Even for battle-weary City fans, the season just passed will take some beating.

Disappointment has become a byword for those who loyally trek to Valley Parade every other week more in hope than expectation.

It’s almost become a badge of honour to list all the lows you have witnessed from a decade of despair.

But in the annuls of awfulness, the last nine months deserve a chapter of their own.

Season 2010/11 will stand out through the mire. It has plumbed depths lower than anything we have experienced since the Premier League bubble burst.

1: The worst scoring record in the division.

2: No player in double figures for league goals.

3: No wins by more than a one-goal margin after October.

4: Only one point from an away game when they conceded first.

5: City’s heaviest home defeat for eight-and-a-half years.

6: City’s lowest league finish since 1966.

Statistics can be twisted many ways but that last one is damning and indisputable. This is officially the worst team for nearly half a century.

Meanwhile, the club are embroiled in just as big a mess off the field. At the moment, they don’t know where they will be kicking off again in August or who will be manager.

While the retained list is finalised, there are no guarantees about new players. Season-tickets remain in abeyance.

How could everything have gone so spectacularly wrong?

Supporters knew what to expect with Peter Taylor’s pragmatic approach.

They were prepared for a season of substance over style – but got neither.

The games were generally poor to watch – and City got little from them. For the long-suffering fans, it was the worst of both worlds.

A divide quickly formed between terrace and touchline.

Taylor never forgave those who booed the players off after they had won the opening home game against Stevenage. He was quick to make that point and further bad results widened the feeling of antipathy from the stands.

Fans who had been complaining that the club should have given Taylor a longer contract suddenly couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

City gave their manager carte blanche; no request was turned down. The playing budget spiralled as loan players were shipped in to plaster over the cracks.

By the end, 39 different players had taken to the field in claret and amber – only Barnet and Hereford used more.

Injuries were at the heart of Taylor’s troubles.

When Simon Ramsden did not appear for the second half of the Carling Cup tie with Nottingham Forest in the opening week, nobody could have imagined he would play only 90 more minutes.

Michael Flynn was out of contention until well into the new year and then only looked a shadow of the talismanic leader that City had counted on.

Tommy Doherty, the A list capture of the summer, was never the influential figure that had dictated matches in Wycombe colours.

Shane Duff, a questionable signing given his bad injury record over the previous two years, again failed to appear for even half the games.

As Taylor would argue, no team at whatever level could cope with such significant absences.

But there were other problems which you could see coming.

The biggest was the lack of a genuine goalscorer, a Dean Windass-type poacher. Taylor highlighted that before a ball was kicked and City’s pathetic tally backed up his concern.

But to be honest, how many chances did his team create? Strikers are only as good as the service they receive and there were too many games when the frontmen were left so isolated that even feeding off scraps was regarded as a treat.

There was a lack of width about City’s play. Where were the wingers to get the ball into the box?

Only one player could look back on the season with any kind of satisfaction. Given what was going on around him, David Syers’ breakthrough was worthy of even more praise.

Taylor’s patience to allow the midfielder time to recover from a pre-season knock and continue his trial paid off with a season of consistent performances, often at odds with those of his team-mates.

Lee Hendrie’s arrival promised better times and there was a revival around October, with four wins out of five.

City suddenly showed they could play, with a richly-entertaining win over Cheltenham and an emphatic five-goal second half against Oxford. That game on Halloween weekend was their last victory by more than one goal.

New Year weekend revived hope, with six points from Lincoln and Bury, Omar Daley’s thundering volley clinching the double over the promotion-bound Shakers.

All the talk afterwards centred around Newcastle’s attempts to take Taylor as their number two. City agreed £50,000 compensation but the manager changed his mind.

A home embarrassment against Barnet five days later began a plunge downhill which quickly accelerated.

A point at leaders Chesterfield was the only time City responded from letting in the first goal on their travels. But even that should have been all three as defensive over-caution allowed the hosts back in for a stoppage-time equaliser.

After another defeat in the return game, Taylor met Julian Rhodes and agreed to a parting of the ways.

He stayed on for a dramatic but unconvincing struggle past nine-man Stockport while Peter Jackson watched from a private box. The cavalry was back in 24 hours later to meet the players; Jackson eagerly seizing the reins while the board went through the mound of managerial applications.

Jackson’s 14-game reign delivered four wins, two of those in thrilling fashion with last-minute clinchers at Valley Parade, and that was enough to keep City’s heads above water.

But the problems facing him – or whoever, as there is still no sign of a decision on the permanent job – were exposed for all to see by Accrington at Easter and then Crewe in Saturday’s hugely embarrassing sign off.

It was City’s heaviest home defeat since a Sheffield United side including both Windass and Stuart McCall had sliced apart Nicky Law’s team of youthful loanees in November 2002.

The weekend humiliation was a darkly fitting way to put the seal on what had gone on before. The pain will linger on through a summer when so much has to be decided.

Season 2010/11 will not be missed. The biggest fear now for all concerned is that the next one is already shaping up to be even harder.