The Fishy - Grimsby Town FC

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Buckley Memories #5

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 01/10/2000

We've collected the thoughts and recollections of Town fans across the world's about their favourite memories of the Buckley era. Alan Buckley had two spells in charge of the Mariners before he was sensationally sacked on 22nd August 2000.

The FA cup run when we beat Rotherham in the 1st round. (They were top of the 4th div at the time, by a mile.)Beat Wolves in Rd 2 (They were top of the 3rd with Bully scoring for fun, but not against the mighty Tillson/Lever brick wall).

Beating Middlesbrough in the 3rd round, Pallister and Slaven in their team, although relegated the same year, were in the top flight (1st div. Remember that?). What a fantastic feeling when North scored his 2nd. Never gone so mental in my life, or since.

(Made even better by the Fed who told us, and I quote "If by some strange quirk of fate you do win today, the safest place for this bus is back in Grimsby...." Sweet sweet revenge Mr. Copper !!!)

4th round beating of Reading in a replay, with the famous Harry Haddock showing his face for the first time, along with blow up fried eggs, bottles, hot dogs and dolls....Not together though.. Finally in the 5th round, the Holders, Wimbledon, were invaded by blow up fish and Grimbarians. A travesty saw them scrape by us, George Tyson, never ever ever come to Meggies for a night out... We know your name !!

Best of Grimsby luck Alan Buckley, you deserve our gratitude and admiration for all those heady nights and afternoons

Matt Brown


All the great victories stand out for most people but for me it was after we got beat by Spurs 3-0 in 91. After the game i tried to get the Spurs player's autographs the only problem was getting Gary Liniker's as everyone wanted his. Having only been 8 and getting barged out of the way I went round to the front of the main stand were Alan Buckley was giving an interview for Look North or Calender. I waited till he'd finished and got his autograph (not sure why as I had it about a million times but I did that with all the players after every game). Alan then asked me if I had Liniker's autograph, when i told him no he got the old groundsman Frank Bridges to take me round the front and he pushed me through to get it. I also remember the great side of 89-91 where every single player was a fans' favourite and when Neil Woods was on loan here and he looked awesome, I think he scored something like 8 goals in his first 9 games, granted he didn't score for another 5 months!

Thanks for the memories Alan, if any justice is done the new stadium will have a stand named after you.

THERE'S ONLY 1 ALAN BUCKLEY!!!

Die Hard Mariner


The most succesful manager in the entire history of GTFC!! What a man!! He had his ups and downs but what manager doesn't?

DOWNS:

  • Substituting Alexander after bringing him on from the bench only ten mins previous.
  • Losing to a Tottenham side that we absolutly played of the park.
  • not signing Chima O'Korie, after seeing him beat three defenders and score from 25 yards in his first reserve match on trial,
  • most importantly for Buckley and the fans, the worst thing about his time with the club, was seeing him being constantly let down by the board, who refused to dig deep into their pockets, making Buckley miss out on players like Kevin Miller, and Micheal Appleton.

UPS:

  • Well where can you start? Wembley twice in the space of a month, and remaining unbeaten.
  • Newcastle: when Keegan was looking for his 12th straight win, then up popped Dobbin from about 30 yards!!!
  • Middlesboro, then Wimbledon in the FA Cup, what can you say about the Harry Haddocks (Rival fans still remember it now when you tell them you support GTFC)
  • Fulham in the play off semi, Keegan was gutted!!
  • And then thinkback to the early days, Two succesive promos, can people still remember the Saturday afternoon's at home to Exeter/Wrexham? The final whistle went crowd on the pitch, and then the heroes emerge from the main stand press box, followed by the leader himself, getting soaked with champange, by great players such as Futcher, Alexander, Cockerill, Cunnington, Birtles, and the welsh wizard Tony Rees!!!
  • The Tottenham game is also in the ups catorgory as we did play them off the park, but the previous two games against Villa stick in my mind, after seeing the defence hold out through extra time at villa park,and makeshift left back Mark "Smudger" Smith running towards the away fans at the final whistle, as we were "singing our hearts out for the lads!!" Because of AB and the team he built we would have died for our club that night!!!

AB will be back at another club, soon, and hopefully they'll have some money for him to spend, but the majority of us won't be bitter if he turns around as a succesful premiership manager and sticks two fingers up at us, because basically some fans and members of the board do deserve it!!!!

My predictions: AB to take over one of the following within a year: Derby, Sheff Wed, Bradford, Forest, or Scunny (Now even he's too loyal to do that isn't he?)

Matthew Winn

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