Communication.......

I think that points more to the fact that the gap between the top 4 and most other teams is bigger than ever. In fact all 7 of those defeats are City or Liverpool I think

 

How could I forget Wimbledon. Happy birthday Knight GT! Fulham was bloody freezing. Norwich away is the other one. 6-1

 

He wasnt dropped though. In fact he was in goal 3 days later when we beat Notts County 4-2 at Vicarage Road and then again 3 days after that when we also won 4-2.. against Crystal Palace!

 

Interesting. Where does a good flaying start from? Is it 8-0? Anymore than six for me as they had to spell it on the Vidiprinter on the BBC (Watford 8 (eight) Sunderland 0. Losing 5-0 is probably a good humping, 6-0 is being shat on from a great height. Above 8?

 

I still remember the gist of one of the match reports, talking about the ball "blotting out the sun" as Egil Olsen's long ball Wimbledon faced off against notorious long ball team Watford in their first game of the season. Much frivolity was had joking about astronomy and total eclipses. My sides could barely take it.

For all that modern football journos write absolute crap, it was definitely worse back then.

 

For me context has to come into it, I'd say, but I think if I had to set a numerical limit it would be absolutely no less than losing by 7 goals, because that is the first 'remarkable' margin. 6-0 is a ******* smashing, it's piss-poor, but indeed, as has been highlighted, it doesn't quite have that rarified air and it does happen every so often, rather than once in a blue moon . I don't think at 6 you're in 'Jesus Christ, what the hell happened there' territory - it's more like 'that's a ******* bad day at the office'. The fact that we have things like that wonderful record we are now the proud holders of, and that it comes on the back of an enormous losing streak with no clean sheets for 7 months (yes, two of which we weren't playing through) to add to it all contribute.

Perhaps if I was codifying a scale, i'd say 4/5 is a 'smashing', 6/7 is a contextually dependent 'savaging' and (usually) an 8 onwards is a 'flaying'.

 

Not only was it our record league defeat it was also Man City's biggest EVER league win

Yet some apologists think Man City win by this margin against everyone if they wanted to

Also Sterling ( who scored two hat tricks against us last season and one of their best players) was missing

I dont think QSF will make our defence any better without signings

The only way for us to play is to attack yet this goes against the QSF footballing philosophy

 

Absolutely.

Great post.

 

Just to point out it wasn’t our record league defeat, we’ve lost twice by more and once by the same margin. And we’ve lost a cup hame by more.

Not saying it’s a good result but worth checking facts first.

 

Apart from losing to the now non existent Warmley 11-0 in 1897 and Southampton 11-0 in 1902 it was our record league defeat.

 

Where? Everybody is saying it was a dreadful performance and that the players should hang their heads. It's this ridiculous aggressive hyberbole that is getting on some people's ****.

 

In that Warmley match we had a great chance to score when it was still 0-0. Had that gone in it could have been so different. But it didn’t do them much too good in the long run.

Still gutted about that Southampton result though.

 

Just checked the official twitter account and I can confirm that NOTHING has been posted by way of apology.

It’s a massive middle finger to the fans.

They do not CARE.

The club has lost its way - sod the cladding, grill bar and sensory room. This is a disgrace.

 

So just to confirm it wasn't our record league defeat?

 

and they were both in the Southern League.
When people talk about record league defeat they generally mean while playing in the football league.

NB Saturday's game now means our record league victory and defeat is by the same scoreline as Sunderland 8-0 in 82 is our biggest win.

 

Even if that statement was true about how people define results it doesn’t really help. The Southern League was in the football league then, it had a different structure.

 

I guess he means me mentioning some of City's other results (while getting my flayings & smashings confused)
So i think i must be the apologist.


Sorry.

 

I think this will be a difficult measurement system to beat. Although I’m sure some can try to improve it.

It is comforting to know that we weren’t smashed by Brighton earlier in the season! I think a 3 goal defeat needs a term too as it feels that much more embarrassing than a two goal defeat.

 

Did you not get the fax?

 

I agreed that a 3 goal is where it goes from normal and always theoretically possible even in an evenly matched game on the day to 'something's gone wrong here'. I'm not sure what expresses that though without getting too extreme for the scale, language-wise. 'Bashed' is a slightly comical option, or indeed 'bashed-up'.

 

The Southern League has never been a part of the football league. It was set up as an amateur league in opposition to the professional football league based in the midlands and the North.

When we talk about league records we talk about the professional football league. Sorry that's how it is.

 

Apparently Mariappa's said something apologetic on Twitter. But I haven't seen it myself!

 

Okay fair point, although I would argue it was the equivalent of the current 4th division. One interesting fact is that we were the champions of the South Division for five years in a row. Impressive stuff.

I’m still not convinced about not including non leagues though. It is still a league. I believe we were a professional team then? I think we were I saw one comment to that effect.

Sadly Soccerbase has our worst league defeat as 10-0 against Wolves. This doesn’t help as it was an FA cup game?!?

 

Although I guess you could argue the term non-league would point in that direction.

At a push.

But if the non league isn't a league. And it isn't a cup. What on earth is it?

 

Wat Mariappa said was - "There's no excuse". Blimey!

 

Non-league is just shorthand for non-football/professional league. Goes without saying that the Conference is actually a league!

 

#hes_one_of_our_own

 

I was being a bit tongue in cheek

 

I’m genuinely interested on if this is the case or not.

The team that obviously popped into my head was AFC Wimbledon. And here it does have loads of their non league games as biggest wins. This website only goes back to the 80s so doesn’t work for most teams.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/league-one/rekordspiele/wettbewerb/GB3


Can you provide any link to confirm if we should or shouldn’t include non league games?

 

It also states our record signing is Isaac Success and our record fee received was for Ashley Young!

The Southern League was at one point, around the turn of the century, not far at all behind the football league. Spurs famously won the FA cup in 1901 as a Southern league side.. becoming the only non league club to do so. Southampton also lost 2 finals around the same time. Even though a lot of players were drawn to the pro game many stayed in the Southern league as a matter of principle (imagine that now!) So the standard remained fairly high until the Southern became the football league 3rd division South in the early 20's.
Apparently West Herts turned professional in the late 1880's but we would have to have been operating as an amateur (or semi pro) club to play in the Southern league.

btw Watford only won the Southern league once.. but we remained "champions" for 5 years because we won the last title before the outbreak of the first world war.

 

Of all the players I think we should expect Mariappa to be the one who would feel the worst about that defeat, given the length of time he has been connected to the club.

 

I put that in as a tease. although we were runners up after the war just losing out on goal average to Pompey.

 

Perhaps we shouldnt hijack the thread.. but there again, Sod it!

It's a bit difficult for me to find a link that specifically states that. It's just something you come to realise if you look at enough football stats. League records = games played in the professional football league. Club records can be a different thing though.


PS The link you posted only shows stats back to 2003?

 

Yes I saw that too. Is there a website that actually has accurate info on football? I found a few options but they all contradicted each other.

I'm building up my geeky excel list of wfc history but not got before ww2 yet.