NUFC Season Summaries

NUFC Season 1981/82

1981/82 saw occasional flickers of life but the corpse of the club was taking some reviving and by the end of the season United were still in need of resuscitation There were more goals (only 5 goalless draws and 14 blanks in all) and United were even in with a shout of promotion at Easter. But a disastrous end of season saw us tumbling back into mid-table obscurity.

Hope came in the form of the emergence of Waddler and the arrival of Imre Varadi. With Rafferty and Harford gone the speedy Yugoslav moved in at Number 9. A slow start (no goals in seven) brought fears of another dud, but a hat-trick at Ninian Park proved a turning point

Alan Brown arrived on loan from makemland and 3 goals in his first 2 SJP matches made him an instant hero. But money was tight and he couldn't be signed permanently so Cox took David Mills on loan until the end of the season.

With things gradually looking up a crowd of 26,994 turned up to see United beat Chelsea 1-0 at the end of March. A week later another one goal victory at Charlton saw The Magpies soar to fourth

But just as it looked as if the corner had been turned United lost six of the next seven games and plummeted down the table. Grimsby and Fulham provided the usual early cup exits.

The supporters were clearly yet to be convinced. The average attendance crept up to 17,736 and whenever there was a glimmer of hope four or five thousand disaffected fans would return, but the end of season collapse saw the attendance for the Wrexham home match dip below 10,000