Favourite season without promotion or a trophy

[djemba-djemba]

The thread about Frank Casper got me thinking about how 1990/91 was one of my favourite seasons.
Don't know if it's because it was the 1st season I started watching (probably); the small town local away games (Blackpool; Halifax; Rochdale; Stockport; York; Carlisle; Darlington; Chesterfield; Scunthorpe); the great home home form (4-1 v Peterborough; 2-0 v Blackpool; 3-1 v Darlington; 4-0 v Hartlepool) or what it was, I'm not sure.

Certainly wasn't the final outcome anyway with the disappointment of the Torquay play-off.

Anyway - made me think, what's your favourite seasons barring the obvious promotion seasons or cup wins?

[TheFamilyCat]

Good question.

For achievement it has to be 2017-18

Possibly 1992-93. New division, Burnley were back (sort of) went to a lot of away games with the newly formed Colne Clarets.

Best half-season: 2001-02 (first half obviously)

[jdrobbo]

2001/02 (until Christmas)

[whitnash claret]

For me it's got to be 1973/74. Wonderful team, wonderful football. If it hadn't been for Norman Hunter's assault on Frank Casper the week before the FA cup semi I'm sure we would have gone on to win the cup that year.

[ksrclaret]

Is it weird that I quite enjoyed large parts of the 2014/15 relegation season? They were some real lows but there was something satisfying about watching our squad of about 14 giving every ounce of themselves for us against the big hitters.

[timshorts]

Clarets aside, I enjoyed 1989/90. Maidstone first season in the league with the Claret tie-dye away kit. Merthyr and Boston both in the conference.

The one where man United went down.

Euro 2016.

[huw.Y.WattfromWare]

73-74. Aug- Mar we were fantastic. Legs seemed to go after the defeat at Boro, when we had been top of the league.

[ElectroClaret]

Got to be on the final whistle of the Orient game, surely to Christ.
Apart from the odd couple of seasons blips, it's been upwards all the way.

UTC

[Claretforever]

Funnily enough the first season that sprung to mind before clicking into the thread was also the 1990-91 season. We had a fantastic home record where it didn’t feel like any team was going to beat us at the Turf, until Chesterfield did around Easter.

I think our away form cost us eventually as that kind of home form would normally see you promoted automatically. Peterborough were a bogey side, so the 4-1 win seemed massive. Wrexham for the last game of the season...I think we needed something like a 6-0 win and hoped another side lost?

I went to Torquay and figured the second leg we’d hammer them. Disappointing end but it made me feel we’d win the league the next season. We did, although it wasn’t the start I imagined.

The other favourite for me was 2017-18 and getting into Europe.

[cricketfieldclarets]

2000/01 and 2001/02

Two brilliant seasons. The first one we expected to struggle and go down after coming up. There were some brilliant, well backed, big clubs. After winning promotion against Scunthorpe and going up with the likes of Gillingham we were now playing at places like Man City, Notts Forest, Portsmouth, Sheffield United and Wednesday even Wimbledon and Coventry had been big sides. Then of course the big derby. Although the results in those two games the fact we were back was brilliant. The early draw at Bolton have us huge confidence and when you look at the team it’s remarkable how well we did.

The following season was heartbreaking. But those two seasons set us up and we’ve never been or looked back.

[Silkyskills1]

1961-62. Great team at its peak with the double definetly within their sights but ran out of 'steam' towards the end of the season gifting the League title to Ipswich and then just turning up at the Cup Final to make up the numbers.

[jrgbfc]

Has to be the year we finished 7th for me. That spell around March/April where we kept winning and it became clear we were going to do it.

[bodge]

Qualifying for Europe and watching Glen Little tear the Championship up in 2000/1.

[tiger76]

Mine's probably gotta be 87-88, finished with a Wembley trip and 80k watching 2 Division 4 teams.

That victory at Preston was especially sweet.

Although we were still in the bottom tier, you could sense the stirrings of revival in the air, it just took a few years to come to fruition.

[claptrappers_union]

1997/98


Waddle betting player/manager, quite high profile players and staff too in Glen Roeder in the England setup, Chris Woods and so on. After picking up results-wise towards the back end of the season and winning against Plymouth to stay up. Dreadful season on paper but I remember enjoying it.