Laws on the brink??

[PACMAN]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1264391/Burnley-set-sack-manager-Brian-Laws-just-win-14-games.html

Oh dear, will all the speculation start again? Would SOD want to go given their position?

[Lytham Rover]

does this mean there will be no law(s) west of the pecos?

just a thought

[scuzzer]

Kilbys 'Brian was always first choice' comment still rings in my ears and makes me PMSL every time i hear their result! The best million quid they never spent!

[idler]

You must remember Dave Cusack. Didn't he take us and Rotherham down.

[silent majority]

Now that was a guy who only had a plan A, play as far up the pitch as possible and appeal for offside all the time!

[stockyboy]

Understandable really, you look at the position they was in before he arrived, and he's only won 1 in 14, terrible form. Plus I have £5 bet on them staying up so i hope he goes, but hope they don't take sod!

[Wellred]

Dave Cusack was before your time Rigo but if you can imagine a centre half trying to play football with one hand permanently held up in the air you can picture Cusack.

[Snods Shinpad 2]

Cusack: A Tesco Value Tony Adams, with comedy mullet and tash thrown in.

[BobG]

And he was supposed to be a good player too

His team was downright dreadful to watch. Think Blades, Taylor's Watford, thuggish Accrington Stanley and then add some.

Cheers

BobG

[wilts rover]

Paul Hart could well manage it this season of course

[BillyStubbsTears]

See, I know I'm a cantakerous, argumentative t**t, but I genuinley do think Cusack has had a bad press.

He became manager after a demi-legend had left the club.

The side he inherited had recently lost, or was just about to lose Glynn, Ian, Duggie, Jim Dobbin, Billy Russell, Steve Lister and John Buckley, the heart and soul of Bremner's side.

He STILL took us to the highest end of season league position that we had seen for 30 years. And we wouldn't get that high again for another 20 years.

Cusack had little of the money that Bremner had had (and THAT was precious little), but he still found gems like Neil Redfearn (STILL the second best midfielder we've ever had) & Tommy Gaynor, and he brought players like Neil Woods through the ranks. He found loanees like John Moncur and John Cornforth.

He then had the key players sold on to pay off the mounting debts, and was left with nothing. His side that went down in 88 was one made up of 18 year olds full of promise but short on experience (Deane, Rankine, Brevett, Raven, Gaughan, Turnbull, Paul Gorman), has-beens (Brian Flynn) or never-were-beens (Billy Stubbs, Nev Chamberlain, Gary Kimble...the winger who made Andy Watson look like Alan Little)

He's had a bad deal has Dave.








Mind, it were shite football that he played like, but as they say, when the going gets tough, you boot the t**t 70 yards and run out with your arm up in the air.

[Superspy]

altogether now...

burnley going down with a million in the bank, a million in the bank...

[Superspy]

they'll still have their million though. tight fkers. not that i mind, obviously i'd rather we not lose odriscoll...ever. lol

[PDX_Rover]

Ahhh the Cusack years.  Could not be further from what we have now in terms of the style of play. I was there week in, week out straining my neck to see the ball gathering snow in the stratosphere....

Cusack was a decent player but limited as a manager.  The next logical step was to have the defence's arms permanently welded in the upright 'offside appeal' position.

And don;t get me started on old thunder thighs, assistant manager Micky Stead.  A more sorry excuse for a left back I have yet to see.  He had the accuracy of an American bombing raid and distribution akin to Lewis Guy's shooting ability, i.e. f**king shocking.

And we moan about SO'D....  In fact, I take back everything negative I have even said about Sean.

[Lesonthewest]

The sight of Cusack & Brown with their hands in the air is still etched on the memory. He did as BST states bring in some good player & got some decent results, it was just the way we played. The season he left though was different, we used something like 30/35 players! I remember some interview or newspaper article after being manager when his old boss George Graham had advised him to leave Rovers while he was boss here. Thought he was a very good centre half under Bremner (still say we would have been there or thereabouts had Billy not left), but altered as soon as he became manager & his game suffered.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I know exactly what you mean Les, but you've got to look at it in context. That 87-88 season, when we went down, the club was imploding. Cusack had every one of his players who were worth owt sold off in the previous year (Dobbin, Redfearn, Gaynor, Woods, Duggy). He was left with a set of kids and knackered journeymen. No wonder he struggled to put a decent side out and had to chop and change every week.

And to cap it all, the Pop Side stand collapsed and attendances with it.

Look at it in context and it's no wonder he played a grim, utilitarian type of football. If we'd tried playing silky skillfull stuff with the likes of Sean Joyce and Nev Chamberlain as key first team players...

In 1987-ish, the Board stopped investing in the club to the extent that they had done in the early 80s, and with hindsight, that was the start of the collapse of the club. Cusack's fatal mistake was to cop for being the boss as the good times went sour.

It's instructive to see that as supposedly great a manager as Dave Mackay did even worse when he came to Donny straight afterwards. And it shows you how great a manager Bremner really was that he alone was able to stop the rot and give us a brief flowering of exhillarating football when he came back, before the inexorable slide to Richardson, Weaver, Bergara and Leek Town.

[Lesonthewest]

BillyStubbsTears wrote:

I know exactly what you mean Les, but you've got to look at it in context. That 87-88 season, when we went down, the club was imploding. Cusack had every one of his players who were worth owt sold off in the previous year (Dobbin, Redfearn, Gaynor, Woods, Duggy). He was left with a set of kids and knackered journeymen. No wonder he struggled to put a decent side out and had to chop and change every week.

And to cap it all, the Pop Side stand collapsed and attendances with it.

Look at it in context and it's no wonder he played a grim, utilitarian type of football. If we'd tried playing silky skillfull stuff with the likes of Sean Joyce and Nev Chamberlain as key first team players...

In 1987-ish, the Board stopped investing in the club to the extent that they had done in the early 80s, and with hindsight, that was the start of the collapse of the club. Cusack's fatal mistake was to cop for being the boss as the good times went sour.

It's instructive to see that as supposedly great a manager as Dave Mackay did even worse when he came to Donny straight afterwards. And it shows you how great a manager Bremner really was that he alone was able to stop the rot and give us a brief flowering of exhillarating football when he came back, before the inexorable slide to Richardson, Weaver, Bergara and Leek Town.

Agree totally the loss of those players you mentioned (was Billy Russell another at that time) was the start of the demise BST. Probably was why Mr Graham told him to get out of here at the time aswell. It does make you wonder what he could have achieved with a few bob though as he did seem to have the knack of attracting good players. It is also worth noting after checking his record, of his 114 games as manager 34 were won, 33 drawn & 47 lost, but I guess you knew that already! Not a bad record over his tenure for a club that had stopped investing, & taking into account him inheriting a good squad initially. All in all he could consider himself a little unlucky.

[Alonzo Drake]

I agree with you Billy that Dave has had a bad press. It is unfortunately stuck in the public memory that he just played the offside trap, and did nothing else. That is wrong. Many great performances stick out from Dave's tenure, and I fondly recall two -- a 3-0 thrashing of the Millers at BV in 86-87, in which Tommy Gaynor scored a wonder goal, and a masterful 1-0 win at Bolton at the end of the same season. I also got to know him personally, and often had a pint with in the Wadworth pubs -- he lived in Loversall. He was passionate about the club, and one night after a couple of pints he told me about this mercurial Irish player he was signing, who would get us promotion, which turned out to be Tommy Gaynor. Also, Dave didn't take us down -- the directors and Dave McKay did. The directors sold the best players in 1987, and from December, McKay was our manager during that awful 87-88 season. Cusack did well whilst here, considering the massive limitations he was put under towards the end of his tenure.

[PDX_Rover]

I remember that Gaynor goal. Almost ran the length of the pitch with it to score if memory serves, at the town end.  And that 1-0 away at Bolton when Nelly Redfearn scored. We played the Bolton supporters in the morning and by the time kick off came, after a pub lunch and numerous beers with the Bolton lads, the win was brilliant.

[Thinwhiteduke]

Mr Laws may just have bought himself a bit of time today following this....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8607332.stm

[Sandy Lane]

Great match today.  First half was dull with just one goal from Hull at about 2 minutes and then nothing but wild shots on goal from both sides.  Second half was excellent with Burnley coming from behind and getting the fourth in extra time.  I'm happy for them and if they stay up, perhaps they won't come looking for SO'D...

Also, a couple of funny moments - one in the first half when two players tugging on each other's shirts successfully avoided yellow cards by hugging each other and grinning when neither got the ball... and one of Burnley's players, Fox I think his name was, had lavendar boots on!  

[BillyStubbsTears]

PDX_Rover wrote:

I remember that Gaynor goal. Almost ran the length of the pitch with it to score if memory serves, at the town end.  

I missed that Rotherham match for a night of carnal bliss with a well-to-do lass in a country house in Loughborough, but the lads reckoned somebody scored a blinder. As well as me.

The goal I remember from Gaynor was against Blackpool, when he picked the ball up on the edge of the Town End box and waltzed, George Weah-like through their entire team before scoring at the Rosso End. If there's EVER been a better individual goal by a Rovers player, it must have been a belter.

[Lesonthewest]

PDX_Rover wrote:

I remember that Gaynor goal. Almost ran the length of the pitch with it to score if memory serves, at the town end.  And that 1-0 away at Bolton when Nelly Redfearn scored. We played the Bolton supporters in the morning and by the time kick off came, after a pub lunch and numerous beers with the Bolton lads, the win was brilliant.

I too remember the Gaynor goal & was it not a certain C. Douglas playing at right back who was one of the players he waltzed around before firing home.