Low point for me was just before we appointed Megson in the 1999/2000 season...............
Although there have been plenty of ups and downs supporting the Albion it's probably around this time for me too.
Yes there have been major disappointments such as the FA Cup Semi Final defeat versus Ipswich (aged ten) when I truly believed we were going to win the Cup itself. For me QPR wasn't quite so bad, probably as I was a little older and 1978 had prepared me for it. The appointments, tenures and subsequent footballing desert created by Saunders and Gould take some beating too, as did the defection of our diminutive Argentinian general to the Spuds.
The play off final defeat to Derby left me completely hollow. And although gutted following the FA Cup Semi Final versus Portsmouth life events of the time helped me to put those disappointments into perspective. The utter devastation I felt following
that week at the Seal Pen still hangs around my shoulders as well. Meanwhile the less said about the sterility of Pulis followed by the cretinous decision making surrounding the appointments of the Pard' and the self declared best coach in the world the better.
Strangely enough though (and it
is strange) the catalyst for my most depressing time as an Albion supporter was the sacking of Denis Smith just ten days or so before the start of the new season. I'd never really taken to the man and would have been quite happy to see the back of him at the end of the previous season. As much as anything it was the timing as it smacked of total and tragically predictable incompetence. Rather than get a new man the club gave him virtually the whole of pre season. It was Daryl Burgess's testimonial at the time, the turn out for his game v Sheffield Wednesday was poor and was perhaps reflective of a sense of apathy. To my mind (rightly or wrongly) the club was dying on it's feet, it was in general decay and no one in charge seemed capable of arresting our decline.
And then we appointed Brian fkn Little. To add context I'd detested him with a passion from his time as a player for
them down the road. We lacked the resources Little had enjoyed at both Leicester City and those who shan't be named and I just felt he was a terrible fit. I worked with loads of Vilers at the time and the piss taking over our demise had been immense. To my mind although he'd moved on prior to
their greatest success he was synonymous with
their 'modernish' era. As such his appointment rubbed my nose in it and merely amplified the gulf which existed between our clubs.
He was also stale, burnt out and oh so fkn boring. In truth Captain Mogadon probably reflected what we had become as a club and I really didn't like what I saw. Little couldn't have motivated a bottle of gas into orbit with a stick of dynamite and for me his sacking was the best thing to have happened since the sacking of Saunders. Frankly I didn't give a sh it who his replacement was going to be, it was all good and they could have brought Alan Buckley back for all I cared so deep had been my earlier despair. I would have blown my top, laughed then shrugged my shoulders as if to say 'well no shock there you dumb b@st@ards'. I just couldn't see a way out of our decline; subscribing to Grorty Dick and realising I wasn't alone probably didn't help my mood either.
And then lo' as to a blast of celestial trumpets did a red knight in shining armour come riding over the brow of a hill. With the sun glistening through his ginger locks he grabbed our great club by the short and curlies to drag it kicking and screaming onto better times. Thank you Sir Gary, thank you to your foot soldiers and of course to Paul Thompson (Merlin)......... COYB and SOTV
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqtehtSB0LI
