Record Breakers

Paul Smith

Description

Record Breakers: The Inside Story of Notts County's Momentous 1997/98 Title Triumph delves into the inner sanctum of a basement-league dressing room in the 90s, as its inhabitants attempt to write themselves into the history books. Led by future England boss Sam Allardyce, taking some of his first managerial steps, Record Breakers is the inspirational tale of how the world's oldest Football League club fought back from a plunge down the divisions, falling attendances and financial strife to become the first side in post-war English football to win a title in March. The momentous feat is relived by the players themselves, lending a unique insight into their record run. It's packed with characters and anecdotes, and augmented with memories of supporters who lived through this season of tumbling records. From training ground punch-ups to transfer tales and unforgettable celebrations, Record Breakers is a remarkable winners' story in what now seems a bygone era.

Sujets

• Nottinghamshire

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 août 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785314612
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2018
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Paul Smith, 2018
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-424-7
eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-461-2
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Prologue
Chapter 1 Past to present
Chapter 2 The groundwork
Chapter 3 Out of the traps
Chapter 4 Derby days
Chapter 5 Boardroom battles
Chapter 6 The hard yards
Chapter 7 Deadly duo
Chapter 8 Premier potential
Chapter 9 Record run
Chapter 10 Big Sam
Chapter 11 The team
Chapter 12 Records broken and a broken record
Chapter 13 The run-in
Chapter 14 Leyton Orient at home
Chapter 15 Chasing the century
Chapter 16 The champions
Chapter 17 Bigger Sam
Chapter 18 The end
Chapter 19 Allardyce answers
Chapter 20 Terrace tales
Chapter 21 What came next?
Epilogue
Appendix
Bibliography
Photos
For Didi, for feeding my love of books.
For Dad, for feeding my love for Notts County.
For Pip, for everything.
Acknowledgements
F IRSTLY, to all involved with Notts County in 1997/98, thank you for providing the most wonderful story with your brilliant achievements. Your records may never be broken.
My heartfelt thanks to the players for giving up their time to share their stories. I m truly thankful for your time, memories and for being part of this project.
You are: Alex Dyer, Andy Hughes, Craig Dudley, Darren Ward, Dennis Pearce, Gary Jones, Gary Strodder, Ian Baraclough, Ian Hendon, Ian Richardson, Justin Jackson, Mark Robson and Shaun Derry, as well as physio Roger Cleary.
An extra thanks to Richardson for responding to several of my enquiries, pointing me in the direction of some of your ex-team-mates and for lending your medal for a photoshoot.
My additional thanks to the other main players from the 1997/98 side that I didn t get the chance to speak to, for the role you played on the field: Matthew Redmile, Phil Robinson and Sean Farrell. Plus the assistant manager Mark Smith, and the chairman, the late Derek Pavis.
The story wouldn t be complete without the thoughts of the manager who made it happen. A big thanks to Sam Allardyce for taking the time out of your extremely busy schedule. Interviewing Sam would not have been possible without the help of Lucie Rose and Richard Keys - I ll forever be grateful.
The wisdom, experience and guidance of Colin Slater has provided me with inspiration, as well as my foreword - thank you dearly, Colin.
The support of Notts County is integral to the success of this book. My gratitude must go to media and communications manager Nick Richardson, who has been on hand throughout to answer my questions and point me in the right direction when it has been needed. In particular for arranging one-to-one time with Kevin Nolan. That thanks is extended to Kevin, for a wonderful chat about your memories of working with Sam.
And to multimedia editor Matt Rowland for supporting with the pictures in this book - thanks for your patience! I must credit Notts County Football Club with the majority of the images you have seen in the book.
Thank you to commercial operations manager Simon Fotheringham for agreeing to the idea of this book and supporting it as an official club product. Your words proved very kind at an important time.
To Lynn Lawson in the club shop for your helpful guidance, as ever, and agreeing to stock the book.
Stuart Brothers, in your previous role working for the club, thank you for the helpful memories you provided.
Thank you to Les Bradd from the Notts County Former Players Association, for providing many of the contact details I needed to get started.
The expert subbing skills of my friend Anthony Naughton in making sense of my words allowed me to get the book in shape - thank you, in particular for a mad final week to meet my deadline. And to photographer Chris Vaughan for your kindness - always a pleasure.
To the team at Pitch Publishing - led by Paul and Jane Camillin - for making a dream come true. I ll be eternally grateful. And to designer Duncan Olner.
My good friend Gary Moss for keeping me driven and encouraging me throughout.
Thank you to the fans who provided their own recollections of this brilliant season to add a wonderful final chapter.
I cannot thank my wife Pip Smith enough for her extra special support. For believing in me, for pushing me along, for having the most creative mind and ideas and for being my rock. I ve needed it more than I ever could realise. Your creativity runs from the cover and throughout this book.
And crucially the love to my family for all of their support, always - to my three parents, Steve, Gill and Tina, and my siblings Clair, Amy, Phil, Terrie, Alex and Ashleigh. And Ditte, Colin and Colette.
Lastly to you, the reader - I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I did writing it.
Foreword
By Colin Slater MBE - BBC Radio Nottingham and honorary vice-president of Notts County Football Club
N OT so very long ago there was a dearth of publications about Notts County, which was both surprising and disappointing, given the club s unique status as the oldest professional league club in the world.
By comparison, there has been a relative glut of new books in the past few years. Some have been written (or, more accurately, ghosted) by former players, most recently by the Magpies all-time record scorer, Les Bradd. His story was well worth telling and is well worth reading under the clever title Far Post - because that is where strikers spend most of their playing time.
The largest single volume was compiled by Paul Mace, a lifelong Notts fan (as was his father before him), founder and managing director of Macesport, a Nottingham-based sports public relations and marketing communications agency with an impressive list of national and international clients. Since Alan Hardy became owner and chairman of the club he has recruited Paul to the board of directors.
For his book, One Flew Over the Magpies Nest , Paul has painstakingly interviewed a large number of former directors, officials and players for their memories of their often turbulent times at Meadow Lane. It is a huge volume, full of fascinating disclosures.
Paul Smith s book, Record Breakers , is different than all the others, worthy of the accolade of being unique, for two reasons.
The first is that it has been researched and written by a pure fan.
The second is that it concentrates exclusively on one remarkable season in the club s long history: 1997/98, when Notts created five new records. For those of us who saw most, if not all, of the 46 league matches it remains, 20 years on, an unforgettable memory.
The most remarkable of the five record-breaking achievements was winning the fourth-tier championship as early in the campaign as 28 March 1998 - the earliest date a title had ever been secured in any division of the Football League.
The title was guaranteed by a 1-0 home win over Leyton Orient, the distinction of scoring such a vital - even historic - goal falling to Mark Robson, the former West Ham United and Charlton Athletic midfielder.
Given that it was one of just four goals he scored that season, in 28 league appearances, I ve sometimes wondered how centre-forward Gary Jones felt that the distinction didn t fall to him. He did, after all, find the back of the net 28 times in spearheading the promotion drive.
Other players made equally significant contributions in different ways and Paul has compiled an up-to-date list of pen pictures of all of them, including defender Ian Baraclough and midfielder Shaun Derry, who were sold to other clubs before the season entered its real climax. Baraclough went to Queens Park Rangers and Derry, for around 750,000 no less, to Sheffield United. It s why they re absent from all the post-season presentations and other celebrations.
Their departures did not unduly affect the team s performances and results, much credit for which must be given to manager Sam Allardyce, now boss of Everton, for whom, as it becomes clear, Paul is a massive fan.
He records for us an interview he obtained from Big Sam who, for the very first time, comes very close to admitting publicly that when he walked out of Meadow Lane for the last time in October, 1999 (he has, so far, never been back) he had more than an inkling that his next managerial chair would be at Bolton Wanderers, close to his family home and where he had been a popular player.
Media representatives like me do not always have the smoothest and most cordial of relationships with managers. Mine with Sam could not have been better, forged in his first half-season with Notts when, arriving in January, he discovered it was impossible to save the club from relegation.
His abrupt departure created an absolute sensation and caused chairman Derek Pavis much personal anguish. Indeed, he never fully came to terms with it.
It would be wrong to imagine that Sam, dominant character that he was (and is) ran a one-man band. Like all managers he was dependent on the response of his players and he was, as I observed, hugely supported by assistant manager Mark Smith, to whom too little credit is possibly given.
Another member of the backroom team was physio Roger Cleary and I am delighted Paul has includ