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So i am desperate for my Christmas footy,and after yesterdays deluge its a trip to Scunny that`s on the agenda and then after that we pop to the midlands to a top of the table Walsall. Well i had a little look and my fears i am afraid are probably worse than i could actually remember.The last victory over the irons unfortunately was 17 years ago,no wonder i had to think twice about planning Mondays wild goose chase,however i will pop my optimistic KH barmy army head on(just like Wurzil gummidge)and head to Humberside,one of the worse grounds in L1 with a crap pub to boot.....oh hum. Anyway lets get to the second part of the festive road trip,its a little more watered down than the Scunthorpe story as our paths have not crossed that frequently,but yet again i find myself searching my memory for that away day victory,i nearly witnessed it in Febuary 2007,the refs watch had hit the 90 minute mark the Dale had gritted it out after nicking an early 5th minute own goal,however Scott Dann the Walsall center half picked the ball up well inside his own half and went on what could only be described as a mazy run from box to box,he lashed a shot past Matty Gilks and the victory had gone.So the last victory was actually the 3rd September 1991(i wasn't attending im afraid) Anybody attend that day that can give us the stats? So the two things i remember most of all about Walsall are the decent club outside the ground to have a pint in,and the cow field that they call a pitch!! Fingers crossed we get a result at one of these im afraid so called Voodoo grounds in my opinion.How about two away victories......Now the lunatics have taken over the asylum. In Keith we believe Up The Dale !!!
livinginadalewonderland
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Not happy hunting ground`s im affraid on 11:20 - Dec 27 with 5995 views
Not happy hunting ground`s im affraid on 13:19 - Dec 27 by SteTsGoldenBoot
Re The Walsall 1991 game, all I can help with is that Dave Sutton was manager and Burnley goalkeeper David Williams appeared in goal for us.
We were brilliant that night, Andy Flounders especially, and it could have been a lot more than 3-1. From memory it was a really warm evening and the away end was a terrace back then, they stuck seats in the year after.
Not happy hunting ground`s im affraid on 13:19 - Dec 27 by SteTsGoldenBoot
Re The Walsall 1991 game, all I can help with is that Dave Sutton was manager and Burnley goalkeeper David Williams appeared in goal for us.
I was living down that way and made my way to/from the game on public transport.
On the way it was all 'good luck, you are going to need it'
On the way back it was shirt hidden, as the anger all around that they could lose to 'somebody like Rochdale' was tangible and i was a little bit frightened.
I go back to the two seasons after we were promoted to the old third division. I saw us beat Walsall 4-1 and 3-0 at their place. Can't remember who scored and the like but it all seemed so easy then. I do remember the locals being stunned by what they had witnessed as the last thing they had expected was a drubbing by newly promoted Rochdale. Same again please lads.
The worm of time turns not for the cuckoo of circumstance.
Not happy hunting ground`s im affraid on 04:25 - Dec 28 by Albert_Whitehurst
Always cheers me up when I think of 'Scunny'
CLIVE ANDERSON: Well now, when it comes to football, one man has for many years been the most noticeable, the most controversial, and occasionally the most successful manager this country has ever produced. His pithy words and abrasive style make as famous off the pitch as he is on. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Alan Latchley.
PETER COOK STAGE RIGHT WALKS TO THE DESK WHER HE JOINS CLIVE ANDERSON. DRESSED IN A BLUE BLAZER, WHITE SHIRT, BLUE TIE AND GREY SLACKS.
CA: Ok Alan, jolly good, now it's great to get you. It's obviously very topical to get you, as you are being, you know, pipped or tipped for the for the England job. ALAN LATCHLEY: Oh, it's too early to talk about the England job now.
CA: OK, well if I'll come back to that in about five minutes, if I may. Because I want, just to talk about your early career. You were one of the youngest managers, when you were originally appointed in the football league, weren't you?
AL: Yes, I was appointed manager when I was sixteen and a half. CA: Yes. AL: At little outskirts of Scunthorpe, close to where I was born.
CA: You're from, very much from Scunthorpe. AL: I'm from Scunthorpe, yes. I'm a Scunny man through and through.
CA: Football is very much your life. AL: It's in me blood, Clive. It's in me blood. I mean without football I'd be nothing. CA: Yes.
AL: And, err, I love football. Football is, is, she's a cruel mistress. She's, she's more than a mistress. She's a wife, she's a mother, she's a daughter, she's and errant child. She's a… she's a… she can make you laugh, she make you cry. She can bring tears me eyes. She can bring blood to me shoulders. She can bring -
CA: Yes, bring the kettle to the boil. AL: She can bring the kettle to the boil. 'Cause football is about nothing, unless it's about something and what it is about - CA: Yes, yes.
AL: Is football. Excuse me. CA: Now, at Scunthorpe AL: Scunthorpe, yes.
CA: You were manager there - AL: I was manager till sixteen and a half. CA: Yeah, briefly and what did you think you bring to, you brought to Scunthorpe? AL: I brought heart, and I brought defiance. I brought all those qualities that make this country what it is today -
CA: Yes. AL: A certain, a certain feeling, a certain love, a certain heart, a certain toughness. Mental toughness and physical toughness and, and, and some, something so beautiful, I can scarcely express it. You see when I was manager, briefly, when I was young, I didn't know much. I knew nothing. I'd come straight up from the moors, and I was put in charge of a thriving club. So what did I do? I was just a lad! What did I do? I'll tell you what I did Clive. I read a book.
CA: Yes. AL: "How to manage". CA: Yes, and whose book was that?
AL: That was me dad's book, "How I managed". It was not about football, but about life in general. CA: Yes, but what do you say you have to do to get a team going? What is it? What is the quality?
AL: Belief. Motivation. Motivation, motivation, motivation! The three M's. That's what football is about. It's all about motivation. CA: Motivation, I follow that. AL: You've got to get those boys on the pitch, motivated. It's no good saying go out and buy some ice cream, go to the pictures. You've got to tell them what they're doing. You've got to motivate them onto the pitch. Push them out with forks if you need to, but get them out onto the pitch. And then when the game's over, get them in again.
CA: Now, you went to Hartlepool, and you had this system of getting them angry. Was that - AL: Well, you know rage is very much an adrenaline inducing factor in all sports. CA: Yes.
AL: I mean Linford Christie wasn't in a good mood when he won the hundred metres, was he? CA: Well, he was afterwards. AL: Yes, but you've got to be in a rage to bring out the best in yourself. And what I do to my players, one of the tactics, this was an early tactic, is to kidnap their wives. Or girlfriends! Girlfriends or wives. I'd send them all on a bus up to Grimsby, with no ticket back, and, errm, the lads went mad. They were -
CA: Yes. AL: There was one game against Rotherham, my whole team was sent off, almost as soon as they got on. CA: Yes. Right. The other sort of weird thing you used to use. I'll not say 'weird', but
CA: Your father was something to do with the circus. Now how did that come into - AL: Yes, The Great Escapini my father was, he used to a vanishing act. He would lock himself up in a suitcase, usually in a hotel room, as soon as the bill arrived. And, err, and he would escape from the suitcase. And with that background I formed the Escapini Defence.
CA: Right. AL: Which consisted of a ten-man defensive unit - CA: Yes. AL: I had them stood on each other's shoulders in the goal mouth, their back, back to the opposing team - CA: I see.
AL: And they'd just sit there and we'd rely on rebounds. CA: Oh right. And you only lasted, what a couple of weeks at Hartlepool? AL: Two weeks at Hartlepool. Well, I'm a Scunny man, and they don't like Scunny people at Hartlepool.
CA: No, no. And, err, along with many other managers, you went along to Manchester City.
yAL: Man City, yes. That's where I introduced the concept of equal playing facilities. Namely, that if you had skilful players on your team, that was no excuse for them playing better than the others. 'Cause it makes the other ones feel, you know -
CA: Inferior. AL: Inferior. Which lets face it, I wouldn't say this if I had a team with me now, but some of them are worse than the others. And my tactic was to get them all down to exactly the same level.
CA: And what about going for the England manager's job? Now what, you're a friend of Graham Taylor's of the England football team I know.
AL: I'm a friend of Graham, and I won't speak ill of the man. CA: No. AL: He did a cracking job. When you look at the potential he had there, and his ability to turn it into those results, you have to realise that you are dealing with somebody unusual.
CA: Yes, yes. You say you won't speak ill of him, but you have spoken ill of him on TV programmes, and every other football manager. What, so what is it that you think you could bring to the England job, that your rivals couldn't? AL: I would bring heart, and motivation.
CA: Motivation. AL: And let us work our way up from the bottom, and stay there if we can.
CA: Now, I know apart from your football activities, and I know you keep well in touch with football, but you do have, what is it? Management seminars that you run? To apply your methods to other industries.
AL: Ah, yes I have a course called "Dare To Fail". CA: Yes. AL: In which people who are ambitious, people who've had some degree of success in life, can come along and see what it's like to be at the bottom of the pile, and learn how to get there with pride and dignity in tact.
CA: Yes. AL: And it's with a slide presentation, and it's a very nice week you spend in the country, locked up, you're not allowed to smoke, drink or sleep.
CA: Right. AL: And it's a way of just teaching people. CA: So, "Dare To Fail" is the slogan?
AL: Well, the other side of failure, Clive, is success. CA: Yes, I follow that. Would you say that your career has largely been a failure? AL: Or a success. Depends on how you look at the coin. Just toss it in the air, and let it fall, you know not where.
CA: Yes. AL: But I can look at myself in the mirror in the morning, and say, "There is a man". CA: Thank you, very much, Alan Latchley.
PETER COOK STARES AT CLIVE ANDERSON IN A MOST INTENT MANNER
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