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Altrincham FC First Team / Re: Dagenham Match Thread
« on: March 21, 2021, 07:04:32 PM »If you look at that Tony Sanders managed team from his arrival to us reaching the pinnacle, the evolution was not dissimilar to what we are seeing today.
You had mainstays like Ivan Crossley and Mickey Brooke becoming squad players - but still playing an important role (Brookes goal at Droylsden taking us to White Hart Lane for example); you had a raising of the bar seeing upgrades from (eg) Mickey Moore to John Rogers, and a falling by the wayside of the (eg) Joe Flaherty's of this world. You even saw the odd big name signing coming in and failing to make an impact (Tony Webber as example)
And the main thrust was strengthen the squad each year - Johnson and Webber in 76/7; Rogers, Bailey and King in 77/8; Barry Howard in 78/9; Graham Barrow and Barry Whitbread in 79/80. And we ended up with a squad that had replaced (eg) Alan Heathcote with Graham Barrow
The arrival of Ceesay, Mooney, Senior, Colclough, Kosylo and Smith (the new Graham Barrow) is part of the same dynamic.
Coincidentally, the board is expanding to a similar size as it was in the late 70's - ambitious young dynamic business leaders (and me!)
The root cause of the demise from 80/1 onwards was that we felt we had to give the team that missed out on FL another go, and their momentum carried them to a second title. Unfortunately they all reached the end of their career at the same time (albeit at Wembley).
We should perhaps have wielded the axe in 1980 and given new talent time to grow
Bill,
I think that you've gone a trifle early there!
Plus the likes of Jeff Johnson and John Davison, in particular, still had a few good years left in the tank.
If we had done that, we would have missed out on experiencing the most successful season (1980/81) in the club's history: an Alliance Premier League & Cup double plus an FA Cup Third Round tie against Liverpool at Anfield (not to mention two thrilling encounters with Cammell Laird in the Cheshire Senior Cup)!
The sucker punch to the club comprised the results of the 1981 Football League AGM Re-election Vote:
Tranmere Rovers FL 48 re-elected to Division Four
York City FL 46 re-elected to Division Four
Hereford United FL 46 re-elected to Division Four
Halifax Town FL 41 re-elected to Division Four
Altrincham FC 15
At which juncture, I think that it became blindingly apparent that we were never going to be invited to become a member of that private club, regardless of our achievements on the pitch.
The 1981/82 season saw Tony Sanders endeavour to evolve the team by blooding younger players such as Derek Goulding, Phil Gardner, John Cavanah and Nick Banner. however expectations were probably still set too high and it was difficult for these new recruits to be judged against the exploits of individuals who had become legends at Moss Lane.
Consequently, Tony Sanders' default ploy was to fall back on 'the old guard', who still had the ability to produce excellent one-off results but could no longer maintain their previous high levels of consistency and success.
Bearing in mind how close we'd come the year before, coupled with the excellent season we had in 1980/81, it really surprises me how few votes we received the second time round. From missing out by one vote to, basically, nowhere at all. We truly were robbed!
