Spot on. I’m sure someone can find the stats, but wasn’t his points per game as good as Smith that season? The players at the time really responded to him and we went from a team falling apart to a team that almost got automatic promotion and who thumped port vale on the last day. Why would anyone show such hate? The mistake was that, at the end of that season, we inevitably lost all of our good players and the club left a rookie manager to try and rebuild. Imagine if we had had a DoF back then.
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I think Barnsley battered already crowned champions Wigan on the last game of the season to make the playoffs
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This thread would have been more interesting if it was with and without Sir Ray and Merscum.
Don’t really think anyone can say anything different, don’t think I’ve ever been as proud of my club as when Sir Ray was at the helm, totally punching above our weight, playing the game with dignity & respect. Buckley gets close, Money, Nicholl not far away, loved fat Jan and think Lee did a good job.
Merson was a joke. Pulled at my moral compass and brought a culture of drinking and gambling and mysogyny into the club. We were a shambles. Embarrassing.
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No mention of Tommy Coakley? I enjoyed watching the teams he put out. Always thought he was treated unfairly by some fans towards the end of his tenure.
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It’s mad how nobody has mentioned Colin Lee kept us up in the championship and played attractive football we’ll never see that again.
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He took quite a lot of stick in his first season. There was a lot of love for Buckley at Walsall for obvious reasons, so when he was sacked whoever came in was going to be up against it. We started poorly under Coakley which didn’t help but I mean we had that great cup run that ended up with those great games v Watford and we finished that season very strongly too. Promotion may have given him some more credits with the street end but I think it was inevitable as soon as we were doing poorly the daggers would be out again. Forcing Nicky Cross out of the club didn’t go down too well either, I wasn’t over pleased myself at that, he is still one of my favourite Walsall players to this day. That’s just how football works though really. We had some good times under Coakley, I’d rather remember those.
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Coakley certainly needs to be added to my list, good shout
No love for Dosh either? Prickly bugger, but will almost certainly be the only manager in my lifetime who won us a league!
Felt so nice to turn up to games knowing we’d probably win!
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Absolutely loathed Chris Hutchins
Jimmy Mullen has got to be up there with most unlikely to be a manager manager ever. He always acted like he’d just been pulled in from the bookies or summat and and just told to manage the team and do his best.
We’ve made some weird managerial appointments
Wasn’t he working in a car showroom when he got the call from us?
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Something like that yeah. Always a barmy one. No ones suprised it didn’t work
Most loved
Buckley - best of times
Nicholl - created the platform
Sir Ray - as an exile sometimes I feel cheated to have missed most of Sir Ray’s years
Dickie Dosh - gave us our Saddlers back
Deano - had a master plan
Honorable Mention
Tommy Coakley - gave us that night at Vicarage Road and the play offs that will never be forgotten
Detested
Martin - 1981
Barnwell - still in therapy
Hutchings - utter shambles
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That’s a good list. Bill Moore, from earlier times should be added (is anyone old enough to remember before Bill Moore?).
On Coakley, it’s correct that he had to work hard to be liked after Buckley was sacked (basically for not being Ramsden’s mate) and there were good times. In my memory, the football he played was not as pleasing as Buckley’s and he must have had a much larger budget to attract some of the players, Christie for example. I never worked out what TC had against Cross, who was great for us. I do remember one night match when Cross had scored twice, was hungry for his hat-trick and Coakley substituted him. As I left Fellows Park, I was almost run over by a wet-haired Cross driving away with his family in his car. It was obvious then that he would not stay.
The other thing with Coakley/Ramsden was that it was the start of the financial problems that have caused us so much grief.
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Big fat Jan was working in a bowling alley 
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Results were generally mid table under him but he did have a pretty good budget for those times…that was summer of Stephen Hughes being signed (massive disappointment), Marco Reich (nice goal here and there but again didn’t justify reputation), Jabo (decent job as hold up striker) and couple of defenders so with likes of Ince and Gerrard still around should’ve been a bit closer to play offs, can’t remember if Ricketts was still around that season.
Crowds were well down though on previous years. It was combination of Dann/Fox saga then DD resigning a few months later and underwhelming appointment of Mullen that probably lost around 500-750 regular going home fans.
And even when we won the football was absolutley turgid. He got sacked on the back of a win if i remember.
I think we beat Northampton one game and me and my dad walking out the ground thinking that was total dross. Rare feeling if you have won a game.
Anthony Gerrards story of him when we beat Brighton with 9 men is funny though, apparently the bloke was in tears he was that proud 
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Even better than that - he was sacked after a game was postponed!!
the fire bin technology didnt save him !
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Yes, he’d forgotten to bring his snow shovel and was given the sack.
I occasionally tell friends we sacked a manager an hour or two after a game was called off and they think I’m making it up.
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