Awesome Swale you saved me searching.
A thing of unrivalled beauty...
RIP Larry
Awesome Swale you saved me searching.
A reference to it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqosXeffEXk
Last edited by since41; 29-03-2024 at 04:58 AM.
McDonagh joined a couple of weeks before Lloyd arrived, so he can't be blamed for that one.
Martin O'Neil arrived after, but according to Martin he'd agreed with Howard Wilkinson that he would join Notts just before Wilko left for Sheff Wed, being unable to convince Dunnett to give him a pay rise to extend his contract.
We actually agreed terms to sign Roeder permanently in December but then Newcastle came in for him, which didn't help Lloyd. Nor did the following summer's breakdown in the permanent signing of Ken Armstrong, who then went to Birmingham instead.
With McCulloch having to retire and Christie and Chiedozie both sold, we didn't sign any replacements (Sims and Alan Young) until we'd lost all of the first 4 games of 84/85. Almost certainly more the fault of Dunnett than Lloyd, but form barely improved after that and 9 defeats in the first 11 games of that 2nd tier season rightly earned him the sack and I think it's that run that really did for Lloyd's reputation among Notts fans.
Had he be sacked at the end of 83/84 we probably would have been a lot more forgiving. His PPG for that 1st tier season is actually better than Warnock's of 1991/92 and there were greater highs at that level under Lloyd.... somehow I forgot to mention the outrageous 3-3 at Old Trafford, arguably his best result of all.
I was there at old Trafford some man U fans were talking about Chiedozie before the match remarking that he was from Nigeria saying do they even play football in Nigeria he ran them ragged and he should have scored the winner late on in the game when a burst of his speed left the defence for dead but he shot over the bar.
Newspapers back then tended not to bother printing league tables that early in the season, but I do clearly remember seeing the top 6 printed alongside the results on the Thursday morning. Maybe the novelty of Notts being top encouraged them to include it.
A pity we then came up against one of the other teams who started that season well, Ipswich taking 13 pts from 15 in their first 5 games. If we'd have had Wolves instead we would have probably still been top on Sunday morning.
Some other inspirations too...
Seeing Man City and Chelsea at least 1 division below us!
Thinking of all that happened to Luton in the intervening years...
But the team at the top is the odd one out. 10 clubs in the Prem now, a whopping 11 in the Championship and then one down in the 4th tier It would have been even more shocking last year of course.