The Ugly: Barcelona, Champions League, September 2016
Oh God. Oh dear God.
Brendan has suffered a few of these, but that was easily the worst. Easily. It was a complete collapse on the night, one that will haunt us for years. Our worst ever European away deficit, it was a night when we played the best forward line ever assembled and they made our defence look like kids in a school playground trying to catch the grown ups.
That night was “learn your limits the hard way” and it was astonishing how poor we were. And yes, you have to consider the level of the opposition, but it was Don’t Watch Alone stuff that left us seriously fearful for the rest of the Group games.
The less said about it the better … only one away result in Europe was ever worse.