Match Thread vs. Dagenham and Redbridge 25.01.20

[laddo]

Did we really have to bring Steve Thompson back up, I've just had to swallow some sick thinking back to it.

Great for a funny line in a post match interview, entertaining when interviewed on the radio probably a lovely bloke but his football (that's a loose term when referring to Thommoball) was horrific to watch. There was next to no football played. No doubt he was good for building team spirit and motivating players but he was as limited a manager tactically as you can get.

It was long ball , looking for scraps and second balls from a big man. Yes, the style meant we were near the opposition goal, the full back or centre half made sure of that but the midfield was bypassed in an attacking sense.

He's best suited to doing work for Radio Lincolnshire sport and putting in his CV for each and every job that becomes available within driving distance.

[upthemaggies]

Colin Murphy led the team with Thompson as assistant during the season we lost in the League One play-off finals, and then Murphy went "upstairs" leaving Thompson as the manager/head coach the following season. Both left the club just before Christmas 1996 when we were five points adrift of safety in League One despite a squad that included Darren Ward, Chris Wilder, Ian Richardson, Steve Finnan, Gary Jones, Sean Farrell, Shaun Derry, Tony Agana and Gary Strodder. The team was in such a state that it even took Sam Allardyce several months and eventually a new season to get them back in shape.

But in typical Notts County style a few years later Geoff Moore re-hired Thompson apparently because he cracked a lot of jokes in interview and promised to recruit half of Boston's squad who just happened to be free. To be fair, this time Thompson produced a mid-table side who played turgid long-ball football, so a vast improvement on his previous spell, and I recall him signing Hector Sam because - quote - "He promised me he could score 20 goals". Needless to say, he didn't.

I've heard of rose-tinted spectacles, but they would have to be painted blood red to remember Steve Thompson as anything but the clown he was. His interviews were good though: detailed descriptions of how the opponents scored each goal, and statistics of how many balls we had put into the opponent's box, interspersed with quips like "If the ref was on fire I'd dial 998!". He would have made a decent stand-up comedian, but a good football manager he wasn't.

I honestly can't decide which appointment shocked me the most, Thommo, Sven or Fullarton.
Fact is though that this will be the 8th in 15 seasons that we've finished lower in the football pyramid than when Thommo was in charge. Pretty football just dioesn't seem to work for us at this level, all the success we've ever had has been through a more direct approach.