7: Alan Buckley 1.04 PPG
Here is an entry I can completely get on board with. Forget the points per game and all that, Buckley painfully left Peter Gain on the bench and insisted on playing his son, Adam, in the most blatant case of nepotism I’ve seen since my Dad played me up top for Wragby Under 13s all season, despite me only scoring once.
Buckley, like Kerr, is a manager Grimsby fans would speak highly of who flopped at Lincoln. He did have some good ideas, he wanted to play a neat passing game and gave us a huge 3-2 win against Mansfield in his first game in charge, as well as a follow up win at Kidderminster to give us two away wins in a week after failing to get one in 11 months.
that still doesn’t mask have woefully poor we were under him. In his defence, we were cash-strapped and sinking fast than the Titanic at the time, which adds some context. If you’re feeling a little sorry for him hitting the top ten here, just remember he left Gain on the bench.
6: Roy Chapman 0.96 PPG
Roy Chapman took over as player coach in March 1965 and lasted until October 1966 but his legacy goes beyond his time as manager. He played 172 times for the Imps, scoring 77 goals, and is best remembered for that rather than his spell as player coach.
He took over from Con Moulson after a run of ten consecutive defeats and won two of the remaining ten matches. It wasn’t enough to prevent an application for re-election, which was won, but things didn’t pick up in the new season. A 4-0 defeat at home against Southport was a low, as was a 5-0 thumping at the hands of Leicester in the League Cup, after which Champman was relieved of his duties and went back to just being a player.
5: Allan Clarke 0.83 PPG
Clarke didn’t get off to a bad start as Lincoln manager, bagging a 2-2 draw with Burnley and two 1-0 wins against Halifax in the league and cup. That gave him seven of the ‘points’ he earned that count for this chart, with only eight more collected during his turbulent reign.
Clarke’s problem was he wanted footballers to play like he did in the old First Division as a Leeds striker, but he didn’t have the right blend. He tried to add some quality, Gary Powell on loan from Everton for instance, but he couldn’t get his ideas across sufficiently to influence results. He wouldn’t bend his approach to fit the squad and results suffered. A 4-1 loss at Maidstone was particularly painful, as was a 4-0 thumping at Stockport, after which Clarke was sacked with just 18 matches on his record.
Tilson, Buckley, Clarke, Wicks, Kerr, Daniel, Sutton & Bell (both not listed)… hell, we’ve had some bloody terrible managers in my lifetime and hopefully we won’t get one as bad as that lot in the foreseeable future. Makes you wonder how any of them were ever appointed in the first place.
Thought Willie Bell would be in there. A shocking team.
春暖花开，下次再来！
Shows why some stats need further context, like pass completion if the pass is just 2 yards back and forth. Westley and Tilson are 0.01 apart and yet hugely different reputation wise. Perhaps you need to factor in who the teams were we lost to in both cases. It is also relevant when a run happens, Tilson lost a run of games at the end of the season, Westley at the start so the outcomes are very different.
Buckley is no surprise. But for the LDV Vans area final run, ending in a shoeing from Vale, we were utterly awful. We tried to play passing football and it was woeful. But for the quirk of Hereford v Brighton as last game of the season, those being the bottom two and only one goes down, it could have been a worse outcome. And I will never forgive his son; I came back to Stanstead airport in June wearing a Lincoln shirt and the security guard gave me a load of grief about one of our players stealing from others and is the sort of thing my people did. And you can’t exactly robustly argue back in that situation so had to just smile and nod.
Beggars belief really why we appointed a manager so intrinsically linked with our biggest rivals – I remember being appalled at the time of his appointment, no way did I want him as our manager. And then the utterly deplorable act of employing his useless (and dishonest) son on a two-year deal further added fuel to my ire, along with shocking performances on the pitch. And to think, Buckley had the likes of Marriott, Morgan, Holmes, G Brown, Sedgemore, Thorpe, Finnigan, Bailey, Barnett, Bimson and Walker at his disposal and he still nearly sent us down.
Not only linked, but key to their period of (relatively) huge success. I dare say a poll of best Grimsby managers would have Buckley in there