There were three years in the old third div 74-77 but I think we were a worse side around 83 and 84 late Mullery and early Coppell - Aylott, John Lacy,
Andy mcCulloch, Ketteridge etc also very pony after the minus 10 in 2010 - that first season under Doogie when we just stayed up, Stefan Iversen up front, God we were awful. Older fans may remember pre Johnny Byrne - but examples of my three crappest times would be (1) 1-1 draws at home to Aldershot and Peterboro in 74 75 under Big Mal - (2) 0-0 draw at home to Carlisle in 84/85 league cup - got about 20 sec highlights on itv that night, (3) and the Adam Barrett, Andy Dorman era - we were dog food - but I'd go for those 1-1 draws at home to Barnsley and shrewsbury around 84 and 85 as the time when we were most cr*p. Not trying to be negative but reminiscing about awful games and players is all good fun. thoughts?

had some great times watching palace home & away through the 80s.
as you say, really s***e early 80s, however there was a limited small support that all pulled together & had a laugh.

Kids,tired of being bothered by your pesky parents?
Then leave home, get a job & pay your own bills, while you still know everything.

Exactly that, the days when you could actually stand and count our fans at some away games, I think 57 at Middlesbrough and 63 at Shrewsbury was the lowest I counted, enjoyable days though, crap team, losing all the time in some far flung northern s*** hole, usually 1-0, but we all got to know each other, and the result didn’t seem to matter a lot of the time, we were going into enemy territory representing our little corner of South London and that was all that mattered, if we got some sort of result it was a bonus

I'd certainly go along with the mid-80s as being the pits. Poor football, poor players, poor crowds (down to around 5,000 on occasions).

To be honest we weren't that good when we went up to the top flight for the first time in 1969. We only won 6 games in a 42 match season and it was something of a miracle that we stayed up, and that there were two worse sides than us.I remember us labouring through many a game with our backs to the wall. But I guess it is better being poor in the top division than a lower one.

The three seasons in Division 3 weren't too bad as we were generally competitive and played some very good football, and there was the famous cup run in that period.

I recall the dark and dismal days as highlighted in the plethora of posts when I often pulled crab apple grimaces and expressions of disgust were plentiful! Mouth frequently forming a downward crescent and head hung heavily akin to a despondent mule.Been some grim times since I first started supporting the club in the 60s.