 10^th at the level we now find ourselves. But have we gone up a year earlier than planned? Are we ready for what we are about to face?

So many questions that will be answered one way or another over the next nine months.

How big is the gap between L1 and the Championship? Is it bigger than back in the 90s? I’d say yes. Financially massively so. Taking figures from 22/23, L1 clubs average revenue was £9.8m. That figure for the five Championship clubs in receipt of parachute payments was £66m and for the other 19 it was £22m. The average cost of wages was £8m in L1 and £29m in the Championship. The wage to revenue ratio in L1 was 82% and in the Championship 94%.

Championship clubs have always taken the lion’s share of the EFL Sky money but from this season there is to be a significant uplift. The new deal is worth £119m a season over five years. Based on the EFL’s distribution formula Championship clubs will each now earn 46% more in guaranteed broadcast income. It’s 25% for L1&2 clubs.  

With this as we know comes many more changes to kick-off times, with Friday nights and Saturday 12:30s very likely to outnumber the traditional 3 o’clock start. We’ve just got to get used to it as we’re going to be live on TV a lot.

But what of the quality of the Championship? All bookies have us as favourites to go down. In magazines such as Four-Four-Two and When Saturday Comes the verdict is the same, bottom.

Last season we played away at two Championship clubs in cup competitions and got annihilated by four goals both times. 5-1 at Ashton Gate under Liam Manning (wonder where he ended up) and not long into Des Buckingham’s reign beaten 6-2 at Coventry.

On each occasion there was a noticeable chasm in class. We looked nothing like good enough to take on teams like this week in week out. But on a brighter note we’d been much closer to the two sides that went up automatically. We won 2-1 at Pride Park in August and over Christmas went down 3-2 at home to Derby. At the end of January at the Kassam we drew with Pompey and played really well at Fratton Park in early March even though we lost by one goal.

And of course we’ve got a whole host of new recruits on the books now so it will likely, as ever, be a relatively new look team that attempts to take us forward.

I went for my usual endeavour of switching off during the summer so could not honestly list all these new signings without looking them up.

Until this Saturday, when we had foreign opposition, I’d not attended any of our pre-season friendlies. The standard of this game was exceptional. The way each team kept and moved the ball around was something to behold. Hardly any mistakes were being made and Palermo had players with excellent technique. The half time score of 0 – 0 was a fair one with defences largely on top and few chances around.

I wouldn’t say we got particularly worse in the second half more that Palermo got even better and were absolutely clinical in scoring twice in a couple of minutes.

It’s very no shit Sherlock to say we really do need a striker or two. But kicking towards the East stand we just didn’t look like scoring. There’s more to it than that though because we weren’t even creating chances. Anyone surprised that poor Will Goodwin is injured again?  He just seems to be one of those players.

The question on everyone’s lips – will we stay up? Nothing new here coming from me. Clearly a long hard battle ahead. We’ll lose more games than we did last season and win fewer. I do though think we’ve got more chance than those book-makers give us credit for. I’ve been told I’m thinking too negatively when looking for three teams that we can finish above. If Wayne Rooney stays at Plymouth for long there’s one for starters.

There’s much more I could write but am going to stop now and leave any comments on the new website, the away membership and other off the field stuff for another day – if at all.

So, 12:30 this coming Saturday. That’s the reality. We’ll know then what it really is all about. COYY