43 years ago today

I recall our last game of the season at Brighton and although we lost thought we would be safe even though other teams had games in hand and didn't BH that season have three hat tricks to his credit.
 
hampshire_exile said:
A great day. Bob Hatton couldn't miss. Had at least one more disallowed. The next 3 months scarred a generation of fans and cost us many of them for good. They couldn't take us seriously as a third division club, for some reason, and turned their backs on us.
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Average gate immediately went from 10,000 to around 5,000.
 
I remember the game and the sad aftermath but I was led to believe that Billy Cartmel sacked Allan Brown over a car parking space - might be an Urban Myth but knowing Blackpool FC I wouldn’t bet against it being true!

The World turns on the tiniest of events eh! What would have happened without that sacking.
 
Awful memories of the second half of that season. If my memory is right I think we finished the season with a better goal difference than 5th (?) placed Blackburn. The sequence of results that sent us down seemed highly unlikely at the time, so I wrongly thought we would be OK as well.
Good point about the average gate as well, which fell even further after the awful 1980 season under Bally.
 
I was 15 but felt the despair at our relegation,little did I know how much of my adult life it would take to get back to the Championship .Unbelievably crazy decision ,we scored 5 in the home game before it too I think Charlton ?
 
Seasideforever said:
I was 15 but felt the despair at our relegation,little did I know how much of my adult life it would take to get back to the Championship .Unbelievably crazy decision ,we scored 5 in the home game before it too I think Charlton ?
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I was 14 at the time and I remember at the end of the season crying my eyes out with my Dad saying don't worry son they'll be back next season 🤦‍♂️

I suppose those wilderness years make a Blackpool fan what they are🤷‍♂️
 
Definitely Wizzerboy going through the horrible 80's and then the previous owners years makes you appreciate what we have now ( one of us) a true Blackpool fan,
 
Wizaard said:
Yep. We were on fire until the Chairman intervened.

We've had it rough until now. No wonder we can't quite believe it.
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Wiz , we weren't on fire at that time. The win over Blackburn was only our 2nd win in the previous 8 games. Prior to
that game we were 10th in the table with 26 points from 26 games ( 2 points for a win) . We had gone backwards from
the previous season . We wouldn't have been promoted had AB stayed but we wouldn't have gone down.
 
Whitstabletangerine said:
I recall our last game of the season at Brighton and although we lost thought we would be safe even though other teams had games in hand and didn't BH that season have three hat tricks to his credit.
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I think I'm correct in saying if we had won one more point, we would have finished 13th in the table, Relegated with the equivalent of over 52 points.
 
Remember the day well a great game to watch.
Couldn’t believe sacking a manager when top half of table would have such an effect on the players but it did.
Had some tw*ts haven’t we as chairman over the years. 🤬
 
Wow, what a momentous few days in our history that is then. The beginning of a decline, as you've said Wiz took us just shy of 3 decades to come round from.

A few glorious years in the sun again, queue the Oyston fiasco. Christ we deserve Sadler after all that don't we 😂
 
I was also 14 at the time and simply couldn't believe it had happened to us. It's not something a 14 year old lad would admit but I cried at the time. Arrogant arsehole Cartmell!
Bob, you always will be my hero...
 
FessParker said:
Wiz , we weren't on fire at that time. The win over Blackburn was only our 2nd win in the previous 8 games. Prior to
that game we were 10th in the table with 26 points from 26 games ( 2 points for a win) . We had gone backwards from
the previous season . We wouldn't have been promoted had AB stayed but we wouldn't have gone down.
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Spot on Fess and our victory over Charlton was 2 weeks before. We had lost to Bristol Rovers the week before the Blackburn game.

I recall that we finished our games maybe a week or a few days before others below us that season and it had looked almost impossible for us to be relegated but in the end incredibly I believe there were something like 7 clubs all with worse goal averages than us all level but just one point above us and I thought there were one or two very suspicious 0-0 draws on the last day that conveniently saved some teams.

These days that wouldn`t happen as everyone plays their last game at the same time.

Like many on here I was devastated.

Allan Brown who according to my dad was a great player in a great team and he, our team and Allan Brown`s Tangerine Army had taken us to 5th the previous season but he didn`t do much managerially after that.

Cartmell must be the second worst owner we have ever had.
 
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I remember watching in awe from the South Stand aged 7 as Bob Hatton worked his magic that day, and then barely able to sleep with excitement at the anticipation of watching the highlights on TV on the Sunday afternoon.
I still think I was scarred for life by the events of the following three months 😞
 
Have just checked there were indeed 7 teams incredibly all level on points just one point above us but actually only 6 of the seven had a worse goal average than us!
 
1950`spoolfan said:
Have just checked there were indeed 7 teams incredibly all level on points just one point above us but actually only 6 of the seven had a worse goal average than us!
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I distinctly remember the Gazette front page with Pool relegated and a picture of the Tower upside down as the margin.
 
Blimey Wiz you’ve brought back great and awful memories in one post 😳 Was at the Charlton game with grandad but missed the Blackburn match due to cousins wedding. Think I’m right in that on the relagation day , the Gazette had a front page spread featuring a cartoonist black coffin....my grandad died June 2...at 13,my world had ended 🧡
 
One of the great Blackpool matches of the past. We went 2nd in the league and everyone thought promotion to Division One was going to be a piece of cake. All of a sudden, Allan Brown was sacked and we plummeted down the table and relegated into the third division. Although appearing to be an Oyston type decision, it amazingly happened before they took over.
 
It is a fair debate as to whether Billy Cartmel or the Oystons caused the most damage to the club during their tenure as Chairmen.

Cartmel was also instrumental in sacking Morty when he was manager, allegedly threw his wallet at Stan in the boardroom saying "take what you want and then fuck off".
 
Newholland said:
Blimey Wiz you’ve brought back great and awful memories in one post 😳 Was at the Charlton game with grandad but missed the Blackburn match due to cousins wedding. Think I’m right in that on the relagation day , the Gazette had a front page spread featuring a cartoonist black coffin....my grandad died June 2...at 13,my world had ended 🧡
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Not a good year. Sorry for bringing it all back.
 
To make matters worse 😟 Nobbers got promoted that season and took our place in the old Division 2. Not great if you went to school in that shithole. 🤮
 
I have to say the night we got relegated (it was out of our hands that night), was probably my worst experience following the Mighty. Terrible night considering where we were after tubbing T'Rovers and l honestly thought it was almost impossible to get relegated from that position, but sadly l was wrong and how painful the subsequent years were 😫😫😫
 
Talk about fluctuating crowds we went from a crowd of 26,000 on Boxing Day against Bolton down to 4,000 for a night match against Fulham towards the end of the season .

I can remember two home games at Easter against Sunderland and Burnley where we weren't in any real danger, but a few weeks later circumstances conspired against us and disaster struck. Took years for the club to stop the rot.

There's footage on YouTube of a game earlier in the season against Luton if no ones seen it. Worth a look for a proper South Paddock surge and pitch invasion!! I was on The Kop that day as a kid, one of only two or three times my old man took me on there. Usually West Stand or Scratching Sheds.
 
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Martonmosser said:
Remember another Gazette front page depicting BFC as a ship and the players jumping as the ship went down. Even think the headline could have been Rats deserting a sinking ship????
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That was probably Tony Quested, he didn't sit on the fence did he.

We sold Walsh to Everton. George Wood also went there, although that might have been the season before. Paul Hart went to Leeds. Bob Hatton to Luton. All big money at the time, never really invested back. Therein lied the problem . I think we spent decent money on one player who never played a game due to injury. Older posters will know. Was it Tynan or Alan Groves ??
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Moved to Blackpool on January 8th - first game 5-1 v Charlton ... second game 5-2 v Blackburn - couldn’t believe it. Vaguely recall 2-0 up at Spurs in next game and drew 2-2 ?
 
Only ever seen videos of Bob Hatton as he was before my time but my god, how much do we need a goal scoring hero like him present day for the kids to be inspired by.
 
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