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[RocketDan]

Dear over 40's, I was just flicking through the record books (as a young nipper does) in the hope that a glorious past may give me inspiration and belief in our current predicament.

Looking at "our glory years" in the early days of the conference (or Alliance Premier), I can't help but be amazed by the 2 year blip in 80/81 and 81/82 seasons in which we finished mid table.

1979–1980    Alliance Premier League    1st    Champions
1980–1981    Alliance Premier League    1st    Champions
1981–1982    Alliance Premier League    11th    
1982–1983    Alliance Premier League    12th   
1983–1984    Alliance Premier League    3rd
1984–1985    Alliance Premier League    5th
1985–1986    Alliance Premier League    4th
1986–1987    Conference        5th    


So what happened in the summer of 1982 that made us finish in, by our standards of the time, lowly positions of 11th and 12th and have two relatively poor seasons, considering where we finished in the years either side?

[62vintage]

Old aged players

[Steve from Sale]

I remember those two seasons well.

During his time Tony Saunders was a fabulous manager for us. But also when you become champions the way we did - and I remember those seasons clearly - you can hang on to squad members for too long.

If you look at Alex Ferguson, he lets players go such as Jaap Stamm, Paul Ince, David Beckham etc. when we think they have still got plenty to give. But it is not just about that, it is also about the hunger for success that some players have yet to achieve - so you sign them if they are good enough to build on what you had and what you have released. Tony Saunders kept the nucleas of the squad which had also been denied relegation two years on the trot also, soul destroying and I remember how much it hurt the club as well as it's loyal fans.

The squad I remember at it's peak originally, I recall other defences being pulled apart by our wing/forward play and being at sixes and sevens with one another, and JR being able to head goals from anywhere within and just outside the 18 yard box. The ball seemed to take all the time on the world better the keeper could never judge it properly. I remember Barry Howards wing wizadry, Stan Allen's agression and also John Davidsons lethel left foot. I can still here Kingy shouting Hey C'Mon from his captains position and the numbe of players who backed down when he went into confrontation with them. And I remember the menace of Jeff Johnson and his single mindedness.

Sometimes though, you have to make changes to keep the team hungry rather than deflated - htough I did think it was a bad loss when Kingy got his knee injury during the Cup final of 82. After tasting so much success over the last two years that was the cruellest moment for me, and I was so delfated coming home.

There have been good and bad memories for me like all of us, but there was nothing like that site of the 78-82 team in full flow - awesome!!

There I go, off an a tangent agaon - SORRY

 

[taxi Phil]

Those were our glory days Steve. No apology necessary !

[Kingys Beard]

62vintage is right.  It all had to do with anno domini.  I remember looking at the Liverpool FA Cup programme back then and calculating the ages of the Alty players (the average was about 29) and realizing for the first time that the glory wasn't going to last for much longer.  Had they all been 25 at that point who knows what they'd have gone on to achieve.

[Leon]

I remember those two seasons well.

During his time Tony Saunders was a fabulous manager for us. But also when you become champions the way we did - and I remember those seasons clearly - you can hang on to squad members for too long.

If you look at Alex Ferguson, he lets players go such as Jaap Stamm, Paul Ince, David Beckham etc. when we think they have still got plenty to give. But it is not just about that, it is also about the hunger for success that some players have yet to achieve - so you sign them if they are good enough to build on what you had and what you have released. Tony Saunders kept the nucleas of the squad which had also been denied relegation two years on the trot also, soul destroying and I remember how much it hurt the club as well as it's loyal fans.

The squad I remember at it's peak originally, I recall other defences being pulled apart by our wing/forward play and being at sixes and sevens with one another, and JR being able to head goals from anywhere within and just outside the 18 yard box. The ball seemed to take all the time on the world better the keeper could never judge it properly. I remember Barry Howards wing wizadry, Stan Allen's agression and also John Davidsons lethel left foot. I can still here Kingy shouting Hey C'Mon from his captains position and the numbe of players who backed down when he went into confrontation with them. And I remember the menace of Jeff Johnson and his single mindedness.

Sometimes though, you have to make changes to keep the team hungry rather than deflated - htough I did think it was a bad loss when Kingy got his knee injury during the Cup final of 82. After tasting so much success over the last two years that was the cruellest moment for me, and I was so delfated coming home.

There have been good and bad memories for me like all of us, but there was nothing like that site of the 78-82 team in full flow - awesome!!

There I go, off an a tangent agaon - SORRY

 

Funny, that seems more recent somehow.

[JackSwindells No 1 Fan]

By the start of 81/82 you have to remember that the whole club had had the stuffing knocked out of it by the Football League old boys club. Yes, the squad was aging, but more than anything (from the Chairman down to Ken Riimmer Jack Thorpe and all the other members of that Alty family including the payers) we felt that there was no way to progress. Right or wrong,that's how it felt and a couple of mid table years was inevitable, but oh what character to come back and beat the Brummies and win the Trophy in 1986 with largely a new squad of dammed hungry talented players... Phil G, Ando, Pete Conning etc., all marshalled by the one and only JK.

[RedhillAlty]

By the start of 81/82 you have to remember that the whole club had had the stuffing knocked out of it by the Football League old boys club. Yes, the squad was aging, but more than anything (from the Chairman down to Ken Riimmer Jack Thorpe and all the other members of that Alty family including the payers) we felt that there was no way to progress. Right or wrong,that's how it felt and a couple of mid table years was inevitable, but oh what character to come back and beat the Brummies and win the Trophy in 1986 with largely a new squad of dammed hungry talented players... Phil G, Ando, Pete Conning etc., all marshalled by the one and only JK.

I totally agree with this. We had won everything in non-league and nothing else else to aspire to as the football league had become a closed shop. Also as a result we lost Graham Barrow to Wigan. Several of our players had also stayed with us or come to our club expecting us to be playing FL football such as Graham Barrow and Gary Hulmes.

[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

The Summer of 1982 effectively saw Alty lose players of the calibre of John King; John Owens; Barry Whitbread; John Connaughton; Ivan Crossley and John Rogers (a brief return to Wigan).

And people thought that replacing Young and Senior last Summer was a tough ask...!