New Video: 'Safe Zone'

Just like you, I was young at the time, and I remember that Jim Iley's name was equivalent to the worst oath that you could think of. The terraces were in meltdown. He sold Mick Pickering, Anton Otulakowski, Bobby Doyle and a right back whose name currently escapes my addled brain. He got good fees for them all, and crucially, he kept Mick McCarthy the real nugget. There was joy unconfined when Blackburn stepped in to take him off our hands.

What no-one realised at the time was, he had restored the club to profitability. Thus restored, the club was able to pay a record fee of £55k for player manager Alan Clarke. It was the change that ultimately took us back to the respectability of the second division. Of course, that realisation did not come at the time. At the time, Alan Clarke took all the plaudits and after just over two years, he moved on to bigger and better things leaving Norman Hunter to pick up the accolade for restoring second tier football to Oakwell. Nevertheless, years later, when the penny finally dropped, I realised that the guy who is in the right place at the right time, and who picks up all the credit as a result, is not necessarily the same guy who made the hard yards at the start of the turn round.

Sadly, it is only possible to judge these things with the benefit of hindsight. I hope that LJ is the guy who is making the hard yards, but who knows.

 

I believe you're thinking of Martin Gorry.
At the time, I was an angry, young muppet, particularly incensed when we sold my favourite player (Mick Butler) to Huddersfield Town. We were continually selling our talented youngsters and replacing them with experienced players, usually on free transfers (for example Peter Springett, Peter Price, Brian Joicey, Graham Pugh). As far as I was concerned at the time, because of this, Jim Iley was the Devil incarnate and he was old & bald! When I started to grow up, it became quite clear to me what a good job Iley did for our club and I became somewhat embarrassed at my immature rants.
The irony of now being old & bald myself isn't lost on me.

 

Martin Gorry

 

Oh what we could do with some of those free transfers now!!

 

I'm convinced they are employing some form of zonal marking in open play. Just look at the number of times the defence runs past any attackers to pick up their "zone" completely ignoring the opposition and the ball.

 

No change in the next month and we're playing L2 next season.....