It really was a game changer of a season. Disaster show from Allison although at the time it was exciting to a young teenage boy.
We shouldn't forget the pretext to that season in that we lost my favourite player in Tueart and had not replaced King Colin at all. These were big mistakes given we had a shitload of cash. Basically Book/Swales decided Barnes could replace Tueart but, fabulous as Barnsey was, he couldn't replace Tueart s goals or ability to roam around the pitch. Of course watching the 2 of them together was great and has given many memories. Again, for some reason nothing was worked out to replace Colin Bell, despite one or 2 transfer misses. Book/Swales should have known that after he missed the 76_77 season he wasn't coming back anywhere near what he was (despite that golden Boxing Day comeback and the couple of months after) - the goals were gone and for me despite everything else, the number of goals he scored (without pens or free kicks) was incredible. Approx 150 in 450 games. In our current great squad, who could match that? Phil perhaps. We also had lost Mike Doyle and his leadership.
So, by 78-79, the team was already in decline although not a dramatic one. Instead of a top 2-3 team, I think we were a top 6-8 team - still an awful lot of quality players but the new players (Futchers) didn't make a huge impact. I remember Bolton away (2-2), missed WBA at home (2-2) and Owens 2 pens v Coventry and felt we were doing okay, playing nicely. For me it was that sequence of losing 2-1 at home in 3 consecutive games to Soton, Derby and Ipswich that just sapped form, confidence and goals. It was a mixture of bad luck (Clements broke his leg) and just playing crap.
There's no doubt Swales panicked and part through his own ego, part through his stupidity, he brought Allison back. Basically, he panicked because of a poor 6 weeks but he didn't take into account the players we had lost and not replaced (as I said in the pretext). He could have waited and either used the market better and/or found a top manager. Instead he brought back Malcom who was intent on feeding his own ego and creating his own history with another great team a decade after his first. In hindsight it was a purge that was appalling in that we sold seasoned, quality players for relatively low fees and bought a load of players crazily overpriced. Did we really buy Bobby Shinton with what we received for Watson and Kidd?
The disaster was not just the selling and buying it the fact that we had some good players under Alison who would have hugely benefitted from who we already had. For example, what about Caton playing with Watson or Dave Bennett/ Roger Palmer learning from Kiddo etc
