On this day- 28th March 1998

Liverpool at ooam. Probably the craziest match I've ever attended. I've watched reds since late 80s and I still haven't known a hostile atmosphere like that day and I doubt it'll ever be repeated. Unbelievable it was. That 2hat referee Willard totally lost the plot actually taking the players off at one point. 3 sides of the ground in total uproar. To get back to 2-2 with 9 men was an amazing experience. It was utter joy after the injustices we suffered that day thinking that we'd salvaged a point against the odds, then a dagger in the heart as we lost the game in stoppage time and were reduced to 8 men.


The momentum that we'd built up going into that game was lost and in the aftermath of having 3 players sent off and suspended, it cost us dearly as the season petered out and we got relegated. A very difficult day but nonetheless, we were relegated because we weren't good enough over the 38 games. That game will live in the memory for all the wrong reasons. Still guts me thinking about it, even after 22 years

A remember that day Pass and I bet Willard still does. He locked himself in the toilets mid game after an irate fan tried to get to him. Barnard, Morgan and Sheridan off. An Oakwell Classic.

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Originally Posted by SBRed48

A remember that day Pass and I bet Willard still does. He locked himself in the toilets mid game after an irate fan tried to get to him. Barnard, Morgan and Sheridan off. An Oakwell Classic.

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A wunt like to think what would a happened if that fan ed got tu referee. Fjortoft rugby tackled him a seem to remember. Good job Bullock dint try intervening cos idda bin squeshed, that fan worra big lad :D

Willard didn't take the players off, he left on his own.
Both managers trying to work out what was going on.
The worst thing for me was the scouser's banners with 'Justice' on them.
There was no justice that day.
It was the Morgan sending off that sparked it off. No way was it a sending off.

Shambles of an afternoon and cost us our PL status in my opinion .

The defining game and in all honesty that day knocked the shyte out of us .

The big club v small club in the PL was laid bare that afternoon for the world to see .

Would 3 Liverpool players ever get sent off at Anfield against ourselves in the PL .

There you have it in a nutshell .

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Originally Posted by Hodger1957

Willard didn't take the players off, he left on his own.
Both managers trying to work out what was going on.
The worst thing for me was the scouser's banners with 'Justice' on them.
There was no justice that day.
It was the Morgan sending off that sparked it off. No way was it a sending off.

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Aye tha reight. Even by today's poncy standards Morgans was still never a red card.

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Originally Posted by animallittle3

Shambles of an afternoon and cost us our PL status in my opinion .

The defining game and in all honesty that day knocked the shyte out of us .

The big club v small club in the PL was laid bare that afternoon for the world to see .

Would 3 Liverpool players ever get sent off at Anfield against ourselves in the PL .

There you have it in a nutshell .

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Agree that game definitely sunk our spirit but it dint relegate us in my opinion. As I said in the original post, the season's over 38 games. Tha looks at points we threw away when we weren't able to see a game art- Wednesday away, Leeds away, Blackburn away, Newcastle away, Coventry away, Spurs at ooam, Leeds at ooam- costly points. Teams at the top score late goals to win games as regular as we conceded them to lose games, it's not because of good luck or bad luck, it's because teams at the bottom have fundamental deficiencies and teams at the top have persistence & perseverance.

We let far too many goals in and defended woefully at times. However, I can understand why that happened because Wilson played offensively but the opposition just had too much quality and we were too sloppy at the end of the day. By the time we got our act together mid-season there was too much ground to make up.

When I think back to that first half (forget the 2nd aif) against liverpool when it was 11 versus 11 we were by far the better team, could have been at least 2 goals up but we went in level at 1-1 thanks to gifting them a sloppy and undeserved goal. Kind of sums it up

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Originally Posted by pass_and_move

Aye tha reight. Even by today's poncy standards Morgans was still never a red card.

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Barely touched him and wasn't even in a goal scoring position .

Owen did what he was coached to do at Liverpool in the so called modern game .

The truth is we were better than Liverpool that afternoon , possibly our best PL performance of the season .

We actually equalised with 9 men which is forgotten understandable that afternoon given what occurred .

Absolutely killed us that afternoon .

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Originally Posted by pass_and_move

Agree that game definitely sunk our spirit but it dint relegate us in my opinion. As I said in the original post, the season's over 38 games. Tha looks at points we threw away when we weren't able to see a game art- Wednesday away, Leeds away, Blackburn away, Newcastle away, Coventry away, Spurs at ooam, Leeds at ooam- costly points. Teams at the top score late goals to win games as regular as we conceded them to lose games, it's not because of good luck or bad luck, it's because teams at the bottom have fundamental deficiencies and teams at the top have persistence & perseverance.

We let far too many goals in and defended woefully at times. However, I can understand why that happened because Wilson played offensively but the opposition just had too much quality and we were too sloppy at the end of the day. By the time we got our act together mid-season there was too much ground to make up.

When I think back to that first half (forget the 2nd aif) against liverpool when it was 11 versus 11 we were by far the better team, could have been at least 2 goals up but we went in level at 1-1 thanks to gifting them a sloppy and undeserved goal. Kind of sums it up

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I'm not going to go down the road and conspiracy and say the PL hierarchy were deliberately setting out to relegate us .

However it brought home to me that when Paul Ince or Alan Shearer did something it was judged differently if the same foul was committed by Darren Sheridan or a young Chris Morgan .

The club made many mistakes that season which contributed to our relegation .

The biggest one in my opinion was a culture of believing we didn't belong in the PL .

We won automatic promotion from the championship !!! .

Not some lucky play off campaign on penalties .

We did belong because we earned the right by gaining automatic promotion .

The fact this was our first season at that level was neither here nor there in my opinion .

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Originally Posted by animallittle3

I'm not going to go down the road and conspiracy and say the PL hierarchy were deliberately setting out to relegate us .

However it brought home to me that when Paul Ince or Alan Shearer did something it was judged differently if the same foul was committed by Darren Sheridan or a young Chris Morgan .

The club made many mistakes that season which contributed to our relegation .

The biggest one in my opinion was a culture of believing we didn't belong in the PL .

We won automatic promotion from the championship !!! .

Not some lucky play off campaign on penalties .

We did belong because we earned the right by gaining automatic promotion .

The fact this was our first season at that level was neither here nor there in my opinion .

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Some very good points there mate and I agree, especially about the mentality. The patronising and snide comments from press, pundits and opposition fans alike during the close season, also those early season batterings didn't help enforce many people's opinion that we actually belonged there.I have to admit I was one of them. However, I was 19 years old and not as knowledgeable as the time and experience has since given me.

Looking back it was obvious that some of our players too felt out of their depth in the early stages of the campaign. I feel the majority of our supporters felt the same, in awe of the big clubs and the standard, there to enjoy the season no matter how it panned out.

Of course I think totally different now but at the time it seemed to good to be true that we were, as you say, deservedly part of the elite.

Our aim should've been to emulate Wimbledon's achievements in staying there for years and being a pain in the arse to the rest of the league. We were too nice to begin with and by the time we realized we had to be nasty, too much damage had been done unfortunately.