Where did it all go wrong ?

[JvdsFace]

Mike Doyle has the answers...



PROMOTION STARTED THE CITY DECLINE, SAYS DOYLE


12:00 - 25 February 2004

Mike Doyle offers a novel view on where it began going wrong for Stoke in the 1980s - they won promotion one year too early. Doyle, who played 128 times at the heart of Stoke's defence between 1978 and 1982, was part of Alan Durban's Second Division promotion-winning team at the end of his first season at the Victoria Ground.

"Alan Durban's undoing," says Doyle in his new autobiography, "would be the fact we won promotion at the first attempt and the consolidation season he'd planned for didn't happen.

"We finished runners-up to Crystal Palace, who were then managed by Terry Venables, and the truth was we simply weren't prepared for the top flight."

So that might, just might, explain a sequence of events that would eventually conclude with Stoke's drop from the top division with a record points low in 1985.

Durban's departure would subsequently herald Richie Barker's coronation as Stoke manager, but Doyle reflects scornfully: "I can say hand on heart that he was absolutely bloody useless.

"We went from a fair football-playing side to a hoofing team with instructions to "find big Brendan (O'Callaghan)" at every opportunity. He was the worst manager I'd ever played under - how he ever got a job in management I'll never know."

No hard feelings there, then. Doyle arrived at Stoke towards the end of a career which had seen him clock up 16 years and 572 appearances for his beloved Manchester City. But the one-time England defender, now 57 and a recovered alcoholic, looks back fondly on his time in the Potteries.

"I loved every minute of my time at the Victoria Ground," he says. "We had a great bunch of lads there (Conroy, Jones, Smith, Crooks, Heath, Chapman). There was a great team spirit and we were making the best of what we had, perhaps over-achieving if anything."

Blue Blood: The Mike Doyle Story is published by The Parrs Wood Press at £17.99.

[JoeinOz]

He's got it quite wrong there. It went wrong for us when Barker decided to ignore the classy international midfield and adopted the POMO. In 80/81, with Durban, we finished a comfortable 11th in the top flight.