When did we last play good football?

Hmmm! Sounds like the sort of comment is Hurst 'haters' used to say Herts.

The last time I saw us play good football was one of the early Bignot games, against Carlisle at home where I think we drew 2-2. I left that game very entertained and thought the Bignot era would have brought the crowds flooding back.

Since Buckley II we have probably had a few good games under most managers but the style has largely been statistic based.

Says it all when the best season under Scott & Hurst was the one where we finished mid table
I went to Southport a couple of seasons ago, last game. Anyone remember that?
The fans turned out in force, Southport were all but relegated. Ended in a draw. What a miserable game. That was hoof ball at its finest. According to Hurst it was a good point and we played well in patches no doubt

The midtable season in question was good for a 12 game spell. The 34 either side were bloody awful!

As a poster above states, early Bignot games were so promising. He really looked like he was going to loosen the shackles of the more disciplined Hurst regime.

Thing is in January he added players that strengthened us where we needed it (Clements, Osborne, Jones).  Just so happens we also lost Bogle and he had already gone crazy with his tactics. Plus of course he brought in countless players we didn't need.

Quoted from Abdul19

The midtable season in question was good for a 12 game spell. The 34 either side were bloody awful!

This makes a great point. Only someone with a very serious case of nostalgia could ever point to the reign of any manager as being consistently good (or bad). The often quoted game against Huddersfield remains the best 90 minutes from a Town team I've seen in 48 years of watching them but it can and does overshadow games in the Buckley eras that were frustratingly bad. Even Buckley had the ability to split the fan base. Someone has already alluded to the complaints from the Pontoon about "Tippy tappy football" which often produced nothing. Had The Fishy been around in 93/94 it would have been interesting to see the take on an evening game v Port Vale where there were less than 4K in attendance for a game in tier 2 (Buckley had the last laugh  as Town hammered Vale 4-1 that night with some breathtaking attacking football.)!!!!  I don't think Town won many of their first 10 games of the 97/98 season. I well remember fans being interviewed when Buckley was sacked (grossly unfairly in my view) in 2000 after a draw away at Portsmouth and even allowing for Look Norths possible agenda I don't recall anything being said  other than variations of "Its boring" or "He's taken us as far as he can". Great spells in my experience come in small doses. My favourite this century was the last 10 games of the 2001/02 season where Boulding, Allen and Pouton not forgetting Andy Todd at the back steamrollered Palace, Wimbledon and Burnley won away at Wolves for the first time in years and got a point at Norwich. Hurst (and Shouty) had small good spells (2013 where we beat Wrexham to go top just before Christmas springs to mind) but excluding Buckley's repeated spells over his time here the standout spells were under Laws when Bonetti first arrived and before that a 20 match unbeaten run in 83/84 when the magnificent Chris Nicholl ruled the pitch. The 79/80 team were magnificent from October onwards and for me the only complete season where watching Town made you constantly excited was 1971/72.

You have stirred some memories there Barra. I wish that I had known at the time that it was to be our best era ever, I would never have complained once.
Happy days

It's also odd to think that, despite how good the football often was under Buckley, we never really got that close to actually winning the title of the division we were in. When promoted out of the Fourth Division, we finished ten points (!) behind Exeter, we only sneaked promotion the following year on goal difference and, in the Buckley Mk II era, we finished 13 points from an automatic promotion spot!

Quoted from Maringer

It's also odd to think that, despite how good the football often was under Buckley, we never really got that close to actually winning the title of the division we were in. When promoted out of the Fourth Division, we finished ten points (!) behind Exeter, we only sneaked promotion the following year on goal difference and, in the Buckley Mk II era, we finished 13 points from an automatic promotion spot!

Playing "good" football all the time probably isn't the best strategy. Keeping the opposition guessing on how you are going to play is probably worth a few points a season IMHO. And it depends how the opposition play how you can and should play yourself.

Quoted from GrimRob

Playing "good" football all the time probably isn't the best strategy. Keeping the opposition guessing on how you are going to play is probably worth a few points a season IMHO. And it depends how the opposition play how you can and should play yourself.

You're right in principle Rob. But getting players at this level to adapt as individuals is difficult. Getting to adapt as a team is nigh on impossible.

It was frustrating at times seeing the slow methodical build up of play under Buckley, when sometimes a quick ball over the top would have produced better results occasionally. But with our budgets, even relatively higher than we are now, probably didn't run to that kind of adaptability even if Buckley had allowed it!