What did you think of Chris Nicholl when he was manager. I don't think he was too bad especially because of who followed him.CN was the first of what was to become a trend for Saints SACKING MANAGERS! For me his best season was 1989-1990 season what a great season that was including a 4-1 thumping for champions Liverpool.
It was more about who Chris followed, than what came after him. Following Lawrie was always going to be a tough gig, and I think he suffered because of that. Looking back, he didn't do too bad a job, but following Ted and Lawrie, he was on a hiding to nothing.
Nicholl started off very well, despite being an old fashioned rough house defender (although a very good one) his Saints team were all about attacking... but when you had Le Tiss, Wallace(s), Shearer & Rideout at your disposal, it made sense to utilise them. He did hold Le Tiss back a bit and I know that annoyed Matty quite a lot in those early years of his career. From what I remember, it wasn't really results that caused Nicholl's downfall, it was events in the dressing room and off the pitch. The falling out with Mark Dennis was a big story at the time and seeing as "Psycho" was a cult hero to the fans, we naturally took his side over Nicholl based upon little info coming out from the club. Later on, when I spoke to Chris Nicholl about it, he told me his side of the story and to be honest, Nicholl was right to drop Dennis as he was a liability behind the scenes back then and acting very unprofessionally. I think the Mark Dennis thing dragged on for a while and really stressed out Nicholl. I think other players then saw cracks appearing in the manager and the word was he "lost the dressing room" a bit. That was clearly evident to fans in the last couple of games of the season, especially when we got dicked 6-1 by an already relegated Derby at the Baseball ground on the last day of the season. The players were taking the piss that day (including the likes of Shearer) and I think the Saints board realised they had to make a change and although the fans were probably split 50/50 on getting shot of Chris Nicholl, I can't remember too many being that upset. However, when they replaced him with Branfoot... everyone was upset !
That's what I've always thought. Saints played some excellent football under Chris Nicholl, and put a few teams to the sword. For instance, an example here. But he was always in Lawrie's shadow and that was unfair.
Chris Nicholl was an excellent manager and amazingly one of our longest serving. He probably had 'lost the dressing room' at the end but following on from Lawrie was always going to be difficult and he did a pretty good job and we played entertaining football. He also got us to an FA Cup semi-final. When he took over it was also becoming increasingly difficult to compete financially with the bigger clubs so we were never going to maintain the heights of the Lawrie Mac era. Then came Branfoot and three very dark years ..... The only highlight from that era was the 2-1 win at home to Newcastle when Le Tissier came back into the side after being dropped to score two wonder goals.
I liked him as a player and I liked him as a manager. I was disappointed when he went because we were doing okay. I didn't know all the story about Dennis that CBK mentioned, so maybe that was key. He'll remain one of the favourite Saints players though.
I agree with the comments Chocolate Box Kid made. Looking back nowadays, Chris Nicholls reign in charge doesn't seem quite so bad. Granted that it was a disappointment seeing Lawrie go to Sunderland, Nicholl always had a difficult task of following on from easily our greatest period of history. It is true that we produced a lot of talent with the likes of Le Tiss, Shearer (I was there when he got his debut hatrick about Arsenal), Jason Dodd, Jeff Kenna and the Wallaces (maybe not Ray!) but we also bought some quality players like Derek Statham, Neil Ruddock and Tim Flowers as well a John Burridge who was something of a cult figure because of his warm up routine which used to entertain the Milton Road End. Mark Dennis was very much the fan's favourite and I was intrigued to read the comments about him as a former work collegaue was a neighbour of Dennis's and he said that he was a bit unpredictable and volatile. Still, along with Jimmy Case, Dennis must have been one of the most talented players of that time never to get the due recognition from the respective England managers of the time. To begin with, Nicholls lost a number of star players like Peter Shilton and Mark Wright and replacements such as Colin Clarke probably were the first signs that the club had started to lose ambition. I don't think fans were negative about Nicholl until the Mark Dennis business erupted but I seem to recall that Dennis and Nicholl had buried the hatchet several months afterwards at the Steve Mills benefit match. I can also beating QPR 5-1 at The Dell during one of the opening games of the season and going home with my mates believing that we would go on to achieve great things that season. Of course, it never happened. There were definately low points and the last season Nicholl was in charge we went on a long run without winning before Neil Ruddock buried a late penalty at home to ensure that we pulled clear of the relgation zone. Can't remeber the game but this was the match that saw the birth of the famous "Ruddock Stomp." Another low point was losing to Pompey at home due to a couple of blunders by Steve Baker. This was in the 86/87 season, I think. I can remember looking forward to the match all summer only for Saints to be dreadful on the day and get easily turned over by Alan Ball's team. I think Barry Horne scored for them and we then bought him the following season. I also have memories about the expactations of Alan MacLaughlin, our then record signing , who was played out of position and achieved nothing until he then dropped down a league to play for Portsmouth. There were players on this era like Paul Rideout who I didn't like at the time who were certainly much better than I remembered. Glenn Cockerill was also very good during the first few seasons and I quite liked Gerry Forrest who always gave 100% without really making a huge impression on the fans. The worse signing must have been the little winger we signed from Bolton who looked and played like Wayne Sleep. Forget his name but he was shocking! At the time I think many Saints fans felt that Nicholl had acheived all he could with the club. I was surprised that he eventially seemed to drift out of football management and tend to look back to this time with fondness. Bransfoot's appointment was a surprise and was not a popular choice. We played a friendly just prior to his first season and the "up and under" style of football seemed to realise all our fears and he was on the backfoot with the fans immediately. My late piano teacher used to live in Hill Lane just behind the Dell and he told me a story once about his next door neighbour's baby whose first words were apparently "Branfoot out!"
Dave Lee was the ex Bolton player. Forgot about Gerry Forest too. Remember the John Burridge warm ups too; brilliant. Did you know that when he roomed with a young Tim Flowers (amongst others) he would take a case of oranges with him and get Flowers to throw them across the room at him to improve his agility? Imagine today having Budgie and Frankie Worthington in just for their warm ups!!!
