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Just read today's Non League Paper( It's an old habit from our Conference days) any way there's a good article about
our former manager Frank O'Farrell. It says how in six years he went from managing Weymouth in the Southern League to taking over at Old Trafford after spells with us and Leicester.

Got me thinking in the grand scheme of things how good was he as a boss.

Was he our most successful manager or would Buckle take that honour ?

To quote a line from a song* “You don’t need to be coy Roy”.

You know that you were....

* 50 Ways To Leave Your Chairman (Paul Simon).

Eric Webber, surely: promotion, a goal away from promotion to Div 2 (Championship), 3-3 draw with Spurs (FA Cup).

must be webber then,that all sounds impressive.

Mick Buxton - 100% record as Torquay manager. Can't argue with that stat!




Although, to be fair, he was only in charge for one game - the FA Cup win over Leyton Orient.

The article in the Non League Paper was plugging Frank's autobiography

http://www.backpassmagazine.co.uk/book.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wivelgull wrote:Eric Webber, surely: promotion, a goal away from promotion to Div 2 (Championship), 3-3 draw with Spurs (FA Cup).

.... and to that you could add a 2-2 FA Cup draw at Elland Road against a Leeds United captained by the legend John Charles and a 4-0 win in the replay, and a narrow 1-0 defeat in front of our record crowd in the 4th Round to Huddersfield Town (who at that time were a really top club on a par with Man Utd, Chelsea, or Liverpool of today).

On the downside though he experienced two relegations 1957/58 when the bottom half of Division 3 South and North formed the new Division 4 with the top half forming the new Division 3, and 1961/62 from Division 3 to Division 4 after having spent only 2 seasons in the higher division after promotion. If anyone thinks it is unfair to count finishing in the bottom half as a relegation we did finish 21st, which would have been a relegation spot in the new structure in any case.

O'Farrell and Buckle never experienced a relegation and for me O'Farrell would edge it.

O'Farrell: 3.5 seasons - 3rd (promoted automatic) in Div 4; 7th, 4th, 6th in Division 3 (missing promotion to Division 2 now the Championship by 4 points and 3 points in the first two seasons, and in the 3rd the second half of the season was under new manager Allan Brown after O'Farrell had gone to Leicester City). His heritage also saw us stay in Division 3 for a total of 6 seasons the longest spell we have had above the bottom tier.

Buckle: 4 seasons - 3rd (lost play-off) and 4th (promoted play-offs) in Conference; 17th and 7th (lost play-off) in Division 4.

O'Farrell achieved success at a higher level than Buckle, and would have seen our side qualify for the play-offs had they existed at that time for promotion to what is now the Championship.

Great post stefano.

Eric Webber was before time, but not Frank O'Farrell. I'm still wondering how the hell did we miss out on automatic promotion to Division 2 (Championship) in 1967-68 when we were points clear at the top with games in hand ?

I still hear the really old timers (I'm only a bog standard old timer) saying we "threw it" as the club couldn't afford to go up. That was b*llocks then and it's b*llocks now. A disastrous end of season slump was what done us.

Frank O'Farrell in my view is head and shoulders above Paul Buckle.

Interesting piece in today's Daily Mail

To be Frank with United
Former Manchester United manager Frank O'Farrell was set to bring out his autobiography A Nice Day for an Execution, based on his turbulent 18 months in the Old Trafford hot seat, in the late Seventies.

But the threat of legal action by United, especially over criticisms of his predecessor Sir Matt Busby, saw the book mothballed.

Now, 40 years on from his brief time in charge of United, the 83-year-old will finally see publication of the Frank O'Farrell Story, now subtitled All Change at Old Trafford.

It charts his strained relationship with Sir Matt and dealings with the holy trinity of Best, Law and Charlton. Don't count on it being sold at Old Trafford.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... z1XAkzXSDr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My son works in Altrincham and he's just sent me this down from The Manchester Evening News... It's about Frank's time at Old Trafford.



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Trojan 67 wrote:Great post stefano.

Eric Webber was before time, but not Frank O'Farrell. I'm still wondering how the hell did we miss out on automatic promotion to Division 2 (Championship) in 1967-68 when we were points clear at the top with games in hand ?

I still hear the really old timers (I'm only a bog standard old timer) saying we "threw it" as the club couldn't afford to go up. That was b*llocks then and it's b*llocks now. A disastrous end of season slump was what done us.

Frank O'Farrell in my view is head and shoulders above Paul Buckle.

My Grandad was convinced the club threw it. Or if not, he blamed O'Farrell for players were played out of position. But he was adamant that the club threw it really. Years later when I was at South Devon Tech an Wednesday afternoons were sport times, Bobby Baxter - who was part of that squad - took us for football coaching. I asked him if my Grandad was correct and he confirmed 'yes'.

I also I asked Robin Stubbs about that time and he mentioned something long the lines of 'West Ham clique'.

Whatever happened, goodness knows how different our club could be had it reached the 2nd tier in either '57 or '68.

I bet back then, nobody but the notion that we were lucky to be a league club, even though Torquay, in reality, was even more remote than it is these days!