What is your worst ever day supporting your team?

[GTFCfish]

I ask this because I've just found my 10 year old lad on his tablet watching our penalty shoot out defeat to Bristol Rovers in the 2015 non league play off final which got me thinking if I had ever had a worse feeling than that in football ever, and I havn't.
Even our relegation out of the league doesn't come close because I was already resigned to that a couple of weeks before, even though we eventually took it to the last game I wasn't that down because I remember thinking at the time (don't laugh) that the one season we would have in non league romping to the title might do us some good!

So that's mine, what is all of yours?

 

[markwwfc1992]

So many games to choose from, but losing 1-5 at home to your fierce rivals probably trumps the lot..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/16893189

 

[PaulHaddock]

I can barely remember the relegation, as I barely followed us at the time. With the 2015 loss, I knew we'd come back stronger the next season. I'd have to go with either the Gateshead PO loss or the Braintree loss in the POs this season. Gateshead because the game was the result was somewhat unfair and it was made worse by thousands of Geordies and red cards. Braintree as id say 90% of our fans had written us off at that point. How things change.

I suppose if these are our recent low points, that's pretty damn good. Older fans than me will probably say the Burton or Tranmere relegations.

 

[LeonTheGreen]

When I first started going Argyle it was our first season in the Championship. Think I was 7/8. I'm now 19. I've experienced back to back relegation, relegation scraps and a loss at Wembley in the play off final. The play off final hurts the most. To be so close and then not turn up at Wembley really did hurt. I didn't say a word all the way home on the coach.

 

[Si Robin]

I think it was the game against Shrewsbury that confirmed relegation from the League in 2015. Don't get me wrong, it was expected as we were on such a drop, but there was still that crumb of hope going into that game, knowing we could get a result and take it to a last day shootout. The fact we played really well in that game made it feel that much worse. For once, the bunch of useless gits had actually put in a performance and it still wasn't good enough. Then with the players just sloping off the pitch without the slightest hand to us supporters who'd put up with the crap all season made it even worse (save for Joe Hanks and Shaun Harrad, who was on loan).

It didn't take long to get over it as Johnson shipped practically all of them out within a couple of weeks, but for the few hours after the game there was genuine belief that we'd never be back.

 

[shoddycollins]

Mine, for similar reasons is a memory of losing out on promotion rather than of relegation.

It's 2008, I'm living in the European capital of culture, points are being deducted left right and centre and Carlisle United are enjoying their second season in League One, and in joyous contrast to the despair we felt just three years prior at relegation from the Football League, we have now reached the League One play-offs. Actually that in itself was a bit of a comedown as we had been close to securing an automatic place with a month to spare before a collapse of form saw Notts Forest nick second place from us (Swansea were champions).

So we ended up finishing 4th, but like you say, the feeling of losing out over, even a period of a couple of weeks, isn't as crushing as what was to come, and it was difficult to completely dampen the optimism we felt from simply being where we were in the league. This was the highest we'd ever finished in my time supporting United, the vast majority of which (at least the parts I have strong memories of) had been spend being that team that escaped relegation from Division 3 every sesason.

I don't travel to Elland Road for the first leg, as I'm a bit short on cash, but I do watch it live at a friends house. We dominate them and lead 2-0, I can feel the excitement that we're going to make up for missing out on automatic promotion and start to mentally prepare for the Championship, or a trip to Wembley at any rate, but I'd be confident of going up against either Doncaster or Southend in the final since we were 2-0 up at Elland Road (Leeds would have finished second by a significant margin had they not had a points deduction so they were biggest scalp in the playoffs). This celebratory mood is only slightly knocked when deep deep into injury time (the 96th minute I think) Leeds grab a goal back. After all, we have two away goals and the second leg will be played at fortress Brunton.

I do go to Brunton Park, of course, for the second-leg, and Leeds take a first-half lead. This does create a bit of tension, and my memory is a bit fuzzy but I think we were still pretty confident of them not getting another, especially as the game edged towards conclusion, we would be going through on away goals and we must have looked pretty comfortable.

Then disaster, late into injury time, again, up pops Jonny Howson to get Leeds' second and dash our promotion dreams. That moment there is the worst I've ever felt as a football fan.

To compound things, since I was heading back down to Liverpool after the game, what promised to be a long and depressing drive already was made worse by the fact that a minibus full of Leeds fans spotted the little Carlisle shirt in my rear window as we joined the motorway and kept pace with me all the way down to Lancaster. If I sped up, they sped up. If I slowed down, they slowed down. They overtook me several times, jeering and flagging me off as they moved into the lane in front of me, then slowed down until I went past them just so they could do it again.

Despondent, frustrated and heartbroken, I pulled into Forton services. I didn't want food, or the toilet, I just wanted away from them. Thankfully they didn't follow me, but as I went to McDonald's for a coffee I was spotted, still wearing my shirt, by another coachload of Leeds fans, who instantly started chanting towards me.

Happily, Leeds went on to lose to Doncaster in the final (if anyone ever wonders why I seem to have a soft spot for Donny, this is why, they were a team also on a journey from the conference to the championship and I was much happier to see their journey fulfilled than I would have been to see Leeds promoted). To this day Leeds are the only club who I would happily see go out of existence and if they were to do a Scarborough and collapse so disastrously they were left, not simply stuck in non-league but without a club to support at all I would just say, 'good riddance, maybe try rugby league' (and I wouldn't even wish that on MK Dons fans who aren't personally to blame for the formation of their club).

 

[Arbury]

Histon 5-0 cambridge.

 

[PaulHaddock]

Similar to the Gateshead game for me ^. 1-1 after the home leg and we'd travelled up in our thousands. Few minutes in and James Mckeown lets in an easy catch after being one of the players of the season. Were generally playing rubbish but it's a close game anyway. Second half comes and after some box pinball, Scott Neilson gets sent off for a late tackle. Gateshead at the time had developed a reputation (mainly from Marcus Maddison) to be a bunch of divers but highlights had shown Neilsons foot brushed his leg but Craig Baxter went down like he'd broke his leg.

Amazingly, Disley got us an equaliser 10 minutes later. Game on. Finally, Sam Hatton already on a yellow, takes down the Gateshead player and we're down to 9. Gateshead get the winner and eventually a third. The Geordies storm the pitch for the third and the final whistle. The walk to Newcastle train station with the Gateshead fans was the hardest of my life.

The following year, we beat them 6-1 away with a Baxter own goal but they also halted our title charge in full flow. I detest Gateshead.

 

[Stanleyfan]

My worst would be the last day of last season - sitting in 2nd spot and a win at home against Stevenage would see us promoted. Easy enough we thought especially with having scored at home in every home match that season. We played well but hit the woodwork 3 times and drew 0-0. Never mind because Bristol Rovers were only drawing so we were still 3rd. Only to hear that they've scored in injury time so we dropped to 4th. The play off capitulation was not a surprise to any Stanley fan.

 

[GodsGift]

Do these Grimsby fans know they're not non-league anymore? You've escaped lads, make the most of it. You don't have to keep reliving the pain.

 

[devilofajob]

From a footballing point of view I would say 25th April 2015 at about 4.53 pm at Peterborough, when they scored their 4th in a 4-3 win.
We needed a win to stay up in this penultimate game and were winning 3-2 going in to the 87th minute.
That was an emotional rollercoaster of a game.

 

[Green 75]

The Wembley Cop out last season, if it hadn't been a holiday in Crete a week later I'd have been reaching for a bottle of Johnny Walker and a loaded pistol.

 

[GTFCfish]

I do go to Brunton Park, of course, for the second-leg, and Leeds take a first-half lead. This does create a bit of tension, and my memory is a bit fuzzy but I think we were still pretty confident of them not getting another, especially as the game edged towards conclusion, we would be going through on away goals and we must have looked pretty comfortable.

Then disaster, late into injury time, again, up pops Jonny Howson to get Leeds' second and dash our promotion dreams. That moment there is the worst I've ever felt as a football fan.

To compound things, since I was heading back down to Liverpool after the game, what promised to be a long and depressing drive already was made worse by the fact that a minibus full of Leeds fans spotted the little Carlisle shirt in my rear window as we joined the motorway and kept pace with me all the way down to Lancaster. If I sped up, they sped up. If I slowed down, they slowed down. They overtook me several times, jeering and flagging me off as they moved into the lane in front of me, then slowed down until I went past them just so they could do it again.

Despondent, frustrated and heartbroken, I pulled into Forton services. I didn't want food, or the toilet, I just wanted away from them. Thankfully they didn't follow me, but as I went to McDonald's for a coffee I was spotted, still wearing my shirt, by another coachload of Leeds fans, who instantly started chanting towards me.

Happily, Leeds went on to lose to Doncaster in the final (if anyone ever wonders why I seem to have a soft spot for Donny, this is why, they were a team also on a journey from the conference to the championship and I was much happier to see their journey fulfilled than I would have been to see Leeds promoted). To this day Leeds are the only club who I would happily see go out of existence and if they were to do a Scarborough and collapse so disastrously they were left, not simply stuck in non-league but without a club to support at all I would just say, 'good riddance, maybe try rugby league' (and I wouldn't even wish that on MK Dons fans who aren't personally to blame for the formation of their club).

If it makes you feel any better away goals stopped counting in 99/00 so even though at the time you thought you were seconds away from winning the tie, it would have actually gone into extra time.

 

[GTFCfish]

Do these Grimsby fans know they're not non-league anymore? You've escaped lads, make the most of it. You don't have to keep reliving the pain.

It makes us appreciate it more!

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

The playoff final defeat too Wimbledon hit me pretty hard. Remember being very down after that for a while. The penalties were a real shit way lose especially as there was nothing in the game, really could have gone either way. The York defeat didn't feel anywhere near as bad for me even though the winning goal in that one was more contentious we just didn't play as well as York on the day so it was easier to take. Or maybe I'd just reached acceptance by that point!

Our relegation to the conference wasn't too bad as we pretty much had a season to prepare ourselves for it and I think we all thought it would be a relatively nice short stay with some new grounds to visit. How wrong we were!

Before my time but I've heard that the FA Cup Semi final defeat to Everton was a tough one to take as well, perhaps some of the longer tenured Town fans on here like Oaky (Belize even??) might be able to shed some light on how bad that one was.

 

[Roger Stone]

Jesus, where to start. Losing to Merthyr fecking Tydfil in the 1987 Welsh Cup Final was incredibly depressing and just seemed to sum up our fall from the FL. Watching my club die over a period of days, weeks, months, years was pretty shit. But here we are again, bottom of the FL and giving it a go, albeit badly with a shit team, shit ground and really shit pitch in a shit town.
Worst game since we reformed was prob losing 6-0 away at Stafford Rangers. One of those what the fuck I am doing here wasting my life moments.

 

[shoddycollins]

If it makes you feel any better away goals stopped counting in 99/00 so even though at the time you thought you were seconds away from winning the tie, it would have actually gone into extra time.

I doubt I would have thought that at the time then if they didn't count. I don't remember what I thought now but I would have known then.

 

[hellogregory]

Mine, for similar reasons is a memory of losing out on promotion rather than of relegation.

It's 2008, I'm living in the European capital of culture, points are being deducted left right and centre and Carlisle United are enjoying their second season in League One, and in joyous contrast to the despair we felt just three years prior at relegation from the Football League, we have now reached the League One play-offs. Actually that in itself was a bit of a comedown as we had been close to securing an automatic place with a month to spare before a collapse of form saw Notts Forest nick second place from us (Swansea were champions).

So we ended up finishing 4th, but like you say, the feeling of losing out over, even a period of a couple of weeks, isn't as crushing as what was to come, and it was difficult to completely dampen the optimism we felt from simply being where we were in the league. This was the highest we'd ever finished in my time supporting United, the vast majority of which (at least the parts I have strong memories of) had been spend being that team that escaped relegation from Division 3 every sesason.

I don't travel to Elland Road for the first leg, as I'm a bit short on cash, but I do watch it live at a friends house. We dominate them and lead 2-0, I can feel the excitement that we're going to make up for missing out on automatic promotion and start to mentally prepare for the Championship, or a trip to Wembley at any rate, but I'd be confident of going up against either Doncaster or Southend in the final since we were 2-0 up at Elland Road (Leeds would have finished second by a significant margin had they not had a points deduction so they were biggest scalp in the playoffs). This celebratory mood is only slightly knocked when deep deep into injury time (the 96th minute I think) Leeds grab a goal back. After all, we have two away goals and the second leg will be played at fortress Brunton.

I do go to Brunton Park, of course, for the second-leg, and Leeds take a first-half lead. This does create a bit of tension, and my memory is a bit fuzzy but I think we were still pretty confident of them not getting another, especially as the game edged towards conclusion, we would be going through on away goals and we must have looked pretty comfortable.

Then disaster, late into injury time, again, up pops Jonny Howson to get Leeds' second and dash our promotion dreams. That moment there is the worst I've ever felt as a football fan.

To compound things, since I was heading back down to Liverpool after the game, what promised to be a long and depressing drive already was made worse by the fact that a minibus full of Leeds fans spotted the little Carlisle shirt in my rear window as we joined the motorway and kept pace with me all the way down to Lancaster. If I sped up, they sped up. If I slowed down, they slowed down. They overtook me several times, jeering and flagging me off as they moved into the lane in front of me, then slowed down until I went past them just so they could do it again.

Despondent, frustrated and heartbroken, I pulled into Forton services. I didn't want food, or the toilet, I just wanted away from them. Thankfully they didn't follow me, but as I went to McDonald's for a coffee I was spotted, still wearing my shirt, by another coachload of Leeds fans, who instantly started chanting towards me.

Happily, Leeds went on to lose to Doncaster in the final (if anyone ever wonders why I seem to have a soft spot for Donny, this is why, they were a team also on a journey from the conference to the championship and I was much happier to see their journey fulfilled than I would have been to see Leeds promoted). To this day Leeds are the only club who I would happily see go out of existence and if they were to do a Scarborough and collapse so disastrously they were left, not simply stuck in non-league but without a club to support at all I would just say, 'good riddance, maybe try rugby league' (and I wouldn't even wish that on MK Dons fans who aren't personally to blame for the formation of their club).

As bad as all that was, it didn't lead to us losing our league status. At the end of those games we were still a football league team.

Without question the worst day suppprting Carlisle was the day we failed to beat Cheltenham and were relegated into non league.

Nothing even comes close to that. If we were 2-0 up going into stoppage time in a championship playoff final, and conceded 3 quick goals to lose 3-2, it still wouldn't be as bad as going into non league. Getting relegated from league 1 with zero points still wouldn't be as bad as relegation to non league.

 

[shoddycollins]

As bad as all that was, it didn't lead to us losing our league status. At the end of those games we were still a football league team.

Without question the worst day suppprting Carlisle was the day we failed to beat Cheltenham and were relegated into non league.

Nothing even comes close to that. If we were 2-0 up going into stoppage time in a championship playoff final, and conceded 3 quick goals to lose 3-2, it still wouldn't be as bad as going into non league.

Yeah but I went with that for the similar reason to why Fish went for a play-off defeat rather than a relegation. My personal feelings when that Howson goal went in (even without my experience with the Leeds fans) were lower than my feelings when the Cheltenham result came in. That's even though at the time I saw that full-time score pop up on the Sky Sports vidiprinter with the words 'Carlisle United are relegated' beneath it I was in a hotel-bar in Hull dressed as a school-girl (or maybe my choice of clothing placed a lower limit on how sad I could get, or maybe it was just the alcohol) surrounded by Shrewsbury, Bury and Preston fans (dressed in gender-appropriate clothing).

 

[Kim Mitten]

Picking an actual day is quite difficult, I've witnessed many relegations from Southend United, but fortunatley we've always been so shite or out of our depth that it's never really been hard to take, never had a last day downer. Relegation from the old Division 1 under Ronnie Whelan was probably the worst, because it was a good team led astray by a manager who preferred training sessions in the pub rather than on the training field but from early on it was obvious we were going nowhere but down.

I suppose the worst actual day was probably a home defeat to Chester City early on in the 98/99 season in the bottom tier under the hideous leadership of Alvin Martin. The man had no clue, had spent the previous season fucking up the team as much as possible to manage a double relegation and had then some how kept his job over the summer. I hoped something had changed, this game proved it didn't and he somehow lasted months longer just to nail us down to finishing in the worst league position in the history of the club. Ironically he was in charge for my favourite ever Southend game, a 2-1 win at Gillingham where we were 1-0 down with 91 minutes on the clock.

Still, I haven't witnessed a playoff final loss or relegation into the non-league, so can't complain.

 

[dedwardp]

Like Kim, I can't complain too much - we've only been relegated twice in the past 27 years and the 19 that I've been going have generally been the high point of the club's history. The relegation from the Championship was both expected and inevitable for months beforehand, and last season we were destined for the drop by January.

So for individual games, possibly the LDV Area Final away to Southend in 2004. We were 3-2 down from the first leg but scored immediately in the second to level things up. Southend were the league below us at the time so I guess we were expecting to win but they equalised on the night to go through in contentious circumstances - Sam Stockley was lying on the floor in our box injured and ended up playing Drewe Broughton onside when he was miles clear of any other defenders.

Although we ended up staying up on the final day, losing 6-0 at Chesterfield on a Tuesday night in 2015 was pretty awful too. We'd picked up three wins from four to give ourselves hope of a great escape, and I made the last minute decision in the afternoon to jump in the car and drive over. Two wins and a draw from our last five matches would probably be enough to sneak to safety, but we were 3-0 down inside the first 15-20 minutes. That was the night relegation was seemingly confirmed, albeit we obviously escaped in the end. Driving back afterwards on a lonely motorway in the dark was the worst.

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Histon 5-0 cambridge.

This times a million.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Wembley's performance last year hurt. That was a long train home. Not my worst memory though.

It was boxing day a few years ago we lost 2-0 away to Newport and it pissed down quite literally all day. I was stood out in that shitty open terrace. Proper rain that was. Given Newport's current drainage problems I'm shocked the game managed to last the full 90.

Standing there soaked to my bones no umbrella, watching an abysmal performance and thinking about the rest of the family inside and warm getting merry with Christmas leftovers did make me wonder why on earth we all do it sometimes!

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

Without a doubt the relegation at Burton. We were down and out for months but to take it to the last day, while Barnet played Rochdale who were top 3, it looked like we might actually do it. We had 34 shots that match, 15 on target, but Kevin Poole looked like he was putting his life on sending us down. We got trounced and Barnet ended up winning anyway. I was just a kid so it was probably the worst day of my life.

The 2015 PO Final was also dreadful as it seemed like our last chance, a lot of players were out of contract and it looked like we'd lose them all, but some incredible loyalty meant we kept a number of key players. While we were absolutely nowhere near the title I don't think we'd have gone up at all without them.

 

[THE LAST WALTZ]

1999 Play Off Final against Man City.
Look it up because it is still too painful for me to recount on here.
In fact I recorded it and then deleted everything past 90 minutes.
My kids still think we won 2-0!

 

[George Reilly's Hairpiece]

It's wasn't any of our relegation days, but the season after we first went back down to the Conference and we lost 3-0 at home to Farnborough on a Tuesday night in February in front of about 700 people. We had only taken 1 point from 5 games and we were looking like a side heading straight through the division and down to the Ryman. As low a feeling as I've had leaving a ground.

Darkest before the dawn and all that, Peter Shreeves came in the following week and we finished the season strongly and three years later we were champions.

 

[BelizeHatter]

The playoff final defeat too Wimbledon hit me pretty hard. Remember being very down after that for a while. The penalties were a real shit way lose especially as there was nothing in the game, really could have gone either way. The York defeat didn't feel anywhere near as bad for me even though the winning goal in that one was more contentious we just didn't play as well as York on the day so it was easier to take. Or maybe I'd just reached acceptance by that point!

Our relegation to the conference wasn't too bad as we pretty much had a season to prepare ourselves for it and I think we all thought it would be a relatively nice short stay with some new grounds to visit. How wrong we were!

Before my time but I've heard that the FA Cup Semi final defeat to Everton was a tough one to take as well, perhaps some of the longer tenured Town fans on here like Oaky (Belize even??) might be able to shed some light on how bad that one was.

Yep. 100% FA Cup Semi v Everton at Villa Park. Back then The FA Cup and getting to Wembley was a big deal with no bullshit Wembley before Final. My only ever arrest. Missed the match and spent it in packed drunk and disorderly cells within earshot of the ground so we knew what was going on. Everton in one cell Luton in other two, nutters and puke everywhere - felt like days but was seven hours. Didn't even do anything wrong other than avoid pub brawl by going outside. Bad error of judgement. Ho hum.......Luckily supporting a huge side like Luton got many more future great memories ;-)

 

[GTFCfish]

1999 Play Off Final against Man City.
Look it up because it is still too painful for me to recount on here.
In fact I recorded it and then deleted everything past 90 minutes.
My kids still think we won 2-0!

I work with a Gillingham fan and he's already told me all about this game many times, Paul Dickov etc.

 

[AnimoEtFide]

1999 Play Off Final against Man City.
Look it up because it is still too painful for me to recount on here.
In fact I recorded it and then deleted everything past 90 minutes.
My kids still think we won 2-0!

That was one of my worst days in football too.

 

[Laker]

Love this, a thread full of pure depression.

Rochdale (h) 2005. The deathly silence upon 90 minutes as our relegation to the Conference will stay with me forever. Most horrible feeling ever.

2nd place goes to Torquay at Wembley in 2009. Not getting promoted from the Conference felt like a relegation each time but losing in the play off final after two years on the trot after finishing 2nd twice and just missing the title and automatic promotion the 2nd time round was pretty heartbreaking. Especially since we were so shit and deserved to lose.

But an honourable mention goes to Leicester (a) in the play off semi final 1992. Finished 5th in the second tier, drew 1-1 in the first leg then got spanked 5-0 in the return leg. The 3 year relentless run up the leagues was over and the dream of being a founder member of the Premier League finished, we knew a team that good was unlikely to come together for us again.