ARTICLE: A Director’s Tale

[MG70]

Danny Wilson (Chesterfield)
Glenn Cockerill (Lincoln)
John Aldridge (Newport)

And early season
Peter Reid ( Bolton)

My word, we could have been promoted with those in the team.
The goals John Aldridge would have scored would have at least kept us up. I’d forgotten that we never made a signing after promotion.

I’ve always wondered how the bad mouthing of Bond came from, it must have been someone within the club/board. I can’t believe it was the fans at the time.

[ClaretTony]

Just finished reading the book and found it a very interesting read given I knew and liked the three major characters - John Jackson, Derek Gill & John Bond, knowing the first two very well and Bond not quite so well.

[CleggHall]

A ringing endorsement, why was Bond so unloved and misunderstood?

[Herts Clarets]

I read several chapters on the train on the way home last Thursday after the Everton game and enjoying it so far. Question is - who was the well known local personality that ate the flowers from the table during the dinner. Was it you Tony?

[Quickenthetempo]

A ringing endorsement, why was Bond so unloved and misunderstood?

I hate John Bond because the Longside told me to.

People just join in with chants and it grows from there.

[elwaclaret]

My abiding memory of the time was Gerry Gow (who I had thought was a wonderful player watching him play for Bristol City and Man City ) and Tommy Cassidy; it was like we’d got pit ponies from Bank Hall in midfield. Never really blamed Bond, up to Benson taking over - then for me his biggest crime was bringing Benson in as assistant, and worse leaving him to take over.

[ClaretTony]

Tommy Cassidy had gone by the time Bond arrived.

[Hipper]

The book was informative, but not as much as I'd hoped. I found it a bit disorganised and repetitive - just a bit.

And, one burning question that I've always had - I still don't understand how Joe Gallagher passed his medical. The nearest we got was when Joe himself mentions running up and down the terracing which gave him no problem because his issue was turning on the knee. However to me it's beyond belief that someone who ran with a limp as he clearly did can be passed fit to play in the Third Division. Joe himself must have known his weaknesses but was, although it wasn't said, able to con the club into a four year contract. A con is what it was and cost the club dear. I know he is supposed to be a likeable fellow but that doesn't take away from what he did.

[ClaretTony]

One thing that comes through loud and clear and something I know to be the case is that both John Jackson & Derek Gill were committed Clarets and remained so until the end of their lives. Such different people who just couldn’t work together.

[Culmclaret]

My abiding memory of the time was Gerry Gow (who I had thought was a wonderful player watching him play for Bristol City and Man City ) and Tommy Cassidy; it was like we’d got pit ponies from Bank Hall in midfield. Never really blamed Bond, up to Benson taking over - then for me his biggest crime was bringing Benson in as assistant, and worse leaving him to take over.

Tommy Cassidy was many things, but pit pony he was not. He never played with Gow as he left before Bond came

[elwaclaret]

Tommy Cassidy was many things, but pit pony he was not. He never played with Gow as he left before Bond came

Fair enough, the memory dims. As for Tommy Cassidy, a good player but his legs had gone that final season (he was here), as I remember, but admittedly I was young at the time.

[2 Bee Holed]

it was like we’d got pit ponies from Bank Hall in midfield.

How times change!

[jtv]

Another excellent book by Dave.

I am intrigued by the fact that Jackson obviously did not rate Miller, Casper and Dobson at all. Was he jealous of their popularity and thought that by shipping them out he would replace them in the popularity polls?

[The Enclosure]

Tommy Cassidy's legs were going by the time he came to Burnley.However what a great asset he was, he hardly moved from the centre circle but used to make wonderfully accurate and telling forward passes to start attacks.
We could do with someone like him today.

[The Enclosure]

With regard to Bond. I had no real issue with him. I think the problem was that he was a little bit too flamboyant for down to earth Burnley folk.
He certainly brought into the club some good ex City players, maybe approaching the end of their careers but better than what we had.
I think he got a raw deal at Burnley.

[Hipper]

Another excellent book by Dave.

I am intrigued by the fact that Jackson obviously did not rate Miller, Casper and Dobson at all. Was he jealous of their popularity and thought that by shipping them out he would replace them in the popularity polls?

In Miller and Casper's cases the evidence was there for all to see. There may have been reasons beyond managerial ability for that (and the book looks at these) but the results were the defining object.

Dobson was an unknown quantity, as was Hutchison later, but the days of appointing in-house were not unreasonably gone. The thing I didn't know was that Jackson wanted Bond and that was that. The other so called candidates were just a token gesture to appear like a proper selection process [and it would be interesting to speculate if one of those names had taken over. I recall some of them were mentioned at the time]) and had no chance of the job, according Gill in the book.