Kevin Nolan

Alan Clarke did….!!

 

We've had 5 player managers in my time watching Barnsley FC. I think Hendrie was the wrong choice but without him we may never have signed Higgy. Viv Anderson decided it wasn't a role that suited him and never managed again. The season was mediocre but I got to see Viv Anderson play for Barnsley, which was pretty bloody special. The other 3 - Wilson, Clarke and Hunter - changed our history in ways it was impossible to imagine before their arrival.

 

Fair enough like I say 4 out of the 5 were before my time. Player managers do really seem a thing of the past now though. As do managers where they will be in charge of all transfers etc it's mostly "head coaches" nowadays.

 

Was Hendrie a player/manager or an ex player who went on to manage? I honestly can't remember him playing in that side as a manager but that means bugger all. Did he play early on in the season before we signed Hignett?

 

Started half a dozen league games, a few more as sub. Scored the winner at home to Oxford. Think his final games were in the FA Cup. He would have played a lot more but he struggled with injury.

 

I think Nolan comes across well on radio / tele & clearly has something about him as several decent managers have made him captain & wanted him on their coaching staff but I would rather someone else took the gamble

 

Thanks for that Jay. I will have watched that Oxford game but can't for the life of me remember it. I thought with Ward and Dyer on the books and then Hignett later, Hendrie would have omitted himself.
My memory's going to pot these days.

 

Everyone got sold or injured.

We started the season with Fjortoft, Ward, Liddle, Hristov and Hendrie.

Hristov got crocked in August and was pretty much out for the whole season. Liddle was sold to Wigan in October, Fjortoft to Frankfurt in November and Ward to Blackburn in December. By that time we'd signed Dyer and Hignett, but Dyer was struggling with injury and only played sporadically for the first few months, while we needed Higgy in midfield.

We were playing a right set of ne'er-do-wells up front: the hapless Deon Burton, an aging Don Goodman (who had to leave the country during his stay with us due to some tax issue), Karl Rose (awful) and Mike Turner (The student, not The Postman as many people remember him as, that was Andy Evans signed by Bassett).

Hendrie would have played a lot more games but he was crocked himself. I'm not claiming he was a great manager, but he didn't half have some bad luck. We signed Sheron at the end of January and Dyer got back to fitness, so we managed to get a decent enough strike force out, although Sheron did very little that season, but it was still often Mike Turner who was our striking option from the bench. Or we simply didn't have an attacking sub

 

PS

 

I remember all of those players but hadn't realised they were all there the same season. One thing I do remember was Clint Marcelle having a bit of a fracas with Hendrie when he first got the manager's job.

 

Not the worst shout, I ever heard..

 

You’re forgetting another lad, on our books at the time, came up through the ranks & (without checking stats) possibly went on to outscore all of the above on ratio. Seen as surplus & probably the most regrettable sale in the history of BFC.
I’ll leave that with you..

 

JP?

 

No..? Jeezus, you’re all so forgetful..

 

190 goals over his career for a fat lad from tarn wasn’t too bad!

 

. Not who I was thinking of, from that era..

 

Anyway, enough head scratching & keyboard rattling in Dodworth. I can hear it from here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Beckett
Sleep well, Kev & Jay..

 

What you on about? I got that many a season in my prime.

 

The way I remember it, he wouldn’t play himself alongside Fjortoft, which would have been our best attack at the time imho (although not other peoples). One would come off the pitch as the other came on. I think he fell out with people didn’t he, because he tried to change overnight from a club joker to disciplinarian or somesuch… at least that’s what I’ve read/heard over the years.

 

Super John wasn’t really cut out for football management, I don’t think. He was thrown under a bus in many ways & that was so unfair. A knee jerk reaction appointment. Despite the great tools at his disposal. I wrote to Hendrie after he was fired, kindly. One of the very few times, I’ve written to an individual BFC person. Always kindly..