Fifty years tomorrow

What if anything, were the expectations in those days. Could and should the team have won promotion then maybe, long before we did eventually when Clarkie joined us.
Some fans have told me that Iley deserved more credit than what fans gave him. Even though his time with the club was steady, but also rather unspectacular!.

 

Yeah I remember the time well, that calendar year of '90 really was a good one under Mel.
First of all he kept us up, and then he very nearly took us up, when we thought we'd made the Play offs.

 

As a teenager at the time, I was convinced I knew more about football than Jim Iley! Then again, I also 'knew' how to run the club better than Ernest Dennis! It annoyed me that we were continually selling our young, better players and replacing them with experienced, free transfer players.
Eventually, I began to mature and grow up. It's my opinion now that Iley did a good job for us, when he had both hands tied behind his back financially.

 

Just thinking how old "50 years ago" sounds and its dawned on me that I'm rapidly approaching my 40 years service at Oakwell.

 

Could it be said then that Iley sort of paved the way for Clarke to come in, eventually.
Maybe he kept the clubs accounts at a decent or at least an acceptable level, by basically not spending (or not being allowed to spend) anything.
What brought about his departure then, did he leave or was he sacked.

 

That's fair.
He was appointed the boss of Blackburn Rovers in Division 2 in the April of the 1977/78 season. We had lost 2-0 to two promotion rivals in the previous week, at Brentford and then home to Swansea City. He wasn't sacked.

 

I wish I'd been a fan when Clarke was signed, I bet our fans were, err surprised to say the least lol.
It sounded like an amazing time as the club had made a massive ambitious step like that, for however much it cost.
And tracksuit player managers were still the thing then, if the manager said it, you did as you were told. Clarkie didn't mess about did he!.

 

Allan Clarke was like a tornado when he was appointed. Everyone in the town and surrounding areas were talking about us. We became THE club in the Division. Our attendances shot up and the quality of football was like nothing I'd seen up to that point. For me, signing Clarke was the catalyst for everything positive that's happened to our club since.

 

He tried his hand at a few man management things didn't he, which apparently worked wonders with the squad.
Stopping the players from cleaning their own boots and kits, and taking them down one of the local pits as well, its amazing really when you think about it.
So they could see what real hard work was like and how lucky they were to be proper footballers etc.
Unbelievable Jeff lol.

 

Bearing in mind what it’s cost us over the last 50 years (Dyson’s dad even more so than me) it might have been an idea to just watch the Sunday footy highlights on itv then the Sunday afternoon film! IIRC 1 Stewart, 2 Yeates, 3 Chambers, 4 Doyle, 5 Murphy, 6 Manning, 7 Lea, 8 Butler, 9 Mahoney, 10 Millar, 11 Brown. Entrance (junior) 20p, programme 5p, bus fare from Wombwell 5p each way - it was before the subsidised 2p rate started.

 

Three cracking players in that side. Mick Butler, Ali Millar and the late great Bobby Doyle.