1 April 1978

Seainsea

Seainsea

Well-known member
"On 1 April 1978, with six games to go, Blackpool were in eighth place, nine points off the third relegation slot"

Those of a certain age will remember what happened over next month or so and how things conspired against us.

My point is to the supporters and the players is to keep fighting. One result can change everything and confidence can transform a team.

I don't think MM is the type to quit and I still think his experience could be a factor.

Yes we need to get the right players on the pitch and stop the stupid errors but there is no reason that can't happen.
 
I was at my sister's on Denstone avenue when the news came on with the football results at the end of the news. Orient had won at Cardiff and down we bloody went. I was devastated.
 
I was on a night shift at Earby Light Engineering in Colne,mostly Burnley fans ,boy i got some stick that night,absolutely awful night.
 
Dollar Thief said:
Or on 11 March 1978, we'd just beaten Hull City at home 3-0, we had 11 games left to play, we were sitting in 7th, 10 points off third and 9 points off third from bottom (2 points for a win back then) and we only managed 5 draws and 6 defeats in those 11 games,

Here's the table then.

Here's the table after we'd finished the season. Look how many teams had games to play.
Click to expand...
The league table finished with us a point off 14th. 7 teams on 38 points and us on 37. We had a better goal difference than all bar one of them.
 
Seainsea said:
"On 1 April 1978, with six games to go, Blackpool were in eighth place, nine points off the third relegation slot"

Those of a certain age will remember what happened over next month or so and how things conspired against us.

My point is to the supporters and the players is to keep fighting. One result can change everything and confidence can transform a team.

I don't think MM is the type to quit and I still think his experience could be a factor.

Yes we need to get the right players on the pitch and stop the stupid errors but there is no reason that can't happen.
Click to expand...
Can you or someone arrange a anniversary dinner or a get together. ffs..
 
I think we won 1 out of the last 26 games if I remember rightly. Was on Layton flashings park that night,can remember the shock and disbelief that we had gone down little did I realise how long and how depressing it was the time we were down .
 
Hmm, I love the optimism, but it's a lot easier for a good team to have a shite run, than a struggling team to suddenly have a very good run. I've stopped looking at results of relegation rivals , and I'm not looking again until we start picking up points.....please.

If we take another 29 years to get back to the championship, I'll be 90 (so I'll probably be in the West). And with a few so called "bigger clubs " struggling to get out of L1, it's not entirely of the question. Yet i still see the odd post saying it might not be so bad if we went down, ffs
 
I was playing football with my mates on Poulton park that night. I still remember Graeme Ashworth walking on to the park
and telling us all that Blackpool had been relegated. Stunned silence.
But everyone thought we'd bounce straight back. Little did we know then how long we'd be in the lower divisions. 🙁
 
I was playing kerby on Watson Road near the phone box, second green up and my dad shouted out of the house that fkin Cardiff lost to Orient.
With Charlton involved, I always hated those 3 teams after that.
Luckily we got revenge on 2 of them.
 
It was a big problem with teams finishing the season later in 1978, thankfully the season ends for everyone at the same time now. We were a lot better team in 1978, but the sacking of the manager by Cartmell caused the team to go into freefall. No such problem this season, we just have been poor all season caused by the inept appointment of Appleton. Hopefully, McCarthy will now know what formation and what players to play now, and we can start grinding out results.
 
Our relegation back then reduced me to tears; I was 12 and it mattered to me. My Dad woke me with the news and I was stunned.

In some respects 1978 and 1996 have scarred me in footballing terms; they are also the reasons why I cannot be as agitated by this year's debacle as some on here are.
 
Seainsea said:
"On 1 April 1978, with six games to go, Blackpool were in eighth place, nine points off the third relegation slot"

Those of a certain age will remember what happened over next month or so and how things conspired against us.

My point is to the supporters and the players is to keep fighting. One result can change everything and confidence can transform a team.

I don't think MM is the type to quit and I still think his experience could be a factor.

Yes we need to get the right players on the pitch and stop the stupid errors but there is no reason that can't happen.
Click to expand...
Well said

apart from the 15th to the 45th minute Sat I thought we were the better team - we havent got a left back - guess where all 3 goasl came from ?
 
The sacking of Allan Brown was a watershed moment in the history of BFC and I don’t think we have ever recovered from it. Yes we made the PL for a season and I’ve had some fantastic times following the Pool in the last 45 years but in all that time we haven’t had the ambition that we seemed to have prior to Cartmells tantrum.

I like most am sure was hoping that SS taking over would be the dawn of a new ambitions era but I fear that there is still a small club mentality that has plagued us for virtually all of my football watching life and this saddens me beyond belief😢
 
Remember it was only 2 points for a win then.

There was no sports channels then and had to wait for final score to show on TV some time after game ended.
Never felt so gutted and knew our time was up.
My wife ( now ex) had a laugh when she noticed how upset I was over Football.

It was so unfair to have games continued after season ended.
At least it worked to our advantage in 1980 when we beat Rotherham away to save relegation.
We went down to 4th Division the following season!
 
I was only 9 so I didn’t fully understand the significance. I did go to most games that season, either in the box above the players’ tunnel with my grandad who did the hospital radio commentary, or in the tiny NW box with my dad who had a season ticket in there
I do remember how gutted they were, but as I say I was a bit too young to really get it myself
 
I heard the result and went to the local phone box, but thinking about tracing I went to Abingdon St phone parade instead. Dialled 192 and fully prepared to give Cartmell as much stick as I could manage only to be told he was ex-directory.

Never in the history of Britain had so much anger been prepared to be unleashed by so few followed by a 'oh shit' and a tail between the legs walk home..
 
The second table shows that there was four matches left after Pool had played 42 games. Thinking back, it seemed like there was 6 or 7 games left, and every match had to go a certain way. Match by match, you could see the inevitable scenario of a looming relegation. The final match, Cardiff v Leyton Orient. Anything but an away win would do...result 0-1...Pool down.
Having almost 30 seasons in the 3rd and 4th divisions really took their toll. We lost three generations of fans, mainly to Liverpool for the first 10 years, then Manchester United for the next 20. We had to put up with Billy Cartmell then the Oyston Family running the club for about 35 years between them, and they let the ground become dilapidated.
Brett Ormerod scored a playoff final winner v Orient in his first spell, and the same v Cardiff in his second spell. That gave me a sense of revenge against the two clubs for what many Pool fans said was a concocted result to keep the two clubs up and relegate Blackpool.
If we do go down this year, with a lot of players out of contract in June, I dread another relegation battle next season. We MUST do our utmost to stay up this season by winning 5 or 6 of the last 12 matches.
🧡UTMP🧡
 
GrahamwantshisOates said:
Remember it was only 2 points for a win then.

There was no sports channels then and had to wait for final score to show on TV some time after game ended.
Never felt so gutted and knew our time was up.
My wife ( now ex) had a laugh when she noticed how upset I was over Football.

It was so unfair to have games continued after season ended.
At least it worked to our advantage in 1980 when we beat Rotherham away to save relegation.
We went down to 4th Division the following season!
Click to expand...
I remember great support at Rotherham and the players really fought for the win and we looked forward to the next season 🤷🏽‍♂️
 
A Cardiff fan who attended the Orient game wrote a letter to the Evening Gazette saying Cardiff just went through the motions and it appeared that it was set up for Orient to win. He was disgusted by what he saw was a " fix". As for Cartmell I can assure you a couple of weeks after relegation the windows of his sports shop in town were damaged.😜
 
It also didn't help that we'd sold Paul Hart to Leeds before the Transfer deadline, but at that time, in March, the assumption was that we were already safe.
 
Players just went through the motions after Brown was sacked.No excuses they let the fans down. Still want my admission money back even though it was as cheap as chips to get in in those days.😡
 
I was still at school, but remember losing at home to an already relegated Mansfield - pretty catastrophic defeat.
 
Cuthbert said:
I was still at school, but remember losing at home to an already relegated Mansfield - pretty catastrophic defeat.
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Came back from Uni for the weekend and was in the South Paddock directly behind the goal as the winning penalty went in, with Hesford going the other way.
 
I was on the kop for the Mansfield game when we lost at home to the side already relegated. Last home game and I don't recall contemplating we would be relegated.
 
Delfino said:
I was on the kop for the Mansfield game when we lost at home to the side already relegated. Last home game and I don't recall contemplating we would be relegated.
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At that game some Blackpool lad took a swing at me, as I was from Lancaster, and got told to go and support my local club - which I assume was Preston!
 
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