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What was your expectations when McMenemy first took charge?


Pick Nickering said:
I thought we’d win the league easily,think we lost the first 4 games without scoring a goal then we were losing to Grimsby at Roker , I’ve never heard booing like it just before Swindlehurst scored on the stroke of half time then we conceded straight from the restart! Finished 3-3. I was a teenager then and it still took another couple of months before I could admit Mackemenemy was shite.
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I hate Mcenemy as much as anyone but nobody expected Swindlehurst to be as shite as he was . I was over the moon when we signed him . Maybe he was just another player who'd always looked brilliant but only against us .
 
One of his first games was away to Norwich saw the team bus at a hotel on the way to the city, decided to pop in for
a drink, Barry Siddall was at the door, had a bit of a chat, nice bloke, went inside Mcmenemy was sat with Bob Murrey,
he hadn't been chairman for long either, iirc, said hello to them and they were very courteous, Laurie offered my mate
& I a ticket for the match, I asked him to sign it which he did, got to the ground lad on the door tore the stub off, he
had signed the bit that they keep :rolleyes: Tickets were for friends and family area, Gordon Armstrong was sat behind us,
he declined to come for a drink at half time though, sign of things to come, pretty sure we got beat :(
 
Sky high.
But it lowered very quickly when it became apparent (I was working in the national media at the time) that his attempt to replicate his Southampton style of management (sign seasoned old stagers such as Rodrigues, Osgood, Ball, etc) and get them to "manage" the team on the pitch, wasn't working in the Second Division. Not with the quality and temperament of players he signed for us...Burley, Kennedy, Swindlehurst etc. A disaster almost from the off.
 
Lost first 5 without scoring a goal in 85-86.
Blackburn H
Pompey A
Palace A
Oldham H
Millwall A

Then a managed a 3-3 v Grimsby at home. Think he got shot of Seamus shortly after that.

From memory, the home form under Mcmememy wasn’t that bad (can recall quite a few victories at RP), but the away form was disastrous).
 
stockton said:
Lost first 5 without scoring a goal in 85-86.
Blackburn H
Pompey A
Palace A
Oldham H
Millwall A

Then a managed a 3-3 v Grimsby at home. Think he got shot of Seamus shortly after that.

From memory, the home form under Mcmememy wasn’t that bad (can recall quite a few victories at RP), but the away form was disastrous).
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For me, it was a case of if we get a goal & win it will all fall into place hopefully, but it never did. The Seamus time was also a masterstroke in what we were to become.

We have a difference of opinion here because I don't recall our home form being not too bad, we never looked like avoiding defeat.
hank williams said:
O'Neil assistant when Mon took over here
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We just couldn't keep him out of our nightmares.
DisillusionedOldGit said:
It was the worst of times . Well, at the time it was .
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It was my worst by a fair way after all the hope & subsequent ruin that came with what he'd done.
 
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I was really excited. Alan Kennedy had scored the winning penalty in the European Cup only a year earlier. Gates and Burley were just great cultured footballers who had just played a huge part in a great Ipswich side. Frank Gray also a cracking footballer. The fact that there was so many oldies at once was of no concern as LM knew exactly what he was doing as he had done with an ageing Southampton side. At the beginning of that season you could throw in some very good other players such as Venison, Pickering, Proctor, Gayle, Bennett and it looked a great bet. Sadly we had a completely inept keeper, Kennedy looked as if he had never kicked a ball in his life and Gatesy at first never looked as if he wanted to be here. The rot set in Proctor got injured, Venison and Pickering eventually sold and replacement signings were poor. We were terrible.
 
70s traveller said:
For me, it was a case of if we get a goal & win it will all fall into place hopefully, but it never did. The Seamus time was also a masterstroke in what we were to become.

We have a difference of opinion here because I don't recall our home form being not too bad, we never looked like avoiding defeat.


We just couldn't keep him out of our nightmares.


It was my worst by a fair way after all the hope & subsequent ruin that came with what he'd done.
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Had a quick look on Statcat. We won 18 of our home games over the course of 85-86 and 86-87. Not great at all , but better than the likes of the 15 point season in 2006 with the single home win v Fulham.

The 4-2 v Leeds (Pickering hat-trick) and the 2-1 v Sheff Utd on Boxing Day probably the best performances from 85 to 87. Worst I think was the 0-3 v West Brom in the second season. The 0-3 v Oldham in the run of 5 defeats at the start of 85-86 was also garbage.
 
Qwerty said:
Mcmememy was shite but we weren't in a relegation spot when he was sacked.
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It wasn't too far away though was it, because his team were reliant on there enough teams being worse that would fill the places. It was screamingly obvious that was our only way of not ending up as it did.
stockton said:
Had a quick look on Statcat. We won 18 of our home games over the course of 85-86 and 86-87. Not great at all , but better than the likes of the 15 point season in 2006 with the single home win v Fulham.

The 4-2 v Leeds (Pickering hat-trick) and the 2-1 v Sheff Utd on Boxing Day probably the best performances from 85 to 87. Worst I think was the 0-3 v West Brom in the second season. The 0-3 v Oldham in the run of 5 defeats at the start of 85-86 was also garbage.
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The home form never made me think there was anything to say we were good enough to stay clear. There was always a run of defeats on the horizon for a team that struggled to score & rarely looked capable of not conceding.
 
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70s traveller said:
It wasn't too far away though was it, because his team were reliant on there enough teams being worse that would fill the places. It was screamingly obvious that was our only way of not ending up as it did.


The home form never made me think there was anything to say we were good enough to stay clear. There was always a run of defeats on the horizon for a team that struggled to score & rarely looked capable of not conceding.
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In the last game of the regular season we were 2-0 up and lost it 3-2. This put us 3rd from bottom, even then we had a 2nd bite of the cherry with the play offs.
Totally blaming McMenemy is like the mags totally blaming Mcclaren
 
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