Gordon Lee RIP

[alcd]

4 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Back row - Hird, Martin, Waddington, Jones, Hawkins, Kenyon, Burgin.

Second row - Wood, Fazackerley, Oates, Beamish, Hickman, Parkes.

Seated - Hoy, Metcalfe, Heaton, Hilton, Mullen, Wilkinson.

Only 19 players in the squad. Nowadays that would barely fill the subs bench. Are players injured more often or just played when unfit?

[oldjamfan1]

6 minutes ago, alcd said:

Only 19 players in the squad. Nowadays that would barely fill the subs bench. Are players injured more often or just played when unfit?

It was a man’s game back then.

[Ianrally]

That Don Fazackerley must have been some boy. A dead ringer for his lad Derek and looks just as young. 

[Ianrally]

The naming of the players in that photo must have been done by Brian Clough

[1864roverite]

Lovely fella to boot and had a great Rovers team rip

[Waggy76]

Thanks for the memories , Gordon RIP

 

[Herbie6590]

21 hours ago, arbitro said:

They have made a right mess of the players whose names don't correspond with the pictures. 😁😁😁

It’s one of my go to quiz questions with Rovers fans…which players were correctly named on this photo ? 😉

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

16 hours ago, alcd said:

Only 19 players in the squad. Nowadays that would barely fill the subs bench. Are players injured more often or just played when unfit?

I think players played carrying knocks in the old days. They don’t do that as much today.

[bazza]

On 08/03/2022 at 14:53, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

If you could have one of those players to play in todays team who would it be ?

Right now we need a good scorer so it has to be Don Martin

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

26 minutes ago, bazza said:

Right now we need a good scorer so it has to be Don Martin

The Don would be putting away the chances that Gall is missing, no problem.

[rigger]

3 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

The Don would be putting away the chances that Gall is missing, no problem.

So would I.

[bazza]

1 hour ago, rigger said:

So would I.

Get stripped. You're picked. And bring your boots.

[Claytons Left Boot]

A friend of mine has sent me a link to today’s Times newspaper, in which appears Gordon’s obituary. I can’t do the link on here, unfortunately, but it is apt that GL’s photo, from his playing days at Villa is at Ewood with the Riverside in the background. Another friend of mine was recently out for a meal with, amongst others, Ken Beamish. Beamo told him that the best player Gordon Lee had ever worked with was Graham Oates who, of course, followed GL to Newcastle.

[lraC]

On 08/03/2022 at 10:51, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

You pick your games ! Probably in my top 20 games. Gordon did a great job for us. I was gutted when he left for Newcastle.

It's in my top one game that one. wonderful match and great comeback and orchestrated by a man who I loved as manager, despite my tender years at the time

I was gutted too, when he left.

RIP Gordon, a top Rovers manager.

[bazza]

Graham Oates was a stand-out player in the team at that time.

Barrie Hole was another at a different time.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

13 hours ago, bazza said:

Graham Oates was a stand-out player in the team at that time.

Barrie Hole was another at a different time.

I always thought Oates was under rated. We could do with him in todays midfield.

[Mattyblue]

The obituary from yesterday’s Times…
 

Paid vast amounts, celebrated in the media as superstars, represented by pushy agents, today’s top footballers may often seem to hold all the power in the game. When Gordon Lee was a manager his aim was to keep the most famous, self-confident players firmly in their place.

“People keep on about stars and flair,” he said trenchantly. “As far as I’m concerned you find stars in the sky and flair at the bottom of your trousers.” His greatest disapproval was directed at players he termed “flash Harrys” or “coffee-house ball-jugglers”. When his authority was challenged by individuals such as the flamboyant Newcastle forward Malcolm Macdonald, or the maverick Everton striker Duncan McKenzie, Lee had them moved on swiftly, enraging many fans.

Lee, who once signed a player for the price of a pint of shandy, prided himself on spotting young talent and running clubs thriftily. Teamwork and organisation were top priorities. Despite the lack of stars the teams that he managed enjoyed spells of success, though he never quite won trophies. He lost the League Cup final with Newcastle United in 1976 and as Everton manager from 1977 to 1981 he reached another League Cup final and two FA Cup semi-finals, as well as two top-four finishes in the First Division.

Lee’s approach to football was shaped by his playing career in a world very distant from the modern professional game. He was born in 1934 in a village in the Cannock Chase area and after a promising schools career in football and cricket his first adult football team was Girton Road Gasworks. It was a tough environment. His wife Irene remembered him returning from one game: “When I opened the door, blood was pouring down his face. He’d cut his head but they hadn’t done anything to stop the bleeding and he just shrugged and said it would be OK.” The couple, who married in 1955, went on to have three children, a son, Gary, and two daughters, Sharon and Christine.

Lee had moved on via Hednesford Town and National Service with the RAF to become an Aston Villa player. As a robust defender, mainly at right back, he made 142 appearances, securing a League Cup winner’s medal in 1961. In 1966 he joined Shrewsbury Town, where he began to learn the art of management as player-coach.

His first full managerial role was at Port Vale, replacing the illustrious former England player Stanley Matthews. The club was in severe financial difficulties and facing relegation, but Lee began to show his ability to assemble tough, effective teams with minimal expenditure. When he signed Brian Horton from his old club Hednesford Town the fee was said to have consisted of buying a pint of shandy for the club secretary.

Under Lee, Port Vale won promotion to the third division in 1970 and remained there for several seasons. In 1974 he was appointed by Blackburn Rovers and won the third division title in 1975, after which Newcastle United, a club with a great history but very little recent success, turned to him.

On Tyneside Lee would have his first confrontations with big stars who did their best to resist his authority. The centre forward Macdonald did not get off to a good start by answering “Gordon who?” when a local journalist rang to tell him of Lee’s appointment, and the response became a newspaper headline.

The club had some success, reaching the League Cup final in 1976 before losing 2-1 to Manchester City. However, tensions between allies of Lee in the dressing room and disaffected players around Macdonald steadily worsened. The midfielder Terry Hibbitt was abruptly transferred after one match at Derby County at which he was left behind at the ground on Lee’s orders.

Macdonald, who complained that Lee played him out of position and was “absolutely anti-me in every conceivable way”, was transferred to Arsenal. For his part Lee felt “we needed to sell Malcolm Macdonald to improve as a team”. Even though he was “a god on the terraces” and one of the best paid players in England, “it didn’t cut any ice with me”.

Fans upset by Macdonald’s departure were even more scathing about Lee in January 1977, when he suddenly left to become Everton’s new manager. They claimed he had been lured by a large pay rise but Lee said later that his main reason was to be closer to his children, who had remained at school in the northwest.

In more than four years on Merseyside he again had some success punctuated by bitter disappointments. Inevitably he and his team lived in the shadow of Everton’s great city rivals Liverpool, a European as well as English powerhouse.

He did manage one victory over them in a 1978 league derby, but in an FA Cup semi-final against them in 1977 Everton were denied a late winner by a controversial decision by the referee, Clive Thomas. Lee called it the most devastating day of his managerial life, and Everton were beaten in the replay.

At Everton he also faced another public clash with a footballing showman popular with the fans: McKenzie. He was famous not only for his football skills but also his extracurricular stunts, which included hurdling over Minis. Lee was not an admirer and McKenzie was sold to Chelsea. He had his revenge by scoring for his new club at Everton a few weeks later, after dribbling the ball around several players near to Lee on the touchline.

In Lee’s final two seasons as manager Everton finished in the bottom half of the first division, and he was sacked in 1981. He then managed Preston North End, KR Reykjavik in Iceland and, briefly, Leicester City, who he helped to save from relegation in 1991. He retired to Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, where he could enjoy walking and golf. He had time to reflect on how football was changing utterly as the Premier League was created and TV revenue riches began to gush.

“It does not feel like the fans’ game any more,” he complained. “They could relate to players getting 30 quid a week but now the money they get is mind-boggling. It puts a distance between the player and the supporter.”

As for his famous clashes with star players, Lee knew how much he had upset some fans, but insisted that “management gives you a knowledge of people and an incredible insight into human nature. You either have to be a softly-spoken parish vicar or a total bastard . . . I was never frightened to make decisions, but it could break your heart too.”
 

Gordon Lee, footballer and manager, was born July 13, 1934. He died in his sleep on March 8, 2022, aged 87
 

 

 

 

[arbitro]

16 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

The obituary from yesterday’s Times…
 

Paid vast amounts, celebrated in the media as superstars, represented by pushy agents, today’s top footballers may often seem to hold all the power in the game. When Gordon Lee was a manager his aim was to keep the most famous, self-confident players firmly in their place.

“People keep on about stars and flair,” he said trenchantly. “As far as I’m concerned you find stars in the sky and flair at the bottom of your trousers.” His greatest disapproval was directed at players he termed “flash Harrys” or “coffee-house ball-jugglers”. When his authority was challenged by individuals such as the flamboyant Newcastle forward Malcolm Macdonald, or the maverick Everton striker Duncan McKenzie, Lee had them moved on swiftly, enraging many fans.

Lee, who once signed a player for the price of a pint of shandy, prided himself on spotting young talent and running clubs thriftily. Teamwork and organisation were top priorities. Despite the lack of stars the teams that he managed enjoyed spells of success, though he never quite won trophies. He lost the League Cup final with Newcastle United in 1976 and as Everton manager from 1977 to 1981 he reached another League Cup final and two FA Cup semi-finals, as well as two top-four finishes in the First Division.

Lee’s approach to football was shaped by his playing career in a world very distant from the modern professional game. He was born in 1934 in a village in the Cannock Chase area and after a promising schools career in football and cricket his first adult football team was Girton Road Gasworks. It was a tough environment. His wife Irene remembered him returning from one game: “When I opened the door, blood was pouring down his face. He’d cut his head but they hadn’t done anything to stop the bleeding and he just shrugged and said it would be OK.” The couple, who married in 1955, went on to have three children, a son, Gary, and two daughters, Sharon and Christine.

Lee had moved on via Hednesford Town and National Service with the RAF to become an Aston Villa player. As a robust defender, mainly at right back, he made 142 appearances, securing a League Cup winner’s medal in 1961. In 1966 he joined Shrewsbury Town, where he began to learn the art of management as player-coach.

His first full managerial role was at Port Vale, replacing the illustrious former England player Stanley Matthews. The club was in severe financial difficulties and facing relegation, but Lee began to show his ability to assemble tough, effective teams with minimal expenditure. When he signed Brian Horton from his old club Hednesford Town the fee was said to have consisted of buying a pint of shandy for the club secretary.

Under Lee, Port Vale won promotion to the third division in 1970 and remained there for several seasons. In 1974 he was appointed by Blackburn Rovers and won the third division title in 1975, after which Newcastle United, a club with a great history but very little recent success, turned to him.

On Tyneside Lee would have his first confrontations with big stars who did their best to resist his authority. The centre forward Macdonald did not get off to a good start by answering “Gordon who?” when a local journalist rang to tell him of Lee’s appointment, and the response became a newspaper headline.

The club had some success, reaching the League Cup final in 1976 before losing 2-1 to Manchester City. However, tensions between allies of Lee in the dressing room and disaffected players around Macdonald steadily worsened. The midfielder Terry Hibbitt was abruptly transferred after one match at Derby County at which he was left behind at the ground on Lee’s orders.

Macdonald, who complained that Lee played him out of position and was “absolutely anti-me in every conceivable way”, was transferred to Arsenal. For his part Lee felt “we needed to sell Malcolm Macdonald to improve as a team”. Even though he was “a god on the terraces” and one of the best paid players in England, “it didn’t cut any ice with me”.

Fans upset by Macdonald’s departure were even more scathing about Lee in January 1977, when he suddenly left to become Everton’s new manager. They claimed he had been lured by a large pay rise but Lee said later that his main reason was to be closer to his children, who had remained at school in the northwest.

In more than four years on Merseyside he again had some success punctuated by bitter disappointments. Inevitably he and his team lived in the shadow of Everton’s great city rivals Liverpool, a European as well as English powerhouse.

He did manage one victory over them in a 1978 league derby, but in an FA Cup semi-final against them in 1977 Everton were denied a late winner by a controversial decision by the referee, Clive Thomas. Lee called it the most devastating day of his managerial life, and Everton were beaten in the replay.

At Everton he also faced another public clash with a footballing showman popular with the fans: McKenzie. He was famous not only for his football skills but also his extracurricular stunts, which included hurdling over Minis. Lee was not an admirer and McKenzie was sold to Chelsea. He had his revenge by scoring for his new club at Everton a few weeks later, after dribbling the ball around several players near to Lee on the touchline.

In Lee’s final two seasons as manager Everton finished in the bottom half of the first division, and he was sacked in 1981. He then managed Preston North End, KR Reykjavik in Iceland and, briefly, Leicester City, who he helped to save from relegation in 1991. He retired to Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, where he could enjoy walking and golf. He had time to reflect on how football was changing utterly as the Premier League was created and TV revenue riches began to gush.

“It does not feel like the fans’ game any more,” he complained. “They could relate to players getting 30 quid a week but now the money they get is mind-boggling. It puts a distance between the player and the supporter.”

As for his famous clashes with star players, Lee knew how much he had upset some fans, but insisted that “management gives you a knowledge of people and an incredible insight into human nature. You either have to be a softly-spoken parish vicar or a total bastard . . . I was never frightened to make decisions, but it could break your heart too.”
 

Gordon Lee, footballer and manager, was born July 13, 1934. He died in his sleep on March 8, 2022, aged 87
 

 

 

 

'Coffee house ball jugglers' - brilliant 😂😂😂

His first club was Girton Road Gasworks. Sounds like something from Alf Tupper in The Tough of the Track.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 hours ago, arbitro said:

'Coffee house ball jugglers' - brilliant 😂😂😂

His first club was Girton Road Gasworks. Sounds like something from Alf Tupper in The Tough of the Track.

Doesn’t it. I remember playing against a team who’s home ground was “ The Gravelhole “ . And it was.