Was watching the season review back last night (as you do, what a life we lead).
Was that the most underwhelming promotion of all time? I’m not sure we were “good” at any point that year. Seemed to get promoted through sheer force of will.
A few stand out moments like Seb’s goal at home to Wednesday and Clemence’s deflected winner at Derby, but my abiding memory of that year is everyone mostly being irritated by how crap we were.
You might be mixing that up with the promotion of 08/09 under McLeish.
The 06/07 IMO was better, we scored more goals, the three Arsenal loanees, McSheffrey was on fire and I'm sure the games between Xmas we won them all and were top going into the New Year. We really should of won the league away at Preston on the final day too.
thats more of a memory I associate with the McLeish promotion season rather than 06/07..good players turning it on in patches to win games
Their best performance was Reading away on the last day when it mattered tbf
My memory is that there was a lot of negativity around the 07 season as we hit March/April. I remember losing 1-0 away at Barnsley and the knives being sharpened.
The McLeish season was definitely more dull as an experience.
ThrillhouseMy memory is that there was a lot of negativity around the 07 season as we hit March/April. I remember losing 1-0 away at Barnsley and the knives being sharpened.
Was that the year the club put on free coaches to Barnsley and we took thousands? I think it must have been
Yeah we had a 9k allocation and typical Blues at the time we lost 1-0, Bruce got booed off and a big brawl on the pitch!
In fact I do recall Bruce nearly getting the sack around October time, a deflected Clemence goal to beat Derby helped save his job.
As has been mentioned, I think you might be getting crossed wires with 08/09 which was a ware of attrition, we finished second with 54 goals, which is absolutely mental.
06/07 was decent, some thumping wins and some exciting ones, Wolves away being the pick for me, but there were a few 3-0s and 4-0s
My main disappointment of that season was not winning the league.
We were in the box seat until two 1-0 defeats against mid to lower table Burnley and Barnsley over Easter allowed Sunderland to overtake us.
And don’t forget Sunderland were bottom of the table ar the end of august or September I believe, until Keane came in. It was the most blues thing ever to spend the majority of the season in the lead, and then bottle it at the end.
Bluenose27And don’t forget Sunderland were bottom of the table ar the end of august or September I believe, until Keane came in. It was the most blues thing ever to spend the majority of the season in the lead, and then bottle it at the end.
It always annoyed me that Keane was hailed as some kind of miracle worker for taking Sunderland from ‘bottom place’.
It was late August, he probably had like 7 points to make up on the play-offs.
And it still gets talked about now like he’s a genius.
Mendip BlueMy main disappointment of that season was not winning the league.
We were in the box seat until two 1-0 defeats against mid to lower table Burnley and Barnsley over Easter allowed Sunderland to overtake us.
We actually dropped out of the top 2 after those games and looked destined for the Play-Offs, but then we won 4 on the spin and Derby bottled it, so I think the major emotion was relief at the time.
We did batter Preston on the final day though and somehow lost, which was irritating
They certainly weren't fancied at one point because I backed them@ and I'm sure it was around 30s. It was definitely high.
My loyalties were divided on the last day of the season, believe me.
06/07
There were two bad periods
The start of the season wasn't great. We went to Derby with the expectation Bruce would be sacked if we lost.
We just about won. That turned everything around and we won 13/15 and were top by a mile.
But after Christmas we lost at home to Luton and signed Rowan Vine from them.
I don't think he was awful, but it didn't work out with him.
There was a long run of not scoring more than 1 goal in a game.
We could have more or less sealed it at Easter by beating Barnsley and Burnley but lost both games.
We won away at Leicester and W*lv*s (A magnificent 2-3), then beat Sheffield Wednesday with 10 layers to leave us on the verge.
Derby lost on the Sunday to see us up.
Highlights
Winning loads in Autumn
0-4 at Southend
McSheffrey up to December
Doyle saving the 95th minute penalty at Molineux to seeal the 3-2 win
Seb''s goal v Sheffield Wednesday
Low points
The first ten games
Paul Robinson breaking DJ's jaw.
The run after Xmas
Two losses with big crowds at Easter
Not winning the title.
It was a much better season than 2008-09 which was a grindfest of 1-0s where we smothered games.
McSheffrey was one of the sharpest steepest drop offs in form I;ve seen from a blues player towards the end of that season
Off-field matters caught up with him a bit, I fink, was a shame, cause for about 6 months he was sensational