Gary Lineker's 40 goals

[deipnosophist]

what Debaser said...

 

[colin hughes]

I have just spent the last hour reading every post in this thread. To be fair, parts of it made me feel sick to the stomach with regret and frustration with what happened in the 85/86 season.

I was a season ticket holder from 1983 to 1994. Ill break down the 'glory seasons' from my own personal experiences and thoughts:

83/84 - great season really from Christmas onward (obvious that) - you could see the team developing very, very well, and at one point (around March) I though to myself that if this team carries on improving like this and growing in confidence and stature, we would win the league within 2-3 years! Went to both Milk Cup finals - gutted after both to be honest as we were MUCH the better team a Wembley. Main Road sucked! Watford Final was a fabulous day. Favorite player, Adrian Heath. Favorite game, FA Cup semi v Southampton (Final was ok but it was almost inevitable we would win - it was just a great day out).

84/85 - where to start. I know. Charity Shield. Great feeling beating the RS. Slow start, but the 5-0 annihilation of Man United woke us all up. Walked out of that game KNOWING we would win the league. We were absolutely stunning to watch - the last great 4-4-2 system to really get it right and have a fabulous player in EVERY position. Favorite player, Adrian Heath until he was injured - then Bracewell. But to be fair EVERY player was just fabulous to watch the whole season. Favorite game, bloody hell where to start? Four obvious - RS 0-1, Man United 5-0, Luton FA Cup semi and of course the Bayern game. However two other games stick out - beating Leicester to go top of the league for the first time, and then Sunderland 4-1. All four goals in that game epitomized what we were about that season. Gray's first (Reid's contribution is memorable) and then as for Steven's goal - best I have ever seen EFC score again, 4-4-2 played to the absolute best! Rotterdam was insane. The only games I did not attend all season were the Bratislava and Fortuna Sittard away. Went to every other game we played.

85/86 - Gray left, in comes Lineker. Linker was brilliant, would have been cool to keep Gray to bring on in dire situations (duh, Forest and Oxford away!) - he could have turned the game(s) we lost in our favor with a different system. But that was never going to happen really was it. We did not play direct football all the time and did not really change our style of play from the previous season. Again, I only missed a couple of games (loved travelling with the blue army at this time). Beating the RS at Anfield - thought we had the title won. The Forest (I actually conceded the title in my mind at the end of this game) and Oxford away games were soul destroying, and as many have mentioned the other lot were just relentless. Favorite player - Lineker. Favorite games, soooo many. RS away and FA Cup semi stand out. Summary - we were better and more fun to watch in 85/86 than we were in 84/85. Travesty we didn't win the double. My three worst memories in my lifetime watching EFC - the West Ham game at home - we won 3-1 but was absolutely gutted playing for 2nd knowing the RS had won it. Atmosphere was s****. The journey home after the FA Cup final (ugh I could cry). What's worse? That bloody double homecoming parade! Whose 'effin idea was that! Grrrrrrrrrrr . Oh, and the European ban, yes we would have won the EC, I have no doubts so that would have gone some way to alleviate the pain of missing out on the double .

86/87 - bit of blur. Lineker gone . Didn't go to as may away games (work - my first real job) but we won the league. Great achievement. However you could see the cracks starting to happen. We were SO much better the previous season. All in all a bit of an anti climax really. Best game - Norwich away, duh! We would have won the league by March had we still had Lineker, and would probably have retained the European Cup

With a bit more luck, we would have won the league 3 times in succession and added at least one more FA Cup and the European Cup (I honestly believe this). My favorite season ever was the 84/85 obviously, however we were BETTER in 85/86, Lineker was FANTASTIC. The soul destroying disappointments stop this season being my favorite. LFC did so much damage to us in those couple of years its hard to understand.

Further to your last sentence, LFC probably cost us 2-3 trophies in the 80s, don't forget the 84 Milk cup final handball aswell.But at least in 87/88 we ended their 29 game unbeaten record start to a season stopping them getting the outright record; that hurt them at the time.Not forgetting the Man City game last season, I was at that game and make no mistake our fans decided Everton were not going to win that game and City Knew it aswell as our players.The RS' destiny was in our hands for once.