Search: ' Nicky Forster'

Having a bad season? Worried that things couldn't be much worse? Cheer yourself up with some schadenfreude as Chris Lynham looks back on Gillingham's darkest hour

In 1993, Gillingham celebrated 100 years of chronic underachievement with a cam­paign so inept it even failed to meet the very limited expectations of our band of world-weary supporters. Having put up with five years of steady decline, we could all cope with the boredom of inoffensively squatting in the lower half of the old Fourth Division, but the et­ernal agony of the 1992-93 season was a step too far.

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Mansley Allen reviews what was an exciting end to the season but points at the overall drop in standards in Division Two

With promotion issues decided in the last minute of the last match, the Second Division was an exciting contest but it was hardly a vintage year. Stoke’s 8-0 home defeat by Liverpool in the Worthington Cup and Brentford and Port Vale’s removal from the FA Cup by Kingstonian and Canvey Island respectively, hinted at the overall standard. This was of course offset to some extent by Wycombe’s magnificent run to the last four in the FA Cup, but this was largely a case of a moderate squad being fired up to play above them­selves by an astute management team.

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Having been a hero to the Birmingham City fans in the 1970s, John Tandy finds out if he stills holds the same affection as manager in the 1990s

It’s the early eighties. Birmingham City are well into the downward spiral that will shortly see them drop into the Third Division. Trevor Francis is at Sampdoria. The song rings out: “My Trevor lies over the ocean, My Trevor lies over the sea… Oh bring back my Trevor to me…”

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