Twenty years ago today

[Simon G]

Talking of that Doncaster game, the 90s football podcast (Quickly Kevin Will He Score) reviewed a documentary of Doncaster's last two games of the 97/98 season. Well worth a listen. Apparently the documentary (They Think it's all Rovers) is on Youtube, but I've not searched for it yet.

20 years ago yesterday I watched Cheltenham play Southport at Whaddon Road in the last game of the Conference season 15 days before playing them again at Wembley in the FA Trophy Final. We beat them 2-0 at Whaddon Road and our players all wore odd numbers in order to confuse Southport before said final. Funnily enough, having listened to the aforementioned podcast, I now wonder if Steve Cotterill got that idea from Danny Bergara who apparently had the Doncaster players do it in order to confuse their opponents the week before.

We finished 2nd in the Conference that season, our highest ever league position up to that time.

[Baptiste]

By the end of March Big Nev had made his way to Stoke, where I watched him roam 40 yards away from goal as Tranmere scored their 3rd, sparking a 2 man pitch invasion from the restless natives, much to our amusment. This was also the season we drew 5 straight games 0-0.
On the last day we beat Wolves 2-1 with Aldo scoring the 475th and 476th goals of his career in his final game at the age of 39. Some record.

[Uros Predic]

That thread on Twitter about Donny's 97/98 was gobsmacking.

Thanks. I'd suggest trying the long read piece on IBWM tagged at the end of it - it goes into greater detail and includes things cut from the twitter thread.

[Uros Predic]

Talking of that Doncaster game, the 90s football podcast (Quickly Kevin Will He Score) reviewed a documentary of Doncaster's last two games of the 97/98 season. Well worth a listen. Apparently the documentary (They Think it's all Rovers) is on Youtube, but I've not searched for it yet.

It's in the 1990s section on our fanzine's YouTube channel (channel admittedly is stretching it), along with another documentary 'Trading Places' ITV did of the same season that compared Rovers relegation with Halifax's simultaneous promotion from the Conference.

[Snake Plissken]

The culmination of a love-hate relationship with Burnley saw them win the winner stays up clash at Turf Moor. A horrible, violent day and one of the very few Argyle memories I try and keep blank from my mind. Seats wre broken and coins were thrown and I'm not at all proud of it.

Ah, this means that I was in Dublin the day after my then Maybe Mrs P, now Actually Mrs P, handed her MRes thesis in. We found a B&B in Malahide which had photos of the beaming owner meeting Ian Paisley Sr on the walls. Mrs P was exhausted after a 72 hour shift finishing her thesis, so I let het sleep, went for a wander and found out the result via a Green paper.

[Jah Womble]

Hang on, twenty years ago today was a Sunday - all of these games must have been twenty years ago yesterday?

Yep, admittedly I was a day out with my recollection.

[cantagalo]

Brentford were surrendering their place in the Third Division in a limp 2-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers, opening the door for chairman/manager Ron Noades to lead us to Fourth Division title glory a year later. Thankfully, these days our success is built on firmer, more honest foundations.

I also remember being disappointed at missing out on Man City’s year in the Third Division which meant that I never managed a visit to Maine Road.

[Various Artist]

20 years ago today: Arsenal crowned Premiership champions

What a remarkable aspect to Arsenal's 1998 title win this was:

In 1989 they went to Liverpool needing to win 2-0 to clinch the championship, and famously they did it - Michael Thomas scoring with practically the last kick of the game. Arsenal's defence that day included Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn. Ten minutes before the end of the 4-0 victory over Everton which brought them the 1998 title, Wenger brought off Wreh, and sent Bould on. It was a lovely managerial touch which meant all the members of the defence which won the 1988-89 First Division championship were on the pitch as Arsenal clinched the 1997-98 Premiership crown.

[Satchmo Distel]

I saw Arsenal the previous week at Barnsley. They were awesome. May 3rd was a dead rubber v Man United: we were already down, they were already out of the title race, but it was fun due to no tension. It's hard to compare the sides because of the Man U game having nothing riding on it, but I thought that Viera and Bergkamp were the two best players I saw that season.

[Jobi1]

Twenty years ago today – we were in sight of the 3rd tier play-offs following this win but it's been pretty much downhill despair, doom and disaster ever since. The away team often cite this as their absolute nadir and seem to have done pretty well for themselves since. Can't be many more defining games in the histories of both clubs involved than this one for York and Manchester City...

[Sits]

That really is quite something. Imagine if Abu Dhabi had bought York - would've cost them a lot less.

[Ray de Galles]

I thought this should be marked :

https://twitter.com/afcwimbledon/status/1530466625652240384?s=21&t=cSuLGaIKv4-atLwrFHQKKQ

I still sort of wish they'd actually called the regenerated club Wimbledon Town. Partly as an even bigger "Fuck you" to the FA commission and partly because some people still refer to the club as "AFC" even now.

[blameless]

Twenty years ago Thistle's first division title was greeted by blunder-prone SPL chief exec Roger Mitchell saying that Thistle fans who thought we could survive in the top flight had been smoking pot.

We responded by informing Roger Mitchell that if he thought any Thistle fans cared for his opinion then he'd clearly been smoking crack.

[Nesta]

Fuckin Raj Persaud