Biggest achievement, 87 Cup win or promotion ? (1 Viewer)

Cup

This was not a struggling Div One side... we were top half then and for the next couple of years... arguably our best era, for which I don't get why Sillett doesn't get the props he deserves.

Even if we were to win all our remaining games 6-0 it’d be the cup.

Cup win for me. As LG says though we weren’t exactly struggling that season. Wasn’t it our highest ever top flight finish - 7th? Whilst promotion would be a fantastic achievement in itself, let’s not forget its the old Division 3!

All relative and both great sides. Others will argue different eras but Dion's 'Entertainers' in 98 was my favourite time watching the team, but I am loving this season. Not only are we being successful but lots of lads it's easy to support, a bit of a siege mentality in the face of adversity and playing a lovely style of football.

Jcap said:

Cup win for me. As LG says though we weren’t exactly struggling that season. Wasn’t it our highest ever top flight finish - 7th? Whilst promotion would be a fantastic achievement in itself, let’s not forget its the old Division 3!

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Year after i thought. Had a feeling it was 10th year we won cup.

rob9872 said:

Year after i thought. Had a feeling it was 10th year we won cup.

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You could be right - vaguely remember drawing a few towards end of season and slipping a few places immediately prior to the final.

Kilclines curly mullet said:

Fair point about not struggling in the league in 86/87 however based on seasons just prior, maybe unfancied would maybe be a better description.

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We most certainly were unfancied. Beeb were creaming all over Venables, Hoddle, Waddle and funniest of all, it was supposed to be the game that Clive Allen got to 50 goals for the season - he scored in the first few minutes to make it 49, the rest is history!

Great post.

When we get promoted this will mean far more to me - and I was 16 when we won the Cup.

When Robins came back we were in freefall.

This season has been sensational!!

We still have a quarter of the season to play yet!

F.A. Cup any day.
I'd take winning the League cup over promotion as well.

Don’t remember the cup. Don’t care about cups. But winning the cup was surely a bigger thing than being promoted from the third division? (If we do etc)

Personally I’d take the league over the cup every time though.

Alan Dugdales Moustache said:

I'd take winning the League cup over promotion as well.

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Genuinely can’t get my head around that. Polar opposite to me.

Rank outsiders to win the cup in 87. In a 2 horse race, odds of 3 to 1 was nuts.
One of the club directors had a grand on us before the 3rd round at 50 to 1.
That cup win always brings back fantastic memories for all of us who were about at the time.
Promotion from Div 3 is important but nothing can match that day at Wembley and the night celebrations back in Cov.

DannyThomas_1981 said:

Great post.

When we get promoted this will mean far more to me - and I was 16 when we won the Cup.

When Robins came back we were in freefall.

This season has been sensational!!

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Go on... I’ll ask it.

The FA Cup will always remain as SPECIAL so I don’t think you can really compare the two. However don’t underestimate the current situation that is at this stage of the season an all time club record, just 3 defeats in March. We are in new territory so just be happy and enjoy.

I think when Russell Slade was here, and relegation to League 2 was almost a certainty, most would have bet that we would be exiting league 2 from the bottom, not the top
We often asked each other if we would ever see us play in the Championship again, and there were disagreements
To hopefully turn that around in such a short space of time, shows what an amazing effort that is
The FA cup final was 100% much more of an event, but i would argue that what this club has done in the last 3 years is much more of an achievement should we achieve promotion

It’s hard to convey just how big the FA Cup was then, it was the be all & end all, and had even more glamour and magic than the league title. Weakened sides were unheard of and the entire country shut down for the whole of Cup Final day.

There are 22 other teams competing for the League One title, and few outside those towns & cities care. There were (I think) about 300 teams competing for the FA Cup, everyone played their strongest side, everyone wanted it, and everyone in the world cared about it. The Cup was massively more of an achievement.

The Great Eastern said:

Rank outsiders to win the cup in 87. In a 2 horse race, odds of 3 to 1 was nuts.
One of the club directors had a grand on us before the 3rd round at 50 to 1.
That cup win always brings back fantastic memories for all of us who were about at the time.
Promotion from Div 3 is important but nothing can match that day at Wembley and the night celebrations back in Cov.

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It wasn’t just the day, soon as we beat Sheff Weds the entire city was sky blue & the sheer excitement every single day- I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like it ever again.
I clearly remember people hanging banners off motorway bridges saying “90 minutes from Wembley” on the way to the semi, and getting back to Cov after with people pushing pints through car windows on Ball Hill as all the cars came back will stay with me forever. It’ll never be replicated no matter what we do from here on in.

hill83 said:

Don’t remember the cup. Don’t care about cups. But winning the cup was surely a bigger thing than being promoted from the third division? (If we do etc)

Personally I’d take the league over the cup every time though.

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It wasn’t just winning it - it was a significant movement for the club in the right direction

We went on to be a top 10 team until Butcher literally butchered the team

I’d have rather stayed in the top flight playing Liverpool and Man U than salivating at a trip to Accrington

rob9872 said:

Year after i thought. Had a feeling it was 10th year we won cup.

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I think you’re probably right ‘but I’m sure we fell rather than rose to that position
(Post semi-final) the cup run massively altered the direction of our season.
Lose in the cup early ‘and I’m sure that team would have been top six.
:emoji_thinking: But give me that day in May 1987 anyday, I’m probably out of order here
But anyone that thinks differently either wasn’t there ‘or wasn’t born.

87 and this season probably my two most enjoyable seasons watching City but the cup win was special. The build up to every game would go on for weeks, the further we got the bigger the buzz around the city until the latter rounds when it was just hysteria.
To win the final against a team containing probably the greatest English midfielder I ever saw, Glenn Hoddle, a world class world cup winner in Ossie Ardiles and a 49 goal Clive Allen was just incredible.
It's such a shame what has happened to that competition. I hardly ever go to cup games any more.

Winning promotion from Division 3 wouldn’t get close to matching the achievement in 87.

rob9872 said:

Year after i thought. Had a feeling it was 10th year we won cup.

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7th in 88/89

Cup was a fairy tale never to be repeated we could have another crack at promotion out of league one next season if we don't do it this season. Don't see us in an fa cup final any time soon unfortunately

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Context is everything in our cup win. It was a great game against a very good team in an era where everything was turned on its head. Oxford and Luton and Norwich won the league cup, Coventry and Wimbledon won the FA cup and QPR and Sunderland reached league cup finals.
Without the European ban I suspect things would have been different and if you remember the semi's in 87 it was Watford, with an amateur goalkeeper, and Spurs and Division 2 Leeds.
That said it was magical and never to be forgotten and the teams that won the league were some of the best ever with a imperious Liverpool and a brilliant Everton side sharing titles.
Today our future lies in the balance and every game we play there is an underlying pressure that perhaps we don't recognize, in as much as if we don't go up this year and are still at St Andrews our great season will smell totally different.
i believe that looking back on a promotion season under these circumstances will make this season sweeter if we go up, beautiful for many more reasons than the cup win. One could argue that getting out of league two was more vital, a view I do support.
I stood on the terraces on the scoreboard end at OT, Stoke and in the seats at Hillsborough and then the Kop on the same ground and on the terraces at Wembley and there was something happening, a momentum, that our name was on the cup and it's feels similar now and I believe won't fall away and we will get over the line and to me that will be a much bigger achievement. Certainly not as sexy though!

in 87 we finished 10th
we drew the last 3 games for 3 points
6 points in those games would have seen us finish 6th, which would have equalled our highest ever finish

we also finished above Man United - and the 3 Relegated teams were
Villa, Leicester and Man City - If carslberg Did a Bottom 3!!!

The Great Eastern said:

Rank outsiders to win the cup in 87. In a 2 horse race, odds of 3 to 1 was nuts.
One of the club directors had a grand on us before the 3rd round at 50 to 1.
That cup win always brings back fantastic memories for all of us who were about at the time.
Promotion from Div 3 is important but nothing can match that day at Wembley and the night celebrations back in Cov.

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Were those really the odds?! We beat spurs 3 times that season. Crazy.
In fairness, those that don’t remember/weren’t born probably can’t even begin to imagine what the cup win was like. It felt like the whole city went crazy...pretty much from the quarter finals onwards!

Terry_dactyl said:

Were those really the odds?! We beat spurs 3 times that season. Crazy.
In fairness, those that don’t remember/weren’t born probably can’t even begin to imagine what the cup win was like. It felt like the whole city went crazy...pretty much from the quarter finals onwards!

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Some would argue and I’d agree we still do go mental about the fa cup

Terry_dactyl said:

Were those really the odds?! We beat spurs 3 times that season. Crazy.
In fairness, those that don’t remember/weren’t born probably can’t even begin to imagine what the cup win was like. It felt like the whole city went crazy...pretty much from the quarter finals onwards!

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Spurs beat us at WHL 1-0 so two wins

No brainer 87 cup win every single time (unless we win the Premier)

Compared to our rivals (apart from the lot up the M69) we have won a major competition fairly recently.

Means we are a better club


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riyadhskyblue said:

Spurs beat us at WHL 1-0 so two wins

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Really? I thought we beat them 1-2? I’ve been telling people that for years!

DannyThomas_1981 said:

Great post.

When we get promoted this will mean far more to me - and I was 16 when we won the Cup.

When Robins came back we were in freefall.

This season has been sensational!!

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The checkatrade?

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