20 years ago

Quoted from Kris2

Iain Anderson was a good player so probably him.

It's actually scary looking back how close we were to staying up despite the mess going on behind the scenes and the high turnover of players. Groves was let go after a disastrous spell January into February featuring hammerings by Port Vale and Oldham but the mercenary manager and players on loan didn't do much better in saving a season that had jumped off a cliff after a decent enough start. There were claims that Groves had lost the dressing room at the time but keeping faith and seeing if he could turn it around would probably have been no worse than bringing in somebody else for the last few months who knew he was out of contract no matter what happens so had no stake in the season.

Rodger did turn it around (9 points from 6 games after Groves' run of hammerings), christ knows why that clown Law was brought in!

Aiden Davison in goal probably but hard to not mention Pouton as well.

Quoted from moosey_club

Aiden Davison in goal probably but hard to not mention Pouton as well.

A better question would be how many of the current squad would have got into that team

Quoted from HerveJosse

A better question would be how many of the current squad would have got into that team

Good point.

11

Quoted from HerveJosse

A better question would be how many of the current squad would have got into that team

I think Evan Khouri (born in January 2003) would have been more effective than some of that team.

Quoted from HerveJosse

A better question would be how many of the current squad would have got into that team

Given the team was in a higher division, it’s a pretty pointless comparison all round really. That said, if data and analytics are to be believed and the game has improved then you’d imagine Glennon, Waterfall (at a push), Rose (based on his previous before Town) could squeeze in.

My memories from the early 2000s and the mid 2000s are sketchy, mainly because of how shite it was and we just seemed to have a huge turnover of pointless players looking for a payday.

I’d actually imagine that if we were able to get the current squad to play against that squad, especially when Law took over, the current squad would win quite comfortably…

We had a decent squad that season, on paper.

Sadly it didn't really transform onto the pitch. The biggest gaps were a leader with experience at the back (one who wasn't also the manager) and a physical focal point up top to free Boulding up to poach away.  Neither of those issues were really fixed until much later in the season when Rodger brought in Craig Armstrong and Lee Thorpe respectively, neither exactly marquee signings but exactly what we needed.

A consistent 'keeper wouldn't have gone amiss either.

Having your best two central midfielders (Pouton and Coldicott) unavailable through injury and then one of them sold didn't help either.

Much like the previous season, if you could take the individual little patches of form from a handful of players and patch it together over the season we would have been fine.

Alas we didn't.  As Abdul says the decision to axe Rodger when he was getting a tune out of the squad for Nicky Law was so bad it's is up there with the worst decisions in John Fenty's reign!

I'm sure I remember reading that Nicky Law had the gall to apply for the permanent job in the summer? Despite failing to manage even a point a game. Absolutely abysmal.

It really was flipping dire - I went to that Tranmere game which saw us relegated and we looked utterly clueless, losing with barely a whimper against ten men. The Tranmere fans mocking and jeering after our relegation certainly didn't help! male masturbators.

The players we went through that season was obscene

GK: Aidan Davison, Alan Fettis, Andy Pettinger, Bradley Hughes, Paul Fraser

DF: John McDermott, Darren Barnard, Simon Ford, Tony Crane, Craig Armstrong, Greg Young, Kirk Wheeler, Iain Ward, Wes Parker, Mike Edwards, Jason Crowe

MF: Marcel Cas, Alan Pouton, Stuart Campbell, Paul Warhurst, Stacy Coldicott, Chris Bolder, Graham Hockless, Ashley Hildred, Des Hamilton, Iain Anderson, Paul Groves, John Thorrington, Nick Daws, Jamie Lawrence, Nick Hegarty

FW: Michael Boulding, Darren Mansaram, Phil Jevons, Iffy Onuora, Laurens ten Heuvel, Lee Thorpe, David Soames, Jonathan Rowan, Isaiah Rankin, Mickael Antoine-Curier, Giovanni Carchedi, Liam Nimmo