Compare and Contrast Exeter City 1994 to 2022

[SaintJames]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-HQc6wB9vg

Just came across this gem on Youtube showing the dire situation we were in less than 30 years ago. 5,000 seat Stadium at Exeter Arena? Looks like we dodged a bullet there

 

[Red red]

Some good football a good team but bad times. Look at us now moaning because we sell out

 

[ZIDERIUPLANDLORD]

Mike Cecere on flames what a finish! Quality.

 

[Andy_H]

Look at SJP then, plus that it was like in the other thread featuring the Norwich FA Cup game, and then look at SJP now, just shows you how far we've gone in 32 years, 20 of those in Trust Ownership.

I often say to folks that if some of those people around in the early 90s could come back and see ECFC, SJP & the pitch today they wouldn't believe it was the same place or team.

 

[Rosencrantz]

Desperate times. That was our last home win of the season. Just three draws from twelve home games followed. Added to the ten points we gathered away from home, thirteen points from twenty-five games was easily the worst spell I have witnessed as a City supporter. The first goal of that game rather summed us up rather than the five that followed.

We escaped both relegation (because of Moss Rose) and bankruptcy (Selling Buster and SJP) but it was only delaying the demise for a few years. It would be interesting to guess what would have happened had we gone down in 94/95 as we should have. I can't remember the same activism and drive to take things into our own hands in 1995 as there was in 2003 when the Trust stepped in. Just a sense of despondency that it was probably all over at Sixfields. There was protest, I remember the save our club banner being paraded around, but it felt more in hope that something would turn up.

Obviously we did somehow struggle through, only to hit rock bottom a few years later. Would we have survived though if we had been relegated to the conference in 1995? I'm not sure. I don't think we would be where we are now.

 

[Grecian in Guzz]

Desperate times. That was our last home win of the season. Just three draws from twelve home games followed. Added to the ten points we gathered away from home, thirteen points from twenty-five games was easily the worst spell I have witnessed as a City supporter. The first goal of that game rather summed us up rather than the five that followed.

We escaped both relegation (because of Moss Rose) and bankruptcy (Selling Buster and SJP) but it was only delaying the demise for a few years. It would be interesting to guess what would have happened had we gone down in 94/95 as we should have. I can't remember the same activism and drive to take things into our own hands in 1995 as there was in 2003 when the Trust stepped in. Just a sense of despondency that it was probably all over at Sixfields. There was protest, I remember the save our club banner being paraded around, but it felt more in hope that something would turn up.

Obviously we did somehow struggle through, only to hit rock bottom a few years later. Would we have survived though if we had been relegated to the conference in 1995? I'm not sure. I don't think we would be where we are now.

I think it would be a good idea for our club to "officially" use this video etc to show to those 20 year or less Grecians how close we came and that we NEVER want to be back there again.
UTC

 

[SaintJames]

Desperate times. That was our last home win of the season. Just three draws from twelve home games followed. Added to the ten points we gathered away from home, thirteen points from twenty-five games was easily the worst spell I have witnessed as a City supporter. The first goal of that game rather summed us up rather than the five that followed.

We escaped both relegation (because of Moss Rose) and bankruptcy (Selling Buster and SJP) but it was only delaying the demise for a few years. It would be interesting to guess what would have happened had we gone down in 94/95 as we should have. I can't remember the same activism and drive to take things into our own hands in 1995 as there was in 2003 when the Trust stepped in. Just a sense of despondency that it was probably all over at Sixfields. There was protest, I remember the save our club banner being paraded around, but it felt more in hope that something would turn up.

Obviously we did somehow struggle through, only to hit rock bottom a few years later. Would we have survived though if we had been relegated to the conference in 1995? I'm not sure. I don't think we would be where we are now.

I think we would have ended up in a similar place to Hereford and Chester

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-HQc6wB9vg

Just came across this gem on Youtube showing the dire situation we were in less than 30 years ago. 5,000 seat Stadium at Exeter Arena? Looks like we dodged a bullet there

To be honest, that was just one of the number of times during our history that we have been "flying by the seat of our pants". These two reports, the first from 1912, the second from 1935 indicate some of our past scrapes. There are plenty more. Whatever people think of today's ECFC, it is indisputable that it has been, and continues to be, the best period in our history.

 

[Rosencrantz]

I think it would be a good idea for our club to "officially" use this video etc to show to those 20 year or less Grecians how close we came and that we NEVER want to be back there again.
UTC

It can be hard to pinpoint the word "nadir" when it comes City's history. 1994/95 would certainly be a strong candidate and then 2002/03 happened. The mid/late 80's would be a candidate from an attendance point of view although that was more a general malaise in English football as a whole.

At the time you pick 2002/03 as the absolute low point but now you can see it was the shock that kick started a revival. We also had a better side that season than in 1994/95. 94/95 was a low point followed by a false dawn. That is why I question whether there would have been the support to get us through that period had we been relegated.

It can be a warning from history in a "be grateful for what you've got" kind of way but really should be used in "look how far we have come" context. Then we can still look at how far we can still go.

 

[Super Ronnie Jepson]

To be honest, that was just one of the number of times during our history that we have been "flying by the seat of our pants". These two reports, the first from 1912, the second from 1935 indicate some of our past scrapes. There are plenty more. Whatever people think of today's ECFC, it is indisputable that it has been, and continues to be, the best period in our history.
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And yet somehow, after 20 years of improvement under Trust stewardship, some would have you believe selling up to a private individual now would lead us to the sunlit uplands...