The Gerry Potter Year

[Downbeat Bee]

Just reading comments on the Division 1 season on Sodje thread any points to add on the stewardship of Potter that year? Was he to blame for the signings, wages or Holder? Was he out of his depth?

[Woking Bee]

I always felt that Phil Holder was very fortunate in that he inherited a very good team. When you examine who he brought to the club after Perryman left, there are very few of his signings who come close to the calibre of Perryman's team.

He also alienated certain players such as Cadette and Keith Jones; he sold Cadette to Falkirk for £50,000 and he went on to be (for a spell the top goalscorer in the SPL).

He later bought Murray Jones from Grimsby for somewhere in the region of £75,000 (anybody here think he was better than Cadette, no I didn't think so).

We all knew that Holdworth was leaving after we gained promotion and when did he get a replacement, no not in the close season but about 10 games into the new season (Joe Allon).

He let Steve Coppell talk him out of signing Stan Colleymore who was at Palace at the time. Southend signed Colleymore who then couldn't stop scoring for them and effectively consigned us to relegation.

I know this is a bit of a rant but let's face it, we play Swindon Town at G.P who have both their forwards sent off in the first half and we end up scraping a 0-0 draw against their 9 men.

No Holder had the opportunity to change Brentford's future and he f***ed up big style.

Potter is at fault for letting Holder fritter away the Holdsworth money on rubbish players but in my opinion if your manager does not have the ability to spot a decent player then he is lacking one of the fundamental skills of a good manager.

A final question, which teams did he manage after Brentford.

[bees66]

A final question, which teams did he manage after Brentford.
None


Team From To................Games Won Lost Drawn
Brentford 24-08-1990 11-05-1993 158 66 59 33

[Les Beeavinu]

IHe later bought Murray Jones from Grimsby for somewhere in the region of £75,000 (anybody here think he was better than Cadette, no I didn't think so).

Here's a conspiracy theory for you.

Murray Jones and Keith Millen were the best of buddies for a very long time (back to school days I believe). Keith Millen was out of contract that season and BFC were desparate to keep him. We signed Murray Jones, and hey presto, Keith Millen agrees to sign a new contract.

I have had this confirmed by many reliable sources, (the bloke who sits behind me, some bloke in a pub, another bloke whose sister went out with someone in the youth team) so it must be true.

Ironically, Murray Jones had also been sent off at GP the previous season for a dreadfully late tackle on, yes you guessed it, his best mate Keith Millen.

Anyone else ever heard this rumour?

[Jimbee]

I always felt that Phil Holder was very fortunate in that he inherited a very good team. When you examine who he brought to the club after Perryman left, there are very few of his signings who come close to the calibre of Perryman's team.

He also alienated certain players such as Cadette and Keith Jones; he sold Cadette to Falkirk for £50,000 and he went on to be (for a spell the top goalscorer in the SPL).

He later bought Murray Jones from Grimsby for somewhere in the region of £75,000 (anybody here think he was better than Cadette, no I didn't think so).

We all knew that Holdworth was leaving after we gained promotion and when did he get a replacement, no not in the close season but about 10 games into the new season (Joe Allon).

He let Steve Coppell talk him out of signing Stan Colleymore who was at Palace at the time. Southend signed Colleymore who then couldn't stop scoring for them and effectively consigned us to relegation.

I know this is a bit of a rant but let's face it, we play Swindon Town at G.P who have both their forwards sent off in the first half and we end up scraping a 0-0 draw against their 9 men.

No Holder had the opportunity to change Brentford's future and he f***ed up big style.

Potter is at fault for letting Holder fritter away the Holdsworth money on rubbish players but in my opinion if your manager does not have the ability to spot a decent player then he is lacking one of the fundamental skills of a good manager.

A final question, which teams did he manage after Brentford.

Think what you like of Holder, but he is the only manager in the last 50 years to get us into the 2nd level of football in England. He failed once we were there but he was the man that got us there after Perryman had turned his back. There have been several other examples where a successor has failed with a set of players who were in a position to win something and although Holder completely messed up the Division One seaon, I've always been surprised he didn't get a management job elsewhere.

[North London Bee]

Just lookmat the list of players we signed that fateful season ( not comprehensive but you will get the idea)

- Mickey Bennett
- Detsi Kruszynski
- Shane Westley
- Grant Chalmers
- Joe Allon
- Alan Dickens
- Paul Stephenson
- Gerry Peyton
- Kenny Samson

Apart from Stephenson and Westley all gone within a year

[Woking Bee]

Think what you like of Holder, but he is the only manager in the last 50 years to get us into the 2nd level of football in England. He failed once we were there but he was the man that got us there after Perryman had turned his back. There have been several other examples where a successor has failed with a set of players who were in a position to win something and although Holder completely messed up the Division One seaon, I've always been surprised he didn't get a management job elsewhere.

The fact remains though that he didn't; I think that speaks volumes about his abilities as a manager.

In our promotion year he adopted a long ball game which worked very well because we had two fantastic forwards in Blissett and Holdsworth (Perryman signings).

In the second half of our season in Division One (as it was then called) he got sussed out with this style of play to such an extent that we only managed to win 4 games in half a season.

The squad he took into the Division 1 season clearly would not have been good enough to challenge in Division 2 that season because he didn't replace Holdsworth either quickly enough or with a comparable forward or even one who could score half the goals Holdsworth did so how did he expect us to survive.

I know we had key injuries to players like Terry Evans and Neil Smillie but where was the cover for these players ?

Shane Westley and Mickey Bennett; do me a favour!!

I stand by what I said, Holder wouldn't know a decent player even if the player was standing behind him kicking him up the arse, that's why he didn't manage another professional football club.

[JANORAK]

I've often thought that the distraction of doing well in the Anglo-Italian comp that season was a mistake. It seemed to mask the fact that League performances/results were deteriorating until it was too late to reverse the decline....

[ianallon]

I always felt that Phil Holder was very fortunate in that he inherited a very good team. When you examine who he brought to the club after Perryman left, there are very few of his signings who come close to the calibre of Perryman's team.

We all knew that Holdworth was leaving after we gained promotion and when did he get a replacement, no not in the close season but about 10 games into the new season (Joe Allon)......

.....Potter is at fault for letting Holder fritter away the Holdsworth money on rubbish players but in my opinion if your manager does not have the ability to spot a decent player then he is lacking one of the fundamental skills of a good manager.....

....A final question, which teams did he manage after Brentford.

I think Holder has come out of his time with Brentford with an undeserved bad reputation. Yes, he did inherit some good players, but if you're the same sort of age as me (39) and think back at some of the players that we have had over the years.... Why didn't other managers get us up?

I believe that Holder was not allowed to spend big money on a striker during the close season. The story I had heard was that he was told to buy on the cheap and/or see if we could get by. When he was given the money to invest in a quality striker, he had to rush into buying someone. As it happens I was a Joe Allon fan, but even I agree that we could have probably bought him for less if he weren't such a panic buy.

Although he didn't manage another club after he left, didn't he go to Reading for a while. I seem to remember him being second in command when Reading were playing some fantastic (passing!!!) football to get to the brink of playing in the Premiership, being beaten in a playoff by a very late goal or two? Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me?

[stevenagebee]

Did Holder not also sign Statham, Hughton and Manuel? Apart from departure of Deano, the biggest blow in Potter season was injury to Chris Hughton and failure to fill the gap properly. I cannot imagine Holder was wedded to the idea of making do with Gayle or Bennett so must presume he was not given money to get a proper replacement until it was too late.

Agreed that Holder's team did not play pretty football - but it played to its strengths. When those strengths disappeared for whatever reasons, he didnt have a Plan B but was it necessarily his fault the strengths disappeared?

BTW: He was pretty ungracious at the end of the promotion season - moaning at those who thought the 0-0 draw at Reading was the pits.

[steve bee]

Holder led us to a glorious promotion as champions.I will never forget the last two games the 4-0 thrashing of Fulscum and then for once not letting us down on the big occasion, to win at Peterborough to snatch the championship on the last day. He then lost Holdsworth in the close season. The big blow was to lose big Tel to injury for most of the season.
The selling off of Holdsworth cheaply to the Dons mirrors what had happened to the Bees after Frank Blunstone got us promoted in 71/72 . The start of the next season John O'Mara was sold off cheaply to Blackburn and replaced by Stan Webb on a par of uselessness with Murray Jones. The outcome was the same and we were relegated straight back down again.
Don't get me wrong for me the last game at Bristol City still ranks as one of the worse of my Bees supporting life. :sad:

[Downbeat Bee]

Don't get me wrong for me the last game at Bristol City still ranks as one of the worse of my Bees supporting life. :sad:

I was walking round some of Bristol today that I walked through that day. My mind always goes back to it.

[Wise old Bee]

The worse thing for me was that although we were pitiful for much of the second half of the season we very nearly got away with it. I agree that if Terry Evans had played the whole season things would have been different. I also cannot understand why Lange didn't intervene during the season, it's not as if he was under house arrest in Florida and must have been aware of what was going on. A stronger personality than Potter would have acted sooner and we would have been spared the final day at Ashton Gate after which I was bloody suicidal.

[Uttoxeter Bee]

Similar thread here...link (http://www.griffinpark.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29727)

[Stuardo]

gerry peyton was only a loan signing (and a class keeper - didn't he end up at Bolton?).

detzi was great when he performed. i shall not forget (it is another in the long list of if only's in that season) the storming run and shot that smacked into the inside of the post at Filbert Street in a 0-0 draw....

and Joe Allon did ok for us - he did score goals. have you all forgotten the brace against Derby (was it Boxing Day?) - to give us a 2-1 win. we were nowhere and Joe put two away. a finisher he was!

[North London Bee]

gerry peyton was only a loan signing (and a class keeper - didn't he end up at Bolton?).

detzi was great when he performed. i shall not forget (it is another in the long list of if only's in that season) the storming run and shot that smacked into the inside of the post at Filbert Street in a 0-0 draw....

and Joe Allon did ok for us - he did score goals. have you all forgotten the brace against Derby (was it Boxing Day?) - to give us a 2-1 win. we were nowhere and Joe put two away. a finisher he was!

Mr Pedantic Anorack here. he scored 3 in the 3-4 home defeat by Derby in the Anglo Italian Cup and 1 in that 2-1 League Win, the other was that brilliantly taken og by Golooze (or something similar) from Smillie's cross.

[Russell]

I was walking round some of Bristol today that I walked through that day. My mind always goes back to it.

I drove past their ground yesterday afternoon and was also haunted by some terrible ghosts from '93. Oh the pain of it all :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Russell]

I also cannot understand why Lange didn't intervene during the season, it's not as if he was under house arrest in Florida and must have been aware of what was going on.

Agreed, but I think he was staying put to avoid a feckin great big tax bill rofl

[davido_i]

To be honest, I'm amazed at the casual, nay thankful attitude shown towards Martin Scrooge Lange. Lest we forget, Perryman left because our "prudent" chairman wouldn't let him spend a few bob on if I recall correct Gary Elkins (who went on to the Premiership with Wimbledon) from Fulham to replace Roger Stanislaus.

I spent what felt like years of my youth watching Brentford play football under the McLintock-Lange 'dream ticket'. Every Saturday afternoon was spent in something approaching suspended animation, watching the Ian Holloways (whatever happened to him!) & Phil Baters of this world, we absolutely perfected the art of mid-table obscurity under their guidance year after year.
There I was, together with the other brain-dead 4500 being weekly drip-fed the concept that gangling Gary Stevens was a centre forward....then Perryman came along, how he got any money out of Lange I'll never know, simply had to be part of the agreement to come in the first place & what does he do? Immediately lashes £60K on one Gary Blissett.

I'll never forget his debut at Chesterfield away? Suddenly we have as the focal point of our vibrant attacks a centre-forward with great touch, excellent movement & an obvious football brain..........God did I feel stupid.

[North London Bee]

To be honest, I'm amazed at the casual, nay thankful attitude shown towards Martin Scrooge Lange. Lest we forget, Perryman left because our "prudent" chairman wouldn't let him spend a few bob on if I recall correct Gary Elkins (who went on to the Premiership with Wimbledon) from Fulham to replace Roger Stanislaus.

I spent what felt like years of my youth watching Brentford play football under the McLintock-Lange 'dream ticket'. Every Saturday afternoon was spent in something approaching suspended animation, watching the Ian Holloways (whatever happened to him!) & Phil Baters of this world, we absolutely perfected the art of mid-table obscurity under their guidance year after year.
There I was, together with the other brain-dead 4500 being weekly drip-fed the concept that gangling Gary Stevens was a centre forward....then Perryman came along, how he got any money out of Lange I'll never know, simply had to be part of the agreement to come in the first place & what does he do? Immediately lashes £60K on one Gary Blissett.

I'll never forget his debut at Chesterfield away? Suddenly we have as the focal point of our vibrant attacks a centre-forward with great touch, excellent movement & an obvious football brain..........God did I feel stupid.

Oh God I have done it again. Blissett's debut was in a 3-1 home win over Chester and he scored with a penalty!