Finally, the longest saga in non-league football is over. The dust has settled. Gary Lowe has signed on the dotted line to become the new manager of Hyde FC and everyone appears to have accepted the fact.
Some people will tell you that Gary was given the job three months ago and others – chiefly the Ewen Fields board of directors – will vehemently deny it. Another group claim that he was in for the Altrincham job, or the Chorley job, or couldn’t agree terms. It doesn’t really matter.
What everyone at Hyde must now do is concentrate on creating a successful future. Whatever we may think of the past, it’s just that – past. That’s what happens in football. Decisions may be made badly, wrongly or clumsily, but life goes on. Hundreds of thousands of people dislike the Glazer regime at Old Trafford – I’m no particular fan myself – but he’s owned Manchester United since 2005 and in that time the Reds have enjoyed no small measure of success.
I don’t suppose any new manager is ever 100 per cent welcome, but I was a little taken aback by the vitriol Gary had to face when the news of his appointment broke. After all, he is a former Tigers player. He made 18 appearances in 1984 and 1985. He was signed by Peter Wragg and at the start he played alongside another future Hyde United and Curzon Ashton manager, Steve Waywell.
Gary was a stylish midfielder who started out at Manchester United in the mid-1970s. He spent seven years on the books at Crystal Palace and later played in the Football League for Hereford United, where he met the Stalybridge Celtic manager, Jim Harvey. I know him well and have always found him very easy to work with. He’s approachable and accommodating, and has a great sense of humour. If he has a fault, it’s the way he can lose his temper during a match. This is not a manager who watches quietly. Gary Lowe is a man of passion, and that will be visible from the start, if only because of the way his face goes through the colours of the rainbow as he screams at his players.
Of course, it’s not unusual for a new Hyde boss to get a welcome that’s less than effusive. There was uproar in 1983 when the board decided not to renew Les Sutton’s contract. Over the previous three years he had steered the Tigers to a clutch of trophies and promotion to the Northern Premier League, where they enjoyed a highly respectable first season. However, new chairman Peter Pluck did not believe he was the man to lead the club at the higher level.
And the announcement was handled in a hamfisted way. The decision was leaked to the Reporter, who were allowed to print a “we believe” story. There was no name or club, but it was clearly the Hyde boss who was going. The collective gasps of amazement were almost audible across the town. I was a postman in those days and was stopped so often that I stuggled to deliver my mail.
Sutty’s replacement was Peter Wragg, who has to rank as one of the greatest non-league managers of all time. When he took over at Ewen Fields, he had recently led Stalybridge to the Cheshire League championship (1980) and Chorley into the NPL (1982). As Tigers manager, he led the club into the first round of the FA Cup (1983), fourth in the table (1984-5) and two NPL Cup finals, the latter of which the team won under the leadership of new boss Pete O’Brien. Yet Wraggy was never taken to the club’s heart – probably because of the way Les Sutton was bundled out.
There was even a spell when Pete O’Brien was highly unpopular. After he quit to take over at Droylsden in 1994, there were people who felt he ought to be banned from the ground. They were appalled that he should walk out on the Tigers to work for another Tameside club.
It seems that the club is destined to go through some sort of catharsis every few years. Back in the 1960s we took the huge step of joining the new NPL only to find it was too much for us, and two years later we returned to the Cheshire League. In 1983, there was a furore when we switched the FA Cup tie with Burnley to Turf Moor. Three years later there were mass reignations over the sale of the ground to Tameside Council and the installation of a Baspograss pitch.
And then over the last two years we’ve had the winding-up order, the dropping of “United” from our name, the decision to get rid of red shirts, and last season’s changes at board and managerial level.
Yet the club has always carried on, and that will happen again. Perhaps you don’t like the way Neil Tolson lost his job. Perhaps you’re unhappy that Scott McNiven and Steve Halford weren’t allowed to take over on a permanent basis. But none of that is Gary Lowe’s fault. So give him a chance. Wait and see what he can do.
After all, if he has a record for one thing it’s long, money-spinning cup runs – and they’ve been in very short supply at Ewen Fields in the last few years.
