Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Hugh]

Gary Johnson was the Kettering Town manager when they defeated us at Moss Lane in the opening game of the 1995/96 season.

I distinctly recall a certain Brian Flynn being rather uncomplimentary about Mister Johnson from his vantage point in the main stand on that particular afternoon.

 

http://altyfans.co.uk/Smileys/default/lipsrsealed.gif


 

I spoke to Mister Johnson about 90 minutes before the home game with Cheltenham in 2015 & asked him if he remembered his previous visit & was surprised by his reply which was "I can't remember coming here before".
When I told him that it was against Kettering in 1995/6 & that I remembered the game well, as I spent most of it haranguing him about his tactics from the back of the main stand, he was none the wiser, which really surprised me as it was the opening game of the season.
It was a consistent & prolonged verbal assault that drew a reaction on the day but clearly was forgotten very quickly.

Fondly remembered by those of us who were fortunate enough to listen to your first-rate vituperative onslaught though.

However, it still lives in the shadow of you getting under Dave Pace's skin at the Butcher's Arms on this dark and infamous night:

http://www.lusaweb.co.uk/020305dn.htm

Was it Brian who commented on that evening in a subsequent programme?

Whatever it was he said, I suspect it was fair comment. That pitch rivalled the floodlights at Bishop Auckland, the hail storm against Kiddermminster and a certain tackle on Marcus Hallows as the worst thing I've ever seen watching Alty.

The ground was so bad that I asked someone in the social club if that pitch we could see through the windows was the ground. He said no, it's the training pitch. I half believed him. And when we walked straight across the pitch at full time rather than squeezing along the narrow path behind the goal, it seemed a perfectly natural thing to do rather than a pitch invasion.

Incidentally, that's what used to happen to us when we had a few injuries, and it is a tremendous credit to Phil Parkinson that he could keep things ticking over with up to ten players out this season. (Wasn't Hancock out of the first few games?)