Liverpool leave visiting teams in no doubt where they are.

"This is Anfield" strikes an imposing reminder as the players head for the tunnel.

West Ham proudly welcome opponents to the "Academy of Football".

At Valley Parade, the sign above the home dressing room reads: "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."

All right, I made that last bit up but it certainly feels that a similar doom-laden inscription wouldn't be out of place.

A dismal campaign and once again home was where the heart of the problem lay for City.

Who would have thought when Dean Windass headed the only goal against Chesterfield on December 16 that Valley Parade had witnessed its last home win?

At that stage City were comfortably mid-table; closer to the top six than bottom four.

Their home record of five wins and three draws from 11 games was shared by two other sides, the Spireites themselves and Rotherham. Neither of them were in the drop zone either - but all three would be stuck in there when it matters.

From the remaining half a season, City collected just six points in front of their own fans out of a possible 36.

Even Brighton, whose overall home form was even worse, gained a point more and managed one win.

In contrast, relegation rivals Bournemouth (21), Cheltenham (14) and Leyton Orient (12) all managed to pull away. The deficit to Orient covered the four-point gap that eventually separated the two teams either side of the survival line - that bitter home defeat with three games left effectively proving the difference.

You cannot expect to stay up without winning a single home game in 2007.

But City arguably paid the price for the controversial decision to cash in on Windass.

It is hardly a coincidence that all four clubs bound for League Two had to shed key individuals. Brentford were torn apart before the season began; Chesterfield lost main striker Caleb Folan to Wigan; Rotherham's financial troubles were exploited by Watford's double swoop for the influential Will Hoskins and Lee Williamson.

And City lost Windass. Not forgetting Jermaine Johnson to Sheffield Wednesday and, most cruelly, Nathan Doyle to a bench-warming role at Hull.

Deano's departure is the stick that critics will use to beat Julian Rhodes. The chairman insisted it had to be done to raise money quickly and pay the bills - others will argue that he signed away City's League One status the moment he accepted Adam Pearson's cheque.

The statistics, though, hardly indicated that Rhodes was holding the club's short-term future to ransom. City had won just once with Windass in the side since the end of September and he had fallen out of favour with supporters after being sent off for a shameful lunge at Bournemouth defender Neil Young.

Colin Todd was not too impressed either with his staunchest supporter in the dressing room.

Windass was suspended again when City ground out a 1-0 win at Port Vale, which turned out to be their last victory for the next two months, and Todd planned to leave him on the bench as a lesson the following week.

As it turned out, Jermaine Johnson pulled his hamstring so Windass played - and typically signed off against Swansea with two goals. Having become the club's third highest scorer in history, his 12-goal tally was enough to finish top of the City pile for the fourth season running - even though there were still 18 games to go.

The Vale Park victory proved to be Todd's last at the helm; his reign spanning 124 league matches coming to an end after an insipid display at Gillingham a month later. On the ground where he had fallen out spectacularly with away fans the previous season, City's meek surrender persuaded Rhodes to pull the trigger.

Again questions will be asked about the timing. A change could have been made earlier - and, if the jungle drums were to be believed, would have been had City lost that pre-Christmas Chesterfield game - and Todd had hinted that he would be calling it a day at the end of the season, anyway.

Fed up with constantly battling against the club's financial constraints, Todd did not want another summer scrabbling around to fill his squad.

He was not popular with a significant section of the supporters and Rhodes made it clear his decision had, in part, been influenced by the negative reaction from some.

Having steadied the boat for two seasons, the club had hoped this campaign would bring much more.

And the first two months certainly suggested City were going the right way. Having frantically plugged gaps with a host of loan signings on the eve of the season, Todd was rewarded with a team that surged to fourth in the table on the back of some swashbuckling performances.

But the wheels fell off spectacularly after Huddersfield's smash-and-grab derby raid in the first week of October. Suddenly the goals - and points - dried up and the boss began to feel the heat.

Todd was never one to back down from a confrontation, even allegedly swinging a right hander at former Bantam Craig Armstrong in the tunnel at Cheltenham, and stood up to the boo-boys. After one game, he "invited" one angry supporter to join him pitch-side for a post-match discussion.

But Todd's departure, when it came, was as much a shock as the instant appointment of David Wetherall in his place. The captain certainly had no wind of his chairman's request when he came off the training field that morning. Wetherall found juggling both jobs an unenviable task, though he put his soul into it and was often the first in every day and last to leave. But sadly, results did not improve.

And when City slipped back into the bottom four with a third defeat on the bounce at leaders Scunthorpe, they were never able to recover.

Individual incidents cost them dear - home red cards for Steve Schumacher and Joe Colbeck; Donovan Ricketts making appalling blunders at Rotherham and Chesterfield - but ultimately it was the on-going failure to win at home that proved the downfall.

With so many players out of contract, there will be big changes for next season. Hopefully City will have learned against the over-reliance on loan players - however well it worked in some cases, they always go back.

And, most importantly of all, Rhodes has a call to make in the next fortnight about who will be leading them into League Two. One name stands above others and the appointment of Stuart McCall would breathe new life into the club.

But whoever takes the hot-seat, there is once again much work to be done as City look to rebuild from the bottom up.

Next season is not the end of the world; far from it if the fans get behind the cheap tickets offer. A successful campaign will be well supported whatever the division. But City have to get their home in order.