Worst Time Under Noades

[Houghton Bee]

I wouldn’t call myself a happy clapper but I was taken in the ride by Noades when he first came to the club and got us promoted. If my memory serves me right we started the next season in the old 3rd division really well also. Then losing a couple of games it started to go downhill - I can only applaud those fans that challenged him at the time. It really were dark days for the club. In a way that’s what’s make supporting Brentford right now (despite some recent poor results) even more enjoyable as many on this site supported the team at its lowest.

Iirc we started very well in the second season until we sold Hermann, which I think most understood due to the fee and the Premier League calling, then it all went south. Whether Nobhead kept the money or reinvested it I can't remember, if we ever found out at all.

During the end of the promotion season and start of the following season we set our longest unbeaten league run of 26 matches, Feb to Oct 99.

 

[Wise old Bee]

Fwiw, I was a Noades supporter. Happy when he first turned up as he was a "football man" who would, at last, run our club in a proper way. I was one of those cheering him at Cambridge and the future looked bright. Having no inside knowledge of the club and how it was being run, it took some time for the penny to drop for me. I am eternally grateful to those with the knowledge, expertise and dedication who managed to save BFC for the rest of us.

 

[hobbsy]

Fwiw, I was a Noades supporter. Happy when he first turned up as he was a "football man" who would, at last, run our club in a proper way. I was one of those cheering him at Cambridge and the future looked bright. Having no inside knowledge of the club and how it was being run, it took some time for the penny to drop for me. I am eternally grateful to those with the knowledge, expertise and dedication who managed to save BFC for the rest of us.

As was I, hopefully I've atoned for my sins since

 

[abee]

Are any of the shareholders still about ?

Dis you ever get ana apology from any of them ?

I've just remembered..........two of the shareholders hurling abuse at me that night were hobbsy and Wise old Bee ?

 

[LboroBee]

I am very grateful for all you thorns in the side (no pun intended).
I was only young and enjoying the ride, what a crap ride it would have been, had it ended with winning division 4 & losing a division 3 playoff final.

edit - crap only compared to what we’ve experienced the past 10 years. I’d still love it if we were div3/4 just as much.

 

[Herbert]

I wouldn’t call myself a happy clapper but I was taken in the ride by Noades when he first came to the club and got us promoted. If my memory serves me right we started the next season in the old 3rd division really well also. Then losing a couple of games it started to go downhill - I can only applaud those fans that challenged him at the time. It really were dark days for the club. In a way that’s what’s make supporting Brentford right now (despite some recent poor results) even more enjoyable as many on this site supported the team at its lowest.

Im not talking when he first arrived, we were all conned.
It didnt take too long though for questions to be asked.
I mean as things were long past sour.

 

[BaildonBee]

Im not talking when he first arrived, we were all conned.
It didnt take too long though for questions to be asked.
I mean as things were long past sour.

I really did not like him before he came to us. I found some of his questionable quotes while at Palace and his generally arrogant attitude in media interviews distasteful. He was never a fan of fans! I did compromise my opinion when the success started - because ultimately I love the club more than any individual. Ultimately though he showed his true colours. What we are experiencing now is beautiful and all the more so because of the dark days. We are so fortunate that Noades' corosive plans that would have had us living from hand to mouth forever did not succeed.

 

[horshambees]

I first learnt about Noades when he was at Wimbledon and how he wanted to move them to Milton Keynes.
So he bought a stake in Milton Keynes City FC and stuck his mates in as directors.
One of those was Sam Hamman? and the idea was to merge the two clubs and use the Football league position of Wimbledon FC to play at MK.
He lost interest in the idea and sold his stake and the club folded in 1985.
He went to Palace and separated Selhurst Park from the football club so the ground was owned by Altonwood and not CPFC.
Sam Hamman did the same at Plough Lane.
Palace paid rent to Altonwood to play at their home stadium.
I was told he took a % of gate receipts food outlets and programme sales.
When he sold the club to Mark Goldberg for 22.5 million in 1998,Goldberg thought he bought the club,ground and training ground but he bought the name Crystal Palace and got well and truly shafted.
Noades charged him to play games at Selhurst and kicked Palace off his training ground so we could train there.
So when he turned up at our club i had reservations knowing this mans history in the game.
He was a ruthless business man and i remember,like it was yesterday,being told that he was throwing money around and it was not his,but the clubs and they did not have it.
I was pleased with what i saw on the pitch with promotion in 99,but with huge trepidation with what was going on off the pitch.

 

[Wise old Bee]

First came across him when he owned Southall FC but can't recollect anything about his time there. I do remember when he took over Palace him saying in an interview that there really ought to be a "big" club in South London and that only Palace could ever be be that club. This made sense I suppose. Didn't he make a cheeky bid to buy Loftus Road during his time with us? Not sure of the exact circumstances.

 

[ruislip bee]

First came across him when he owned Southall FC but can't recollect anything about his time there. I do remember when he took over Palace him saying in an interview that there really ought to be a "big" club in South London and that only Palace could ever be be that club. This made sense I suppose. Didn't he make a cheeky bid to buy Loftus Road during his time with us? Not sure of the exact circumstances.

Yes he did. I remember one game we had at Loftus Road and they were chanting stand up if you hate Ron Noades and the whole ground did home and away! I might have dreamed that but I'm pretty sure it happened.

 

[trevalanintravel]

The only good thing he done was to sell the club to Bees United for £1 if I remember right

 

[Banana]

There was a story of certain fans being invited to his home and he was asking whom was whom whilst playing with his fire with a red hot poker ?

Were you there @Edmundo ?

 

[Voice from the Braemar]

Told this before on here but met him the day after he bought the club…he nearly caused a massive pile up on the French motorway on the way down to England v Tunisia in Marseille at WC98 with his sports car and our ? minibus when he cut us up ….we pulled over at the next services to have ahem ‘words’ ? not knowing who he was when he then introduced himself saying he wanted to have a chat about Brentford as he saw our flag in the back of the bus…immediately i sensed a rat and even though the next season was good I was always waiting for him to feck us up…one of slimiest creatures I’ve ever met and I’m very good on judging people on first meeting…he was lucky we weren’t all dead as we were both doing well over 80mph when we almost collided ? a proper tw*t ?

 

[keith c]

Only game I’ve ever left early. If I remember we were 3 down and walked out of new road!

Weirdly remembered by myself as the only match where I arrived late ! Got stuck on the tube and walked in at about 3.25 and couldn't work out if the toxic atmosphere was noticeable because I'd arrived late and it always existed or because we were sh*t . I think it was still 0-0 at the time and the rest of the match concluded for me what was probably the lowest afternoon I'd experienced since I began watching Brentford.

 

[WorcestershireBee]

Looking at that thread takes me right back to that day when Gibbo phoned me to tell me about Oxford-gate. Funny to see how certain people refused to believe me. Sadly Noades didn’t live to see his successor take Brentford to the Premier League in a new stadium.

Are you able to elaborate on ‘Oxford-gate’ - never heard of that before

 

[Banana]

Are you able to elaborate on ‘Oxford-gate’ - never heard of that before

It's all in the "Sabotage" thread referenced in this thread.

Back in the day when the GPG got proper exclusives!