Heard some lads slagging off Paddy yesterday.

Re: You mean

John McSeveney is the worst manager I've seen at Barnsley. Jim Iley, in retrospect, did a very difficult job well. However, as a teenager at the time, I thought he was the personification of evil for selling our best young 'uns for nothing like their market value and bringing in experienced players, who usually had some Sheffield Wednesday connection. I was wrong.

 

Re: You mean

If you're not busy doing all the house chores as usual, Kev, would you please give me an insight into McSeveney and his tenure?

I'd ask for your favourite manager but I'm guessing it was Clarke? As he was my dads.

 

You're right with regards to Allan Clarke

His appointment as player/manager was like a whirlwind at the club. Overnight we turned from a run of the mill Fourth Division club to one with ambition, big crowds and momentum to achieve more than we'd done for years.
John McSeveney took over just after the start of the 1971/72 season. Even though the club had sold my favourite player at the time, Pat Howard, we still had decent players like Les Lea, Eric Winstanley, Alistair Millar & Frank Sharp. However, the quality of football we produced under McSeveney was appalling and mind numbingly dull. It was no surprise when we were relegated from Division Three at the end of the season, as we simply could neither score nor win. I assumed that would alter in the Fourth Division the following season. Oh how wrong I was. McSeveney was sacked when he'd been in the job about a year. We'd gone from a decent mid table Third Division side to one struggling towards the bottom of Division Four, with falling attendances, no fight & no belief in just twelve months. A truly awful period.

 

Re: You're right with regards to Allan Clarke

Did he ignore attack-minded players in favour of midfield toilers?

 

Re: You're right with regards to Allan Clarke

We didn't even have midfield toilers.

 

Re: You're right with regards to Allan Clarke

Bloody hell. Sounds bleak. Were the TV's switched on in the concourse?

 

Re: You're right with regards to Allan Clarke

It WAS over forty years ago! We hardly had any terracing on the Spion Kop, nor on the banking going from the Paddock round to the Ponty End, just shale-like muck (possibly from the local pit). There was also a type of red shale between the pitch and wall bottom. Ah, them were the days!

 

Re: You're right with regards to Allan Clarke

I remember Oakwell in my formative years, where I used to stand at the bottom of the Brewery Stand and marvel at the West Stand and it's seats.

 

Re: You're right with regards to Allan Clarke

no, but we had midfield toilets

 

Re: You're right with regards to Allan Clarke

To the Neanderthal sat near me who insisted on calling him a 'bomb chucking lovely person'

You are a simpleton.

Regards.